Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Yowza, this Allan E. Parrish puzzle was tough one. I eventually solved the whole thing but I did some hair tearing in the process. And I don’t have much hair to spare.

First off, the theme was music-centric and, as we all know, I am a music ignoramus. However, once I figured out what linked the three theme answers together I completed that part pretty quickly.

19A. 1979 Bee Gees chart-topper (TOOMUCHHEAVEN)

34A. Band with the 1970 hit “Get Ready” (RAREEARTH)

50A. 1979 AC/DC seven-time platinum album (HIGHWAYTOHELL)

I figured out Highway to Hell first and jumped to the fortunately correct conclusion that the theme answers would be Heaven at the top, Earth in the middle and Hell at the bottom. Very clever.

Other clues that caught my eye:

8A. Tex-Mex treats (TAMALES). Considering my love for Tex-Mex cuisine, I had an inordinate amount of trouble with this clue. Mainly because I had an error with 13D. Accord (ENTENTE). I put DETENTE there which suggested that the 8A ended in a D. I don’t believe you can order anything in a Tex-Mex restaurant that doesn’t end in a vowel. I love going to Texas to visit my wife’s family. So many restaurants, so little time. There used to be one good Tex-Mex place here in New York. I think it was called Johnny Tejano’s. We went there for many festive occasions and one day we showed up and it was closed forever. We sat on the curb thinking of their queso and we knew New York would never be the same.

21A. Civvies (MUFTI). Wha? I’ll have to ask my friend Max who’s in the Navy if he’s ever heard of this.

30A. Professor Lupin in Harry Potter books, e.g. (WEREWOLF). Seriously, is there some sort of cheat sheet on the internet for these books? Although doesn’t lupus mean wolf in Latin? Maybe I could have figured this out more quickly.

33A. Creator of the Bennet family (AUSTEN). All I could think of was sitcoms. That totally sounds like a sitcom family name. Totally. Turns out it’s from Pride and Prejudice.

36A. One of the four evangelists, briefly (STMARK). I did not know this. I do not know the significance of the four evangelists. But I get my hair cut near St. Mark’s here in NY so, in a sense, the answer was right on top of my head. (Wait, that’s not a saying. Right on top of my head? No, that’s not a saying. What am I thinking of? On the tip of my tongue? Maybe.)

48A. Devil (SCAMP). I really thought I had figured this out. I put in STUMP as in to be deviled or stumped by something.

60A. Where the buoys are? (CHANNEL). What’s the deal with the question mark? Aren’t buoys in channels?

62A. Takes over (ANNEXES). I had ASSUMES here as in “He assumed the role of the Vicar of Maltby”.

4D. Tear out (SCOOT). I’m not 100% convinced I like this clue. Although tearing out and scooting both involve leaving someplace quickly they still seem like slightly different things to me. Scooting seems more happy and fun to me. Perhaps I’m over thinking this.

12D. Michael ___, Bush secretary of health and human services (LEAVITT). Is there anybody in this administration that doesn’t have a “controversy” section on their wikipedia page?

22D. Multipurpose truck (UTE). Ok, I have no idea what this is.

28D. Half-and-half, maybe (MUTT). I wanted to put MILK here but my highly honed solving instincts told me that would be wrong.

36D. Lingerie drawer items (SACHETS). Sachets are simply not the first things that come to mind when I think of a lingerie drawer.

40D. Military wing (PHALANX). This was the answer that helped me finish off the bottom right corner. Once I pulled this out of my pahtootie the rest fell into place.

44D. Football Hall-of-Famer Gale (SAYERS). Wasn’t this guy in a Bounty Paper Towels commercial?

48D. Q45 or Grand Marquis (SEDAN). Tricky.

52D. Judicial directive (WRIT). You know what you won’t need a writ to do? Attend Lollapuzzoola 2008. August 23rd, Jackson Heights, 12pm. Don’t be left out.

Next stop, Friday.

I had a bit of a frustrating solving experience with this Elizabeth A. Long puzzle. I filled the grid but the applet wouldn’t accept my solution. There were three areas that I was very unsure about and I tried different letter combinations but to no avail. Eventually I had to check xwordinfo to figure out where I had gone wrong. Turns out my error was a careless error I made in an unexpected area.

