Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

• A SHOT (1D. Give ___ in the arm)
  
• TE AMO (2D. “I love you” in Spanish)
  
• REVET (3D. Support with stone, as an embankment)
  
• AN ERA (4D. “It’s the end of ___”)
• AT LAST (18D. “Finally!”)
  
• ABBACY (5D. Monastic jurisdiction)

What do these six words have in common? Well, these four partials (one of which is Spanish), along with two words that my spell checker doesn’t know all cross through the word OMERTA (20A. Gangster’s code of silence). Not a normal word in the bunch — and this made up the northwest corner of today’s grid by Tim Wescott.

As it turns out, this corner is not what we’re supposed to wow over. Rather, it’s the circled letters in the grid, which asymmetrically spell out HTTP, COM, NET, EDU and GOV — and there’s a WWW (40A. Letters after two slashes) in the middle. I tried to find more depth to this theme, but the closest I could do was that some of the black squares vaguely make up some very pixellated slashes.

No offense, Mr. Wescott, but as themes go, this one left me a little empty. Maybe that’s because it’s 2:15 in the morning, and my last meal was eight hours ago. But I want there to be more. This theme isn’t clued, and it isn’t clever. I suppose it’s clever-ish, in that the long answers have the domain name endings hidden within them, but that doesn’t excite me. Yes, I see that the long answers also start with the letters H, T, T and P. Still, I’m not delighted by it, and there was really no aha! moment in this grid. Perhaps including EXPLORER, NETSCAPE, FIREFOX or SAFARI would have livened it up. Perhaps more circled letters that spelled out N-Y-T-I-M-E-S-D-O-T-C-O-M or something.

Or, quite possibly, perhaps there’s more going on here, but I can’t find it. If someone else sees a deeper theme here, please share it in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.

It’s late, so I have no energy to go hunting for pictures. Let’s make it through tomorrow (yikes, I have to be near Times Square at about 5pm), and I’m going to start of 2009 with a No-Google Thursday.

Today’s puzzle is by our good friend Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town. And thank god it was much easier than his Newsday Saturday Stumper from a couple of weeks ago.

The theme was:

52A. Ivan Turgenev novel … and a hint to 20-, 31- and 40-Across (FATHERS AND SONS).

20A. Incentive aimed at golden agers (SENIOR DISCOUNT).

31A. Chocolate-coated candy (JUNIOR MINTS). Well, obviously, I can’t let this one go without posting something from Seinfeld. “How could they not notice it?” “Because it’s a little mint, it’s a junior mint.”

40A. 1949 Orson Welles film (THE THIRD MAN).  I feel like maybe I’ve seen this but I may be thinking of Touch of Evil.

Other highlights:

14A. Actress Petty (LORI).  Why do I know who this person is?  I know she was in Tank Girl but I’ve never seen Tank Girl.  Come to think of it, why do I know she was in Tank Girl?

17A. Slugger Rodriguez (ALEX).  Doug’s Yankee bias is quite blatant in this clue.  He could very easily have gone with “Slugger Asencio” and the answer would have worked just fine.  (For the few of you who don’t know, Alex Asencio played in the Dodgers minor leauge system from 1994-1996 and blasted 10 home runs in 269 games.)

63A. Marathon handout (WATER).  I like this clue.  It must be difficult to clue such a commonplace item in a new and interesting way.

48D. Jack of “Twin Peak” (NANCE).  Ok, seriously, was this a good show or was it just weird?

Really nice, solid puzzle by Doug.  And who knew you could put a Russian novel, an early bird special, a chocolate treat and a classic film noir all in one theme?

Next stop, Wednesday.

Welcome to the glory of Episode 36. This is Fill Me In, your favorite crossword blurbhouse. Today’s thirty-one minutes of fun includes:

• Viewer mail
• Two (2) downloads: Barry C. Silk (FACODPCGAMAT)’s puzzle about us and Dan Feyer (WOTCD)’s musical masterpiece.
• Puzzle of the week: December 23 (Joe Krozel)
• Ryan begs Brian to play music. Brian refuses.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all four of you for being loyal listeners throughout 2008. We hope to increase our viewership by around 20% in 2009, so if each of you tells five friends, and most of your friends are completely disinterested, we have an outside chance.

 

 Fill Me In #036: Rhymes with puzzle. [31:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oatcake.

I had to go to two other blogs before I was able to locate the theme to this Monday puzzle. What on earth do a RUMMY HAND (18A. It might include a 10, jack, queen and king of hearts), a BASEBALL GAME (26A. Yankees/Red Sox matchup, e.g.), a BROADWAY PLAY (42A. Candidate for a Tony) and PANTY HOSE (51A. L’eggs product) have in common?

