Mmmonday

Curtis Yee spices up the NYT with the F word—or rather, with 12 F words in phrasal pairs in the theme entries. Two of the six theme entries are 15 letters long, crossing in the center, and the other four intersect with the 15's—that's fancy puzzlin' for a Monday. I loved the clue, "Porgy and bass," for FISH, as well as fill like STEP ON IT, IM GAME, ET CETERA, and ABUZZ.

Donna S. Levin's "whee, whee, whee" soundalike puzzle summons up adolescent '80s memories of Simon LEBON. Ahh, I thought he was dreamy when I was 16—him and that redheaded guy from Thompson Twins, whose picture appears on the same web page linked here.

NYS 3:27
LAT 3:10
CS 3:08
NYT 2:52