I cannot remember seeing a better puzzle than "Literal Translations." If there were a hall of fame for puzzles, this would have to be included. There are just so many good things about it, some of which are:
THEME: Very clever and difficult to execute. Ken had to find common phases, of particular lengths, which have a word that, by unscrambling, is defined by that phrase. Thus we get the phrase
GOTTURNEDAROUND clued by "Tog." "Glibness" is MIXED
BLESSING; "Felt" is
LEFTINDISARRAY; "Goes" is ALTER
EGOS; "Rage" is
GEARSHIFT; etc.
SUBJECT MATTER: Interesting proper names from a wide range of topics from literature's John CIARDI to heavy metal's LARS Ulrich; from the political RAISA to the sporting DIMAG; from cartooning's Max SEGAR to mythology's ISIS; from music's Luciano Pavarotti to the media's Dr. RUTH; and symbolically, from the geographical PASADENA in California to TIOGA in New York. And there are many more topics covered.
CLUING: Clever and out of the ordinary
Pieces of eight ARCS [the numeral 8 is comprised of a series of arcs]
Cheep place to stay? NEST
Early matchmaker NOAH
Ticker tapes, briefly? EKGS [ticker is slang for heart]
Metal containers ORES [stones in which metals reside]
Support staff? CANE
Disney duck princess OONA [not the oft used Chaplin wife]
