Ryan solves the NYT, Thu 3-26-9
Ah, poetry. A subject I really and truly no nothing about. If it wasn’t written by William Shakespeare, Shel Silverstein or Dr. Suess then I can guarantee you I haven’t read it. My experience with other poets consists entirely of shouting “Wordsworth!” for every poetry-themed Jeopardy answer and constantly looking for the perfect situation to quote Rodney Dangerfield’s line from Back To School, “Maybe she can help straighten out my Longfellow.” You can imagine my fear when I saw that today’s Edward Safran puzzle had four lines of an Emily Dickinson poem running through it. Not only that but The Great Howard Barkin, Knower of All Things took almost four and a half American minutes to solve it. As it turned out, it really wasn’t that bad. I worked relatively quickly through the grid without any major trouble spots and finished in a touch over 14 minutes.
The lines of poetry are:
A LITTLE MADNESS
IN THE SPRING
IS WHOLESOME
EVEN FOR THE KING
An apt bit of verse since it is now officially Spring. It certainly doesn’t feel like Spring here in New York as it’s still in the 40s. The 40s is not Spring, the 40s is Winter. Although I can deal with the 40s in March I find the chill to be completely unacceptable in April. I do not like watching baseball in footie pajamas.
On to the prose sections of the puzzle.
Without a doubt my favorite answer today was KNOTTS (4D. Funnyman Don). Don Knotts was just funny. In everything. I spent a great deal of my youth watching The Reluctant Astronaut and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken over and over again. If I knew Don Knotts was in something I’d sit and watch it no matter how bad it was. And Hot Lead and Cold Feet was pretty bad. I may have watched him a little too much as I’ve incorporated his little nose sniff into my everyday life which irritates my wife to no end. Here’s a clip of him giving a speech from Mr. Chicken.
Other highlights:
5D. Dimwit, in Yiddish slang (GOLEM). This, I didn’t know. I thought a GOLEM was a big monster made out of clay.
59A. Chew the scenery (EMOTE). I will never understand why EMOTE is defined as bad acting in the New York Times. Aren’t actors supposed to show emotion?
8D. Singer with the 2008 gold record “And Winter Came…” (ENYA). I didn’t even flinch. Four letters + singer + (season or water or movement) = ENYA
10D. Double ___ (ENTENDRE). In the end, this one fit very nicely. It certainly looked like it was going to be too long but after putting it in, then taking it out, then putting it in again I began to feel much better. I was really able to get behind it and once Len Barker came across it I knew I had inserted it correctly.
Very nice puzzle by Mr. Safran.
Next stop, Friday.
