Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Saluton! (That’s “hello” in Esperanto.) Welcome to the fiftieth episode of Fill Me In, a crow-crazy jacket marble. Nah, that didn’t work, and it’s kind of lost its magic. Anyway, we have a few items to cover in this week’s episode. Among them:

• Viewer mail
• that guy whose name was the answer to our contest
• Ryan tries to sing like a fish
• Brian can’t pronounce “phone”

Also, this episode features an interview with Elissa Grossman, who is co-ordinating the Los Angeles Crossword Tournament this Saturday, April 25. The event benefits the Reading To Kids charity.

We’re also taking a moment to plug a new crossword blog. We think it’s called The Blair Puzzle Project. Check it out.

All that in the newest episode of Fill Me In. Enjoy!

 

 Fill Me In #050: Thunder vs. Lightning [30:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.

When I was very young, my parents acquired three cats for me and my sisters. One was sleek and black, one a fluffy beige and one was either calico or tabby (I don’t remember). They named the cats Tinker, Evers and Chance. I didn’t know why for a very long time — well, very long relative to the time at which I got the cats. I mean, I was probably 11 or 12 (and the cats were no longer part of our lives, having run away or somesuch) before I ever even questioned the origin of the names. I just assumed that my parents had liked those words. I mean, they were just words.

But Tinker (once clued in the New York Sun as “Fiddle,” 4/10/03), Evers (”Civil rights leader Medgar,” CrosSynergy, 3/9/06) and Chance (”Monopoly Card,” New York Times, 8/13/94) were so much more to another generation, one before my parents. From 1902-1912, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance manned the infield for the Chicago Cubs, appearing in four World Series (winning in 1907 and 1908, famously the last time the Cubs won the World Series). In today’s horrendous sports economy, players move from team to team as if the goal is not to play the game or win the ring but rather to wear as many different uniforms during a career as possible. The idea that three players could be teammates for

eleven seasons sounds absurd today.

Trivia question: As of the writing of this post, there is one trio of players who have been teammates for longer than Tinker, Evers and Chance. Name them.

This puzzle was a baseball lover’s delight. And how is it possible that, in all these years, no one ever discovered that these theme entries were all fifteen letters long?

• 17A. 1908 Cubs player and position : TINKER, SHORTSTOP
• 25A. 1908 Cubs player and position : EVERS, SECOND BASE
• 43A. 1908 Cubs player and position : CHANCE, FIRST BASE
• 57A. What 17-, 25- and 43-Across were, famously : DOUBLE PLAY COMBO

These three guys made it into the Hall of Fame, although the nostalgia of their work probably stood for more than their actual gameplay. They were inducted together in 1946 by the Veteran’s Committee. There was a famous poem written about them called “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” written by Franklin Pierce Adams. It’s in the public domain, so I reprint it here:

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

In Ogden Nash’s “Line-Up for Yesterday,” he takes us through the alphabet with a fleet of baseball bits, including this one:

E is for Evers,
His jaw in advance;
Never afraid
To Tinker with Chance.

There was a little more baseball peppered into this puzzle. 41A. Baseball analyst Hershiser (OREL) is clued only for the second of his 37 times as something other than a player, while 22A. The Braves, on a scoreboard (ATL) makes another appearance. Other sports: 7D. Only African-American male to win Wimbledon (ASHE), 38D. Flag tossers, for short (REFS) and 53D. Iditarod terminus (NOME) all show up.

Oh — since Orel Hershiser was in the puzzle, I think that will count as the first Dodger representation for the 2009 baseball season. Ryan will have to confirm, but tonight, the Dodgers visit Houston to take on the Astros. Ryan, perhaps you can chime in here and remind our viewers how the Boys in Blue did last year when mentioned in the puzzle. What was their record?

Now that baseball season is fully upon us, please open your minds to the predictable expectation that Ryan and I will periodcally digress from crosswords into baseball talk. We’re both visiting Citi Field (new home of the Mets) this weekend, and I’m taking in about a dozen games at Yankee Stadium over the next few weeks (including two against rival Boston in May!). Anytime you all would like to discuss baseball in the comments below, please feel free.

