Ryan solves the NYT, Fri 27/3 = 9
Aw, man! One stupid error on this Paula Gamache puzzle put the kibosh on my Friday no-google streak. I had my grid filled with all kinds of great answers and guesses and words of which I’d never heard but the applet just wouldn’t accept it. After staring and cycling through the alphabet in various squares for at least 45 minutes I finally broke down and looked at the answer.
1A. Detoured to pay a visit along the way (SWUNG BY). I misread the tense and put SWING BY. The incorrect “I” led me to enter INTO IT instead of UP TO IT for 3D. Game. And the incorrect “N” gave me CANELLA instead of CAPELLA for 15A. One of the 10 brightest stars. Now, I never questioned SWING BY or INTO IT as the both seemed correct beyond a doubt. CANELLA certainly sounded like a star even though it is, in fact, a tree. I focused all my energy on finding an imaginary error in the lower left which led to my frustration which led to my breakdown which led to my eventual answer peeking.
It’s a great puzzle with a grid anchored by BIMBO ERUPTION (34A. Certain sex scandal, in slang). I have no idea to what sex scandal this refers. I’m at work and I’m certainly not going to google it. I can only imagine what kinds of web sites will pop up. Geez, I never even google ERUPTION when I’m at work. So, somebody please fill me in.
The first answer I put in was 8D. Transforming Tonka toys (GOBOTS). I think GOBOTS is an acronym for Cheaper, Smaller, Chintzier, Less Fun Transformers. I sure had a lot of them when I was a kid. I really could just sit there all day turning it into a car, then turning it into a robot, then turning it back into a car. Much more productive than homework.
I don’t really understand 26A. Height of fashion? (MINI). Shouldn’t it be Length of fashion?
I also got 30A. Shifting sequence (PRNDL) pretty quickly although I couldn’t tell you what the L stands for. Levitate? Speaking of that, where are all the flying cars we were promised? Shouldn’t somebody be working on that?
41A. Not quite mashed (RICED) was a gimmie for me. I highly recommend ricing your potatoes next time you make a side of mashed.
59A. One way to die (TESTATE). I was sure this was wrong. I thought maybe it ended in AGE. How am I supposed to know what TESTATE means? What am I, a guy who works in a law firm all night instead of doing the thing he loves? Oh wait…
11D. Start of a text-message afterthought (BTW). My wife says this all the time in regular conversation. Always gets a nice laugh out of people. Think you know what all the text/chat acronyms mean? Test yourself here.
12D. Enter like a storm trooper (BUST INTO). Now, see, if I had looked carefully at this answer I would have known that INTO IT couldn’t have been right. Oh, well.
37D. Still the most (CALMEST). Great clue.
And a really great puzzle. Nice work, Paula.
Next stop, Saturday.
