Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Ok, back in NY. All seems well back in LA and hopefully that will continue to be the case. Pickles and I had a long day of travel so I’m condensing two puzzles into one entry so save a little time.

I really enjoyed Saturday’s puzzle. Not least of which because, except for help from the wife on one clue (6D. Grandmother of Jacob (SARAH)) I was able to complete the whole thing by self and without google. As usual with a Saturday offering, I perused the clues and didn’t know a single one. Then, from out of nowhere the answer to 31D. It’s heard on the Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” (SITAR) popped into my head. I admittedly don’t know much about the Beatles and I’m not entirely sure if Rubber Soul is a song or an album so it made it very odd indeed that I came up with the answer.

The big answer that got me going was:

• 15D. Cinematic captain of Star Command (BUZZLIGHTYEAR). I knew I had heard Star Command from somewhere. At first I thought it might be from that movie Galaxy Quest but I was just hearing Tim Allen in my head and my brain finally shifted over to Toy Story. Brian, Toni, Pickles and I watched this less than 2 weeks ago so that certainly helped.

I was able to get a number of answers off of good ol’ Buzz.

• 17A. Current (UPTODATE)
• 28A. Kind of rock (GLAM)
• 53A. Cab opener? (PEDI)

I made another huge guess with 30A. Son and successor of Seti I (RAMSESII). No clue where that came from either. I was able to squeeze SWEATINGBULLETS out of my brain and that set me up nicely for the top left. Great fill with PACECARS, STATELAW, and HARDTIME.

I was stuck on the bottom left for a while until I got:

• 59. Caped combatant (TOREADOR). I wanted some sort of superhero here. Then I had the DOR but MATADOR didn’t fit. CAVETT gave me the “T”, TOREADOR popped up and the rest of the corner fell pretty easily.

Favorite clue:

• 24D. Words said when one’s hand is shaky? (IMOUT). Love that. Before I knew the answer it could have been anything. Looking at it now it couldn’t be anything else.

Least favorite clue:

• 48A. Brand in the freezer section (BREYERS). Could have been DREYERS or BREYERS. I don’t like when I’ve figured something out only to find I haven’t figured it out enough. The down cross didn’t help: 48D. Rigel or Spica (BSTAR). Who am I, Carl Sagan over here?

All in all a very enjoyable Saturday puzzle.

I’m not going to spend too long on Sunday’s puzzle because it’s late and because I do not like anagrams. I am not good at them, they frustrate me and trying to anagram something makes me motion sick. I like the Sunday themes that you can use as a tool to help figure out the other clues. The anagram themes are more of an afterthought. “Hey look, here’s some stuff you can figure out after you’re done figuring out the puzzle, take some dramamine and go to town!”

Having said all that, it was a fine, if not spectacular, puzzle. I do love that AMADEUS is crossed with EATOUT. (Is that too dirty for this blog?) It’s also crossed with ESHARP.

I had trouble coming up with STRETTO for the simple fact I had never heard of it. And instead of EMMYS I had EIMHS. EIMHS stands for Easton Imperial Hockey Shirts. Have you gotten yours yet?

Allright, off to bed. Tomorrow, a podcast?