Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Good puzzle by Gary J. Whitehead with a bed theme.

68A. With 70-Across, what the end of 17-, 33-, 42- or 63-Across describes (BED)

70A. See 68-Across (SIZE)

Bed…man, I wish I was there now.  Unfortunately, I’m at work counting down the last few hours of my shift.  I’ve been doing the ol’ head nodding thing for most of the night.  I hope I don’t accidentally put my face through my monitor.

17A. Eng, for one (SIAMESE TWIN).  Siamese twins are fascinating to me.  Can you imagine spending your life attached to another person?  Always having somebody right there next to you.  Mind boggling.

33A. Bar request (MAKE MINE A DOUBLE)

42A. 1951 film named for a boat (THE AFRICAN QUEEN).  Great movie.

63A. “Circle of Life” musical (THE LION KING).  Never seen the movie, the musical or the ice show.

I found this puzzle to be much, much easier than Tuesday’s.

31A. M.L.B. team with a “W” insignia (NATS).  I think we can stop with the baseball clues for now.  The reminders are only causing me pain.

3D. Florida Marlins color (TEAL).  Ditto.

22D. Crewmate of Capt. Kirk (MRSULU).  Shatner was not invited to Takei’s wedding and he’s not happy about it.

He’s also not happy about not being in the new Star Trek movie.

But he does do an amazing Jimmy Stewart.

Cutting this a little short today as I get to go home in about 13 minutes.  Yay!

A quick note about the podcast.  Brian and I did record an episode last Monday but we had some techinical difficulties and it might not be salvageable.  We are in the process of upgrading our recording equipment so hopefully these glitches will be a thing of the past.  For the last few months we’ve been using the free, cheap microphone that came with Rock Band to record our shows.  Which, thinking about it now, seems a little ridiculous.  We are hopefully moving into a new phase of the podcast with our interview series and our new equipment will enhance the show even more.  I can’t say that Brian and I will be any more interesting but technology can only do so much.  Stay tuned.

Next stop, Thursday.

Wow, this Randall J. Hartman puzzle just about kicked my tush. A solve time of 27:16. First off, the theme was one of those where the first clue is a letter (P), the second is that letter + another letter (PO) and so on and so forth.

17A. P (SIXTEENTH LETTER)

22A. PO (RIVER OF LOMBARDY)

38A. POL (CAPITOL HILL TYPE)

46A. POLK (FORMER PRESIDENT)

Very well done but I encountered much trouble in Lombardy. I had ER OF LOMBARDY and just couldn’t figure it out. Whatever part of my brain is in charge of river knowledge and the application of river knowledge must be sorely underdeveloped.

That whole section of the grid gave me fits.

22D. Boxer Graziano, formally (ROCCO). I don’t really understand this clue. I suppose ROCKY is a nickname for ROCCO but ROCCO was his middle name. If you were going to refer to him formally wouldn’t it be THOMAS or THOMAS GRAZIANO or MR. GRAZIANO?

23D. Holiday visitor, maybe (INLAW). Yes, I put SANTA. When that didn’t work I put CLAUS. When that didn’t work I tried to fit HANUKKAH HARRY. (They’re slacks. You’ll grow into them.)

24D. #2’s (VEEPS). Here, I put SIMPS. I don’t have a reason.

28A. Future J.D.’s (ONELS). Does this have something to do with lawyers? Since I work in a law firm shouldn’t I know this?

30A. Jazz singer Laine (CLEO). It is Tuesday, right? When CLEO shows up on a Monday or Tuesday she should be an asp-carrying, Antony-loving Nile queen.

That little section took me about 15 minutes. Somehow, INLAW popped into my head and I was able to figure it out from there.

I didn’t have too much trouble with the rest of the puzzle.

5D. Dirty tricks on the campaign trail (SMEARS). If only Obama had agreed to those town hall meetings…

50D. ___ T. Firefly, Groucho’s role in “Duck Soup”. Hmm, a nutty leader of a country who goes to war for no reason. Only in the movies. Here’s the brilliant mirror sequence.

Next stop, Wednesday.

Took me way too long to figure out the theme in this Danial Raymon puzzle.