55A. Succotash ingredients (LIMAS). I put LIMES. If I had really thought about it I would have remembered succotash is made with beans. But I had the LIM_S, filled in the E and never looked back. In my defense, I’ve never heard lima beans referred to as limas. Unfortunately the cross was no help. 47D. Swahili form of address (BWANA). BWENA looked just as right to me. Bwena is not actually a word although BWEN means Brillouin-Wigner Second-Order Perturbation Theory with Epstein-Nesbet Energy Denominators. So in that sense I was pretty close.

The 3 problem areas (where I didn’t really have a problem):

5A. Goober ___ (PEAS). A term for boiled peanuts which might also explain Goobers. That crossed with 5D. Large quantity (PASSEL). This certainly seemed right but it’s a word I just haven’t come across enough for it be familiar. PASSEL also crossed with 18A. Thompson of TV’s “Family” (SADA) who is as unfamiliar to me as the show in which she appeared.

34D. Low marshland (SWALE). Ok, on a show of hands, who else put SWAMP here and wondered why it didn’t work with 46A. Kind of lettuce (ICEBERG). By the way, I put REDLEAF there first which gave me all kinds of problems. Anyway, SWALE crossed with 43A. .001 inch (MIL). MIL looked right but I wasn’t 100% sure.

49D. Jacob’s-ladder, for one (PHLOX). As far as I can tell a PHLOX is an incredibly creepy Tim Robbins movie from 1990. The definitions I’ve found tell me it’s a flower. We’ll just see who’s right. Might be time for a 8D. Wrestling show (SMACKDOWN). PHLOX crossed with 65A. W.W. II foe (AXIS) which I was almost positive was right but the abbreviations made me doubt.

So the frustration came from figuring out all this hard stuff and yet not fully solving the puzzle. Bleh on me. The theme was a quote and used the fabled and rarely seen Notepad which said: When this puzzle is finished, the 11 circled letters in reading order will spell the subject of the quote starting at 20-Across. The quote was:

20A. Part 1 of a quote attributed to Sam Goldwyn, 37A. Part 2 of the quote, 52A. End of the quote (FANTASTIC AND IT WAS ALL WRITTEN WITH A FEATHER). Not entirely sure why this is a quote people remember but I do know the subject: SHAKESPEARE.

Other clues that caught my eye:

9A. Direction for playing a dirge (LENTO). I’ve come to realize I will never learn these terms. I’m usually an optimist but I hear them week after week and I still couldn’t name you three.

25A. Gangster’s target, maybe (KNEECAP). Love this. This and SMACKDOWN are my favorite parts of the grid.

29A. Word part: Abbr. (SYL). Everything I’ve learned about grammar flew out the window when I saw this clue as I tried to think of an abbreviation for predicate.

48A. Foxtail feature (AWN). Hey, guess what. A foxtail has nothing to do with fox. It’s actually a type of grass. And an awn has nothing to do with an awning. It’s actually a slender, bristlelike appendage found on the spikelets of many grasses. And a spikelet has nothing to do with Snoopy’s brother who lived in Needles. It’s actually a small or secondary spike, characteristic of grasses and sedges, having a varying number of reduced flowers each subtended by one or two scalelike bracts. Do you think it’s possible for a sentence about foxtail grass to contain only words I understand?

29D. Laurel from England (STAN). Nice misdirection here.

35D. Cream (SLAUGHTER). Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter.

I thought this was a fun, smart puzzle. It was my own carelessness that made it frustrating. I’ll tell you what won’t be careless or frustrating, Lollapuzzoola 2008. Listen Episode #20 of Fill Me In: A Crosspod Wordcast to get all the latest information. Pick up next week’s edition of the Jackson Heights Times to read an interview with your’s truly and your other truly, Brian. Yes, both trulies have been interviewed. That’s two trulies for the price of one. And the paper costs nothing so you’re already ahead of the game. The game being Lollapuzzoola 2008.

Next stop, Thursday.

