Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

I can barely see straight… The weekend was full of nephews and noise, today began with a 6:00am wake-up call courtesy of one young Mr. Levi Pontti — oh, so very cute, but oh, so very loud. Tonight, an enjoyable concert but a painfully unfortunate piano. And outside the theater tonight, I happened to see Jon Delfin. I didn’t say hello — Jon, if you read this, I saw you!

I also want to say, before starting in with the puzzles, that we’re getting lots of positive feedback on our podcast. If you haven’t checked it out, try the links to the right. iTunes has it, and you can also listen straight from this site. We’ve done six episodes so far (the next one will be this coming weekend), and we’re having a blast. Email us your thoughts and comments at rbxblog@gmail.com.

Finally — we have a group on Facebook. I don’t know if this links there successfully, but if not, get on your Facebook, and search the groups for one called “Ryan and Brian do Crosswords.”

Anyway. It’s Tuesday. Yesterday kicked my ass, but today, I’m trying again. Here we go…

New York Times – 6:30
New York Sun – 6:45
Los Angeles Times – 6:40

New York Times
constructed by Nancy Salomon; edited by Will Shortz

I think I’m just struggling to come up with words that might actually exist in the world… The theme answers were cute enough — money-related terms clued with non-monetary concepts:

• 17A. Fishing trawler’s haul? : NET EARNINGS — Incidentally, the first theme answer always (or often, at least) seems to fall at 17-Across. Good spot for themes, I guess.
• 28A. Seat of government’s acquisitions? : CAPITAL GAINS — Never actually got this because of the clue. Had a bunch of crossings and eventually decided that it had to be what it was based on absolutely no concrete evidence.
• 44A. Publisher’s windfall? : PAPER PROFITS
• 59A. Salary for selling insects as food? : GROSS INCOME — Didn’t care for this one… yes, insects as food seem gross to me (although there are cultures where the chocolate-covered grasshopper seems like a reasonable snack), but the clue was far more specific than the answer. It’s like how verbs and nouns have to agree in person and tense, it seems that clues and answers ought to as well.

I think I’m not a fan of the ___ UP type of answers. This puzzle had two of them: 53A. Getting slick during winter (ICING UP) and 39D. Add some meat to the bones (FATTEN UP). Don’t know why it bothers me. I should edit this post tomorrow, and see if it still bothers me then.

New York Sun: I Before E, As In Movie
constructed by Michael Langwald; edited by Peter Gordon

If I had looked at the darned title, I might have shaved a few seconds off this time, but even so, I was stuck on some basic trivia that I just didn’t know. The themes were fun:

• 17A. Movie about an amp-hauler’s African journey? : ROADIE TO MOROCCO
• 38A. Movie about a terrier subplot? : WESTIE SIDE STORY — Apparently, “King of the Hill” did an episode with this title. I don’t watch this show much (except when I’m staying in a hotel and have no TiVo to help me decide what’s good), but the weird thing is that I’ve seen this episode. It’s the one where the Souphanousinphones move in next door, Bobby gets a new friend in Connie, and Hank thinks that these new neighbors made burgers out the Hills’ dog.
• 58A. Movie about a Unification Church member’s Southern flight? : MOONIE OVER MIAMI — Why is “Southern” capitalized? Is that the airline that takes you to Miami? Is that the only airline that takes you to Miami?

This puzzle also featured a crossword favorite in ATARI – the other day, my four-year-old nephew learned how to play Ms. Pac-Man at my house. Every time he would narrowly escape an oncoming ghost, he would turn around to tell everyone how close he came, and then inevitably be eaten immediately.

[NOTE: I know that Atari didn't manufacture Ms. Pac-Man... But video games are video games... Roll with me.]

Los Angeles Times
constructed by Norm Guggenbiller; edited by Rich Norris

The first theme answer is again at 17A. Goings-on at the precinct (POLICE WORK). The other two:

• 10D. Post-9/11 concern : AIR SECURITY
• 25D. Wildcatters’ action : LABOR STRIKE

And they are summarized with 59A. Combine efforts, and puzzle title reflected in 17-Across, 10-Down and 25-Down, which is JOIN FORCES.

I like it just fine, but nothing clever here. Just very blunt. 67A. “Jes’ imagine, Jeb…” makes me think of the Governor of Florida, which makes me want to puke, which makes it difficult to come up with any answers (although that one was SPOSE). I need to look at a map, because I’m seeing a lot of YEMEN lately, which according to 26A is an Oman neighbor. And apparently I’m not up on my Inventory evaluation meth. (56A), because LIFO means nothing to me. Seeing the answer did little clarify what “meth.” was short for (method, I’m guessing?). And 54A. Shrub with pink or white flowers was not a demeaning way to describe the short fat kid at the prom, but rather a SPIREA, which might just as easily have been clued as Label on the first steeple.