Ryan solves the NYT, Sun 12-28-8
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.