Also, check out our new podcast… Should be posted just above this.

So… See you Wednesday!

A fine Monday puzzle today by Randall J. Hartman.  The theme was all about Jimmie “J.J.” “Kid Dynamite” Walker.

And, in a picture that makes very little sense, here he is with Ann Coulter.

17A. Brother outlaw in the Wild West (JESSE JAMES).  Did anybody see that Brad Pitt movie?  I think it was called The Assassination of That Outlaw Named Jesse James by this Other Guy, Robert Ford, Who’s Bravery Has Been Questioned by Those Who Knew Him but His Mother Still Thinks He’s a Wonderful Boy.  I tried to get through it but it was so…what do you call it?…boring that I simply couldn’t make it to the end.

54A. White Sox outfielder nicknamed Shoeless (JOE JACKSON).  Ah, baseball season is here again.  And who’s in first place?  That’s right, the Dodgers.

10D. “Me and Bobby McGee” singer, 1971 (JANIS JOPLIN).  I really don’t know anything about JOPLIN so I’ll refrain from commenting on the answer.

24D. Longtime New York senator for whom a center is named (JACOB JAVITS).  Ever been to the JAVITS center?  Of course you haven’t.  They built a huge, state of the art convention center and put it nowhere near anything.  In all fairness, it is conveniently located across an extremely busy highway.  And it’s in the ocean.

36A. Retail clothing giant…or a description of 17- and 54-Across and 10- and 24-Down? (J CREW).  I’m not sure I totally understand this.  Does this mean collectively the theme answers are a “J” crew?  Explain.  And do it while wearing chinos.

Two other clues seem to part of the theme but are apparently not part of the J CREW: JO JO and JELLY JAR.  Is this because they are not symmetrically arranged?

Other highlights:

1A. Knight’s competition (JOUST).  Has anybody ever beaten JOUST?  I’ve been able to get to maybe the 8th or 9th level but never beyond that.

14A. Winfrey who said “I still have my feet on the ground, I just wear better shoes” (OPRAH).  This clue cracks me up.  So much more information than is needed.  It’s a Monday, the clue could just read “Winfrey.”  What other Winfreys are there?

18D. “The Gong Show” panelist ___ P. Morgan (JAYE).  I have very faint memories of watching the The Gong Show Movie in the theater when I was 8.  I don’t know how I ended up at this particular R-rated flick but I do remember seeing JAYE take her top off.  Yes, indeed, I do remember that.

Great, fun, Monday puzzle by Randall.  A great example of how a puzzle can be easy yet still be filled with lively clues and answers.

Next stop, Tuesday.

Here we are, wedged in between the conclusion of the NCAA basketball tournament and the start of the NBA finals. The theme of this puzzle is that extra frame, after all is tied up at the end of regulation — OVERTIME. The title, “Extra! Extra!” is the hint, and the theme answers all have “OT” added to them to make the clue clever:

• 22A. Spoiling one’s vote? : WRECKING BALLOT. Okay, already I’m going to gripe. I don’t like “one’s” in the clue. Spoiling one’s vote = wrecking THE ballot or wrecking HIS ballot or something like that. Simply “wrecking ballot” — I’m not even sure what part of speech this is. Mike Nothnagel, if you’re out there, help us. Use “wrecking ballot” in a sentence the same way you could use “spoiling one’s vote” in the same sentence. Isn’t that the standard clue-meets-answer test?
• 32A. Computer monitor at the center of attention? : SPOTLIT SCREEN. Yeah, I had FOOTLIT for too long here.
• 47A. Child’s toy in the shape of a Shakespeare character? : Clumsy clue, I think, but OTHELLO DOLLY is the best of the theme entries.
• 64A. Headline about an economics conference? : JOHN MAYNARD KEYNOTES. Ah, yes, the popular “keynotes” as a verb trick. Also, I don’t know who John Maynard Keynes is, but he was in one of the Boston tournament puzzles, so now he’s in my head.
• 84A. Booster for a king? : ROYAL FLU SHOT. Here the convention changes somewhat. No longer do we take two words, add OT to one of them and still have two words. No, we split up FLUSH and make a new three-word phrase. Ah, monkeying with the system, are we?
• 97A. Dark ottoman? : BLACK FOOTREST
• 109A. Put five musicians on display? : TROT OUT QUINTET. Apparently, the “Trout Quintet” is a piano piece. I had no idea. And now I retire from the music industry.

