Ryan and Brian do Crosswords

Our puzzle-constructing friend from Lollapuzzoola 2008, Barry C. Silk, has delivered another one of his mind-boggling masterpieces for this Saturday after Thanksgiving. It befuddled the heck out of me, that’s for sure. But I’m hardly the LITMUS TEST (1A. Sole deciding issue) for this sort of thing.

Yes, that clue for 1-Across had nothing to do with shoes. Or fish. Which left me baffled for a long time, as I could not stop thinking about either shoes or fish. And that started to seep into other clues. 22A. It might drip from a crack, and all I could do was imagine what kind of skinny little fish could fit through a crack in the ceiling. In the ceiling! That is where my imagined crack was, and that is where from whence the fish came. It’s difficult to detect SARCASM through blogs and emails, and that difficulty has led me to many misunderstandings over the years. Why can’t I just write something nice and pleasant? (Can we discern rhetorical questions from blogs?)

I never heard of the OCEAN LINER (15A) The United States. Who names boats after countries? And who names movies after continents? I’m a little bit leery about the upcoming “Australia,” and I have never seen MADAGASCAR (24D. “The eighth continent,” to ecologists).

I have SELDOM SEEN an ACCESSIBLE BEER COOLER at a cookout — okay, that’s not true, but I was trying to construct a sentence that included three neighboring answers (I’m a little out of sequence with 63A. Rare, 59A. Easy to get into and 61. Container at many a cookout).

The most fun part of the grid was the square of Zs in the middle, making up the core of these answers:

• 37A. Swimming : DIZZY
• 40A. Heckle : RAZZ
• 29D. Kind of oven : PIZZA
• 34D. “The Osbournes” dad : OZZY

Okay, it was fun to me. It was a brief departure from the mental dwelling of shoes and fish.

The northeast part of the grid was what did me in, though. It contained three long down answers that simply do not exist in my brain:

• 11D. King Edward VIII, e.g. : ABDICATOR — This is entirely meaningless to me. King Edward the whatever? Never heard of him or his seven fathers. And I don’t know what the answer means either.
• 13D. Leader : PACE SETTER — Sure, I understand it, but it’s not a term (or word? or hyphenated word?) that comes to mind in any situation. “Oh, that guy in the front sure is the pace setter of the group.” No.
• 14D. Added protection against winter weather : STORM DOORS — I had hoped this was going to be about clothing, and I had hoped it was going to be about winter coats, because I had hoped I could poke fun at my father and his nonsense about winter coats. Oh wait, I’ve just brought it up anyway, so now I can. Go read this article. It’s an email based debated between me and my father about proper winter attire. And it’s timely, what with December 1 right around the corner.

Happy December! See you Sunday.

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Maybe it’s because my stomach is too full of deviled eggs and pumpkin pie. Maybe it’s because the cats cannot come to an agreement over which one gets to sleep in the shoebox on the floor, so they fight over it at 5:00am.

Or maybe it’s because it’s Friday, and Joe Krozel has it in for us. I think this puzzle might be the first one ever to not have a single, normal English word as the answer to any one clue. Let’s see.

FOREIGN AND ARCANE WORDS

• 1A. Spanish figure eights : OCHOS
• 21A. St. Anthony’s crosses : TAUS
• 33A. State whose capital is Panaji: GOA
• 38A. Yom ___ : TOV
• 39A. Laotian language group : TAI
• 41A. Expos’d : OPE
• 60A. 365 giorni : ANNO
• 12D. “___ Sylphides” (ballet) : LES
• 26D. River through Mâcon : SAONE
• 35D. Hawaiian staple : TARO
• 46D. Occupational suffix : IER
• 48D. Verb from which “sum” is derived : ESSE
• 52D. Tabasco title: Abbr. : SRA

ABBREVIATIONS, SEGMENTS, PORTIONS

• 6A. It makes pot potent: Abbr. : THC
• 19A. Part of a grp. : MEM
• 20A. Camcorder component : VCR
• 28A. Tiny fraction of a min. : PSEC
• 29A. Dept. head : SECY
• 40A. Talk ender : ATIVE
  
