Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 20, 2018

My time: 9:41.

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If you enjoy making OU into U, this puzzle by Jeffrey Wechsler is for yu.  The unexplained theme, sans capper, is that five phrases containing words with OU become phrases containing words that have U instead.  These are then clued as is.

"Well-behaved sister?" is PROPER NUN.  "Evidence of a cat fight?" is FUR ON THE FLOOR.  "TV bleep?" is CURSE CORRECTION.  "Impolite press conference attendees?" is CURT REPORTERS.  And "part of the queen's tea service?" is PALACE CUP.

It's fun with words, I guess, but I don't really know why.  Without a joke or capper to it, the theme kind of falls flat.  Like, what about cluing the song "Only You" or something?

Anyhoo, the rest of the fill.  Not a lot of new stuff for me.

The Q5 and the Q7 are AUDI models of SUV.  Those are dumb names for car models.

"Real dogs eat meat" was a tongue in cheek slogan used by ALPO.  There was even a book!

I couldn't remember at first the name of Alice's cat in Through the Looking-Glass.  It's DINAH.

For "Disney's fourth animated film" I put *BAMBI but it's DUMBO.  The latter came out in 1941, while Bambi was fifth at 1942.

The ALERO was the last model of Oldsmobile, produced 1999 to 2004.

"Goes by livery taxi" is HIRES A CAR --- not *HAILS A CAB.

Jacques PEPIN is a beloved French chef, star of several cooking shows since the 1980s.

Did you know OBAMA is the president with the most southerly birthplace?  Me neither.  It's not intuitive. Hawaii is south of Texas?

Clever clues: "Lump in one's throat" is UVULA.  "Extended sentence?" is RUN-ON.  "A firecracker goes in one" is ARC --- not *EAR!  That's dangerous!  "111 things?" is ONES.  It's a fine line between clever and stupid.

If I knew most of the clues, why did this take so long today?  Maybe I'm just a DUMBO.