(I can't think of a title)

Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke's bucolic LAT was nicely constructed, with chunks of 6-letter entries in two corners, bracketed by the fussbudget mini-theme of CRABBY and TSKTSK. I don't recall seeing MEADOWSOPRANO in a puzzle before. (Alternate clue: High-pitched ewe?)

I liked the theme for Thomas Schier's "Presidential Pair Pretenders." Last year, I attempted to make a crossword with pairs of famous Joneses. Did that ever see light as a Cru special? I suspect I would absolutely cringe if I looked at it today, so I will avoid doing so and appreciate your own lack of attention to the issue.

Steve Levy occasionally tosses me puzzle recommendations. Yesterday, it was Patrick Berry's "Watch the Birdie," a Second Sunday puzzle from 2001. If you weren't doing the NYT puzzles back then, go to this page maintained by Popeye (John Minarcik), scroll down to the bottom, click on "download all 61 YUMMIs," unzip the download, and open watchthebirdie.puz in the YUMMI folder. Read the notepad for instructions before you launch into solving. Enjoy! (Hat tip to Steve for the recommendation and to Popeye for keeping the puzzle accessible.)

CS 3:39
LAT 3:04