Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Ryan is probably in tears over the frustrating loss the Dodgers took in Game One of the NLCS. So even though I continue to suck at Fridays (last week’s attempt at an ego-boost notwithstanding), here I am to discuss this week’s effort.

First, the things I liked. There were several wonderful long answers in this Kyle Mahowald grid, including:

• 3D. TV station? : FAMILY ROOM
• 9D. Macho credo : NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Apparently, there was a movie with this title, and someone has gone to the trouble of trying to adapt that movie into a comic book series. The movie starred Gus Malliarodakis as “Mark Zorillo,” and a Sun E10000 Starfire server as “Harriet.” You can read and watch and whatever at their site.
• 21D. Monitors : KEEPS AN EYE ON. Of course, I initially thought of computer monitors, and my mind was set on nouns. Whoops.
• 28A. Emphatic response during a drill : SIR, NO SIR! I never did drills that required this sort of comment, but I’ve seen them in movies. I figured they only happened in movies, though. Do people say this sort of thing in real life?
• 29D. Burial site for many French kings : SAINT DENIS. I got confused here. I was sure it was “Saint” something, but I was also sure that “saint” in French wasn’t “saint.” Didn’t I study French? Isn’t my wife a former President of her French Club? Yes, and the approximate times of those last two things are 1989 and 1993. Rosetta Stone, where are you now? Speaking of which, I might buy the Rosetta Stone thing for Spanish. I want to learn Spanish. Is it difficult? Does anyone out there recommend any particular language-learning method?

Some other fun stuff:

• 18A. Game in which players barely bet? : STRIP POKER. I have never played this. I think my opportunity to do so has passed, since college is a fading memory in the rearview mirror of my brain. Does anyone play this game after college? If you do, write to us and tell us your stories.
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• 43A. Gator rival : SEMINOLE. I think this is about college football. While I might be an avid baseball fan, a very knowledgeable basketball fan, an above-average pro football fan, able to discuss some intricacies of tennis and golf, and can keep score correctly in bowling, I know nothing about college football. The Gators are probably in Florida. The Seminoles are… wait, let me check Google… also in Florida. My college’s football team was called the Cardinals. That’s just what you want to have representing your strength and power in football — a little red bird. I think the photo at right is a Gator tackling a Seminole. Or it might be the other way around. One of them appears to be named “Weatherford.”
• 20A. Makeshift : QUICK FIX. Would this answer qualify as “Super Scrabbly”?
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• 35A. Horizon happening : MOON SET. I can’t be the only one who tried SUNRISE here first, can I?
• 62A. “Pardon the Interruption” airer : ESPN. This is one of my favorite shows on television. Thirty minutes of rapid-fire banter about a series of sports subjects. If Ryan and I were any good at podcasting and knew anything about crossword puzzles, “Fill Me In” might be the nerd version of PTI. Give us time, friends. We’ve only done 26 episodes so far. Perhaps by 1,026 we’ll have found our groove.
• 16A. Language related to Winnebago : OSAGE. I feel like I see this word everywhere now. Has it suddenly gained popularity? Maybe because of the great recent Tony Award-winning play, “August: Osage County”?

And then there were my trouble spots:

• 1A. Beach nos. : SPFS. I know, it’s sun screen. But I never go to the beach. I am so white and pasty, and the kinds of things that general entertain me are not sitting still with my eyes closed waiting to change color. I just don’t get the allure.
• 30D. It doesn’t come out of the stomach : INNIE. Sure, after the fact, the clue made sense. But without knowing what it was going to be, I thought, “Okay, I can eliminate the one thing that does come out of the stomach. The answer is not VOMIT.” It didn’t help matters that the fourth letter of both the real answer and my certain non-answer are one and the same, so when I got 42A. Beneficial thing to release (GENIE), I had to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding the 30D clue and that maybe VOMIT was going to be the answer after all.
• 41D. Pitchers, e.g. : VESSELS. What motivates a constructor or an editor to put “e.g.” after a clue? Why isn’t the clue just “pitchers”? Why the “e.g.”? I was confused here, probably because baseball is on the brain. Other words that I tried were LEFTIES, TOSSERS and even PASSERS. VESSELS doesn’t sit right for me, though. I feel like a vessel’s primary purpose is to transport something, whereas a pitcher’s primary purpose is to hold more lemonade until my glass is empty.
• 45A. Having a headline? : PARTED. This was my most frustrating answer of the day. I feel misled here, and that the clue and the answer do not agree in their part of speech. I immediately assumed that we were dealing with parted hair, yes, but PARTING didn’t fit. Someone (maybe Orange) suggested once that a way to think about clues is to use the clue terminology in place of possible answers in other sentences. For example, “My hair is parted” becomes “My hair is having a headline?” It doesn’t seem right. How about “I have parted my hair.” That becomes “I have having a headline my hair.” No. I think this clue should have been “Had a headline?”

Overall, this was a good Friday puzzle. I struggled at first, got a few breakthroughs, and as usual, needed some help near the end (An MRI is a Hand pic, perhaps [8D]? Very specific clue for a very non-specific answer).

Ryan and I will be doing a podcast sometime on Monday, as I get home from my latest excursion sometime this weekend. See you Saturday!