Wednesday, May 2 - Richard Silvestri

It's deja vu all over again!

For those of you who didn't do Joy Andrews's Tuesday Sun puzzle, the theme was Artoo. Some of us thought it might contain endless playground retorts; instead, she added AR to some well-known names and/or phrases. See the completed grid and commentary here.

Today, Richard Silvestri does a similar trick, adding NY (for New York?), as well as a comic twist to the clues.

The three theme clues and answers are:

20A: Coin thrown for good luck? (Fountain penny)

38A: Result of sitting on a court bench too long? (Basketball fanny)

51A: Bugged Bugs? (Hot Cross bunny)

A few clues/answers that stumped me.

14A: Hebrides island (Iona).

41A: "The Morning Watch" author (Agee). We had ogee yesterday, but I knew that one.

44A: Neurotic TV dog (Ren). Have heard of Ren and Stimpy, but didn't know he was a dog.

12D: Taiwan Strait city (Amoy).

Things I remembered from long ago:

13D: Answer to the riddle of the Sphinx (man), cleverly tied to 21D: Before Oedipus, who could answer the riddle of the Sphinx (no one).

25D: Storybook elephant (Babar). Who doesn't remember Babar?

8D: Like House elections (biennial). Before I looked at the down clue, I saw BIEN and figured it was a Spanish phrase.

Things I really liked:

25A: Grand Canyon beast (burro). This reminded me of one of my favorite pieces of classical music, the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofé. According to Wikipedia, "it consists of 5 parts or movements, each an evocation in tone of a particular scene typical of the Grand Canyon." I can hear the burro's footsteps.

48D: Cousin of a mink (otter). What I like is that I remember it from the last time it appeared in a puzzle.

32D: "You got it!" (Bingo). That reminds me of the song about the farmer and his dog, which in turn reminds me of another clue/answer in the Sun puzzle referenced above. Clued as "...had a farm" follower, the answer was EIEIO. Didn't Orange do something funny with that in the last month or so?

61A: Waters seen on Broadway (Ethel). D'oh--Waters, not waters.

62A: Creatures of habit? (nuns). Clever clue. I almost missed it.

And my favorite:

4D: Waikiki locale (Oahu). I love everything about Hawaii. We spent several weeks on the big island, Maui and Oahu about two years ago. We're going back in September, and we'll spend two weeks on Kauai.

I think I'll go dream about it...good night.

Linda G