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I'm not going to lie to you. I spent a good portion of yesterday beating my brains out trying to think of some sort of a theme that incorporated the incomparable COVFEFE. It's the sort of thing puzzle makers live for: brand spanking word that everybody know that hasn't been exploited yet. But from the perspective of one who plays with words, that typo is, well brutal. Coffee puns were right out as just about everybody had memed that joke to death by the time I began working. That VF was nasty, a dead end really. It appears in no English words and if you don't believe me, ask Ben Zimmer. About the only thing that looked promising was the container COV(FEF)E, but that was also unforgiving. Adding FEF to base phrases wasn't yielding much either. Though my man Francis Heaney discovered the almost clueable answers ONE CAFE-FRAT and J.D. SAFE-FLINGER.
Crossword legend/showoff Martin Ashwood-Smith did manage to sneak it into a puzzle yesterday morning, though. So at least somebody did something with it. Here's hoping the next neologism is tad friendlier.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
Brendan Emmett Quigley creates custom-made puzzles for all occasions: birthdays and bar mitzvahs, anniversaries and retirements. You name it. Need a puzzle for your website or your publication? He can do that, too.
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