Apparently, there’s a clue at 54D. Something 18-, 26-, 42- and 51-Across might have which I never saw. The answer is, of course, a RUN.

I was pleased to see that my score of 3:20 (applet clock be damned) was only marginally higher than that of the Amazing Amy Reynaldo. If only there were a junior version of the ACPT where they only did Monday puzzles! And if such a thing existed, I’d have to make sure that Amy Reynaldo and Dan Feyer (winner of the C Division) were banned for steroids or something like that.

It’s funny that Ryan should have mentioned UHURA yesterday, as she appears here at 48A. “Star Trek” lieutenant. Do we need a picture? Sure. I saw a trailer for the new Star Trek movie, and wow does it look terrible. It occurred to me that there is absolutely no need to re-create the original Star Trek series — especially not with a weird combination of updated technology and outdated fashion. And if you need pre-existing characters as a vehicle for your sci-fi story, then your sci-fi story simply isn’t interesting enough.

This puzzle went very quickly for me, in spite of having no clue on the theme. I’m behind on the week though, having not even glanced at Saturday’s. Apparently it’s very difficult (says Ryan). Since even the easiest of Saturdays confound the hell out of me lately, I think I’ll skip it.

Coming tomorrow, Fill Me In #36. Who knows what those 30 minutes have in store? Or even if it’ll be 30? Maybe 32… 37… 49…? You’ll just have to tune in and see.

For those of you who are interested, I did finally finish yesterday’s puzzle.  I googled the crap out of it and it still took me another few hours.  Did anybody else find that to be one of the harder Saturdays in a while?

On to today’s Patrick Berry puzzle which was lots of fun.  It was made up of 8 concentric circles each of which contained the name of a planet in our solar system.  And for good measure the SUN was right in the middle.

Other highlights:

4A. Hit 2004 film with many sequels (SAW).  I had a lot of trouble with this one.  I couldn’t wrap my brain around the idea that a movie that came out 4 years ago already had many sequels.  I’ve only seen the first two.  I enjoyed the first one which had a nice mixture of goofiness and grossness.  The second one was just kind of disgusting.  And after that I was done.

25A. Rubber gasket (O RING).  Two things: a)  I always have trouble coming up with this answer.  And 2) This answer always sounds vaguely dirty to me.

38A. Actress ___ Dawn Chong (RAE).  Commando continues to be one of my favorite movies.  It’s completely ridiculous, poorly acted and the main villain looks like he just left an S&M club.  But it’s Arnold at his most Arnold.

56A. King famous for frightening people (STEPHEN).  I cannot not watch The Shawshank Redemption when I come across it on cable.  I have it on DVD, I’ve seen it at least 30 times but if I happen upon it on Showtime Extra or some such station I stick with them until they end up in Ziwateneo.

64A. Elementary particle (MESON).  Learned from crosswords.  Say it with me, “Applied Knowledge, baby!”

80A. Treasure sought in “Titanic” (NECKLACE).  Hmmm, were they after the necklace or the jewel in the necklace?  This is a very specific clue and a very generic answer.

111A. BBC panel show regular Phil (JUPITUS).  Never heard of this guy before.  What an awesome name though.  And he looks like he’s pretty funny.  Can someone give me an example of what the hell a BBC panel show is?

115A. Brand of basketball (ELTON).  I was not fooled by this at all.  Unfortunately, I know nothing of basketball so I needed to wait for crosses.  But I wasn’t fooled.  Just wanted everybody to know.

122A. Electricians (WIREMEN).  Really?  Who calls them WIREMEN?

61D. Tunes that might make you want to get out on the floor? (ELEVATOR MUSIC).  Favorite clue of the puzzle.

92D. What Mr. Spock suppressed (EMOTION).  A few weeks ago on Jeopardy, there was some Star Trek clue about the character played by Nichelle Nichols.  One contestant answered “Who is Lieutenant Uhuru?”  The rank was not necessary but I’m sure he was pretty pleased he could impress his Trekkie friends.  A few minutes later Alex took the money away because her name is actually Uhura.  Poor guy.

110A. Jack’s partner in rhyme (JILL).  This one took me way too long.  I think I was focusing on JACK HORNER from yesterday.

Great puzzle with fun fill.

Next stop, Monday.

Oy vey.  I have most of the bottom third of this Karen M. Tracey puzzle but I’m completely stuck up top.

Here’s what I do have:

48A. Rudolph Valentino type (LATIN LOVER).

55A. Parting words (ADIOS AMIGO).

57A. Class-conscious figure (DEAN).

