Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

New York Times 5:37
Los Angeles Times 4:28
CrosSynergy 5:48

New York Times
by David J. Kahn, edited by Will Shortz

Meh.

I don’t know very much about The King. I don’t know what movies he did, I don’t know where his life took him. I appreciate what he did in music history and American pop culture history, but I’m just not that interested.

That said, it took me too long to do this Monday. It wasn’t that satisfying. I took more time than I should have on both the left and right sides because I did all the across clues instead of the few downs. Plus, I still suck at maneuvering around the grid on the NY Times website (in Across Lite I can TAB from one clue to another; is there a way to do that on the NY Times site? If you know how — please tell me!). Plus I still suck at crosswords in general.

I am not interested enough in Elvis to post any answers here. Use the links to the right to find someone else’s blog of answers today…

Los Angeles Times
by Mike Peluso, edited by Will Shortz

I’m just tired. The long answers here seemed like they could have been from any of the dozens of other puzzles I did today. Nothing standout.

I’m in a bad mood.

Okay, the long answers here were:

• 20A. Graveside service phrase (ASHES TO ASHES)
• 33A. From Maine to California (COAST TO COAST)
• 41A. How a book is usually read (COVER TO COVER)
• 56A. Very sincere, as a conversation (HEART TO HEART)

Fine. Very nicely done, Mike Peluso. I’m just tired and hungry, so nothing is satisfying me. I have to work in the morning, and that annoys me. Grr.

CrosSynergy: Exit Poles
by Sarah Keller

This time, I actually looked at the title. And then saw that it would do nothing to help me fill in the squares.

I’m falling into a bad routine here, with the Across Lite puzzles. I don’t check my answers. I make guesses and leave them there. If I were re-entering the ACPT, I’d lose tons of points for my errors (not to mention that I still suck for times).

Anyway… The theme here was answers that ended with kinds of poles:

• 17A. Vegetable used in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner casserole (GREEN BEANS) — Did the clue need to be this long? Aren’t there smarter ways to clue GREEN BEANS? How about “Jolly Giant’s fare” or even “___ casserole.”
• 37A. “A New Leaf” actress/director (ELAINE MAY)
• 42A. Surrender symbol (WHITE FLAG)
• 62A. Navigator’s director (TRUE NORTH) — I didn’t like this clue either, even though I got it. Something about “navigator” made me dislike it.

A couple of stumpers for me, though:

• 36D. Hindu deity (SHIVA) — Really? This word means more than Jews mourning a death?
• 43D. Asmara’s republic (ERITREA) — Asmara is a… person? City? School? No idea.

Fine, I suppose… I seem to have settled into the 5-6 minute range for most Monday-level puzzles. In terms of the ACPT, that’s already a three-minute improvement over my Puzzle #1 time.

And now, off to work…