I had a lot of trouble with that final entry. 109D. Vietnam’s Le Duc ___ was anything to me, any consonant in that first spot (THO was the correct answer). 111D. William Tell’s canton is URI. I still don’t understand. and 106D. Algorithm part is a STEP. This ruined my theory that 120A. 15%, maybe was TAX. It was TIP. I tend to leave either 10% or 20%. My wife sometimes goes back and adds a dollar. Oh well.

This is a short post, because it’s late and I’m getting up early to do a podcast. Ryan is supposed to bring me breakfast. You will learn here, on this site, whether or not he did. Tune in.

Also — whatever happened to that Ryan-and-Brian-post-together thing? Should that have continued? I’ll put a poll in the comments. If more than two of you vote, it’s for real, and we’ll pay attention.

Well, I hate to tell everybody this but the applet is broken.  I can think of no other reason why it won’t accept my perfectly fine solution to this Byron Walden puzzle.  I worked on this thing for over 3 hours, filled in all the boxes with all the correct letters and, as Britney Spears famously sang, I can’t get no satisfaction.

Ok, maybe not all of the letters are correct but it really should be close enough.  For crying out loud, I figured out FIG TREE (1D. Jesus cursed one in Matthew 21) and GROUND SQUIRRELS (17A. Marmots and prairie dogs) and LE QUARTIER LATIN (8D. Home of la Sorbonne).  My god, that’s a 15-letter answer!  And it’s in French!  A language I simply do not speak.  À qui pensez-vous que je suis, Marcello Mastroianni?

Ok, there are a few areas where I may be a little, shall we say, iffy on my entries.

…oh, wait…hold on…wait, wait, wait…and…yes!  I figured it out!  Woohoo!  No google!  Ok, maybe the applet isn’t broken.  I still don’t think it likes me but it appears to be working fine.

Here’s what I just figured out.

49D. It may give you a buzz (PAGER).  I had LAGER which still seems like a fine answer.  PAGER is much better and, as it turns out, much more correct.  I’m unfamiliar with “The Far Shore of Time” so even though it was written by Frederik POHL it could have been written Frederik LOHL and I wouldn’t have made a fuss.

My other trouble spot was 30D. Protection: Var. (EGIS).  I figured it was a variant spelling of AEGIS but it just didn’t look right to me.

The rest of the grid was filled with great stuff.

1A. They lack private parts (FISH BOWLS).  I was quite sure “private parts” was not referring to anything anatomical although I did have NIGHT OWLS in there at one point.  I consider myself a bit of a night owl and I can assure you I do have private parts.

22A. Wranglers, e.g. (JEANS).  Didn’t fool me on this one.

29A. The 1965 William Shatner film “Incubus” is in it (ESPERANTO).  This one took me a long time.  I was expecting it be something like SENSE-AROUND, or CINERAMA or TECHNICOLOR.  Something like that.  Never heard of this film.  Anybody seen it?

35A. They may be thrown over the shoulder (SARIS).  Took me 3 hours to get this one.

44A. Fraternity letters (RHOS).  Wasn’t RHO in yesterday’s puzzle?

47A. Early advocate of bloodletting (GALEN).  I still say bloodletting is bad idea.

53A. Source of Caravane cheese (CAMEL). One hump or two?

7D. Where M.S.T. and P.S.T. can be found (WESTERN US).  Oh boy, I tried and tried to squeeze a state name in here.

