Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

First off, I’ve been rehearsing, going to work, going to sleep and going back to rehearsal all week.  It’s 4:30am and I’m kinda falling asleep at work now so I apologize in advance if my post is incoherent.

Second off, what’s up with the bottom left corners lately?  After being stumped for a while in yesterday’s BLC I took a ridiculously long time to solve the BLC in today’s Pete Muller puzzle.

51A. One who believes humans descended from extraterrestrials (RAELIAN).  Never heard of this.  I knew I was going to have to get it through crosses.  Raelism is pretty fascinating and, apparently, is the largest UFO religion in the world.

53A. Image in the Notre Dame de Paris (ANGE).  I don’t know what this answer means.  Is it French?

48D. More there? (SANER).  This was the big one.  Once I figured this out the rest fell into place.  It took me about 45 minutes to figure it out though.  My first idea was a suffix of THERE such as THERESOEVER or something like that.  My next idea was the word MORE translated into a language they use over THERE.  I don’t know how the correct answer popped into my head but we can all breathe a sigh of relief that it did.

Something else in that corner was 59A. With 27-Across, it collapsed in 2008 (BEAR).  27A was STEARNS.  I worked for BEAR STEARNS for about 3 years.  The overnight, weekend shift.  They had the most ridiculous dress code.  Dress shirts, ties, slacks and dress shoes 24/7.  So, at 3am on a Sunday, I’m sitting there wearing a suit.  I hated this policy and came up with a silent but effective protest.  I wore exactly the same thing every shift for about 2 years.  Same shirt, pants and Dilbert xmas tie.  After about a year of this, someone came up to me, stared at my chest and said, “Hey, nice tie!”  In the end my protest worked.  I got fired.

Oh yes, the theme.  A quote puzzle.  Haven’t seen on of those for a while.  This quote comes from Allan Meltzer.  CAPITALISM WITHOUT FAILURE IS LIKE RELIGION WITHOUT SIN.    It was pretty easy to figure out especially since WITHOUT showed up twice.

6A. Waldorf salad ingredient (WALNUT).  I can’t think of Waldorf salads without thinking of the Waldorf salad episode of Faulty Towers.  Celery!  Apples!  Walnuts!  Grapes!  Here’s a bit of the episode.

Ok, back to trying to stay awake.

Next stop, Friday.