After I finished the Wednesday, May 21 puzzle by Dave Mackey (answers) I stared at it trying to figure out the theme. Just then, Robin walked in. I read the first two theme answers out loud to her and before I could go on, she knew it. And me, a theatre guy, even. Sheesh.
That gives me an excuse to include a photo of Tammy Faye Bakker. Now before you scoff, rent the 1999 documentary film The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Whatever you think about this woman, it's a remarkable and even endearing movie.
Even though I was too dense to get the theme without help, there's lots to love about the puzzle. Damon RUNYON always makes me smile and I wouldn't be surprised if mobster wanna-bes still adopt his choppy speaking style down at the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York. Tell them Harry the Horse sent you.
I know my readers expect it so I have to mention the quarfy clue at 44 Across: "Gentle opening" is SOFT G. IKE gets liked once again. How old do you have to be to remember seeing a CAR HOP? I wonder what the origin of WIG out is? My favorite clue was another short one — "Saucer contents" for ETS.
If you poke around in XWord Info you'll see I've added thumbnail links all over the place. It's fascinating to see various collections of puzzles displayed all at once. Here are all the Dave Mackey puzzles. You can see at a glance, for example, that he's the guy who managed to fit BEDTIME FOR BONZO and I DREAM OF JEANNIE into his previous grid. You can also see all the puzzles for a given month, all the Sundays for a specific year, all the puzzles with circles, and on and on.
Finally, I've updated my Grid Art page to include suggestions from readers. Check out the post-modern masterpiece from 2004.
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