After a month-long hiatus, we are pleased to bring you Episode 20 of Fill Me In. Sadly, our microphone is dying, so we had to do a little tweaking to get it to work at all. Let us know what you think. In this episode:

• One-sided phone call from a mystery woman
• Brian’s attempt and imitating the voice of Julius Sumner Miller
• Ryan promotes Lollapuzzoola 2008
• We discuss 26 puzzles in very little time, devoting almost all our energy to speed and none to quality

Enjoy!

 

 Fill Me In #020: Broken microphone and all. [43:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.

The theme for this David Kwong and Emily Halpern puzzle is “Titles of Books, Areas to Scuba Dive, Movies and Songs That Have the Word Great in Them but When You Replace the Word Great with Other Words You Can Make it Seem Like They’re Talking About Something Mediocre Instead of Something Great Which was The Initial Intention of the Titles”.

17A. Mediocre F. Scott Fitzgerald novel? (THEDECENTGATSBY)

27A. Mediocre place to scuba? (GOODBARRIERREEF)

49A. Mediocre Steve McQueen film? (THENOTBADESCAPE)

65A. Mediocre Jerry Lee Lewis hit? (OKAYBALLSOFFIRE)

Other clues that caught my eye:

9A. Legendary cowboy ___ Bill (PECOS). Just been reading up on the story of Pecos Bill. Honestly, it seems a little crackers to me. Something about his fiancee, Slue-Foot Sue, falling on her bustle which bounces her higher and higher until she hits her head on the moon which causes Bill to shoot her to put her out of her misery. I think Bill should have at least taken it up with the bustle manufacturer before he went to such drastic measures.

25A. Daisy ___, who went to Marryin’ Sam (MAE). For something that’s been a popular comic strip, a movie and a Broadway musical I know shockingly little about Li’l Abner. Apparently, Sadie Hawkins day originated in the strip. That was the day in high school when girls didn’t ask me to a dance, or talk to me or know my name.  Sadie Hawkins day was just one day a year right?  Seems like it might have been a four-year long celebration.

69A. Barbie’s beau (KEN). I’ve gotta agree with Barbie on this one, math IS hard.

7D. Actress Skye (IONE). Thank god for all those vowels otherwise who’d remember her.  Seriously, has anybody seen her in something besides Say Anything?

18D. Items of apparel for Dracula (CLOAKS). Hmmm, I thought he wore a cape.

We had some technical difficulties with our podcast last night. We couldn’t get the mic to work so we’re trying again this afternoon. We should be able to record something although I’m not sure when we’ll be able to post it. In other news, we are being interviewed by the local paper today. They’re doing a profile of us and Lollapuzzoola 2008. We’ll let you know how that goes.

Next stop, Wednesday.

I’m not sure I 100% understand the theme in this Roger Baiocchi puzzle.

72A. ___-specific (like the answers at 1-, 41- and 73-Across) (SITE). There are 5 other theme clues. How come this refers to only 3 of them? START is in the top left corner, PLACE is in the bottom right and TAKECENTERSTAGE is in the middle. I guess START is in the SITE where you start the puzzle. But what is the significance of the SITE of PLACE. This may be painfully obvious to everyone but I’m afraid I just don’t get it.

1A. With 21-Across, begin from scratch (START)

21A. See 1-Across (ATSQUAREONE)

41A. Move into the limelight (TAKECENTERSTAGE)

59A. With 73-Across, be beaten by the rest of the field (ENDUPINLAST)

73A. See 59-Across (PLACE)

To be honest, I struggled with a lot of this puzzle. That’s not to say I didn’t like it, I just don’t think I was on the same wavelength as the constructor.

1D. Have the wheel of a car (STEER). Initially all I could visualize was a guy holding a tire. Once I got that out of my head I put DRIVE here.

24D. Hot dog topping (RELISH). I do love relish and hot dogs. I don’t love relish in those little packets. It doesn’t squeeze out easily like ketchup and mustard and it’s such a struggle to get all the tasty little bits out. In related news, I’m going to Fenway Park for the first time in my life on Saturday. If anybody has any suggestions about the best food stands there or any other tips please let me know.

33A. Christmas ___ (holiday stamp) (SEAL). I’m not sure I know what this is. Is this a postage stamp?

