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Constructor: MARYELLEN UTHLAUT

Relative difficulty: EASY



THEME: UFO SIGHTING— The word "UFO" appears in all of the theme answers

Word of the Day: D'oh!

"D'oh" (typically represented in the show's script as "(annoyed grunt)") is a famous catchphrase of Homer Simpson. It was famously accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001. The quote is normally used when Homer hurts himself, finds out something to his embarrassment or chagrin, is outsmarted, or undergoes or anticipates misfortune.

So Sunday night, around 10:30pm, I was about to start the puzzle (I forgot it was Sunday, and that Puzzle comes out early).  Before logging on to the new (and not-at-all-improved) world's worst app, the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle, I quickly checked twitter and saw a tweet from Rex Parker.  All of a sudden, I realized that he was jet-setting off to New Zealand with his beautiful wife and brilliant child, and that Jenny and I were supposed to be blogging for him tonight.  D'oh!!

Jenny had forgotten too, and was not available to help, so you just have me, Liz, and my 16-year old daughter Annabel, who will be taking over from me starting………….

NOW!!


Hi! I'm Annabel, and I had never done a puzzle before today. It only took me 18 minutes and 51 seconds. Well, I'm proud of myself for finishing it at all! Yay!


Theme answers:

• 23A: Annoyed "Hel-LO!" (yoU FOrgot me)
• 31A: Japanese compact SUV (SubarU FOrester)
• 39A: Sandwich cookie with abundant filling (double stUF Oreo)

As a non-Puzzler, I didn't even know that puzzles usually had themes, or that the repetition of UFO was even a theme. So I guess I've learned something new today. This puzzle did succeed in making me crave a few Double Stuf Oreos…the correct way to eat them, by the way, is to take the tops off of two and stick them together to create a Quadruple Stuf Oreo. Nobody will convince me that there is any other way to eat Oreos. And while we're at it, can we just discontinue single-Stuf Oreos? The cookie-to-icing ratio is completely off, no matter how you slice it.

Bullets:

• 65A: Elvis's middle name (ARON) — I had no idea people - well, Puzzlers, at least, - actually knew this sort of trivia. My mother tells me you guys know everything. How do you do it? Does it take endless hours of Wikipedia?
• 40D: Singing the praises of (LAUDING) — See?  Taking Latin instead of Spanish DOES pay off in the long run. ("Laud" comes from the Latin verb laudo, laudare, laudavi, which means "to praise," but you Puzzlers probably know that. You know everything, like Elvis's middle name.)
• 62A: First, second or reverse (GEAR) — Brought back painful memories of last month when my mother tried to teach me stick shift. We stalled about a hundred times, I almost crashed into a parked car, and my knuckles are still an odd shade of white.
• 53D: Treaty of ___, pact ending the War of 1812 (GHENT) — And here we had the clue which had me gently smacking myself in the forehead, repeating, "I just took an AP U.S. History test a month and a half ago, how can I not know this?" D'oh!!

Signed, Annabel, tired high school student.

ps--Liz again.  Annabel always said she wanted to learn to do the crossword puzzle but thought it was too hard.  I've always told her that she can do a Monday puzzle.  So just let me say right here, right now,  I WAS RIGHT.  Again.  (xxoo--love you Annabel :)