• 50A. Rolodex abbr. : TEL
• 58A. Classy org.? : NEA
• 13D. Commandant’s outfit: Abbr. : USMC
• 3D. ___ lane : HOV
• 4D. Honour for J.K. Rowling : OBE
• 17D. Year Emperor Henry IV was dethroned : MCV (is this an abbreviation? where do we categorize this ridiculous answer?)
• 27D. Hi-tech read : EMAG
• 34D. Sports car option: TTOP
• 37D. Baron’s superior: Abbr. : VISC
• 52D. Tabasco title: Abbr.: SRA (see also: “Foreign”)
• 55D. 1979 nuclear accident site: Abbr. : TMI
• 56D. Engine starter: Abbr. : IGN

PROPER NAMES

• 31A. Ryan of “Pippin” : IRENE
• 32A. Acress Peeples : NIA
• 33A. State whose capital is Panaji : GOA — always a favorite of mine, a proper name that is also foreign.
• 49A. ___ Twins (pair in old ads for home perm kits) : TONI — my wife’s name. That’s all the clue needs to say: “Brian’s wife’s name.”
• 61A. Friend of Frodo : SAM
• 11D. His #4 was retired : ORR
• 18D. Department store chain founder : MACY
• 25D. First name in New World exploration : LEIF
• 45D. Fictional faithful friend : TONTO
• 47D. Montana who played Luca Brasi in “The Godfather” : LENNY

NINE 15-LETTER PHRASES

• 16A. Cry on a corsair : SHIVER ME TIMBERS
• 22A. Something exercised by artists : CREATIVE LICENSE
• 34A. It’s high in Manhattan : THE COST OF LIVING
• 44A. Music theory subject : PENTATONIC SCALE
• 52A. Plans to nail suspects : STING OPERATIONS
• 2D. Goal of a neighborhood watch : CRIME PREVENTION
• 5D. Island locales : SERVICE STATIONS
• 6D. Coaching cliche : THERE’S NO I IN TEAM
• 8D. Great all-around reviews : CRITICAL ACCLAIM
• 10D. Is totally apathetic : DOESN’T GIVE A HOOT

OTHER PHRASES AND PARTIALS

• 59A. “Later!” : I’M GONE
• 1D. Part of O.H.M.S. : ON HER
• 23D. “Be there in ___” : A SEC
• 24D. ___’clock : TEN O
• 31D. Wishful thinking? : I HOPE
• 36D. “But I must also feel ___ a man” : Macduff : IT AS

Wow. That sure looks like it’s probably, oh, 98% of the puzzle. Which leaves us with 54D. Part of a shell game (PEA) as perhaps the only standard English answer in the grid.

Of course, despite everything (everything I’ve mentioned so far plus the fact that I haven’t done a Friday puzzle in about a month), I still clocked in about 5 minutes lower than my Friday average. Who says turkey makes you sleepy?

See you Saturday! (Oh, wow! It already is Saturday! I’ll try to get that puzzle done sometime in the next few hours…)

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I cannot believe it’s already Thanksgiving.  In less than 5 hours Pickles and I will be flying down to Memphis to enjoy the holiday with family.  Speaking of Thanksgiving and family, Patrick Berry’s puzzle had nothing to do with either but was still very enjoyable.  What a cool theme.  Words and phrases where the first half of the letters are the same as the second half except in the second half the letters are rearranged (or recycled).

3D. Digestive system parts with recycling? (INTESTINES).

5D. Most promising options with recycling? (BEST BETS).

7D. Took a risk with recycling (STUCK ONES NECK OUT).

10D. Come back with recycling? (REAPPEAR).

41D. Imposition on drinking with recycling? (LEGAL AGE).

43D. Sporting colleague with recycling? (TEAMMATE).

33D. Livery blacksmith with recycling (HORSESHOER).

Very well done.  I can understand how you would think of theme like this but I have no idea how you’d go about finding the answers that fit the theme.  Is there a name for this kind of thing?  Like palinlainp or something?

I had a lot of trouble with the middle left.

24A. La. neighbor (TEX).  I guess I have Tennessee on the brain because I put TEN.  Turns out the Volunteer State doesn’t actually border Louisiana.  It seems like it should though, doesn’t it?