65A. It’s “catchy” (SNAG). Pretty tricky for a Monday. Anybody else put SONG here and wonder why the N and A didn’t work?

4D. 66 on a map, e.g.: Abbr. (RTE). My friend Max and I traveled along a lot of the western portion of old Route 66, stopping at lots of kitschy places along the way. Highly recommended if you want to see areas of the country frozen in time.

31D. High-priced seating area (LOGE). Hmmm. Isn’t this the middle-priced seating area? In my experience, the Orchestra is the high-priced area in a theater while Field (or some variation of that) is the expensive area at a ball game. Loge is always one or two levels up.

60D. City south of the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (NOME). I had no idea about this one. I suppose if I really stopped to think about it, Alaska would eventually have come to mind.

Brian is back in town for a bit today. We’ll be recording Episode #20 of Fill Me In: A Crossword Podcast tonight and that should be up sometime on Tuesday. We’ll have a lot more information on Lollapuzzoola 2008. (August 23, registration still open)

Next stop, Tuesday.

It’s very late at night/early in the morning so this will be an abbreviated entry today.  Fun puzzle by Mike Nothnagel, Penpal Extraordinaire and Constructor of the Friday Puzzle and David Quarfoot.  Well, fun except for one area that I couldn’t figure out.  Actually there wasn’t anything to figure out as the answers were made up of a bunch of facts/trivia that I didn’t know.  Brian calls this phenomenon Trivia Boxes while I have named it The Nexus of Ryan’s Ignorance.

It was the bottom right middle section.

126D. Tristram’s love (ISEULT).  I read this initially as Tristan’s love so I put in Isolde.  Tristan and Isolde, that’s something right?  Tristram and Iseult?  I’ve never even accidentally heard of them.

148A. The second “R” in J. R. R. Tolkien (REUEL).  There are limits to my nerd IQ.

152A. Africa’s ___ Mountains (ATLAS).  Funny, I’ve heard the words Africa, Mountains and Atlas many times in my life.  But put them together and they become something completely unfamiliar.

156D. Unesco World Heritage Site in Jordan (PETRA).  I don’t think I understand any part of this.  I tried putting in my standard Jordan answer, Noor, but it didn’t fit.

139D. “Bridal Chorus” bride (ELSA).  I figured this was referring to an opera.  An intuition that was maddeningly unhelpful.

So those 5 clues were packed into one area.  I could have stared at it forever but I wasn’t going to spontaneously learn these facts so I begrudgingly turned to google.

Other than that, I had a good time with this puzzle.  The them was Going Every Which Way, a familiar theme where direction words (left, right, up and down) were packed into one box or replaced with arrows.  There were lots of fun theme answers including:

16D. Barely fair, maybe (down THE right FIELD LINE)

29A. Popular 1970s British TV series (upSTAIRS downSTAIRS)

72D. Secured, in a way, with “on” (left A down PAYMENT)

70D. Sentiment suggesting “Try this!” (ITS right up YOUR ALLEY)

137A. Missing glasses’ location, usually (right WHERE YOU left THEM)

My favorite one was definitely 92A. Slangy street greeting (Sup DOG).  I thought the whole theme was very well done.

Other clues that caught my eye:

56A. “Think big” sloganeer (IMAX).  Fitting clue as I saw The Dark Knight: Imax today.  I thought the movie was great although I got confused a few times.  And the Imax was awesome.  Everything should be in Imax.  I highly recommend seeing this movie in Imax as there were scenes that they shot with an Imax camera that fill up the entire Imax screen.  I like the word Imax.

15A. Hollow center? (DOUBLEL) and 87A. Building component? (SILENTU).  I like these type of clues.  They always take me a while to figure out but are always satisfying when I do.

130A. Kids drink from them (TEATS).  This one is slightly disturbing.  Yes, I know it’s about goats.

80D. T or F, e.g.: Abbr. (ANS).  Ok, I just got this.  True and False are Answers.

53A. Opening screen option on many an A.T.M. (ESPANOL).  I tried to fit FASTCASH in here but it just wouldn’t work.

75A. Keats, e.g. (ODIST).  How do I know I’ve been doing a lot of crosswords puzzles?  I got this one right away with no crossings.

