Assorted Afflatuses

Of the many benefits that summer vacation affords me, my favorite is, without question, the free time I have in the morning. Usually that free time would be filled with a wonderful breakfast and an intense perusal of the New York Times. This year, however, I have also taken to solving the New York Times crossword.

For the most part solving the crossword is fun. Today, for instance, I read the clue, "Home of Notre Dame" and mistakenly filled in "ILEDELACITE" — the part of town where the famous Parisian cathedral is located — when, in fact, the correct answer was "SOUTHBENDIN" — the home of Notre Dame University — both of which have the same number of letters. In general I can complete the puzzle Monday through Friday, but the excessively cryptic nature of the clues on Saturday and Sunday usually prove just a touch to difficult.

But while Will Shortz usually ensures the clues are both witty and fresh, I have really become irritated with the frequency with which three clues have appeared in the last two weeks:

1. Former Putin org. (KGB)
2. Egyptian viper (ASP)
3. A kind of support (BRA)

As they demonstrate every week in the Saturday and Sunday puzzles, the people who dream up the crossword can bend words in the same way that Superman can bend a bar of steel. So why can't these people dream up some other, more creative three-letter clues?