Ryan solves the NYT, Tue 3-31-9
I’m supposed to be asleep now. I’m working overnight tonight so I was supposed to stay up all last night and be asleep now in preparation. Instead, I fell asleep around midnight and woke up, refreshed, around 8am. This does not bode well. I feel great now but at 2am tonight I’ll be in a very bad mood. Looking forward to it.
On another note, Brian and I are very confused. We are being bombarded by spam from Russia. It comes from all different email addresses and the comments consist of question marks. That’s all. And maybe a few commas. We don’t get it. What’s their endgame? Why is our spam filter not filtering it out?
On to today’s Allan E. Parrish puzzle. A fun puzzle although I didn’t figure out the theme until after I was done. Each theme answer contains a word consisting of the letters A-B-E-R. That’s the theme, right? I’m not missing anything?
20A. Bitter-tasting vegetable (BROCCOLI RABE). At some point during my solving process my brain lost the ability to correctly spell BROCCOLI. It became convinced the correct spelling was BROCCILI. It didn’t matter that the author of “The Human Comedy” became William SARIYAN. I’m hoping my brain never makes this mistake again as it will prove to be quite embarrassing at my weekly vegetable spelling parties.
32A. “Young Indian brave” in a 1960 Johnny Preston #1 hit (RUNNING BEAR). I had 100% never heard of the song, the singer or the brave. Turns out, it’s a pretty cool song and, now that I’ve listened to it, will certainly be stuck in my head for at least a week. Please enjoy.
41A. Least acceptable amount (BARE MINIMUM). At 2am tonight this is what I’ll be doing.
54A. Country singer with a hit sitcom (REBA MCENTIRE). Good god! The IMDB is down! I can’t look up anything. Who co-starred in this sitcom? When was it on? How many episodes were produced? I don’t know any of it! Help!
Other highlights:
16A. “The Yankee Years” co-writer (TORRE). Less than a week until baseball season begins. Joe TORRE will be leading my beloved Dodgers to hopefully another division championship. I will, once again, be tracking their record when mentioned in the puzzle. I know it’s a feature that everyone sorely misses during the offseason but, rest easy, only a few more days to go.
23A. Steps nonchalantly (SASHAYS). I also don’t know how to spell SASHAYS. But, unlike BROCCOLI, I don’t think I ever knew how spell it.
24A. Common commemorative items (PLATES). Has anybody seen the commercial for the Obama commemorative plate? Well, you should.
39D. Tubular pasta (RIGATONI). Tubular pasta is also teen speak for very bitchin’ pasta.
Nice Tuesday puzzle by Mr. Parrish.
Think of me with sympathy tonight.
Next stop, Wednesday.