That’s it for today.  I’ve got to head to bed.  Did I mention Mike Nothnagel is constructing a puzzle for Lollapuzzoola 2008.  I did?  Well, it bears repeating.

Next stop, Monday.

It’s Saturday so here’s where I would normally say it’s late, I’m in the middle of solving the puzzle so here’s what I have so far.  Well, it is late, but I somehow solved this Barry C. Silk puzzle in 45 minutes and 6 seconds.  I’ve never solved a Saturday puzzle in under 5 hours much less in under 1 hour.  How did I do this?  Well, there is a long answer and a short answer.  The long answer involves a number of mathematical equations that calculate letter frequency based on both the constructor’s and solver’s current location, processor speed of the computer or pencil being used in the solving and, of course, El Nino.  The short answer is, I’m a genius.  In the interest of saving space (after all, the Internet is only so big) I’ll go with the short answer.

I actually did have a few things going for me on this one.

1A. Conductor of many TV experiments (MRWIZARD).  I watched Mr. Wizard everyday after school on Nickelodeon.  I still remember many of the experiments like how to cut a hole in a standard piece of construction paper that you can fit a person through.  It was a great show.  No crazy characters or high production values.  Just a guy teaching kids about science.

8D. Refuse to let go of (DWELLON).  I just watched an episode of the West Wing where President Bartlett says there’s only 3 words in the English language that begin with DW: dwell, dwarf and dwindle.  I have no idea if that’s actually true but once I had the DW the rest was easy.

31D. Oahu “thank you” (MAHALO).  My parents took me to Hawaii twice when I was a kid.  I was the kid on the beautiful beaches wearing long pants and wishing he could be home playing video games.  (I was a pain in the ass kid.)  Anyway, on our second trip the plane touched down and the attendant said something and ended it with mahalo.  I thought I was quite the wiseacre and started making fun of the word and how it doesn’t mean anything and blah, blah, blah. (I told you I was a pain in the ass kid.)  I guess I was a talking a little too loudly because some big Hawaiian dude stared me down and said, “It means thank you.”  He was offended, I peed a little and I’ve never forgotten it.

62A. “Nothing to get upset about” (IGNOREIT).  I worked a puzzle recently that had the same answer and a similar clue.  Once I had the IG in place the rest was easy.

There were also quite a few standard crosswordese answers that showed up.

27A. “Frank TV” airer (TBS).  I’ve seen this advertised during Braves games.  Looks terrible.

37A. Bite (NOSH).  I’m Jewish, I live in New York, I’m well-versed in noshing.  (Amanda, you may use “Well-Versed in Noshing” as a song title if you’d like.)

48A. Unhappy face (MOUE).  Once I saw this in a puzzle for the second time I decided to commit it to memory.

49A. U.S.-born Jordanian queen (NOOR).  This is the only thing I know about Jordan.  The clue could have been “Jordanian queen” or “Jordanian” or “Jo” and I would have written in the same thing.

64A. Periodicals with unturnable pages (EZINES).  I don’t think anybody likes this word.  Not Will Shortz, not the constructors, certainly not the solvers.  But if it helps the constructors out of a tight spot then I can deal with it.

Other clues that caught my eye:

9A. Many people get 100 on it (IQTEST).  This clue is bizarre to me.  Don’t many people get all kinds of scores on IQ tests?  Do most people get 100?  Is that some sort of cut off point?

19A. Scottish : Mac :: Arabic : ___ (IBN).  I don’t understand any part of the clue or the answer.  The B was the last letter I entered into the grid as I was also unfamiliar with 2D. Cousins of oribis and dik-diks (RHEBOKS).

55A. The Guinness book once dubbed her “television’s most frequent clapper” (VANNA).  Seriously, who else could this be?  You gotta love Vanna White.  While looking for a video to post here I realized that looking at game show clips on youtube is the most addictive thing on the internet.  I must stop.

7D. Drifter (ROLLINGSTONE).  Love that a Rolling Stone answer is next to a Beatles answer:  21. Title woman of song who “lives in a dream” (ELEANORRIGBY).

43D. Players with saving accounts? (GOALIES).  At first I thought this was referring to relief pitchers.

