Quip Crack Away

First things first: I love America ; I love Americans. Hate their crosswords.

Tried one in the New York Times the other day. Was pretty confident after a quick flick through. Soon had all the simple ones filled in (like many non-British crosswords, these are not your cryptic brain-bogglers) and was confident of possibly early completion.

I mean, Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics, right? Sorry, it was Korea. Not South Korea, just Korea. I, for one, had never heard of an Olympic Games referred to by host nation rather than host city. Oh well, I pressed on…a quip question had grabbed my attention and, frankly, had me well and truly stumped. Thing is, it ran over three long answers - very long answers - and the NY Times’s version of crypticity (is that a word?) is to not supply the number of letters in each word.

Quip? Hmm, could be Oscar Wilde – favoured by many. But, think American, I told myself. A politician? Nixon, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Wilson? Or maybe a writer? Kerouac, Whitman, Steinbeck, Poe? Couldn’t get it, though a few words leapt out.

Finally I conceded defeat to the compiler. And I will buy him a drink if he can inform me where he found this gem of a quip:

‘Taxation demands upon us all by the IRS are to meet the nation's need through supply and demand’

Americans have many things in abundance. I would boldy suggest quips are not among their most precious assets.