58A. Letter getter (PO BOX).

60A. Pines (YENS).

61A. Verse (POESY).

Those are all the acrosses in the bottom right.  I’m pretty sure those are all correct.  In the bottom left I have:

43D. Evening news hour (TEN PM).

44D. Centipede producer (ATARI).  This one I got right away.  There’s another Centipede clue up top (20A. Centipede alternative) but I’m clueless on that one.  Not sure if it is also referencing the game or the animal.

26D. Constraint (INHIBITION).  This one I’m not sure about.

36D. Laugh-a-minute sort (RIOT).

41A. Literary supporter (BOOKCASE).  Not sure about this one either.

Ok, just got 20A. Centipede alternative (DONKEY KONG).  I think I’ve got 1D. Office stamp (PAID).  2D. Further (ERGO).  9D. Be amorous with, in Britain (SNOG).

And one that’s a big guess is 11D. Net (AFTER TAXES).  It fits but I haven’t been able to get anything to cross with it.

Since I’m already feeling like a bit of idiot here I thought I’d bring up something that’s been a source of wonderment for a while.  I have a number of NY Times puzzle omnibuses and all the puzzles seem much, much, much harder than the current offerings.  I feel, at this point, I can no-google Monday through Thursday with regularity but I can barely finish any of the puzzles in these books.  So have the puzzles become easier?  Or is a 10 year old puzzle simply going to be harder by virtue of it being 10 years old?

Ok, I’m going to keep at this puzzle for a while.  If I can somehow make progress or, heavens, no-google I’ll post an update.

Next stop, Sunday.

Only time for a quick post today.  Holidays, family, food, food coma, etc.  Today’s offering is another great puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley.  ( I wonder if he’s ever seen the Tom Selleck movie, Quigley Down Under?)  How does Brendan find the time to write all of these puzzles?  He’s got 3 a week on his blog, plus puzzles for the Onion and where ever else he gets published.  And on top of all that, the puzzles are all very good.  And today’s is no exception.

I just barely no-googled this one.  The cross of ET SEQ with EADIE gave me fits and that first E was the very last letter I entered.

A few of my favorites were a BOX SEAT which is where you might see a hit and run, XOXOXOXO for Love Letters, Dr. Ruth as a SEXPERT and a clue I’ve never seen before for EL AL (Company whose slogan is “Home away from home”).  I could go on and on about the great answers in this puzzle but, unfortunately, I don’t have the time.

I hope everybody is having a great holiday season.

Great puzzle, Brendan.

Next stop, Saturday.

It’s official.  I don’t know anything about football.  It took me a long time to finish this Eric Tentarelli puzzle and, after I was done, I had no idea what the theme was.

20A. Chestnut-colored mustang offspring? (BROWN BRONCO COLT).

38A. Main dedicatee of an Austin cathedral? (CHIEF TEXAN SAINT).

55A. Hefty invoice for boots and spurs (GIANT COWBOY BILL).

The best I could come up with was something to do with G. W. Bush.  I saw the GWB in the last theme answer.  And CHIEF and TEXAN and, well, I couldn’t think of anything else.  I finally had to go to the other blogs to see what was up.  Ah, they’re all football team names.  Never would have thought of it.  I encounter this problem a lot.  Since I talk about baseball all the time people who don’t know me very well try to talk to me about other sports.  At this point the conversation becomes very one-sided.  I have never in my life sat down and watched a full game of anything besides baseball.  I’ve never been to a pro football game.  The only basketball games I’ve been to have been won by the Harlem Globetrotters.  I did go to an LA Kings game many years ago which ended in a tie.  (It was so long ago I couldn’t even tell you if there was any icing.)  By contrast, I watch about 200 complete baseball games every season.  I don’t what that’s about.  I don’t know why I like one sport so much but truly couldn’t name 5 players from any other sport.  So, in hindsight, this seems like a good theme and I’m sure I would have enjoyed it much more if had even the faintest clue what it had been about.

Other highlights:

17A. Sorkin who created “The West Wing” (AARON).  Pickles and I are watching this on DVD right now.  (Because of various cellophane issues we’re getting it through Netflix.)  We’re somewhere in season 3.  I hear over and over it goes downhill after Sorkin leaves but, at this point, it’s great.  It’s a lot like the Sopranos in that you really feel like a fly on the wall in this top secret world.  The acting, for the most part, is top notch.  Martin Sheen has got a great head of hair.  And, so far, the episodes haven’t fallen into a predictable formula.  Good stuff.

