Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Two Trivia Boxes kept me from a true no-Google puzzle. I need to find a distinction between the true no-Google (zero assistance from anywhere), the partial no-Google (checking the validity of an already believed-to-be-accurate answer with xwordinfo.com [or by "guessing" via the applet]) and a full non-no-Google (blatant cheating). These distinctions need names. Yesterday (Saturday), I needed a lot of help from xwordinfo (since many of my efforts at validation went poorly). Today, I had just two guessing squares. And once I learned them (they were both the letter D), the answers made no more sense than they had when I was cycling through the alphabet looking for guesses.

Trivia Boxes du jour:

• 25D. Sea lily, e.g. (CRINOID) and 59A. Oregon city, with “The” (DALLES). My other two prime candidates here were S and R, either of which seemed to be equally realistic sounding without making any less sense for 25D. I think any consonant would have been acceptable for 59A, and even a vowel or two. I’m looking through the Wikipedia page for The Dalles, and almost every link they offer is for something else I’ve never heard of. Wasco County? Columnar basalt? The 2000 census? Is this an actual thing, The Dalles? Maybe I’ll use AROOSTOOK in a puzzle someday. It’s a county in Maine. Seems about as random, except I’m from Maine, so I’ve heard of it. As for the sea lily, I think this photo of a fossil of one is about as suggestive as a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. Maybe CRINOID means more than we think.
• 60A. King of England, 946-55 (EDRED) and 56D. Italian Renaissance composer Banchieri (ADRIANO). Come on. This is ridiculous. Two obscure names, neither of which exists anywhere in the world. Banchieri apparently helped develop the ever-popular madrigal comedy. This was a series of songs, sung a cappella, which followed a vague plot. Take away the plot, and it sounds like something I did in college about twice a month. Who knew I was so close to 16th century Italian music? And Edred’s mother’s name was Eadgifu. Look for her in next Sunday’s puzzle.

How about the fact that TERENCE (54D. Ancient playwright who originated the phrase “While there’s life, there’s hope”) has appeared two days in a row? Terence also said, “so many men, so many opinons.” This is way too true.

Oh, it’s Sunday, so we have a super-sized grid with a big-time theme, right? No, not really. This was basically a 21×21 themeless some long answers that satisfied a clever rule, but left a final gimmick somewhat flat. The theme is described in the notepad (if you use Across Lite), and probably appears somewhere on the page (if you use the newspaper). It said “Every letter in the answer to each asterisked clue appears an even number of times in that answer… except one. Altogether, these eight unpaired letters can be arranged to spell the answer to 68- and 70-Across.”

What?

Will Shortz, I would ask that a little more attention be paid to these sorts of notes. This one seems to barely explain what it’s supposed to explain. And even after figuring out what this meant, it did little to help figure out the puzzle. And even after figuring out the puzzle, the entries at 68- and 70-Across were kind of bland. Some people are ___ crosswords. And the answer is NUTS OVER. As my wife would say, “Meh.” Slightly more interesting were the simple existences of those eight long entries:

• 3D. Not firm work? : PRIVATE PRACTICE
• 23A. Religious affiliation of John Adams and William Howard Taft : UNITARIAN CHURCH
• 33A. You raise your arms for these : ANTI-PERSPIRANTS. I discovered recently that my father uses Tag. This is the one that has the commercials where the moment the guy puts it on, tons of hot girls swarm him. I wonder if my dad has seen these ads.
• 46D. Real work : STRENUOUS EFFORT
  
• 49A. Physician’s promise : HIPPOCRATIC OATH. To whom does the physician make this promise? I understand that it is the vow to uphold the whatever of the patients’ whatever, but to whom is this vow delivered? I’ve never heard a doctor speak any of it to me. Am I (unfortunately) exempt from this oath’s requirements?
• 86A. Hides out : GOES UNDERGROUND
• 102A. Deficits : INSUFFICIENCIES
• 116A. Ragged : TATTERED AND TORN

There’s a ton more words in this puzzle, but I have to leave this alone for the night. I’m still swamped with work, and it doesn’t let up much until October. So there you have it. A fine, although not thrilling, Sunday puzzle.

In other news, I’m still doing a bunch of old Thursday and Friday Sun puzzles when I have the time. They are awesome. Just sayin’.

Somewhat non-no-Google streak: 2. Bleah.