47D. Columbus discovery of 1493 (STKITTS).  I figured this was going to be an island of some kind.  Once I had the ST in place I guessed the rest.

53D. About 5.5 million Europeans (DANES).  Did anybody just know this?  I filled it in with crosses.

I thought this was a great puzzle with loads of difficult but gettable clues.  Barry also collaborated with Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town on the Sun’s Friday puzzle.  Really difficult but super fun with a few punny answers that made me want to throw my computer out the window.  And both Barry and Doug will be constructing a puzzle for Lollapuzzoola 2008.  (Registration now open.)

Well, well, well, my no-google Friday streak has come to a crashing halt with this John Farmer puzzle. What the heck was up with the top right corner? I absolutely, positively could not figure it out. And even now that I know the answers it still makes no sense. Ok, here’s what I did get in that area:

7D. Rolling Stones hit just before “Honky Tonk Women” (JUMPINJACKFLASH). This was also the title of a bad Whoopi Goldberg film. Whoopi has made more than her share of bad movies. They do have great taglines though. Here are a few of my favorites. See if you can guess what movies they’re from.

• A Dangerously Funny Movie.
• A first rate comedy about a second story woman.
• An earthquake is about to hit L.A. It’s called Detective Rita Rizoli.
• She’s on the line…and off the wall.
• She’s ruthless – He’s witless – They’re on the road together and falling apart at the seams.
• A love that will last forever. (Ok, this is a good movie.)
• Their forbidden friendship changed a nation.
• All that glitter… All that glamour… All that dirt. (This one isn’t bad either.)
• No booze! No sex! No drugs!… No way!
• At the sperm-bank she asked for a tall, intelligent, black man. One out of three ain’t bad.
• A motion picture that celebrates the art of survival, the gift of laughter and the miracle of friendship.
• Virginity, sex, the big cry, and other salty topics.
• What Happens In Antarctica… Stays in Antarctica.

8D. Ill-fated NASA effort (APOLLOONE)

9D. Jazz pianist/composer Williams (MARYLOU)

11D. Landlocked ___ Sea (ARAL). Standard crossword body of water.

18A. How some are offended (MORTALLY)

21A. ___-majesté (LESE). Standard crossword whatever the heck this is.

So that left me with 10 empty boxes and I couldn’t get any of them.

7A. Crams (JAMPACKS). I had JAM_A___ but I was so convinced it was JAMS-something that I never entertained the possibility of the P.

16A. In Dutch (UPACREEK). Wha? In Dutch? I thought this was about a language. Instead it’s some sort of saying that’s completely incomprehensible to me.

10D. Tax fig. (PCT). Should have gotten this but, again, I wasn’t entertaining the P.

25A. Baseball’s Belinsky and Jackson (BOS). Just couldn’t think of it.

12D. One with a high Q score (CELEB). I simply do not know what this means. I thought it might have to do with Q*Bert or Scrabble. It doesn’t, right?

13D. Five-time Horse of the Year, 1960-64 (KELSO). No clue. I tried ANTSY and SAYSO here.

14D. Celtic canines (SKYES). This clue could be in Dutch for all I know.

I got the rest of the puzzle but this corner had quite a concentration of clues that made no sense to me. Another instance of the Nexus of Ryan’s Ignorance.

Here are some clues I did understand:

22A. Turkey’s dewlap (WATTLE). I like both the word wattle and the word dewlap. I shall use them both frequently from now on.

40A. Ones with read faces? (TIMEPIECES). I thought this might have something to do with poker players. Timepieces works well though.

48A. “Calvin and Hobbes” bully (MOE). I’ve read enough Calvin and Hobbes to have this type of trivia crammed into the various nooks and crannies of my brain.

53A. Start of a “Name That Tune” bid (ICAN). This is great. I thought it might be NOTE but this is much better. Here’s a great video from 1977 of a $100,000 win.

1D. Goal of middle management? (TRIMWAIST). It took me longer than it should have to realize this was about dieting.

2D. Quaker Oats product (RICEARONI). I am a lover of all instant foods that come in cardboard boxes. Rice-A-Roni, Hamburger Helper, Taco Dinners. All delicious. I’m not big on that Hamburger Helper mascot though. That creepy white glove who thinks he’s all Pillsbury Doughboy. He wishes.

