Ryan solves the NYT, Tue 11-18-8
The theme for today’s Richard Chisholm puzzle was all about houses.
59A. What 17-, 23-, 34-, 40- and 47-Across are each composed of (TWO HOUSES).
And the theme answers were two word phrases where each word was also a type of house. (I think I need to take a class in the theme-describing.)
17A. Police stop (ROAD BLOCK).
23A. Remedy for failed courses, maybe (SUMMER SCHOOL).
34A. Cardinal vis-à-vis Illinois, Indiana or Ohio (STATE BIRD).
40A. Military capbility (FIRE POWER).
47A. Wheeled toy (DOLL CARRIAGE). Never understood the appeal of the baby dolls and carriages as entertainment. When you’re a little kid why would you want to pretend you’re taking care of a little kid? That would be like me carrying around a doll of a nerdy, out-of-work New York actor. I’d have to set up fake auditions for him and rejection phone calls and what not. I don’t get it.
20A. Oreo maker (NABISCO). For some reason, it’s very difficult to find Ding Dongs in our neighborhood. We searched around for a bit on Friday night with no luck but we did happen upon the Oreo Cakesters which we all agreed were a pretty good Ding Dong substitutes. Cakey and Oreo-y and cremey. Yum.
37A. Wray of “King Kong” (FAY). This is actually a really good movie. And the first movie that had a score that reflected the action on the screen. (Maybe Brian or one of our musically-inclined readers can describe that more accurately.) Here’s something a didn’t know, there’s a colorized version from the 1980s floating around the internet. Good ol’ colorization. Ruining classic films for everybody.
Sadly, there will be no podcast this week. Brian has been sick and I’ve been knee-deep in rehearsals so there just wasn’t any time. We will be back next week with, we hope, another very special guest.
Next stop, Wednesday.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
In the uncut version of Kong, the peeling scene of Fay Wray ala a banana was too revealing for the censors. The remake had the same concept, but I recall that in both of the movies Kong had no dong, which makes the story harder to process. In the Kong theme, you should have posted a Banana flavored oreo thingy. Would Gingebread Man fit the theme? I know a friend who claims he has a man house.