11D. New York’s Five ___ Bike Tour (BORO).  First answer I put in.  I’d love to do the tour one day.  Seems like a lot of fun.

12D. Ant-Man, Iron Man, Wasp or Thor, in Marvel Comics (AVENGER).  Poor Ant-Man.  He’s just so small.  So very, very small.

13D. 1999 A.L. Rookie of the Year Carlos (BELTRAN).  Uck.  Hate the Mets.

35D. Shows contempt for (SPITS AT).  Ok, so one thing about this grid.  The word AT shows up 3 times.  SPITS AT, AT TWO and PULLS AT.  Is that kosher?

Great puzzle by Byron.  We hope to have him on the show soon.

Next stop, Sunday.

Oh my god, I’m so swamped at work.  Today’s post will have to be concise and to the point.  I just no-googled today’s Corey Rubin puzzle.  Typically fun Friday themeless.

6A. Slow-smoked Southern grub (TEXAS BBQ).  Thank god my wife’s from Texas.  We go down there a couple of times a year.  Great eats.  At any given time I’ve either got a huge plate of enchiladas in front of me or healthy portion of ribs and brisket.  So good.  The BBQ has definitely gotten better in NYC over the past 5 years but it still doesn’t compare to Texas.  I don’t have a handy picture of me eating BBQ but here’s a shot of the chicken fried steak at the Rib Tickler.

15A. “No, no, this one’s on me” (IVE GOT YOU).  What, no Sonny and Cher?

17A. Read rights to, as a perp (MIRANDIZE).  I’m going to start using this type of conjugation.  After lunch tomorrow I will be Tacobellized.

22A. Something Mr. Olympia lacks (FLAB).  One of these guys missed the dress code memo.  I’m not sure which one though.

32A. Appt. book headings (MTWTF).  Yeah, this took me way too long.

42A. Side for passage (AYES).  Great clue.  Completely confusing then makes perfect sense.

53A. Our neighbor’s nickname, with “the” (RED PLANET).  Ok, how many of you tried to come up with a nickname for Canada?  C’mon, don’t make me the only one raising his hand.

13D. Story lines of Indiana Jones films (QUESTS).  On the bright side, Kingdom of the Crystal Crap makes the original three look even better.

30D. “Lost” character Jin-Soo ___ (KWON).  For all of you who gave up on Lost I have to say you’re really missing out.  Yes, it’s goofy and ridiculous and, at times, doesn’t really sync up with earlier seasons but it’s so much fun.  No spoilers please, I haven’t seen this weeks episode yet (stupid job) but I can’t wait to see what new questions this week’s answers will lead to.  Hey, it’s kind of like Jeopardy.

37D. Park since 1912 (FENWAY).  Finally got to go here last season.  Wonderful place to see a ball game.

Brian and I and the wife and Sammy the Dentist are going to the new Citifield in a week.  We’ll have a full report.

Ok, that’s all for today.  Work has completely fried my brain.  Great puzzle today.

Next stop, Saturday.

Tough Thursday puzzle today by 3 and a half year old Oliver Hill.

Great theme:

26D. Derive (from)…or a two-part hint for understanding 17-, 33-, 42-, and 58-Across (EXTRACT).  I like these type of themes.  You take a word and you parse it in an unusual manner and you get the theme instructions.  In this case EXTRA CT and the theme answers are all in-the-language phrases with an EXTRA CT added to make a new phrase.

17A. Revealed when seeking medical help (SHOWED THE DOCTOR).

33A. Water passages that don’t turn (DIRECT STRAITS).

42A. One-named R&B singer makes her choice? (MONICA SELECTS).  R&B?  I didn’t know we had a singer.  I’d love to hear Monica do her rendition of the Viewer Mail song.

58A. Continental salve (EUROPEAN UNCTION).  You don’t hear the word UNCTION much and I think I know why.  A salve is supposed to be soothing but the word UNCTION sounds anything but soothing.  Aloe? Yes.  Moisturizer? Of course.  Lotion? I’ll take two.  But UNCTION?  Too jarring.  You may as well buy a bottle of Woodchoppernailguncrusher brand face cream.