29A. Between (TWIXT).  Even though none of the letters worked and the word didn’t actually fit I couldn’t get AMIDST out of my brain.  I did an image search for “twix betwixt” and didn’t find any image of a candy bar between two non-twix items but I did find this:

And I enjoy that picture a great deal.  I’m not sure why.

30D. Like Stilton cheese (WAXY).  WAXY is a terrible adjective for any food product.  Very unappetizing.  Why not call something foot-y or backhair-y while you’re at it.

I eventually figured that section out but it took way too long.

Something I learned from listening to our podcast:

1D. Symbol seen on viola music (C CLEF).  I still don’t know what the hell this is but I distinctly remember Brian saying something about C CLEFs and violi.  Interesting fact: Did you know that when a musician puts something on the C Clef he/she says, “Hey man, I’m putting this one in Charlie.” and when he/she puts it on the F Clef you are most likely to hear, “What’s up, my dog, I’m putting this one in Frank.”

Something to be careful of:

58A. Actor Shore (PAULY).  PAULY Shore will be in a movie next year called Opposite Day.  His costar will be French Stewart.  Obviously, I don’t need to explain to you that a movie starring both Pauly Shore and French Stewart is clearly the first step in a devious plan devised by a fringe group of highly evolved caribou to take over the world.  Do not fall for it.  Unless you want to spend the rest of your days under the domination of those antlered bastards do not see this movie.

Here is how Thanksgiving shouldn’t go:

68A. Dr. ___, 1990s TV therapist (KATZ).

Alright, Brian will be taking over the blog this weekend as I will be computerless until Sunday night.  Yes, I still don’t have a laptop.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Next stop, later.

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Ok, I think I get the theme in this Harvey Estes puzzle.

49A. 1958 Spencer Tracy film … and a hint to 20-, 30- and 39-Across (THE LAST HURRAH). The other theme answers end in OLE. That’s it, right? Well, if that isn’t it, I don’t know what the heck it is.

20A. “Zounds!” (HOLY GUACAMOLE). I’ve got to work this into my vernacular.

30A. Eight-time best actor nominee (PETER OTOOLE). Lawrence of Arabia, the most magnificent movie ever made. Nowadays they’d make it with all kinds of crappy CGI but this is the real deal. Big and sandy and marvelous.

39A. Boneless entree (FILET OF SOLE).

Other highlights:

25A. Bank job, e.g. (CAPER). Note to all you constructors out there, CAPER CAPER has never been in the NYT puzzle. Let’s get on that.

41A. Meaning of “one on the city,” in diner lingo (TAP WATER). Wikipedia has a great list of diner lingo.

8A. Funny Fey (TINA). Yes, Tina Fey is funny. But Alec Baldwin is out of control on that show. May be the best performance on TV right now.

32D. Fisherman’s whopper? (TALE). Both Brian and I invite you to play Fish Wrangler with us on Facebook. What are you waiting for?

39D. F.D.R. dog (FALA). Here’s a bit of FDR’s Fala Speech from September 1944:

These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala.  [laughter] Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks — but Fala does resent them. [laughter] You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him — at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or 20 million dollars — his Scotch soul was furious. [laughter] He has not been the same dog since! [laughter] I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself — such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog [laughter].

57D. 49-Across, in this puzzle (OLE).  I finally noticed this clue.  I guess I was right about the theme.  Look how much smarterer I am.

Next stop, Thursday.

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Welcome to Episode 32 of Fill Me In: A Crosscast Something bag. These past two weeks have been chock full of insanity for your two hosts — one of us has been overly busy while the other has done practically nothing.

Today’s episode features another interview, this time with a man who did not direct “The Wizard of Oz,” as it turns out. Tune in to find out:

• what other famous movie he did not direct
• the true hidden musical talents of Mr. Ryan Hecht
• a few pieces of viewer mail — remember that old gag?
• and maybe a small amount more

Enjoy this new episode of Fill Me In. Have a happy holiday!

 

 Fill Me In #032: You Be The Judge. [50:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.

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I really enjoyed the theme in today’s Caleb Madison puzzle.  Let me see if I can somehow explain it in a way that makes sense.  Two word phrases with both words containing the same letters in the same order except the vowels switch positions in the second word.  Hmm.  I guess that makes enough sense.  If you’re reading this you’ve probably already figured it out anyway.