23A. “Rule, Britannia” composer Thomas (ARNE).  This guy comes up all the time in xwords and I simply cannot remember his name.  I always want to put ERNO.  This is the kind of thing that will really frustrate me at the ACPT.

68A. ___ Balls (snack cakes).  Here’s the deal on Sno Balls.  They’re delicious.  Cream-filled chocolate cakes topped with marshmallow and coconut.  De-flippin-licious.  You ever peel off the marshmallow topping and eat the cake and topping separately?  Good flippin times.  Let me tell you something, I could eat a couple of packages of them right now.  I think we should have them at the next Lollapuzoola.  Here’s a flickr set of a guy who baked a gigantic sno ball.

30D. The City of a Thousand Minarets (CAIRO).  This was a guess and I was quite surprised it turned out to be correct as, according to Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir, Cairo’s nickname is “City of the Living”.

39D. Garb for Robin Hood and his band (TUNICS).  Yes, Jim, I put TIGHTS here first.  TIGHTS is a much better answer.  There’s a reason the movie wasn’t called Robin Hood, Men in Tunics.

And with that I wish you a Merry/Happy Whatever You Happen to be Celebrating Today.

Next stop, Friday.

Sold Wednesday puzzle and NYT debut by Warren Biro.

40A. Power connectors, or a way to describe 17-, 22-, 55- and 61-Across (PLUGS).  As soon as I figured out the theme I knew there would be some clue referring to one of my favorite topics, male pattern baldness.

17A. Show interrupter (TV ADVERTISEMENT).  You’ve probably all seen it but here’s the great cat wrangler commercial:

22A. Copenhagen wad (TOBACCO CHEW).  I didn’t know what the heck this was talking about until I did a little internet research.  For those of you who don’t know, Copenhagen is a brand of refreshing, life-shortening, smokeless tobacco.

55A. Old-fashioned tub feature (BATH STOPPER).

61A. Expensive alternative to a toupee (HAIR REPLACEMENT).  Other alternatives include: cursing the gods, crying, a good hat system, walking on your hands all the time, becoming an astronaut, a Ponzi scheme and/or walking very close to your wife.

Other highlights:

3D. Tennis accessories (HEADBANDS).  Great use of the headband:

Not great use of the headband:

12D. Group of brains (MENSA).  This link takes you some tests that I don’t think are officially mensa but they’re pretty difficult all the same.  I’ve still never finished Part 1.

Congrats on the debut, Warren.

Next stop, Thursday.

Maybe if I had looked at the byline before solving, I’d have seen Joe Krozel’s name, and been more prepared for the oddity of this puzzle. As it was, I was just baffled by too many things in the grid (no No-Google streak for me), and had no idea what the gimmick was until I had finished everything.

Of course, if I had understood the gimmick earlier, I could have done the puzzle in Dan Feyer time.

All standard crosswords have 180-degree rotational symmetry. That is — the entire grid can be rotated 180 degrees and all the black squares will appear in the same locations. Apparently, this sort of thing wasn’t enough for Joe Krozel who took on the daunting task of creating a fill for the puzzle that also satisfied 180-degree rotational symmetry.

So this puzzle breaks the mold by not having a standard theme, per se, but rather having a constructional gimmick that must have been quite difficult to create. Every entry in the grid has a mirror image on the other side — DIAPER/REPAID, MINED/DENIM, etc.

The result is a handful of words that are very awkward (and even though this is a Tuesday, the clues are a bit Wednesday/Thursday-ish at times), but ultimately forgivable — if you think this construction masterpiece is worth the trouble.

I applaud the concept, but I was left with a couple of squares that I had no clue about — and I hadn’t caught onto the gimmick. My trouble spots seem rather immaterial now — they would all have been completely gettable if I had noticed Mr. Krozel’s trick. But my two Trivia Boxes were the crossings of:

• 54D. Ancient Roman magistrate (EDILE) and 66A. Game with matchsticks (NIM) — the I could have been any vowel and made equal sense to me.
• 38A. Thin layer (LAMINA) and 38D. City in California or New Jersey (LODI) — The L was a mystery to me, but I also had an incorrect entry for 31D. Not final, at law (NISI), which I had as NOSI. That entry at 31D meant nothing to me, and -AMONA and -ODI were blobs of letters with absolutely no meaning either.

Joe Krozel has been breaking the mold a lot lately. His recent puzzles have all done things that no one else seems to be doing. It’s a refreshing change of pace, so I will vote in favor of more Joe Krozel puzzles in the future. Please, keep it up!

If you haven’t checked out Fill Me In (our crossword podcast), our latest episode features an interview with Onion crossword editor Ben Tausig. Check it out.

And… see you Wednesday!