I had much trouble in the upper right.

9A. Synthetic fabric (ARNEL).  Never heard of this.  And a quick check on google reveals nothing that would suggest a fabric.  What could this be?

11D. HNO2 (NITROUS ACID).  I took chemistry I in the 10th grade and got an A.  My chem teacher energetically encouraged me to take chemistry II in the 11th grade.  Big mistake.  No one told me it was basically going to be a math class.  Chemistry I was full of fun experiments and lighting stuff on fire.  Chemistry II was all kinds of crazy symbols and equations and Avocado’s number and crap.  I got a C.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

13D. Singer Julius who was famously fired on the air by Arthur Godfrey (LA ROSA).  Apparently, there’s a whole segment of the entertainment history that I’m totally in the dark about.  From the little bit of research I’ve done it seems that Godfrey was a pain in the ass nut.

27A. Trixie’s mom, in the comics (LOIS).  I don’t know how I figured this one out.  Here’s a sample of Hi & Lois:

Where is the joke?  Why is this baby person so amped up about solar power?  Why is that tall, slacker-type dude so excited about what is clearly a mono radio?  What if he wants to listen to music someplace else besides right in front of the window?  Why is he wearing a cupcake on his head?  And to make matters worse, I really don’t like the way that bear is looking at me.

So somehow I figured out the whole upper right and still screwed up the puzzle.

4D. Question that demands an explanation (HOW SO).  I had HOW TO which I guess isn’t really a question.  It seemed to be right though.  And TARA appeared to be a great title for a Fleetwood Mac hit.  Oh well, if anybody asks, I’m telling them this is the puzzle I tanked at the Boston Crossword Tournament.  At least it’s a Thursday.

Next stop, Friday.

Today’s Michael Vuolo puzzle was Puzzle #4 from the Boston Crossword Tournament. I did not tank this one which allowed me to leave Beantown with a shred of dignity remaining. So, to sum up, the BCT was made up of 1 Monday, 2 Tuesdays (One of which was actually a Thursday. Mr. Shortz must have had a filing error.) and 1 Wednesday and I struggled on all of them. The question is, would I have struggled with them if I was doing them without the pressure of a tournament clock? Oh, probably.

Today’s impossible crossing comes courtesy of the letter C.

45A. D.C. influence wielder (PAC). We would also have accepted SOMETHING I’VE NEVER HEARD OF EVEN THOUGH I’VE WATCHED THE FIRST THREE SEASONS OF THE WEST WING. Ok, seriously, 3 letters, DC, starts with P, abbreviation: POL. Right? Well, that’s what I wrote in. I knew the P was correct from LIPS (38D. They may be licked or smacked) and I knew the O was wrong from AMBI (46D. Prefix with dextrous). I did try to convince myself it was OMBIdextrous and that I’d been mispronouncing it this whole time but, although I’m usually quite gullible, I didn’t fall for it. So that left me with PA_. Why didn’t Political Action Committee immediately jump into my head? I don’t know, because it doesn’t exist? It’s imaginary? It’s a figment of Mr. Vuolo’s imagination? These are all good reasons. I’d say just pick one and go with it.

This left me with the task of figuring out the crossing answer which was:

47D. Actress Phyliss of “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein” (COATES). Seriously? It may has well have read 47D. Come up with the name of an actress you’ve never heard of who starred in a movie you’ve never seen. Go! Now! What are you waiting for? Yes, half the room has already left and you’re probably going to finish last anyway since you totally screwed up the previous puzzle but if you blow this one you’ll never live it down. Now! Go! Name her! Name her, you fool! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha! The world is mine! All mine! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha! You want me on that wall, you need me on that wall! Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! You don’t know the power of the dark side! Hahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha! When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet through and through! Or something like that.