See you Monday.

Well, I’m on California time today so the blog is also.  A word of caution, I’m on my mother’s dreaded macbook so I don’t know what any of the buttons do and I can’t right click anything so this post may lack my usual brilliance.  Joon Pahk, Squirrel of Discord, why do you like these Macs so much?

On to today’s Matt Ginsberg puzzle.  I enjoyed it and found it easier than yesterday’s 8-hour slog through ignorance.  I finished this up in about an hour although I had three blank squares that I needed to use Brian’s xwordinfo trick to figure out.  They were:

The W in WOLD (48A. Chain of treeless rolling hills) and SWAGE (44D. Metalworking tool).  Two words of which I’ve never heard.  Please use them in a sentence.  In fact, please use them in the same sentence.

The O in GIRO (54D. Big name in cycling helmets) and DODGED (63A. Hemmed and hawed).  Ok, this was my fault.  I had ZED (59D. Lack of organisation) wrong.  I put ZEE so I had D_EGED for 63A and was completely stumped.  My wife does a lot of cycling (in fact, she’ll be in Tahoe next weekend doing a century ride with Team in Training) but I’ve never heard of GIRO.

The T in POMATUM (25D. Fragrant hair dressing) and PETARD (40A. Gate-breaching bomb).  I had a mistake here also with RAP (33D. Criticize).  I had RAG instead which gave me GE_ARD and thought it might be a failed GE product.  PETARD I only know from bizarre saying “Hoisted on his own petard” which for some reason always makes me thing of ballet dancers.  Maybe because PETARD kind of rhymes with LEOTARD.  Is that possible?  I’ve also never heard of POMATUM which is odd since I’m obsessed with my hair (or lack of it).

I got everything else without too much trouble.

16A. “Water that moves you” sloganeer (JACUZZI).  This one took me a while.  Once I had the ACU I tried to fit GLACEAU in there.  Don’t they make Vitamin Water?  It was a nice Aha Moment once I figured it out.

17A. Spanish pork sausage (CHORIZO).  I think the first time I ever heard the word CHORIZO was in the movie Midnight Run.  Charles Grodin wanted it for breakfast.  If I was on a real computer I’d post a picture here of that fantastic movie but since I have no clue how to do that on this mystery box you’ll have to imagine it instead.

21A. Sucker, quickly (VAC).  The wife and I just purchased a Dyson Ball Vacuum.  Awesome.  Our last vacuum just kind of moved the cat hair around.  The Dyson actually sucks it up.  I’m a believer.

24A. Cause of some food recalls (ECOLI).  This reminded me of a recent Onion article.

61A. Ancient Roman writer of comedies (TERENCE).  I’m sure everybody already knows this bit by heart but it’s too funny not to post one more time.

SA. Numquam uidi iniquius certationem comparatam, quam quae hodie inter nos fuit: ego uapulando, ille uerberando, usque ambo defessisumus.

SY. Tua culpa.

SA. Quid facerem?

SY. Adulescenti morem gestum oportuit.

SA. Qui potui melius, qui hodie usque os praebui?

SY. Age, scis quid loquar? pecuniam in loco neclegere maxumum interdumst lucrum.

SA. Hui!

Neclegere maxumum interdumst lucrum!  Never gets old.

4D. Day “Cheers” was on: Abbr. (THU).  Total gimmie.  This was the Must See TV night I grew up on.  Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers and Night Court.  What a powerhouse lineup.  Looking back, only Cheers has held up over time but, man, that was a great night of TV.

Ok, that’s it for today.  You’ll have to wait till I get back to a PC on Tuesday to hear the continuation of Superman’s Crossword Puzzle Mystery.

Great puzzle, Matt.

Next stop, Sunday.

For those who follow me and Ryan on “Fill Me In,” you know that we’re in the process of trying to become more smarter at constructing puzzles. In doing so, I’ve been taking a closer look at clues and the locations of particular entries as I try to discern why certain things seem to be done in certain ways. One thing I’ve been noticing lately is the use of 1-Across (or other early-in-the-puzzle clues), particularly in Friday and Saturday (i.e. themeless) puzzles. There seems to be a pattern, maybe even a trend, in making that 1-Across entry something memorable.

