Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

What’s the opposite of “retroactively”? Because that’s how Joe Krozel’s record-tying puzzle was un-tied. Today’s grid, a nineteen-black-square delight, was set to tie Manny Nosowsky’s standing record for fewest black squares. At least, that was the case when it was designed almost a year ago. But since then, our Facebook friend Kevin G. Der-Hyphen-Youkilis went and invented computers that could create anything, and came up with an eighteen-black-square grid that pre-empted Joe’s. To Joe’s credit — this puzzle does not contain nonsense like UNSAFER.

I was actually able to essentially no-Google this bad boy in about forty minutes. I say “essentially” because I had one Trivia Box that simply required the 26 available guesses to get right. Actually, it only required the first one, as the curious letter in question was an A. That crossing: 42A. Looped vase handle and 43D. Old tombstone abbr. meaning “at the age of.” The two words are ANSA and AETAT. That second thing might not be a word. I don’t know how to parse it. And in this instance, there was barely even a way to discern whether it would be a vowel or consonant. Plenty of things looked similarly mid-spectrum between Right and Wrong for both answers.

Joe talks in great detail in a blog interview with Jim Horne over on Wordplay. It’s a little tech-heavy, but I found it quite interesting. One of the things Joe pointed out was that it was easier to create a minimalist grid with double-stacks of fifteens than with triple-stacks (like Manny Nosowsky’s and Kevin Der’s puzzles had). Joe used four pairs of double stacks, two pairs across and two pairs down. Nice entries, too:

• 15A. Estate taxes, e.g. : INTERNAL REVENUE. No, I have not finished my taxes yet.
• 17A. Grosbeak relatives : SCARLET TANAGERS. I had no clue what these were. And by “these,” I mean both the clue and the answer.
• 50A. Tons of work to do : A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE. This is not the case in my current line of work. I have tons to do and absolutely nothing on my plate. You don’t understand? Clever job I have at the moment.
• 53A. Carnival offerings : PLEASURE CRUISES. I’m not sure I get this. Does this mean Carnival like in Rio? Or like at Coney Island? A pleasure cruise sounds lovely, but it doesn’t sound like something you can get at the fair.
• 2D. Without reservations : UNCONDITIONALLY
• 3D. Try to get a better view : STAND ON ONE’S TOES. Two answers with “on one’s” in them. This may be my only real disappointment in the puzzle.
• 12D. Operator’s line : ONE MOMENT, PLEASE
• 13D. It included the Eastern and Western fronts : EUROPEAN THEATER. Is this related to ETO? That’s about the only new acronym I learned last year, and now clues like this are making me wonder what I think I know.

Plenty here that I didn’t know:

• 4D. Some Spanish murals : SERTS (pictured at right)
• 10D. Prizes for video production : AVAS
• 20A. It’s north of the Dodecanese Islands : SAMOS. I had SAMOA here first, as a total guess. I don’t know what SAMOS is.
• 22A. Joseph ___ Ratzinger, birth name of Pope Benedict XVI : ALOIS. I knew his first and last names. But his middle name? Hey pope, what’s my middle name?
• 22D. Having no aisles, in architecture : APTERAL
• 25A. Nigerian native or language : EDO. It’s not just Old Tokyo anymore.
• 33A. Reactionaries : TORIES. This does nothing to help me understand British politics.
• 38A. Want ad abbr. : EOE. I actually knew this, but since I wasted my time last year on ETO, I don’t know what EOE is.
• 39A. Herbal brew : SAGE TEA. Never heard of it.
• 48A. French shooting match : TIR
• 52D. Title of respect in 8-Down: Abbr. : SRA. Is this just “senora”?

As has been the case more often than not in 2009, I have found Saturdays easier than Fridays. What is going on? This is very perplexing. Perhaps Ryan can help me figure it out in our next podcast, which may or may not happen in the next few days. We’ll see.

Random thing I just noticed: The edge black squares in this puzzle are in the inverse of the compass points from Joe’s last puzzle. Perhaps he has a grid design throughline. Hm.

See you Sunday!