"Oh, how this spring resembleth the uncertain glory of an April day." I certainly lovethed the June 12 puzzle by Alex Boisvert (answers) and before you accuse me of being in a RUT, I loved it even before I determined it was Marxist. Like that other aphorism "outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog it's too dark to read," it's not clear Groucho originated today's pithy quote, but it's associated with him anyway.
How do I love this puzzle? Let me count the ways. First I do confess a fondness for pangrams. I know that should make no difference but I appreciate the added challenge. This is Mr. Boisvert's second pangram in four puzzles, although his first pangram was co-authored with Jayne Boisvert so perhaps he should only get half credit. Mostly, though, there were so many clues that made me smile.
"Precious moments" was a delightfully twee clue for QUALITY TIME. There's a very amusing Dave Frishberg song with that title. "Computer family member" wasn't a PC or a PDA. It was a real virtual family member — a SIM.
My favorite clue was "Met expectations." I suppose if you pay all that money for tickets to the Met that you do expect OPERAS. Robin and I saw Peter Grimes there when we were in New York for the tournament and it certainly met our expectations.
Top Researcher PhillySolver has come up with some fun facts on Mr. Boisvert. He's a math professor, of course. He's also a programmer and if you want to convert your Across Lite files to Java, you should visit his web site. According to his Cruciverb bio he lives in Los Angelas which, I believe, is somewhere near ENCINO.
Longtime readers would be disappointed if I didn't use this puzzle as an excuse for another clip.
