Good afternoon. It’s Monday.
- Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the country’s credit rating
- Right now, the Dow is down over 442 points
- The outlook on Warren Buffett’s debt is lowered from “stable” to “negative”
Instead of checking the 401k, it’s better to listen to the blues . . . specifically Stormy Monday.
Today calls for triple-strength blues therapy. Three interpretations of “Stormy Monday” — performed by AAA-rated Monday puzzle regulars EVA Cassidy, ETTA James and ERIC Clapton.
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Haha with all this other crap going on, we need Monday puzzles just to give us an ego boost!
Monday puzzles are intended to be easy, but they also tend to be void of my favorite type of clue: those involving word play. Yes that takes a little extra mental energy, but clever misdirection is one thing I always marvel at with clues. (I suppose one could argue that without such trickery everything else falls in the you-either-know-it-or-you-don’t category). So, place me in the late-week solver category!
The weekly puzzle cycle is like a mini Four Seasons. I still like Monday puzzles because they’re like a breezy summer day — easy and uncomplicated. I know that the tough stuff is only four days away and I need the breather before tackling another toughie on the Scoville Scale . . . Saturday is Habanero and Monday is Tofu!
Alas, Monday puzzles have a way of feeling like a standardized exam to me! With straightforward clues, it’s as if one has no good excuse for not getting every entry the first time through! At least when Thursday rolls around I can get a satisfying “aha” when the misdirection is revealed; Even if I only get a Thursday entry via the crossing entries, I at least get a good chuckle when I find out why! On Mondays, I simply feel like I’m missing things that everyone else considers obvious. (Wonder if anyone else feels this way).
This past Saturday was a Scotch Bonnet.