20A. Prickle in Alaska? (NORTHTHORN).  Once I got this one I thought, oh, NORTH THORN instead of NORTHERN.  And I thought the theme would be 2-word phrases that sound like single words.  Not a bad idea for a theme but not the correct one for this puzzle.

I did figure out the theme once I got:

38A. Take a new path … or a hint to 20-, 36-, 41- and 57-Across (CHANGEDIRECTION).

Fun theme with the direction followed by an anagram of the direction.

36A. Simmered dish in California? (WESTSTEW).

41A. Chair in Maine? (EASTSEAT).

57A. Scream in Alabama? (SOUTHSHOUT).

Proof that sometimes I don’t know what year it is:

15A. Save for later viewing (TIVO).  I put TAPE.  In my defense I don’t own a TIVO.  I use the DVR provided by my cable company which kinda sucks but is also kinda free.  I can’t remember the last time I taped something.  We still have a VCR but it’s not hooked up to anything.  When Seinfeld was on I taped all the shows and have them labeled.  Someday I’ll get them transferred to DVD.  From the beginning of season 4 to the end of the series I didn’t miss one episode which I find to be a somewhat amazing feat in the age before DVRs and videos on the Internet.

Proof that I’m not as keyed into pop culture as I’d like to think:

22A. 2008 film about a hunchbacked lab assistant (IGOR).  Apparently, this movie came out in September.  Before this clue I had absolutely no knowledge of this film.  On a side note, I don’t normally like pop up ads but when I looked up Igor on the imdb an ad came up for Anaconda III: Offspring starring The Hoff.  The plot, as you might assume, looks amazing: A mercenary-for-hire accepts a mission from a billionaire to capture a dangerous snake that could possibly help cure a terminal illness.  The movie also stars John Rhys-Davies who, for reasons only George Lucas can answer, was not the Indy movie.  For anybody worried about seeing Mr. Rhys-Davis eaten by a snake you can rest easy.  He’s also in Anaconda IV.

Other highlights:

45A. Film figure with fangs, for short (DRAC).  I hear he hates this.

65A. “The Danny ___ Show” of the 1960s (KAYE).  I found this great Dodgers song by Danny Kaye which I was going to play on the podcast after they won the pennant.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen.  Maybe I’ll put it on the show anyway.  Sigh…when does spring training start?

8D. Manager (OVERSEER).  I just watched the new Chris Rock special.  He does a whole bit on the difference between having a job and having a career.  How when you have a career there isn’t enough time in the day and when you have a job there’s too much time.  He said something to effect of, “Have you ever hated your job so much that you spend extra time in the bathroom stall?”  Wow, I thought I was the only one.

If Brian isn’t too depressed after the Red Sox loss, we’ll be recording a podcast in a few hours.  Look for it later on today.

Next stop, Tuesday.

I have redeemed myself slightly with today’s Joe DiPietro puzzle. I was able to no-google the grid after failing to do so with Friday and Saturday’s offerings.  So I finish the weekend on a more smarterer note.

I thought the PERJURY theme was great.

112A. Perjure oneself…or what can be found six times in this puzzle (LIE UNDER OATH). The word OATH was placed above the word LIE six times. Great stuff. The one problem I had was the LIE in LIE UNDER OATH was under an OATH but the OATH in LIE UNDER OATH was not above a LIE. It was the one OATH in the puzzle that wasn’t above a LIE. That made me a little crazy but, other than that, I really enjoyed the theme.

Other highlights:

8A. Wind with wide range (OBOE). OBOE seems to be in every puzzle and I’m fooled every time. This time I was looking for some ancient wind that sweeps across the plains.

18A. Tony’s cousin (OBIE). Couldn’t get the Sopranos out of my head.

21A. Carbohydrate-binding protein (LECTIN). I think definitions, by definition, should make things easier to comprehend. LECTIN really needs to work on this: any of several plant glycoproteins that act like specific antibodies but are not antibodies in that they are not evoked by an antigenic stimulus.

31A. Stream bank sliders (OTTERS). Wow. I needed every cross I could get to figure this one out.