5D. TV announcer who played himself in “Bananas” (COSELL). Few things are funnier than early Woody. He also has one of the great character names in movie history, Fielding Mellish.

48D. Child prodigy of “Heroes” (MICAH). Pickles and I really enjoyed the first season of this show. We got through maybe the first 4 or 5 episodes of season 2 and absolutely gave up. Honestly, we should have given up after the season 1 finale which was perhaps the most disappointing thing I’ve ever witnessed.

But I’ll tell you what won’t be disappointing, Lollapuzzoola 2008. Paypal is standing by to take your reservations. Sign up early, you don’t want to miss out on those Oreos.

Next stop, Saturday.

Fun theme in this Matt Ginsberg puzzle.

35A. Jacqueline Susann novel, and the problem with some of the answers in this puzzle : (ONCEISNOTENOUGH). The theme answers are phrases with repeated words but in the grid the repeated words are not repeated. (I think I’m getting better at describing these themes!) By the way, Once is Not Enough was made into a movie featuring George Hamilton. If it was up to me, George Hamilton would be in just about every movie. Oddly enough, the only movie I wouldn’t put him in is Godfather III. What the heck was he doing in there? Does anybody remember the very short-lived series “Spies”? It had George Hamilton, came out in 1987 and lasted 6 episodes. All I remember about it is a very funny joke about swordfish.

17A. Hollow-point projectiles (DUMBULLETS). Oy, dum dum bullets expand upon impact which create a whole slew of horrible things to whatever they hit.

22A. Mutually beneficial interaction (WINSITUATION). I figured out the theme with this clue.

45A. Puerto Rican-born P.G.A. star (CHIRODRIGUEZ). Is he the one who pretends to stick his club in a scabbard after he sinks a shot?

56A. Child’s fair-weather wish (RAINGOAWAY). This one confused me as I thought it meant a wish during a period of fair weather. Just me? Probably.

Other clues that caught my eye:

15A. Originator of the equation e to the power (pi * i) + 1 = 0 (EULER). There was a time early in my life when everybody was convinced I was good at math. Myself, my parents, my teachers. Then I took Trigonometry and I decided the liberal arts might be more my speed.

20A. Bazaar (EMPORIUM).  Did anybody see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium? It looked terrible. And if your last name is Magorium is there any future for you besides owning an emporium?

25A. Roughly triangular racket (CROSSE).  This is the racket used in lacrosse.  Makes sense, I suppose.  Interesting how some sports are named.  Baseball, football and basketball are all named after the main piece of equipment used.  While in hockey, tennis, and golf the main piece of equipment is named after the sport: hockey puck, tennis ball, golf ball.  Why isn’t hockey called hockeypuck?

4D. River bends (OXBOWS).  Named after the u-shaped piece of wood that fits around the neck of an ox and is attached to a yoke.  It’s gotta be no fun to be an ox.

13D. One of the Mudville players on base when the mighty Casey struck out (FLYNN).  This poem gives me goosebumps every time I read it.  It was written in 1888 but change the names and it could be describing any number of games played this season, 120 years after publication.  One of the many things I love about baseball.  Here’s Leroy Neiman’s rendering of the scene.

25D. Dice, say (CHOP).  Nice misdirection here.  

27D. “The Lord of the Rings” army (ORCS).  I’m still not believing that Peter Jackson is not going to direct The Hobbit.  That seems ludicrous to me.

43D. Duke Atreides in “Dune” (LETO).  Are these books any good?

Have I plugged Lollapuzzoola 2008 today?  No?  Hey, everybody, come to Lollapuzzoola 2008.  It’s going to be lots of fun.  Great constructors, great puzzles, great snacks.  All for only $10.  August 23rd, 12pm, Jackson Heights.  You’ll pay for the whole seat but you’ll only need the edge!!

Next stop, Friday.

