Monday Puzzle #21 or "Stupidity, Conspiracy, and Irony"

The oats did not kill me and I’m here to crossword for another day. Yay!

Puzzle #21 – completed with one error. I knew this was going to be an error:

31 down, “Twosomes.” It’s DYADS. I put diads (with an i). I just couldn’t decide if it was an i or a y. And then, 35 across was “Field of flowers?” I took the clue literally (a big mistake in crosswording). And, I was focused on the plural of flowers, when the answer would be singular because of “field.” The answer is BOTANY, of course. I had botani. So embarrassing. I was so ready to challenge that fields of flowers are called botani. But, since I thought it should be plural, the i made sense. Which contributed to being confused about the i or the y in dyad. Stupidity feeds on itself in a downward, spiraling cycle.

There were a few clues I was happy to see – tried and true “Popular sandwich cookie,” OREO; “Asian New Year’s festival,” TET (thank you Puzzle #15!); and “Mary Tyler Moore co-star,” ED ASNER. I love Ed Asner. And, I saw “Up” this week and loved it – he was just great.
The BIG news is I only had one “don’t really know” answer!

37 across, “Jong who wrote ‘Fear of Flying’” ERICA. I read about her on, of course, WikiP. I really have never heard of her or her works. I’ve added Fear of Flying to my book list as it sounds interesting. I think it’s funny that she’s been divorced three times and is now married to a divorce lawyer. And, it looks as if she may be a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, which honestly I have little patience for. Could you call it ironic that her book is called Fear of Flying? Probably not. Is it ironic that her fourth marriage is to a divorce lawyer? Or is it with a divorce lawyer?

(p.s. photo found on Christopher D. Sessums blog)