44A. Stomach section (PIT). Is there an actual anatomic section of the stomach called the PIT? Because, if not, shouldn’t this clue have a question mark?

63A. Phlegmatic (STOIC). I think phlegmatic should mean something other than having or suggesting a calm, sluggish temperament; unemotional. When I think of someone who’s using a lot of phlegm I think of someone who is either really sick or really upset. This unemotional, stoic definition just doesn’t work for me. My new definition of phelgmatic: having or suggesting a not calm, not sluggish temperament; emotional. Hey, that’s not bad. I wonder if the OED has any openings for old word/new definition writers.

69A. IV to III, maybe (SON). When I first looked at this clue I thought, this makes no sense to me but I’m sure there’s a very simple connection and once I see the answer my eyebrows will raise and I’ll say, “Ohhh.” And that’s exactly what happened.

74A. Little bits (DABS). Here’s a 1950’s commercial for Brylcreem. Apparently, women really didn’t like men with dry hair back then.

86A. Double ___ (DIP). As if there was somehow a chance I wasn’t going to put Seinfeld clip here.

114A. Batted the ball to high, perhaps (FLIED OUT).  Why couldn’t the Dodgers have forced a game 7?  Sigh…when does Spring Training start?

9D. High society (BON TON).  Well, here’s something I’ve never heard before.  BON TON?  Use it in a sentence please.

Brian and I will be recording a new episode of Fill Me In: A Crossword Podcast tomorrow.  No special guest this week but perhaps some talk of Son of Puzzoola.

Next stop, Monday.

Ultra-fast post today.  My friend Max is in town and we’ve been struggling with this Brad Wilber puzzle for a few hours now.  Right now we have 16 blank boxes but we’re tired and we’re going to sleep.

We got the 4 long acrosses which were great and gave us a very satisfied feeling when we came up with the answer:

15A. Court slam dunk (OPEN AND SHUT CASE).  I figured from the start this had nothing to do with basketball.

17A. Seriously deteriorate (GO TO RACK AND RUIN)

48A. Writing that mixes reportage and fiction (GONZO JOURNALISM)

51A. Not a total knockout (LOCAL ANESTHESIA).  Took us a while to get boxing out of our brains.  After we figured it out, Max, who doesn’t do crosswords regularly, said, “I gotta say, these guys are pretty clever.”

Clues that continue to give us trouble:

38D. DC Comics superhero.  This is very frustrating.  It’s something MAN.  All we can think of is STARMAN but that was a movie with Jeff Bridges.  I don’t know if he was also a superhero in the comics.  On a related note, I believe Robert Hays was in the short-lived Starman TV series.  What ever happened to Robert Hays?  Airplane, Airplane 2, some movie called Trenchcoat or something, then nothing.  I think I’ve seen him in a mustard commercial but that’s been it for 15 years or so.

37D. Cousin of a crocus.  A crocus is a flower, we think.  That’s as far as we’ve gotten.

29A. Designing women.  Of course our first answer was Meschach Taylor which neither fit nor made sense.  I came up with SALONS which doesn’t really work but seems to be on the right track.

26A. Precursor of Pascal.  We think this is COBOL but can’t get the COB to work with anything.

26D. Points.  We have __MS.  No clue.

There are a couple of others in the same areas that are stumping us as well.  This has not been my smarterest week of all time.  I’m hoping a nice sleep will clear things up for the morning.  Great puzzle though.  Very, very clever and contains one of my all time favorite clues:

22D. Creator of a bathroom cloud (TALC).  Ok, I’ll admit it, our first thought was TURD.  There you go.

Next stop, Sunday.

Good god!  This is a ridiculously difficult puzzle.  Patrick Berry’s grid is broken up into 4 quadrants (can something be broken up into 5 quadrants?) and I only have one completely solved.  And I’ve been at it for 3 and a half hours.

I have all of the bottom right, most of the bottom left and top left and half of the top right.  The top right is a real bear.  What I do have I’m not at all sure about.

The one that’s really driving me nuts is 16D. People of much experience.  I have ____MASTERS.  BASSMASTERS?  TASKMASTERS?  PASTMASTERS?  Those 4 letters are the initial letters for 4 across in that area so the correct answer would help greatly.

