Peeve

I think I can return to normal operations tomorrow. But until then, please humor me and listen to my peeve.

I'm a crossword puzzle fan, doing the WSJ one Monday-Saturday, and my local paper prints the New York Times and LA Times previous-Sunday puzzles on Sunday. Fun. Lots of wordplay, which I enjoy.

But what irks me: two obscure clues that cross. It's rare, fortunately. A example from the July 31 WSJ, the lower left corner of the puzzle. I've filled out the entire grid except for one lousy, lonely square in the lower left corner:

xword

The clue for 88-down: "Poème Roumain" composer Georges. Are you kidding?

The clue for 110-across: Japan's largest active volcano. Well, how am I supposed to know that?

I could resort to the Google. That's cheating.

Or I could brute force the online puzzle by trying different letters until it succeeds. Ugly.

Or I could gripe about it bitterly on my blog. And here we are.