17A. Trial jury? (PENAL PANEL).

23A. Wine telemarketer? (CELLAR CALLER).

30A. Lone Star State duties? (TEXAS TAXES).

40A. Late night talk show host’s principles? (CONAN CANON).

49A. Slyly popping a breath mint, e.g.? (TICTAC TACTIC).  This is my favorite one.  I like the way it sounds and I’ll probably think of it everytime I have a Tictac now.  (That actually won’t be too often since Tictacs are pretty lousy mints.)

61A. Sammy’s backup singers? (DAVIS DIVAS).

Other highlights:

19A. “Young Frankenstein” hunchback (IGOR).  ”Hump?  What hump?”  And my other favorite, “Put the candle back!”  Great stuff.  The broadway musical is closing.  I never saw it but I heard it blew.  Broadway shows are just too expensive to go to when everybody says they blow.

25A. Detective played by Peter Lorre (MR MOTO).  These movies featuring the Jewish Peter Lorre as the Japanese Mr. Moto were released on DVD in 2006.  And here’s a comment on that by an “angry Asian American woman”.

46A. ___ Flanders, neighbor of Homer Simpson (NED).  I really need to go back and check but it seems like there’s been a Simpsons clue every day since the Will/Merl episode.

8D. Old maker of baseball cards and bubble gum (FLEER).  I know this is going to sound like grumpy old man stuff but when I was a kid you could buy a pack of 10-20 baseball cards for a quarter.  Nowadays you get a pack of about 6 for $4.  Four dollars!  Are you nuts?  I know the cards are all special now with 3-D crap and lasers and whatnot but good gravy.  All I want is a piece of cardboard with the picture on the front and the stats on the back.

10D. Not quite in the majors (TRIPLE A).  This clue doesn’t quite make sense to me.  If a player is in Triple A you say, “He’s in Triple A” not “He’s Triple A”.  The whole thing just seems a little off to me.

34D. Gamecube competitor (XBOX).  I don’t have much to say here.  I just love the Xbox.  If anybody out there is on Xbox live, my gamertag is Ryan the Badaaz.  Friend me, baby.  Let’s play some Rock Band 2.

41D. Myrmecologist’s box (ANT FARM).  Someday I think I’m going to have to get one of these.  I think I’ve always been afraid it’ll get knocked over, break, and fill our apartment with deadly, flesh-eating ants.  Here’s where you can buy them.  Does anybody have any ant farm stories they’d like to share?

Great Tuesday puzzle.  Lots of fun fill.

Next stop, Wednesday.

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Dame Billie Truitt has designed a lovely Monday puzzle for us, and one which takes a slight step away from the standard Monday theme structures. Sure, it’s five entries. Sure they all go together. But they don’t obviously go together, and there’s no reference in any of the clues anywhere what the gimmick is. The theme entries:

• 17A. Gardener’s gift : GREEN THUMB
• 24A. Measure of national economic health : MISERY INDEX
• 39A. Come to a compromise : MEET IN THE MIDDLE – Not to be confused with “Malcolm in the Middle,” which is only a compromise if the two initial offers are “torture me with terrible television” and “make me never want to have children.”
• 51A. “Call sometime” : GIVE ME A RING – After this answer made its way into the grid, I was sure I was on the wrong track because all I had in my head was my wife singing that Beyonce song over and over, the one with “if you like it, you better put a ring on it…” (forgive any inaccuracies in my lyrical recollection).
• 64A. Rhyming word game : HINKY PINKY – As if. There is no such rhyming word game.

The theme, now, is of course Five Things That Seem To Mean Nothing. But secretly, it’s the five fingers. Ha! Very clever! Wonderful work, Ms. Truitt!

Delightful and clever for a Monday, a little trickier (to this pathetic solver) than usual. Thanks for a great puzzle.

See you Tuesday!

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Ok, hopefully the awesome podcast tonight will make up for some rather lame weekend blog entries.

I’ve been working on today’s David J. Kahn puzzle all morning and I have one thing to say.  Flauvist?  What the hell is that?  Is that someone who plays the flauve?

