Joseph Knecht

What a delicious, double delight!  My first review of a C.C. Burnikel puzzle, edited by our new editor Patti Varol .  And it has everything: it's an eclectically clued,  not too hard, not too easy Thursday puzzle, with an easily sussed theme, circles, CSOs, lots of music, and of course lots of food! Here are the themers: 3D. Revenue for attorneys: LE GAL F EES .  Right off the bat we have CSOs to our legal beavers Hahtoolah and Lemonade.  Lemony only recently RAISED my awareness about vertical themes, e.g. those used in this puzzle.  His tip was they are usually a clue that there is a visual element to the theme. 7D. Garment associated with the Aran Islands: CABLE KNIT S WEATER .   The Aran Islands are a group of three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, off the west coast of Ireland.  These islands are however famous for much more than just sweaters.  Teri and I visited  the largest island, Inishmore , in the late 90's, drawn there b

  Today we are visited by Josh M. Kaufmann , who appears to be making his LA Times debut by asking us an existential question in the reveal to this themed puzzle: 58A. Head-scratching words ... and, phonetically, a feature of the four longest Down answers: WHY ON EARTH ?   We've all seen this before, but now might be a good time to be reminded of it again: Josh answers this question with 4 Down clues, often a giveaway to a visual theme.  In this case the theme puns on two homophones: the letter Y and the reveal word WHY , the former perched atop a synonym for the word EARTH . 3D. Big name in travel guides: LONEL Y PLANET .   Lonely Planet is an Australian travel guide book publisher.   Founded in 1973 , the company had sold 120 million books as of 2011.  Their books look like a great way to find your way around Sagan's pale blue dot . 13D. Newspaper rival of the Bugle in the Spider-Man universe: DAIL Y GLOBE . This clue takes us off of the plane