16A. Sherlock Holmes story not by Conan Doyle, e.g. There’s a word for this.

18A. Took the offensive.  I think this is ATTACKED but I can’t get any of the crosses to work.

20A. In the buff.  The only thing I can think of is STARKERS.  Is that a word?  Does it mean “in the buff”?

22A. Joust participants.  I tried LANCERS here but that doesn’t seem to work.

7D. Integration that exceeds the sum of its parts.  Absolutely no clue.

8D. Semitic fertility goddess.  See above.

9D. Price holder.  What does this mean?  I don’t understand what he’s getting at.  The only thing I can think of are tags on merchandise that contain prices.  Doesn’t seem right though.

7A. Coffin nail.  I have ___PER.  COPPER?  Does that even make sense?

You know what?  I think I’m going to have to google this.  I don’t know any of these answers.

Ok, back from google…coffin nail could mean a cigarette.  Not much help.  The Semitic fertility goddess could be ASTARTE which would support ATTACKED and STARKERS.

Joust participants looks like it’s TILTERS.

Ok, just got the rest of it.  I had to google a few other clues.  Wow, I haven’t been stuck like this on a Friday for a while.  I did actually have a few things correct in that top right area.  ATTACKED, STARKERS, 10D. Winner over the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI (PACKERS), 12D. Swamp flora (REEDS).  I had a big mistake with 11D. Organic compounds used as solvents (ETHERS).  I put ESTERS.  Price holder turned out to be STICKER.  I feel I should have figured that one out.

So coffin nails are cigarettes and cigarettes are sometimes known as GASPERS.  One too many levels of arcane tobacco knowledge for me.  And it was PAST MASTERS which I’ve never heard before.

Answers in the top right I absolutely did not know and probably never would have figured out:

14A. Ready to go, you might say (TESTATE).  TESTATE means having a will.

16A. Sherlock Holmes story not by Conan Doyle, e.g. The word for this is PASTICHE.

7D. Integration that exceeds the sum of its parts. GESTALT.  I thought GESTALT was a type of herring.

Many times after I google a puzzle I feel like if I just worked at it for a bit more I would have figured it out on my own.  Not this time.  I had a number of the correct letters in there but the solution just wasn’t coming.  I’m glad to see Orange also had a bit of trouble in this section.  Not that I want to her have trouble but it makes me feel like less of an idiot.  Of course, everything is relative, she did have a solve time of 11:05.

Brian also had some trouble with this but his mind was probably elsewhere as his Red Sox had just completed a mind-boggling comeback.  Down 7-0 in the bottom of the 7th in an elimination game they ended up winning 8-7 in the 9th.  Crazy.

Next stop, Saturday.

Sigh…the 2008 Dodgers season is over.  After sweeping the Cubs in the first round they fell apart and couldn’t do much against the Phillies in the LCS.  Ah well, 4 more months till Spring Training!

Shortly after the game, I opened up the puzzle and was soundly mocked by Ian Tullis’ baseball-themed grid.

20A. Some Cubans in Texas? (HOUSTONCASTROS)

25A. Where hot jazz developed? (CHICAGOCLUBS)

42A. Broadway deli offerings? (NEWYORKMEATS).  I put NEW YORK MELTS here.  As in a tuna MELT.

48A. 20-, 25- and 42-Across, so to speak (EXPANSIONTEAMS).  Clever theme but today it just makes me sad.

The rest of the puzzle was quite difficult and took me almost an hour to complete.  The top left and bottom right were particularly thorny.

Stuff I didn’t know in the top left:

1D. Part of a price: Abbr. (CTS).  Huh?  Counts?  Carts?  Clats?  Cluots?

2D. Cunning (ARCH).  So I guess this is what it means when you call someone your ARCH nemesis.  I always thought ARCH meant “greatest” or something like that.  Your arch enemy = your greatest enemy.  Your arch friend = your greatest friend.

