Ryan solves the NYT, Wed 3-25-9
Today’s Jerry E. Rosman puzzle contains the crossword theme equivalent of a tongue-twister. Except, instead of my tongue being twisted it was my brain that ended up in contortions. I kept spelling the theme words incorrectly and lost the ability to distinguish where the first word ended and the second began. To make matters worse, I got off to an immediate bad start with 1-Down.
1D. Florida city, for short (BOCA). I put COPA. As in the Copacabana. You know, from the Barry Manilow song. The one about the night club that’s the hottest spot north of Havana. You know, the one where music and passion were always the fashion. Definitely not to be confused with the Groucho Marx movie of the same name.
Anyway, the COPA could be located in Florida (it is north of Havana after all) but it most certainly is not a city. So, in short, I don’t know what I was thinking. The C in COPA gave me COLE instead of BOLE for 1A. Tree trunk which would have worked out fine if COLE actually meant “tree trunk”. It doesn’t, it means cabbage. Turns out BOLE does mean “tree trunk”. Nobody bothered to tell me this either before or during the puzzle so I had to figure it out for myself. Isn’t that a fine how do you do.
Now, the P in COPA screwed up the first theme answer but it screwed it up in a way that made it look like it could be correct. Damn you, Manilow!
17A. Debugs computer programs, e.g. (CATCHES GLITCHES). I, of course, had PATCHES GLITCHES which, honestly, seems more correct. If you catch a glitch does that imply you’re debugging it? Or does it imply that you’ve merely noticed it and leaving it up to the IT guy to fix the darn thing so you can get out of here at a decent hour and home in time for your stories? I say the latter but who am I to argue with Barry Manilow.
24A. Responds to rashes (SCRATCHES ITCHES). A quick google image search of “Manilow Rashes” turns up this picture:
Who is that, Richard Simmons?
41A. Does some mending (PATCHES BRITCHES). A search for “Manilow Britches” results in:
I’m guessing he’s wearing those britches incorrectly.
54A. Lines up the sewing (MATCHES STITCHES). And a search for “Manilow Stitches” gives us:
This is a Barry Manilow cross stitch pattern. It is awesome and it can be purchased here.
Been a while since I’ve seen a Barry Manilow crossword theme. This one was great even though it made me a touch dizzy.
And, finally, I want to mention a brand new crossword blog focusing on the LA Times crossword. It’s called L.A. Crossword Confidential and it’s written by Angela Halsted, Amy Reynaldo and Michael Sharp. It’s a lot of fun and you should check it out. Actually, you probably already have checked it out as I see they have more comments in their first two days than we’ve had all year.
Next stop, Thursday.