• Friday, April 17 (6A) Slow smoked Southern grub : TEXAS BBQ
• Friday, April 24. (1D) Drafting aids : T-SQUARES
• Saturday, May 9. No backbreaker : CUSHY JOB
• Saturday, May 16. Exuberant gesture with splayed fingers : JAZZ HANDS
• Saturday, May 23. Squidward’s neighbor on Nickelodeon : SPONGEBOB

Maybe there’s nothing here. But there seem to be a lot of clues and/or answers in the upper left (where most people start) that offer extra cleverness, Scrabbly letters, what have you.

It doesn’t take a genius to recognize the logic here. Put something exciting in the early part of the puzzle, and grab the solver. Much like an exciting pilot episode (”Lost”) or a knock-out first chapter (”A Prayer For Owen Meany”), the writer/constructor does this to get attention and hopefully not let it go. Makes sense to do it in a puzzle as well. The down side is that you run the risk of leading your audience into a false sense of excitement (”Lost”), and if you don’t maintain your thrill-meter readings (”Lost,” Season One), you end up producing absolute drivel (”Lost,” Season Three).

I would categorize today’s Randolph Ross puzzle as “Lost,” Season Two, but beginning with the second episode. See, in the second season of “Lost,” the first five minutes of the first episode were awesome. Just awesome. After that, it got very plain. And shortly after that, despite moments of excitement, it got just stupid. (Yes, yes, this is my blatant invitation for the comments below to digress away from the puzzle and into a battle of whether “Lost” has any value. I say it does not. Ryan loves it. Whatever.) My point is that Mr. Ross did not grab us with a knockout 1-Across (Place holder? : DIGIT), and only a vaguely cute 1-Down (Pops : DEAR OLD DAD). In fact, for my money ($39.95 divided by 365 puzzles is about… eleven cents?), the first truly exciting entry in the grid doesn’t show up until… now that I look closer, there really isn’t one. Maybe this is Season Three of “Lost.” Or the lousy current season of “Scrubs.” I’m just not moved much by this fill.

And in other news, why are the numbers on the box artwork for this DVD set of “Lost”? (Yes, Ryan, I put the question mark outside the quotes just for you.) The numbers got destroyed at the end of Season One when Locke blew up the hatch. Do the numbers even matter anymore?

There were tons of two-word entries:

• 2D. Beneath : INFERIOR TO
• 3D. Sir Francis Drake discovery of 1579 : GOLDEN GATE
• 6A. “Lost” category : PAST TENSE. I don’t get this. I assume that they don’t mean the horrible television program that used to be about people stranded on a not-so-deserted island after a mysterious plane crash but is now about things that are no longer real or even sci-fi-style believable or even real-life-style interesting. I assume they mean like, “I lost my lunch” and “lost” is in the past tense. The quotes are super misleading here, and not for any cute payoff.
• 6D. Series kickoff : PART ONE. I tried GAME ONE here for a while. Oops.
• 15A. Online message : E-NOTE. Come on, there is no such thing. An e-note? It’s email, it’s always email. Maybe it’s a tweet, maybe it’s a Facebook message. But if it’s e-something, it’s email.
• 17A. G neighbor : A FLAT. The picture at right is both A-flat and A-double-flat. A double-flat is, essentially, G.
• 19A. Memorable : RED LETTER
• 18A. Introducer of 45’s in ‘49 : RCA VICTOR
• 20D (with 12D). Kiddie-lit counterpart of Sherlock Holmes : NATE / THE GREAT
• 21A. What busy people are on : THE GO
• 29D. From a particular perspective : IN ONE SENSE (three words)
• 31A. Long while : DOG’S AGE
• 42D. Picnic cooler : DRY ICE. I have never seen dry ice at a picnic. Do people really use this?
• 48D. “Walk ___” (1964 hit) : ON BY
• 52A. Charlton Heston’s “The Prince and the Pauper” role : HENRY VIII. I tried to find a picture of Charlie in this role. A Google search for “Charlton Heston Prince and the Pauper” came up with a bunch of pictures of Mr. Heston from “Planet of the Apes,” from “The Ten Commandments” and from various times he was holding a rifle.
• 55A. Homeostatic : IN BALANCE
• 57A. From this moment on : ANY LONGER. This one bugs me. I use the phrase “from this moment on” to describe things I intend on doing. On a wedding day, for example, one might say that they’ll love and cherish their soon-to-be-spouse “from this moment on.” I realize that you can use the clue phrase in a negative sense, which is the only way I can make it work in my head with the answer. Can anyone help me find a better parallel for these?

