Don’t forget Dies Irae.
I was shocked when … I think it was this week, or maybe last … the usual “asea” answer was actually the much more colloquial “at sea” in the New York Times crossword.
ASTA is the Thin Man’s dog. Anything vaguely referencing Egyptian snakes is always an ASP. I’ve finally drilled it into my head that anything referencing Captain Hook’s henchman or subordinate or whatnot is SMEE. ELAL for anything referencing an Israeli airline. ET ALII and ET ALIA seem to show up more often than you’d expect, and it drives me nuts, because you don’t know what that final vowel they’re going for is, unless you happen to have the crossing clue filled in. For whatever reason, too, the New York Times seems to want to spell naan as NAN all the time in their crosswords, so if you get a four-letter clue that says “Indian flatbread,” chances are it’s ROTI and not NAAN.
You hate ‘El Paso’? What the fuck is wrong with you??? 
The city is terrible, but the song is Kick-Mother-Fucking-Ass!
Or maybe you are wicked and evil?
I may be a ogre.
‘Man-eating Giant’? Sounds legit. Aren’t you like six-five or something, and 110 lbs?
That would be Gardner. Clues: Mickey married her; Perry’s creator.
I’m too busy trying to eke out a living to emote any longer here.
We had a Mod for a number of years who had been a crossword constructor and editor (that would be twickster, of course). She created, and contributed to, a number of threads that dealt with the puzzles. One that I remember in particular, was where she gave us the answers, and we supplied easy, medium, and hard clues; and she would offer her professional opinion on whether we met the goal. Sadly, I cannot find that thread in a quick search, but it’s here somewhere.
And has anybody yet mentioned Charlie Chaplin’s wife, OONA?
And for some reaso people who went to Yale are Eli? (Ely? Elies? Now none of these words look right.)
What I love are the really weird plurals. Things you add an S to, that would never be referred to as plural in written or spoken English, ever. Like: Bridge positions: _ _ _ _ _ oh, haha, the answer is, EASTS. Sure, pal.
And sometimes I look at these and think: They wouldn’t. And yet–they did!
And granddaughter.
Other “O” words constructors are overly fond of:
ort
olla
oleo
olio
orzo
Oslo
(“Ohio” and “onto” are reasonable words to be used often in puzzles, OTOH. Oh, “OTOH” is sometimes used and “IMHO” is used too often, IMHO.)
I’ve seen Opal used often but not in mentioning list size and without the “Hi.”
I once saw a puzzle that contained both “Libertarian philosopher Ayn” and “The Fountainhead novelist Rand”. Even if you’ve got AYN and RAND both in your grid, that’s just sloppy cluing: Either do “With 43-down, libertarian philosopher” and tie the clues together, or come up with something else for RAND (maybe, “unpredictable computer function”, or the like).
I also once saw a more clever one, where the long theme entries were all definitions for various crosswordese words, and the clues were the words themselves (like, the answer was “SANDWICHCOOKIEBRAND”, and the clue was “Oreo”).
“Eli” (singular) or “Elis” (Plural; Pronounced “ee-lies”).
From Elihu Yale, an early benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which was re-named in his honour.
I have had that pronunciation wrong in my head. I have assumed it was pronounced elly as in Elly May Clampett
Also let’s not forget the cinematic pooch: Asta from The Thin Man films
Also Odie from Garfield and Otto from Beetle Bailey.
and the movie lioness Elsa
and from the OP:
The clues for Yoko are also misleading. The refer to her as a musician. Obviously the crossword makers have never heard what Yoko calls “singing”
Same pronunciation as the prophet Eli.
Not to be confused with the Yale mascot, the bulldog Handsome Dan.
I do a lot of cryptic crosswords.
When Queen Elizabeth dies, they’re going to have a problem. She’s often used when they need an -er suffix.
Al Pacino also will cause issues, but they have Al Capone as backup.
I’ve seen some grs from King George, so I doubt it will cause a problem.
Yeah, that’s sloppy and sounds like something you’d find in one of those cheap-o crossword books you find at gas stations or something in an in-flight magazine. (Though some of the Dell crosswords are surprisingly well edited with good cluing.) For RAND, I would do something referencing the South African money like “Cape Town currency” (which according to xwordinfo.com, was used verbatim in a 2008 NYT puzzle) or something referencing RAND McNally (looks like “Partner in mapmaking” was used in 2016). The computer function one is a wee bit too specialized of a clue.