"Be Alert," by Lynn Lempel

Editor's Comments

Lynn Lempel is widely considered to be one of the masters of early-week puzzles, and she certainly lives up to her reputation in this one!  Look how she squeezed in five long theme entries while still leaving room for fun fill like ICONOCLAST, SCREWBALLS, and SNAPPY.  Oh, and did I mention how smooth the short stuff is?  Gridwork aside, I got a chuckle out of all the theme entries, my favorites BE-ing BEAN AFFAIR/TO REMEMBER and BERATING SCALE.  Barred owl is probably the toughest of the base phrases, but I've heard of it outside of crosswords.  If you don't think birds can be cute, you might change your mind after seeing this face: