Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Great, great, great puzzle by Henry Hook. A little on the tough side for a Wednesday but lots of fun. And I didn’t have to do any:

• 1D. Solver’s online recourse (GOOGLING). I love that this is the answer. Adds legitimacy to my way of life.

Great theme that took me little while to figure out but once I did the answers got filled in fairly quickly.

• 20A. 1968 Glen Campbell hit (GENTLEONMYMIND)
• 34A. 1960 Ray Charles hit (GEORGIAONMYMIND)
• 53A. 1982 Willie Nelson hit (ALWAYSONMYMIND)

Who knew there were 3 hit songs whose titles ended with On My Mind. At first I thought, oh no, a music theme, I’m doomed. But once I got the Ray Charles hit I realized what the theme was.

A few things I know only because I do crossword puzzles (All history courtesy of xwordinfo.com):

• 61A. 1961 “spacechimp” (ENOS). Last appeared Saturday, January 19, 2008 in a puzzle by David J. Kahn.
  
• 32D. Singer DiFranco (ANI). Last appeared Sunday, June 24, 2007 in a puzzle by Eric Berlin.
• 33D. Mosque V.I.P. (IMAM). Lat appeared Monday, January 28, 2008 in a puzzle by Michael Blake.

A few things I learned from this puzzle:

• 9A. “And ___ ask is a tall ship …”: John Masefield (ALLI). From his poem Sea-Fever.
  
• 18A. Bellini two-acter (NORMA). Will I ever get all these operas straight? Maybe this will help.
• 25A. Mouse who’s always throwing bricks at Krazy Kat (IGNATZ). Man, they totally stole this from Itchy and Scratchy.

• 44A. Little fingers or toes (MINIMI). Ok, I don’t understand this one at all. As far as I can tell Minimi are followers of a Roman Catholic religious order. Can someone please explain this to me?
• 57A. False deity (BAAL). I had IDOL here for a whole.
• 58A. “Gilmore Girls” daughter (RORY). If I ended up being a girl, my parents were going to name me Rory. Crazy.
• 63A. Accordion part (REED). Accordions have reeds. What? I thought reeds were in oboes and whatnot. Brian, please explain.
• 8D. Super Bowl XXI M.V.P., first to say “I’m going to Disney World!” (SIMMS). After the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988, Orel Hershiser said, “I’m going to Disneyland”. I went there to see him. I missed the parade (how did I miss the parade?) but I did get to see him, I think it was in Fantasyland. I was too shy to say anything to him but I did take his picture. If I can ever find it, I’ll post it on the blog.
• 31D. Mann’s “Der ___ in Venedig” (TOD). Ok, until about 10 seconds ago I thought this was another opera. Turns out it’s actually Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Sometimes the depth of my ignorance is staggering. (By the way, are these Amazon links irritating? If they tick people off I’ll cease and desist.)
  
• 42D. Burial place of King Arthur (AVALON). This tale is due for another movie. Excalibur is a ridiculous, ridiculous film.
  
• 49D. N.H.L. Eastern Conf. team (ISLES). Ok, I’ve heard of the Islanders but is Isles really a valid nickname for the team? Do their fans call them the Isles?

Besides GOOGLING, my favorite clue/answer:

• 35D. Things people are trained in? (RAILWAYS). Great stuff.