Joseph Knecht

  Today's performance is by Joseph Gangi, who last entertained us on November 23, 2020 with themes played by STRING TRIOs.  Today he asks US to do the work and INTROSPECT on our mixed-up I's spread among 5 themers : 19. *Like some pages in used books: D OG E ARED .  Just for the record, I'm a bookmark person, but in the interest of fairness, here are some rants, er, testimonies, from dog earers . 33. *"Mean" Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman: J OE G REENE .  I immediately thought of his name when I saw this clue, but it turns out that this was not a very kind moniker for this likable, outstanding professional.  Per the Wikipedia: 'Although it stuck with him throughout his professional career due to his playing style, Greene himself was not fond of the nickname, insisting it did not reflect his true character. "I just want people to remember me as being a good player and not really mean," he said. "I want to ...

  Today's puzzle by Joe Deeney invites us to ideate on 4 theme clues and not accept the first thought that they invoke, but to go further and expand our minds a bit.  The MIND is a mysterious domain, IMHO not well-understood by modern science, and it has many ways to grasp REALITY and UNREALITY . Each clue tips us off that we are about to TRIP into Joe's world with the lead-in " No, no, [there's more] ...": 16. "No, no, more user-friendly than DOS. __!": PICTURE WINDOWS .  Not difficult to do.  MS WINDOWS revolutionized personal computing by creating a "user friendly" operating system.  The only problem is that the user interface (UI) has become an end in itself, with a stable of millionaire programmers who make a plethora of changes to every new release, whether they are needed or not.  END OF RANT . 25. "No, no, flatter than sharks. __!": FIGURE SKATES .  Fascinating fish.  If you're ever...