Monday

Monday NYT by Randall Hartman: I bet the name + name = homophone of phrase theme is almost endless in its possibilities. Could be a good basis for a word game...

Favorite puzzle of the weekend: Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon's LA Weekly puzzle, "Spelling Test," filled with Scrabbly, tough-to-spell names. I whizzed right through it—hooray for being able to remember unusual spellings! I read an article in the Chicago Trib about the spelling reform people who deplore the plethora of ways to spell many of the sounds in the English language. The article listed about 30 ways to spell the long-U sound, ranging from MOON to RENDEZVOUS to LIEU to SHOE, etc. While I see the reformists' point, I love the diversity of the English language, the fact that these crazy spellings hint at the origins of the words—we have Old English roots, Greek and Latin, Romance languages, Asian, American Indian, Germanic, Scandinavian, Slavic, African, etc.

Monday NYS by Kelsey Blakley: "Double Feature" laid out six theme entries, all two-word phrases starting with A/A, E/E, I/I, O/O, U/U, and Y/Y, in that order.

Sunday Washington Post by Dave Sullivan: In "You Can Say That Again," the RE- theme is supplemented by some great fill, such as GOES LONG and MR ROGERS.

Monday CrosSynergy by Bob Klahn: Relatively hard for a Monday puzzle, and for a CrosSynergy offering.

Mon. NYT 2:52
Mon. NYS 3:22
Sun. LA Weekly 6:44
Sun. WaPo 8:30
Sun. CS 4:39
Mon. CS 4:45
Mon. LAT 2:42