3D. Ancient dynasty of northern China (LIAO).  See, I read this wrong.  I didn’t realize it was asking about NORTHERN China.  Obviously, LIAO is the first thing I think about when someone mentions Northern China.  This is also the dynasty that invented liaonaise potatoes.  A delicious and very warming dish for the frigid northern Chinese climate.

4D. Pre-Roman Roman (ETRUSCAN).  Ok, wait.  Did the Etruscans exist before Rome was established?  Because if they did they were never Romans.  And if they were never Romans then this clue makes no sense.

1A. Joshua’s companion, in the Old Testament (CALEB).  Total guess.  I don’t know who Joshua is, I didn’t know he had a companion and I’ve never read the Old Testament.  Which one is the Old Testament?  Is that the one with the good ending?

Stuff I didn’t know in the bottom right:

Ok, I knew just about everything except for 41D. Current measurer (AMMETER).  It just took me a while to realize I knew it.

For 56A. Floated downstream, in a way (TUBED) I put EBBED.

For 60A. Greeting in an in-box (ECARD) I put EMAIL.

For 63A. Zero out (RESET) I put blank blank blank blank.

Two clues I can’t believe I figured out:

6D. Buggy field? (ENTOMOLOGY).  I thought this was spelled ENTYMOLOGY.

29D. Silver topper? (LONERANGER).  I think this one confused Brian as the RANGERS are a baseball team and he thought it might be part of the theme.

Looking over this puzzle more carefully I’m finding it harder and harder to understand how on Earth I no-googled this.  Just listing what I didn’t know would take the rest of the night.  TORI, ROGGE and TARE to name a few.  Those three answers remind me of Dodgers manager Joe TORRE which makes me have a frowny face right now.

Much like the compulsion I had as a kid to look up dirty words in the dictionary, I now enjoy researching any slightly blue answers on xwordinfo.

46D. Kind of whale (SPERM).  SPERM has been used as an answer 9 times.  7 times it has been clued as the whale.  2 times as the bodily fluid.  (I really have no where else to go with this.  I just thought it was interesting.)

Speaking of xwordinfo, there is link on the site for Jim Horne’s official New York Times Crossword blog, Wordplay.  Not sure if the site is live yet.  When I click on the link all I get is a log in screen.  Maybe Jim can enlighten us as to when the site will be up and running.

Brian and I have had preliminary talks about Son of Puzzoola and we’re thinking a good time would be early December.  I feel we need about a 3 month buffer between us and the ACPT.  So let us know if that would be something you’d like to attend.

Ok, fun puzzle, depressing theme.

Next stop, Friday.

Fun puzzle by the Great Kevin G. Der, Reducer of Black Squares.  Not my favorite type of theme but well done nonetheless.

53D. Word before the starts of 16-, 36- and 58-Across and 10-, 14- and 33-Down (BABY)

16A. Self-important sort (GRANDPOOBAH).  Years ago, when the first Flintstones movie came out, McDonalds had a tie-in value meal called the Grand Poobah Meal.  It featured the wonderfully delicious McRib.  Why is the McRib so hard to find?  Everybody loves it.  Ok, not everybody.  I love it and…hmm…just found a picture of the McRib with the sauce washed off.  Kinda gross.  Why does it still make me hungry?

36A. Chill (SITBACKANDRELAX).  Just to clear up any confusion, I don’t hate the state of Pennsylvania.  I just hate the Phillies.  I mention this because during tonight’s game as the Dodgers try to stave off elimination I will neither be chill, sitting back nor relaxed.

58A. Words to a blowhard (TALKISCHEAP)

10D. Krill-eating creature (BLUEWHALE)

14D. Hoops announcer’s “Slam dunk!” (BOOMSHAKALAKA).  I was pulling for this to be Boom Goes the Dynamite.  19 letters.  I guess that wouldn’t fit unless you broke it up.  Maybe in a Sunday-size puzzle.  And just because it’s awesome, here it is.

33D. Wastes no time (STEPSONIT)

A few things I didn’t know:

41A. “M*A*S*H” soldier (ROK).  Something of Korea?  Maybe?

49A. Sourdough’s strike (LODE).  Last time I checked, sourdough was bread.

