Monday

Ooh, I enjoyed Timothy Powell's NYT puzzle! Not only the fun sounds of MOO GOO GAI PAN, VOODOO ECONOMICS, and YOO HOO I'M HOME, but good times with MAYHEM, HOOPLA, and MORPHINE to boot, in a fresh and easy Monday outing. I'll bet you clever people can cook up plenty of other options. If repeating the initial sound is kosher, there's CHOO CHOO TRAIN and BOO BOO BEAR; if that's tref, then what other potential entries are there?

Updated:

Yes, the CroSynergy puzzles are (too) easy. Today's "Provocative Vocations" by Harvey Estes is no exception, but it does look different from the typical Monday puzzle—those chunky blocks of 6- and 8-letter entries make it more elegant than the usual explosion of 3- to 5-letter words. Actually, now that I'm comparing the NYT and CS puzzles, I'm less pleased with the NYT. Many of the short entries in the NYT are semi-crosswordese (RANI, OBIS) or abbreviations/partials/misc. (ATTN, AT A, EROO, NCR, NEGS). They sound a little clunky when juxtaposed with Harvey's opening block of CREAMS, HICCUP, OBTUSE, and US OPEN.

And updated again:

Deb Amlen's "Bowling for Dollars" in the NYS has pairs of 9- and 11-letter entries intersecting the three theme entries. I actually like those verticals (including URBAN SPRAWL, KEVIN ARNOLD, and APRIL FOOL) better than the theme entries!

NYS 3:28
LAT 2:52
NYT 2:48
CS 2:41