Never heard of this movie although a quick look on the wikipedia shows it does have a great tag line, “Body of a Boy! Mind of a Monster! Soul of an Unearthly Thing!” That really could describe just about anybody I went to high school with. Anyway, I had the OATES and cycled through the alphabet until something sounded more correct than anything else. In the end it was a tossup between COATES and NOATES, I went with COATES and got lucky.

What about the theme you say? Well, it was all about eating utensils and it was interesting in that two answers were 15 letters long and the third answer spanned 3 clues and was 31 letters long.

17A. Have surgery (GO UNDER THE KNIFE).

24A. With 37- and 50-Across, privileged (BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN ONES MOUTH). OMG! OMG! OMG! This is the greatest clip ever!

60A. “Gimmie!” (FORK IT OVER BUDDY).

A fine theme. Silverware doesn’t really get me all that excited but a well-crafted theme all the same.

Other highlights:

35D. Fries often (SIDE ORDER). Sweet mercy! I love French fries. I think I’ve already detailed my love of Pomme Frites but I love fries any which way. Plain or smothered in ketchup, mayo, BBQ sauce, mustard or anything else you can think of. One of my favorite dishes on Earth is a big plate of crisp shoestring fries covered in chili and shredded cheese. Oy vey! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. I’ve also tried the Canadian specialty, Poutine. (Fries with cheese and gravy which somehow got the name Disco Fries in the US. I’d love to hear the explanation of that.) How do you guys like your fries? Have I been missing out on some delicious combination?

For those of you who are not podcast listeners I want to update everyone on our twitter contest. Even though we held it smack dab in the middle of Easter (whoops!) it was still a rousing success. The contest question was “What is the full Fill Me In nickname for the VP of Operations of Magmic games?” Almost immediately we got three slightly incomplete answers but within 5 minutes popular crossword blog denizen, Crosscan came up with the correct response: Stephen Edwards aka Stephen “Grimaldi” Grant. It’s possible his Canadian heritage gave him an edge but whatever it was Crosscan is now the proud owner of a brand new copy of Stanley Newman’s Crossword Shortcuts. Congratulations, Crosscan. If you didn’t win, or missed the contest or don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, never fear. We plan on having more contests in the very near future. Just as soon as we can lay our hands on some more prizes.

Next stop, Thursday.

Yup, so here it is.  The infamous Barry Boone puzzle that I completely tanked at the Boston Crossword Tournament.  And, yes, it is a Tuesday.  In order to make myself feel a little better I’ve been telling myself it was probably a Thursday and, at the very least, a Wednesday.  Unfortunately, that is one fantasy world in which I can no longer reside.  (Luckily, the one full of unicorns, Cup O’Noodles and Reginald VelJohnson is still open for business.)

Here’s what I screwed up:

34D. Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet era, e.g. (DISSIDENT).  Yes, I know what a DISSIDENT is.  But I had DISSI_E__ and I just couldn’t get the rest.  Very, very, very, monumentally frustrating.  In my defense, your honor, the crossing clues were ridiculously hard for a Tuesday puzzle.

57A. “Gloria in excelsis ___” (DEO).  Apparently, this is a hymn also known as the Greater Doxology.  Not to be confused with the Minor Doxology.  Which, in turn, is not to be confused with any number of other things I’ve never heard of in my life.  I saw “Gloria” and all I could think of was All in the Family, I saw “in” and all I could think of was The In-Laws, and I saw “excelsis” and all I could think of was I’m going to tank a Thursday puzzle.

63A. “Evil ___” (comic series) (ERNIE).  Ok, first off, Evil ERNIE is terrifying.

Second off, I’ve read a lot of comics in my life but have never, ever, not even slightly come across Evil ERNIE.  Third off, what the hell?  Isn’t this a Tuesday?  There’s no easier way to clue this in a Tuesday manner?  Here are a few ideas:

• Golfer Els
• Bert and ___
• Rhymes with Bernie

None of those would have worked?