Now that I’ve said all that, I should comment on some impressive stuff. (Maybe I should have done this part first… Hm.) The stacking of long entries is always amazing. NW and SE have triple tens. NE and SW have triple nines. This grid is wide open, which is fantastic. There are no tiny little squeezes that barely connect one section to another; everything is mega-connected. As grid construction goes, it’s awesome.

And there were a few entries that go off the beaten path a bit:

• 25A. “In the Heights” Tony winner ___-Manuel Miranda : LIN. Mr. Miranda and I actually boast the same alma mater, although he was there a few years after me. And he’s obviously far more brilliant and successful than I will ever be. Below is a video of his Tony acceptance speech. It’s awesome.

• 27A. Congregational : LAIC. We remember this word from Joon Pahk’s May 1 puzzle. This time, I would not be so easily fooled.
• 50A. Producers of some bold words : TYPEFACES. This might be my favorite entry in the grid, although not really my favorite clue. I love typography. I have thousands of fonts. I think they’re fantastic. I took a drive with my father not too long ago where we actually got into a lengthy conversation about the typefaces used on road signs. When I pointed out something about the height of a letter, or the upper tail on a lowercase a, my father commented that he never expected to find himself in a car with his musician son discussing typography. Go figure, Xop. Go figure.
• 54A. Columnist Molly : IVINS. I have never heard of her, but it’s a good crossword-y last name.

And as for filling it with non-obscure, gettable stuff, it’s fine. It reads a bit like a bar trivia contest with an underachieving librarian as the host — entirely reasonable, entirely appropriate, entirely accurate (except maybe E-NOTE), and almost entirely plain.

I have to write kind of cranky posts in order to help Ryan maintain his status as blog favorite. I hope this effort was a valiant one. I’m actually quite a fan of Mr. Ross’s work — particularly the Sunday puzzles he’s done lately. In January, it was the OBAMA-hiding-in-the-entries puzzle around inauguration time. It was before we started blogging, but his 3/4/07 puzzle was fantastic. Maybe it’s that I like his themes a bunch, but the themeless need some more zing for me. I’m not sure. And Mr. Ross — if you’re reading this, please feel free to try out my themeless puzzle (currently in development) and tear it to shreds. I’d love the critique, and I deserve the torture.

I look forward to the next. And until then, see you Saturday!

No-Google Streak: 6

Gary Cee, in his NYT debut, has provided us with a great theme.  I enjoy this kind of self-referential business where the crossword acknowledges that it’s a crossword.  (Perhaps that doesn’t make any sense.)

36A. Advice for the broken hearted…or one of four arrangements found literally in this puzzle (GET OVER IT).

And the word GET appears over the word IT four times.

PAGE TURNER is over IMITATE Doesn’t PAGE TURNER sound like the name of a 1940’s film actress?

ROGETS is over SUITOR In place of SUITOR, we would also have accepted adherent, beau, believer, booster, boyfriend, buff, bug, cat, devotee, disciple, enthusiast, fan, fancier, fiend, follower, freak, girlfriend, groupie, hound, junkie, lover, nut, partisan, patron, rooter, suitor, supporter, swain, sweetheart, wooer or worshiper.

BEGETS is over BITMAP I can think of nothing interesting to say about either word so, instead, here’s a picture of a bunny with a pancake on it’s head.

SAGE TEA is over INQUISITOR I don’t drink tea but it seems that anything even vaguely green can be steeped in hot water and made into a beverage.  Is this true?  Can you make cilantro tea?  Celery tea?  Are there any rules to this nonsense?

The theme reminded me of a movie I’ve never seen.  Moonlighting.  In that movie Cher:

slaps Nicolas Cage (featured in the Nicolas Cage plot generator):

and says, “SNAP OUT OF IT”

How would one put that in a theme?  Maybe the word SNAP would be on the outside of the word IT.  Such as in…wait, let me check onelook.com.  Ah, yes…such as in SNES MULTITAP, a very popular something or other that was all the rage back in a recent time period.  But wait, here are some more theme answers to knock your socks off:

ATKINS NUTRITIONAL APPROACH

GRANNYS NITECAP

MARIA DAS NEVES CEITA BAPTISTA DE SOUSA

US NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

The puzzle practically writes itself.

