Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

• Main Entry: ocher
• Variant(s): or ochre \??-k?r\
• Function: noun
• Etymology: Middle English oker, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French ocre, from Latin ochra, from Greek ?chra, from feminine of ?chros yellow
• Date: 14th century

1. an earthy usually red or yellow and often impure iron ore used as a pigment
2. the color of ocher; especially : the color of yellow ocher

• ocher·ous \??-k(?-)r?s\ or ochre·ous \??-k(?-)r?s, -kr?-?s\ adjective

Apparently, they’re interchangeable. Great. (All the “yellows” you see in the above picture are considered by the vast internet to be “ocher.” Also, the brownish border around everything is ocher as well, according to some Pantone-ish color palette I found in one search attempt.)

Although I had trouble with the spelling of OCHRES (6D. Canyon tones), my big stumbling block happened at 36D. Be discordant (JAR). Really? Jar? Hmm. Also, I pulled a typical Brian move by being completely unable to process the “Abbr” portion of 42A. Schedule maker: Abbr., and therefore, I continued to be completely unable to figure out that I-S actually could make some sense. Speaking of the IRS, I need to complete my taxes one of these days…

I have to say, this puzzle was chock full of wonderful answers. I got off to a very hot start, and had the whole northwest (except maybe one square at approximately Yreka, CA) and the whole southeast (except the bottom-most, right-most square) rather quickly. 1A. Luau lighting is of course a TIKI TORCH, 15A. Singer who plays herself in “D.C. Cab” is IRENE CARA, who makes a doubly rare appearance (one-bly: both names; dou-bly: it has nothing to do with “Fame”). I bow to the creator of this gem of a puzzle with respectful humility (9D. HAT IN HAND).

32D. Ticker with headlines is a NEWS CRAWL – my old television had shifted its image so weirdly that any news crawl I saw only showed the very tops of letters… It was sort of like doing a cryptogram puzzle, as I had to decipher the text based on a strange code in which letters only looked like the tops of letters. 56A. Norman Rockwell specialty is AMERICANA. My favorite is the one where the three umpires are deciding whether or not to play in the rain. I think Ryan has that print in his dining room. Speaking of Ryan — what happens when our podcast WEARS THIN (59A. Stops being funny, say)? And don’t you dare answer that it can’t because it would have had to be funny in the first place. Don’t you dare. I’ll unsubscribe you right now. (Okay, no I won’t.)

The southwest was more challenging for me, in that I had many ideas, but nothing seemed to fit. 24D. What a potential player must pass is a SCREEN TEST, not a STRESS TEST. 25D. Summons, e.g. is a COURT ORDER, and not a CALL TO -DE-, whatever that was supposed to become. 31A. Future star turned out not to be CAMEO (my first guess) or COMET (my second guess) but COMER, which I don’t care for without its “UP AND” prefix. And we had our daily dose of Make Brian Feel Like He Has No Business Being A Musician with 58A. Repetition symbol (SEGNO), which I decided could end with any of at least eight available vowels.

I was useless in the northeast, which is sad since I’ve lived my entire life in that geographic region. 12D. Get all sentimental (TURN TO MUSH) and 13D. Big sticker? (ELMER’S GLUE) are a delight. If only they had come to the forefront of my brain sooner. 10D. Loungewear stymied me in that I was looking for something that I alone could wear to a lounge — PAJAMAS! But no. Apparently, it’s CAFTANS. I have never worn a caftan. Never once.

I just got an email from Ryan asking if I was blogging now, so I’ll stop and let him add on whatever he feels like adding on. In red, apparently. I have no control over anything.

See you Saturday.

Brian doesn’t like the red, nobody else likes the pirate. Not only did people not like the pirate, it seemed to anger and disappoint everyone. I guess I won’t be doing that again. So here’s a new color for everybody which is either blue or purple or brown or whatever. People tell me they can see a 45 in the circle below. I see a bunch of dots. Personally, I think it’s an elaborate ruse. Not sure what the goal of the ruse is but I can assure you it’s nefarious.

Anyway, I thought this Brad Wilber puzzle was great. I no-googled it in under an hour. I actually got the northwest (Urumqi on a map of China) in about 30 seconds but then my supervisor gave me a job so pretending to work slowed the whole process down. But the whole puzzle was great fun and full of fascinating fill.

Like Brian I misspelled OCHRES which I thought to be an extension of my colorblindness. And I also put in PAJAMAS for loungewear. Honestly, CAFTANS don’t look that comfortable. Kind of a big sheet with a head hole.

I got TIKITORCH right away. I love all things tiki. I have tiki shirts, tiki mugs, tiki signs, tiki music. I love the whole tiki lifestyle and hope to turn our basement in our future house into a full blown tiki lounge. A great website for tiki stuff is Tiki Farm. They sell a few things by my favorite tiki artist, Shag.

The Qiqihar area was a bit more difficult but once I got 10A. Do the dishes? (CATER) everything fell into place. When I was a kid, I went to school with a girl who would cover her hands in ELMERS GLUE, wait for it to dry and then peel it off. Even as an 8 year old I found this behavior to be bizarre.

The key to the Lhasa area was 26. Sight in Lancaster County, Pa. (AMISHBUGGY). The Amish appear in two of my favorite Harrison Ford movies. Witness, of course. But also The Frisco Kid, a wonderful movie where he plays a Wild West bank robber who helps a rabbi played by Gene Wilder get to San Francisco. Such a wonderful movie and I’m still waiting for the sequel.

47D. Radio code word before 43-Down (ROMEO). 43D. Radio code word after 47-Down (SIERRA). Romeo Sierra? Please explain.

60A. Billet-doux suggestion (TRYST). I don’t understand this one either. Has anybody tried those Rosetta Stone language learning CDs? I really want to have a working knowledge of some other languages. The Rosetta Stone stuff seems great but they’re crazy expensive.

Really and truly, a great, fun puzzle. One of my favorites since we started this blog.

Next stop, Saturday.