I know of a captain named Rick / who likes making things symmetric / when you fill up his grid / find the meta he hid / you'll say his construction is slick! :P
Thanks, woozy. I figured the poetry lovers would be familiar with Lear, and I love him because of his convenient 4-letter name!
HeadinHome 🤓1:15 · 2024-10-16T13:32:35.172Z
Ohhh… THOSE themers! ( :
Can’t put this on Muggles site because a spoiler, but fun fact is the name of Lear’s cat:
“He has many friends, laymen and clerical,
Old Foss is the name of his cat;
His body is perfectly spherical,
He weareth a runcible hat.”
Thanks, hoover! I, unfortunately, was not familiar with Mr. Lear, although I have heard of "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat". His 4-letter name worked nicely for my mechanism. :)
Stared at it forever, thinking, "is this going to be the 3rd MEOW in a row I don't get?" But then I reread the clue for 20D in conjunction with the last line of the limerick, and then I knew what to do. Had no idea who Edward Lear is though, but I enjoyed reading the Wikipedia entry on him. Thanks for the puzzle, Rick!
Thanks, Dave. I also wasn't familiar with Lear, but I wanted to have a limerick in one of my metas, and he's considered the "father of the limerick form of poetry". One of his most famous works was "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat", so it was a natural fit for MEOW.
KayW 🤓7:07 · 2024-10-17T01:57:22.412Z
Hah! I got the letters but the only LEAR I could think of was Shakespeare's KING. Not exactly a barrel of laughs, him. Then I thought of Norman LEAR. That didn't seem much more apt but I thought I'd try. AFTER finding out it was correct I looked up Edward. I have heard the Owl and the PussyCat but no had idea who wrote it.
Very clever, as always!! And LOVE that you worked a helpful and witty limerick (ooh!!!! NOW I see what you did there!!! NICE!!!) into the clues.
Thanks, Kay. I figured folks would be more familiar with King Lear and at one point considered making the prompt "... a tragic father or a nonsensical "father" (since Edward Lear is considered the "father of the limerick"), but in the end decided to keep it simple and give solvers an opportunity to learn something new (like I did ).
Can’t put this on Muggles site because a spoiler, but fun fact is the name of Lear’s cat: “He has many friends, laymen and clerical, Old Foss is the name of his cat; His body is perfectly spherical, He weareth a runcible hat.”
But then found a rabbit hole.
For sadly, it seems,
I had the wrong themes.
But made it at last to the goal!