The 2008 PICTURE THIS theme is all about a certain artist.  Unfortunately, I still have no idea who the artist is or what work of art the puzzle references.  I do know that he/she is a FRENCH ARTIST and that his/her work appeared UPSIDEDOWN at a ????EXHIBITION in 1961.  I also know SAILBOATs have something to do with the theme.  Other than that, I’m lost.

And I’m out of time.  Off to do the last performance of The Cherry Orchard.  Well, not the last one for all time.  But the last one of this particular production.

Podcast tonight.  Special guest.  Ready for download on Monday.  Happy Sunday. 

Next stop, Monday.

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Well, as so often happens here on R&B Solve Xwords, I spent so much time solving the puzzle that I didn’t leave much time to blog about it.  (I think I need to get a laptop.)

Today’s Frank Longo puzzle was a toughie but not impossible.  I enjoyed how the black squares formed an open mouth that seemed to be laughing at me as I loaded up the puzzle.  This one took me about 12 hours to figure out (there was some sleeping, eating and xbox-playing in the mix as well).  I technically no-googled it although Pickles helped me out with a big one (AMERICAN TABLOID) and Brian helped with a few as well (STRUDEL) and reminded me that Robin Goodfellow is Puck and not Robin Hood which helped a great deal with SPRITES.

To be honest, I’ve never heard A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH before.  Is that the same as AN EYE FOR AN EYE?

And I’ve always heard it as SETS ON A PEDESTAL not PUTS ON A PEDESTAL.

But these are mere quibbles about an excellently constructed puzzle.  We had yet another Simpson’s reference (DOH) and someday I’ll immediately recognize clues like Be transformed? (ARE) for what they really are.  Today it only took me a few hours.

Ok, that’s all I have time for today.  Again, a new episode of the podcast will be up on Monday.

Next stop, Sunday.

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Very enjoyable Friday puzzle by Patrick Berry.  Why “very enjoyable”?  Well, because I found it to be relatively easy.  I think I would have set some all time personal record but, unfortunately, I got handed a job at work right when I was in the middle of getting my solve on.  But even with stopping in the middle for 25 minutes or so I still finished the puzzle in about 46 minutes.  Ok, not quite as impressive as Dan Feyer, Winner of the C Division’s 2:39 but still, not bad.

I got stumped for a little while on:

29A. Scottish dog breed (SKYE TERRIER).  I had SK__ TERRIER.

33A. Unmentionable (PANTY GIRDLE).  I had __NTY GIRDLE.  Isn’t PANTY GIRDLE two unmentionables?

22D. State capital with just 42,000 people (OLYMPIA).  This one was driving me bonkers.  I had OL_M_IA and couldn’t think of it.  I kept thinking OLEMRIA or something like that.  I eventually came to my senses and was able to fill it in.

Other highlights:

20A. “I am an idiot” (DOH).  I think there’s been at least one Simpsons clue every day this week.  I’m still coming to grips with how cool it was to have Shortz and Reagle and the puzzle I just solved on the show.

24A. Possible response to name-calling? (HERE).  My first answer here was CRYING LIKE A BABY UNTIL THE TEACHER MAKES HIM/HER/THEM STOP but it didn’t fit.

26A. They affect one’s constitution (AMENDMENTS).  I was on to this one pretty quickly although, to be honest, my first thought was a Cloudkill spell.

16A. Symbol of dissent against British rule (LIBERTY POLE).  LIBERTY POLE?  Never heard of it.  LIBERTY BELL, yes.

27D. Campus gathering place (DINING HALL).  I fondly remember the nacho bar in my old dorm.  I miss those all-you-can-eat days that made me feel lousy for only a fews hours instead of a couple of weeks.

50D. ___ fighter (”Star Wars” ship) (TIE).  TIE stands for TWIN ION ENGINE.  It was developed by Sienar Fleet Systems.  Interestingly, only the most advanced TIE fighters are equipped with hyperdrive engines.  And those with that upgrade don’t perform as well in sublight speeds, obviously, because of the added mass of the hyperdrive and navicomputer systems.

We will be returning this Monday with a new episode of Fill Me In: A Crossword Podcast and, yes, we will be joined by another very special guest.

Next stop, Saturday.

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