Well hey, I like crosswords, and any halfway decent execution would pretty much ensure a good reception from me. This was more than half... there'll be lots for me to look at closely later, that's for sure, but the actual plot itself was worthy. The title alone suggests the Homer/Lisa story, and it recalled shades of some older ones. 8F12 comes to mind for obvious reasons, but the severity of Lisa's reaction to the revelation was noteworthy and brought to mind the end of 7F19 (both of these in a good way). Homer's breakup business kind of petered out near the middle, but I did like the way Marge got him to stop. Uh... tackling the actual crossword tomorrow, and I imagine most of the notable things will have been mentioned already, but we'll see.
DYN: ...some opening credits seem oddly spaced (vertically)? See the Producers for examples. ...Lisa seems to have solved a number of cryptic crosswords? (See below) ...a credit for Merl Reagle's creation of tonight's crossword puzzles after the voice credits?
Previous episode references 2F12: Homer rides a small bike, and his ass gets involved EABF12: Scott Thompson reappears as Grady (Hank Azaria as Julio too) EABF18: Lisa's "A Beautiful Mind"-esque room, coded messages, including an acrostic message from a Simpson to offspring EABF07: Duh... (some other similar competitions may come to mind but this really sticks out) 8F12: Homer and Lisa and betting/fallout 2F15, FABF18: Of the 5 "deleted" from the dictionary words, "zounds" and "mimeograph" appear conspicuously in these episodes (the others may as well) DABF20: According to my records, aglets were seen but not named here too (and in an episode like this, why not??) 8F01, 1F03: "really, really, really..."
Other stuff Don Del Grande has already called attention to Homer's quick stab at breakups in 8F16. The business aspect in this episode reminds me of the "Bad News Breakers", a sketch on Mr. Show in which two cute little girls (apparently twins but I think just sisters) are used for the same purpose, lessening the impact because of their cuteness.
Lisa does a variety of puzzles, including what appear to be "cryptic crosswords" (they generally take on the form where every other column and row is not used, though some regular crosswords use this form too). They're fun but pretty difficult; I myself am working through several books of them put out by Mensa, so perhaps Lisa would find them her speed too.
Several of Lisa's puzzles take more of the Scrabble form, including most of the ones she constructs. They don't seem quite as challenging, though, and to me are most useful for shoehorning a certain set of words into a puzzle, as in a vocabulary book.
If you liked this episode, go rent the movie "Wordplay"! Several things seen tonight, including some of the graphical bits and split screens, tournament play, and Will and Merl working to create specialized (occasionally custom) puzzles, are in that. (Once, they helped work a marriage proposal into a Sunday puzzle, though that was in the middle row, not a diagonal.)
I didn't have time to look closely at all the puzzles yet, or even look at today's real NYT puzzle... but a few things: -Homer's short message is 21 letters, which is appropriate. -His longer one, by my count, is 149. He quoted 144, but that may be approximate.
Meta-reference corner Chalmers: Simpson!, no-reason yelling Skinner!, and Skimmer! with the last two being overheard by Skinner. This may be the first time the show actually acknowledges that Marge's maiden name is Jackie Kennedy's too.
Goofs and stuff -Homer is told to shut the door most of the way before being told about the bets, but nothing ever comes of it. Maybe in a deleted scene Lisa overheard that, but didn't mind until Homer bet against her? -Homer and the bartender don't look each other in the eyes, but that doesn't mean they can't look at the rest of their bodies to hand over the money. -"Hootenanny" seems to be in a different font from the other 4 deleted words. -There may be other violations of tournament procedure (certainly we only see the finals type anyway), but most notably, contestants wear white-noise headphones or something to avoid cheating and help concentration. -What's with the half-height lockers at SES all of a sudden?
Animation fun! Joining CABF16 and (haha) EABF18, among possible others, a between- scenes animation goof worked its way in. It appears to be at least a full frame. Near the end of act 1, after Bart makes a meta scene transition to Homer at the gay club, in white on back, HUGE text, Arial, centered: Scene 151 Take 2 Akom & Film Roman Fix
I imagine it'll be gone on the next airing, maybe even by the time the West gets it tonight. I wonder what the "fix" was!
Unrelated to this episode: -According to the new Upcoming Episodes page on snpp, and presumably Don's next post, there IS a KABF21 (The Burns and the Bees). I had heard somewhere that because of the strike, the KABF series might be shortened, so thought 20 would be the end before the LABFs. -KABF15 repeated tonight. No Paul Newman dedication. Good grief - I hope you taped it or it stays in syndication, because I don't think it'll ever show up again. -Family Guy's episode tonight (6ACX10) involved a spelling bee. Ha.