66A. Number of hills in Roma (SETTE).  Oh, sure, let’s throw in some Italian.  Come nel mondo sono io suppone sette di sapere che cosa è in italiano? Che cosa sono io, il Sig. Rosetta Stone qui? Chi sono io, Gerard Depardieu?

Not that it matters, but I got the rest of the puzzle correct.  Unfortunately, that didn’t prevent me from finishing 71st and bringing shame to my family.

On the bright side, the rest of puzzle was great.  The theme answers had circled letters that spelled out HIDDEN GEMS.

17A. 1985 Glenn Close/Jeff Bridges thriller (JAGGED EDGE).  I’ve never seen it but considering it came out in 1985 I’m betting it’s completely ridiculous.

21A. Mail service made obsolete by the transcontinental telegraph (PONY EXPRESS).  Anybody ever seen the Kevin Costner move, The Postman?  I have and I must say that in the canon of completely ridiculous movies it’s one of the more enjoyable offerings.

40A. Widening in a highway, maybe (TOLL PLAZA).  Too bad for Sonny Corleone that the EZPass wasn’t around back then.

53A. 1970s Robert Young TV role (MARCUS WELBY).  If my life depended on it I don’t think I could distinguish MARCUS WELBY from an overripe pineapple.

I did notice a mistake in one of the clues:

7D. Four-time Harrison Ford film role (INDY).  This should read three-time Harrison Ford film role.  The Kingdom of the Crystal Crapfest is not now, nor has it ever been, recognized in my household as an Indiana Jones film.  Plastic skulls?  Aliens?  Guys who live in the ceiling waiting for intruders to come by once every 50 years?  Nonsense.  Here’s an interesting bit from an article on the science of nostalgia and how Lucas has completely screwed with my memories.

A large portion of 70’s and 80’s children had grown up owning Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures and playing in the backyard pretending sticks were light sabers. Fond childhood memories.  When the first abysmal Star Wars Prequel was released the strong feelings against the film weren’t just those of disappointment at a bad movie. If it were that simple, we should also feel the same way about Police Academy 7.

The reaction can be partly explained by the sense of attack on our previously fond feelings. Watching the new movie automatically calls up memories from the previous series and all the pleasant childhood playtime memories associated with it. But recalling these fond memories in the context of a negative experience begins the process of re-coding, or modifying our old memories.  This is an undesirable outcome for nostalgia as it is usually such a pleasant feeling. Naturally there is some resistance and cognitive dissonance when this happens and the brain will try to avoid it like any other unpleasant experience.

And, finally, something that doesn’t have anything to do with crosswords.  Before Brian and I taped the podcast on Sunday we talked about how I’d never seen anybody hit for the cycle in a baseball game.  I’ve seen it in highlights but it had never happened in a game that I watched live.  (Hitting for the cycle in baseball is one player hitting a single, double, triple and home run in the same game.)  In fact, one of the constants in my life has been knowing that the last Dodger to hit for the cycle was Wes Parker in 1970.  Lo and behold, I’m watching the game on Monday and Los Angeles Dodger Orlando Hudson hit for the cycle.  Unbelievable.

Next stop, Wednesday.

Only now, as we realize that this is episode 49, do we wonder why we didn’t do a big-time contest for our fiftieth episode. But then again, 49 is a square number whereas 50 is not. So voilà, touché, frêre jaçqü?š and so on.

This week’s episode of Fill Me In is jam-packed with all kinds of excitement. It’s about 80% viewer mail sprinkled with peppers of varying sorts. These peppers include (but are not limited to):

• The contest! Yes, it’s our first ever contest, and this one was announced and played all through Twitter. If you’re not yet twitting, get on board. Our name is bemoresmarter. You follow us, and we’ll follow you. Sound good?
• The ongoing saga of cell phone crossword software
• The arc continues…
• Blatant copyright infringement!

All of that, and possibly some more of Brian being annoyed at Ryan, is part of this episode of Fill Me In. Enjoy!

 

 Fill Me In #049: The Contest [30:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.