Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

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.