Saturday, May 10, 2025, Shaun Phillips

I didn't have much time today so I bore down on this one and ended up finishing it in 8:26. I started with sLOP for "Unappetizing food" (GLOP), and then was helped greatly by LETSGOFLYAKITE ("Mary Poppins" tune that begins "With tuppence for paper and strings / You can have your own set of wings"), which must have been a gimme to anyone in my generation. And speaking of my generation - the ELDERS, the HOMEOWNERs - I think we can probably all relate to "Didn't make it through the late show, say" (NODDEDOFF). Hah!

DEBUSSY (Pioneer in musical Impressionism, despite rejecting the term) wasn't exactly a gimme for me (it probably was for Colum), but it wasn't hard to guess once I had the ending "ussy." 

The jokey OTTO (Apt name for a NASCAR driver?) was fun, and BONES (Ribs, e.g.) was amusing and unexpected, but I found IMISSED (Sad remark at a carnival ring toss booth) somewhat bizarre. 

Loved "Someone will pay for this" (TAB), and hey, it's been a while since poetry was FOISTEDON you by my hand, so let's end with this:

Scorn not the Sonnet

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, 

Mindless of its just honours; with this key 

Shakespeare unlocked his heart; the melody 

Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound; 

A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; 

With it Camöens soothed an exile's grief; 

The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf 

Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned 

His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp, 

It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land 

To struggle through dark ways; and, when a damp 

Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand 

The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew 

Soul-animating strains—alas, too few!

- Horace