Brian: Wednesday, 3-26-08
New York Times 18:50 (I am still an idiot)
New York Times
by Michael Langwald, edited by Will Shortz
Really? Nineteen minutes? I should be working, and instead, I’m doing this stupid puzzle.
I didn’t like these trick answers. 20A. Breakfast specialty of a rock singer? Way too many options available. Way too vague. Same with 39A. Lunch specialty of an Emmy-winning actor? You know how many actors have won Emmy awards? And even when I get his first name, you know how many Peters there are out there? And the last one, 57A. Dinner specialty of an R&B singer? Yuck, yuck, yuck.
Okay, maybe I didn’t like them because I couldn’t get them at first. And that after completing the grid (incorrectly), my two errors were in 39A and 57A because I didn’t know what I was looking for. BLECH.
I’m beginning to think that I have absolutely no prayer of ever even seeing what the crossword elite looks like, let alone joining them. No, I will never join them. My mother can do a Saturday in pen in twenty minutes, and I can’t do a Saturday with cheating in three weeks.
The answers to the gimmicks are GLENN FREYS EGGS, PETER BOYLES STEW and SAM COOKES STEAK. I don’t like the answers because I think “boils” is not the right idea for stew, and I definitely think that “cooks” is way too vague for steak, and “steak” is way too vague for dinner. The first one is okay, but the others are wholly unsatisfying.
Yuck.
I will be out all day, so there will be no efforts for any of the other Wednesday puzzles available. Ryan thinks he’s coming back to New York this weekend (his father is doing much better, thank you), and we hope to do our first podcast on Sunday. The theme music may involve a crying baby.