Now that I have your attention, here is part 9 of the Superman adventure “Crossword Puzzle Mystery”.

[audio:http://crosswords.ryanfacestheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/superman-part-9.mp3]

Next stop, Friday.

Fun theme by Corey Rubin today. Corey took in-the-language phrases and replaced one of the words with Brit-speak.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN became KEEP ON LORRYIN

CONGA LINE became CONGA QUEUE

WISE GUYS became WISE BLOKES

CATCH SOME ZS became CATCH SOME ZEDS

I found it interesting that he left some phrases and words alone that had obvious British counterparts.

JACK UP could have been UNION JACK UP

AM TOO could have been AM TOO, GUV’NA

BERETS could have been FREEDOM HATS

PSST could have been HELLO MY NAME IS SIMON AND I LIKE TO DO DRAWINGS

But even with those missed opportunities the puzzle was a lot of fun.

Other highlights:

2A. Vulcans and Romulans (ALIENS). I just found a great website called totallylookslike.com.

I’ve now spent 45 minutes looking at this great website called totallylookslike.com. So far, this is my favorite one.

60A. When doubled, a wolf’s call (HUBBA). Anybody remember this Hubba Bubba commercial?

I don’t understand how they determine who wins the fight. And why don’t the bad guys just shoot the hero while he’s busy peeling gum off his face?

63A. Sacha Baron Cohen character ___ G (ALI). Ok, I assume I’m going to be totally alone with this but I didn’t think Borat was funny at all. I’m all for making fun of people with idiotic racist, homophobic and elitist views but so much of the movie consisted of making fun of people just for the sheer pleasure of making fun of people. Bleh.

And now part 8 of the Superman adventure “Crossword Puzzle Mystery”

[audio:http://crosswords.ryanfacestheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/superman-part-8.mp3]

Next stop, Thursday.

Welcome back to Fill Me In, the world-famous* podcast! In today’s episode:

• Rules of the spreadsheet
• How to pronounce “Xan Vongsathorn”
• A contest winner, and another contest
• The arc

Ah, yes, the arc. We actually have made progress. Well, one of us has made progress. One of us has designed two puzzles, which are available for your test-solving enjoyment. One is themed, the other is not (they are both in PUZ format, for solving with Across Lite). We very much encourage your feedback on both puzzles. Please email us at rbxblog at gmail dot com.

Also: We announce the date of Lollapuzzoola 2: Son of Puzzoola! You should listen to the show to find out the date for real, but we’ll include it here, too. It’s August 22. That’s a Saturday in August. More about it on the show. (Information on registering will come soon.)

Everything you ever wanted in a podcast is coming your way. Clicky-click, and listen in!

 

 Fill Me In #055: We're on Abe Vigoda time. [35:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.

* World-famous, as soon as someone writes up a Wikipedia entry on us!

After the lovely applet on the New York Times website took one minute and thirty-seven seconds to open the puzzle, I realized that I had no chance at being one of the first ten solvers. Does anyone out there know anything about the internet? Why does my applet take so long to load? What am I doing wrong?

Today’s puzzle is by Mike Nothnagel, Pen-Pal (Sometimes) Extraordinare, and Constructor of the Friday Tuesday puzzle. Mike, if you’re out there, we missed having you answer some questions for us from Episode 54. You were too busy trying to lay claim to Tuesday. It’s appropriate, perhaps, considering the theme of today’s puzzle. 1A. With 67-Across, an appropriate title for this puzzle? gives us the entries SWAP MEET. Each of the long answers is obviously a place to meet people.

• 17A. Where to learn a vocation : TRADE SCHOOL. I met lots of people in school. Seems to work so far.
• 28A. Basis for a moneyless economy : BARTER SYSTEM. Star Trek seemed to offer a great moneyless economy, and I don’t recall ever seeing anyone barter for anything. It was usually Kirk (or Picard) (or Janeway) (or whoever) telling some aliens to leave the quandrant (or sector) (or whatever) and never come back. Perhaps they were trading harsh words for a lack of presence. Star Trek would be a good place to meet people, too. They always seemed friendly, for the most part. Except Worf.
• 44A. Two dollars per pound, say : EXCHANGE RATE. I would recommend never buying anything at the deli for this price. Even on sale, the cheapest meats and cheeses seem to clock in at around four dollars. The deli is a fine place to meet people. You can discuss whose number came up next, or whether your cheese and their meat make a good sandwich — and then whether that was a euphemism for something else.
• 58A. “On/off” surrounder : SWITCH PLATE. I don’t actually know what this is. Switch hitter… Home plate… Maybe this has something to do with baseball. Until today, Alex Rodriguez had quieted all the people who said he was still on steroids by hitting nothing but home runs for his first dozen games. Today, he went 5-for-5 with no home runs. If you’re on steroids, you hit home runs. Right, David Ortiz?