4D. Grab, as an ice cube (TONG).  Ok, I will use this in a sentence.  “Boy oh boy, my soda is tepid so I better tong myself a few ice cubes.”  Hmm, TONG as verb.  Interesting.

I can’t remember if I posted any pictures of me climbing a rock wall.  Here is one in honor of 37D. Mountaineer’s grip (CRAG).

I hope everybody is enjoying our new interview series on the podcast.  In the next week or so, we will be setting up a podcast page where you’ll be able to download the interviews directly.  We encourage you to suggest crossword people you’d like to hear interviewed and/or questions you’d like us to ask them.

Next stop, Thursday.

So, first off, the appearance of former Dodger Hideo Nomo in yesterday’s puzzle did not help as my boys blew an 8th inning lead and now must win 3 straight to advance to the World Series. I am seriously bummed and may never eat a cheesesteak again. They are now 6-4 when referenced in the puzzle.

Moving on to this Lucy Gardner Anderson puzzle which featured quite an inventive theme that I didn’t quite understand until after the solving process.

20A. With 59-Across, highway that goes through the 15 places indicated in this puzzle, in order, north to south (INTERSTATE)

59A. See 20-Across (NINETYFIVE)

I didn’t read 20-Across carefully enough and tried to fit I-TEN STATE in there and had no idea what 59-Across was supposed to be. As for the circled letters, I saw they were all state abbreviations but wasn’t totally sure why. After the fact, I check it all over and realized the states go down the grid from north to south tracing the path of Interstate Ninety-Five. Very clever and my initial confusion was no fault of the constructor.

Least favorite clue:

40A. Longtime “S.N.L.” announcer Don (PARDO). Nothing against SNL or Don but this answer had the abbreviation for Pennsylvania in it and I’m mad at that state right now.

Clues I liked and that didn’t make any mention of Pennsylvania:

1A. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie (WATTS). Odd, considering my ignorance of all things musical, but this is just one of those things I know.

15A. Pollster Roper (ELMO). Been paying a lot of attention to the polls lately. I’m not sure how much I trust them. It’s such a small sample size I don’t see how they can be indicative of the way an entire state is going to vote. But, much like reviews, I choose to only believe the good ones.

24A. Asset in answering the question “Does this dress make me look fat?” (TACT). This is a trick question. Nothing at all can be gained from answering this question. My strategy when faced with this query is as follows:

1. Pretend you’ve misheard the question and instead answer and alternate, imaginary question. My imaginary question varies on a case to case basis but my answer is always, “Jefferson”.
2. Quickly change the subject to ponies. All women love ponies and would much rather talk about them than discuss body image.
3. Turn in for the night. It does not matter what time it is. Simply and wordlessly change into your pajamas, crawl into bed and begin snoring. Now, it can’t be funny, cartoon snoring. It has to be real-life, believable snoring. Practice in front of a mirror or a picture of Danny Kaye.
4. When morning comes announce you’d love to chat but you’ve got to hit the books.
5. Hit the books.

2D. Concerning (ANENT). I know this word because Amanda, the Unparalleled, Parallel Verse Engineer once used it in a sentence.

35D. Couch (SOFA). Pickles and I bought a new sofa today. We went to Macy’s intending to just look but we found the perfect sectional. So, does anybody need an 11-year old, hideous, black leather sleeper sofa? It comes complete with cat scratches and patented “velcro to nowhere”.

The latest episode of Fill Me In: A Crossword Podcast features an interview with constructor Patrick Blindauer. Listen here or subscribe via iTunes or other podcatcher.

Next stop, Wednesday.

In this week’s highly anticipated episode of Fill Me In, Ryan and Brian find themselves face to face and greeted (telephonically) by a special guest. We’ll give you until the end of the episode to figure out who the guest was. No fair listening to us say his name over and over (Patrick Blindauer).

Things we do not do in this episode:

• viewer mail
• talk about puzzles
• mention Dan Feyer, winner of the C Division

We’re working on a new format, exploring possible podcast structures that audience might actually like! Let us know.

 

 Fill Me In #027: Can't we leave one open, professor? [50:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.