Took me a while to get going on this Henry Quillen puzzle. But once I figured out the theme: 39A. Theme of this puzzle (ATOZTOA) the rest fell into place fairly quickly. Not Howard Barkin quickly but I did finish up in less than 20 minutes. The grid features an interconnecting series of circled squares (the circled squares do create a rather questionable shape) and each answer contained in those squares either starts with A and ends with Z or vice versa. Except for the two middle answers which both start and end with A and have an interconnecting Z.

1A. Coors product (ZIMA). I can’t be the only person who immediately put in BEER here. ZIMA is actually still around although I’ve never seen anyone drink it. Did this come out around the same time as Crystal Pepsi? Crystal Pepsi, Just Like Pepsi Only Clear and Worse Than Ever. Anybody remember that Crystal Gravy SNL commercial?

4D. Ingrediente en paella (ARROZ)

23A. Keebler cracker brand (ZESTA). I like all things Keebler. My favorite would have to be Fudge Stripes. Perhaps we’ll have to have some at our Crossword Puzzle Tournament here in Jackson Heights on August 23rd, Lollapuzzoola 2008 (registration now open).

24D. Flagstaff’s place (ARIZONA)

52A. Madison Ave. trade (ADBIZ)

53D. Ethan Frome’s wife (ZEENA)

70A. Animated film hit of 1998 (ANTZ). I know this shows up in puzzles alot but was it really a hit? Ok, just looked it up. It made $90,000,000 in the US and cost $60,000,000 to make. So I guess that’s a hit. Here’s something I find very interesting about the movie. Woody Allen voices the lead and two of the main supporting characters are voiced by Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone. Oddly, back when Stallone was a nobody he had a cameo in Woody’s Bananas as Subway Thug #1 and before Stone was a star she had a cameo in Woody’s Stardust Memories as Pretty girl on train. And now they’re starring with him in this movie. Not only that but both of their early cameos had to do with rail travel. And to top it off everybody I tell this to finds it to be extremely uninteresting. Not sure why.

68A. Ball’s comic partner (ARNAZ)

39D. The Rock (ALCATRAZ). We visited Alcatraz last year. I highly recommend it. The audio tour is great. Here we are, poorly lit, approaching the prison.

9D. Cubic ___ (gem) (ZIRCONIA)

9A. Frank in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (ZAPPA)

Other clues that caught my eye:

21A. Madden, and how (INCENSE). This one really confused me for a good long while. I thought it was referencing either the football guy or the video game.

30A. Assumed name (ANONYM). I don’t think I’ve ever come across this word before. Is there a reason someone would use this instead of pseudonym?

66A. Sacramento’s ___ Arena (ARCO). Neil Diamond will be appearing here in September. I had no idea he was on tour. Think what you want of me, but Neil Diamond is awesome. He’ll be at Madison Square Garden next month. I may have to get some tix for me and the wife.

67A. “___ as I can tell …” (NEAR). I put in AFAR here. As in “A far as I can tell” which is not actually a saying. This was a source of much confusion to me.

11D. Unit of loudness (PHON). Never heard of this before. Just looked up the definition which has only confused me more: A unit of apparent loudness, equal in number to the intensity in decibels of a 1,000-hertz tone judged to be as loud as the sound being measured. I understand “a unit of” but after that I’m totally lost. I would appreciate if someone would demonstrate a phon in the comments. Thank you.

28D. N.Y.C. country club? (THEUN). Great clue.

31D. Cubs, but not Bears, for short (NLERS). This and ALERS need to be done away with. I watch hundreds of baseball games every season. I have never, ever heard either of these terms used. They are icky and gross.

32D. When said three times, “et cetera” (YADDA). What came first? The phrase or the Seinfeld episode?

43D. Ancient Cretan writing system (LINEARA). I’ll admit it, I parsed this incorrectly and didn’t know what LINE ARA was. Turns out it’s LINEAR A, a writing system that hasn’t actually been fully deciphered. Fascinating. The best book I’ve ever read on code cracking was The Code Book by Simon Singh. Highly recommended. There’s another great book about the guy who was the first to decipher Egyptian heiroglyphs called The Keys of Egypt. Good stuff.

64D. Schubert’s “The ___-King” (ERL). This one showed up last week as well. I remember I blogged about it. And yet I wrote in ERT. Puzzling.

Next stop, Thursday.