Elsewhere in the puzzle, Mike featured the Nothnagelettes with 33A. When repeated, exuberant student’s cry (I KNOW). Mike, how frequently do you hear that in your classroom?

Things I didn’t know:

• 2D. Beat in a match : WORST. So in this case, it’s a synonym for BEST.
• 10A. Beaver’s project : DAM. Dam was never president, by the way.
• 21A. Ornery sort : CUSS. How do you pronounce “ornery”? Do you pronounce the first “r”? I do, but my wife doesn’t. We’re at an impasse on this one.
• 34D. Title planet in a 2001 Kevin Spacey movie : K-PAX. I knew the entry, but never saw the film. I heard it was awful. Anyone got a review to share?
• 47A. Radiohead singer Thom : YORKE
• 51D. Discharge : EGEST. I’m sure EGEST has something to do with INGEST, but I can’t make sense of it.

Favorite entry of the day: 10D. Early printer type : DOT MATRIX. Loved the old dot matrix printers. I had one, an Epson I think. Awesome.

I’m busy with other things right now, so pictures will not happen in this post. Oh well. Ryan, if you want to add pictures, please go ahead.

[Hey all, Ryan here.  No pictures but here's part 7 of the Superman adventure "Crossword Puzzle Mystery"]

[audio:http://crosswords.ryanfacestheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/superman-part-7.mp3]

No-Google streak: 3.

See you Wednesday!

Someone’s going to have to help me out here.

I don’t do the puzzle in the applet, because my computer sucks, and the applet takes about a week and a half to load. So I do it either in Across Lite or on paper. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I usually do pretty quick, so I stick with Across Lite if I can. But since the “reveal” code isn’t available, I can’t really check my answers. Sometimes, I go to xwordinfo.com to confirm something, and sometimes I go to waterandwaves.blogspot.com, where applet-name nynynyny posts a JPEG of his solved puzzle (screenshot taken from the applet). These are two quick ways to check your work if you are anti-applet like me.

But I’m scared. The grid at nynynyny’s blog lists, for 10D. Some trophies : LOVING CUPA. Xwordinfo.com says it’s LOVING CUPS. Neither of these things make any sense to me at all, except that some trophies are shaped like cups. (The picture at left features actress Hayden Panettiere, best known for her turn as “Little Girl” in one episode of “Unhappily Ever After,” the failed Bobcat Goldthwait sitcom of the late 1990s. In the photo, she is apparently stuck to the frozen NHL’s Stanley Cup — she must never have seen “A Christmas Story.”)

Otherwise, this Peter A. Collins puzzle has three hidden words (well, obviously hidden, since their letters are circled). Each hidden word is a TREE (64A. Thing hidden in each of the movie names in this puzzle):

• 19A. 1989 Sally Field/Dolly Parton/Shirley MacLaine movie : STEEL MAGNOLIAS (hiding ELM)
  
• 35A. 2000 Martin Lawrence movie : BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE (ASH)
• 50A. 1992 Alec Baldwin/Meg Ryan movie : PRELUDE TO A KISS (OAK)

Peter A. Collins is a fine constructor and Will Shortz (attendant) is a fine editor, but this puzzle leaves me wanting more. Three three-letter trees? That’s it? I want something else. I want more trees. Or trees with longer names. This seems awfully minuscule for a theme.

I think maybe I’m a little on edge about it because I’ve spent the better parts of the last few days trying to come up with good themes for myself. As those who listen to our podcast know, Ryan and I are working to get a puzzle of our own in the New York Times. I’m trying to come up with wonderful clever themes because I am in such awe of all the wonderful themes out there. Today’s puzzle is fine, but it seems barely themed. We needed more movies with more trees. What about HAPPINESS? CROSS OF IRON? EYE WITNESS? CUBE ECHO? (Okay, that last one isn’t a movie. Whatever.)

