Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

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.