This leads me to ask — what makes a good theme? Maybe I’m trying too hard to be clever. I should just keep it simple, stupid. Right? On Tuesday, we’ll be posting the next episode of Fill Me In, and with it, two puzzles designed by yours truly. They’re drafts, yes, but I’m working on it. If you have any ideas about themes, put them in the comments below. (And incidentally, if you’re having trouble posting comments, send us an email to rbxblog at gmail dot com and let us know.)

In other news, if there’s anyone out there who wants to write a Wikipedia entry about us, please go ahead and do it.

Current no-Google streak: 2.

See you Tuesday!

Ok, super short post today.  Brian and I recorded episode 55 of Fill Me In today (y’all are gonna have to wait till Tuesday) and then I watched a very long baseball game in which the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Agoura Hills Angels of Prince Edward Island.

Today’s Elizabeth C. Gorski puzzle was all about infinity.  When I was about 8 years old I counted to infinity in about 3 minutes.  I may have skipped a few numbers but, still, I was pretty proud of myself.

The middle of the grid has some circled letters in the shape of the SYMBOL OF INFINITY.

The puzzle also includes the inventor of the symbol, JOHN WALLIS who was a mathematician, a Presbyterian and a practicing cannibal.  (I’m not sure about that last part.)

The theme answers all describe things that appear to have no ending:

WORLD WITHOUT END

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

EVERLASTING LOVE

ALWAYS MINE

Also falling into this category would be the Steven Spielberg movie, A.I. which I believe is still going on in the movie theater I left over 8 years ago.  This would be in direct contrast to the movie, Meet the Spartans which is clearly a sign of the Apocalypse and the end of the world.

I was surprised the answer to 26D. Met regular, e.g. was not RIDICULOUSLY HORRIBLE BASEBALL PLAYER but instead OPERA FAN.  Other clues actually in the puzzle that I think would be a better fit for the clue are WORST OFF, I TINA, RAINIEST, YELLOWED, A SLOW and YECCH.

Ok, that’s it for today.  I leave you with part 6 of the Superman adventure “Crossword Puzzle Mystery”

[audio:http://crosswords.ryanfacestheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/superman-part-6.mp3]

Next stop, Monday.

I had a very interesting solving experience with this Dave Tuller puzzle.  The left half, thanks to answers like SPONGEBOB and ABE VIGODA, took me about 10 minutes.  The right half, thanks to my complete lack of understanding what the hell Dave was talking about, took me about 3 hours.  But, I did get it done.

Here’s the main thing I don’t understand:

12D. First Italian course? (ANTIPASTO).  What is with the question mark?  How is that a pun or wordplay or anything but a straightforward answer?  I actually thought of ANTIPASTO early on but figured it couldn’t be correct.  So I came up with what I think is a brilliant answer.  Ready for it?  APPIAN WAY.  Brilliant, right?  Of course it is and it fits the question mark-style clue.  Seriously, why the question mark.  Someone has to explain this to me.

The rest of the puzzle I enjoyed.  Well, except for RACIALISM (31D. Bunker mentality).  Grrr.  Yes, it’s a word.  Is it a word anybody uses?  No.

36A. Recurring metrical beat (ICTUS).  One of you musicians out there, explain this please.

37A. Dinosaur with large thumb spikes (IGUANODON).  What a great name for a dinosaur.  Scientists are still debating what the function of the thumb spikes was.  My guess is they used it to stab the crap out of things.

46A. Wife of Pylades (ELECTRA).  Apparently, Pylades is Greek for Ben Affleck.

52A. What you might do after failing (START ANEW).  Oof.  I had START OVER here for quite a while.

58A. Things that turn people off? (EXIT LANES).  Oof again.  I went with EXIT RAMPS here first.

3D. Old company telephone line (ONE MOMENT PLEASE).  Ok, I’m confused again.  Don’t people still say this?

7D. Starting word (BOO).  Found a picture of an old Wacky Packages sticker online.  Man, I thought these were hilarious when I was a kid.  Now, they seem a little lame.  But they do take me back.

13D. An elephant has a long one (GESTATION).  Well, it clearly wasn’t TRUNK or NOSE or MEMORY.  I needed a ton of crosses to get this one.

26D. Macgyver’s first name on “Macgyver” (ANGUS).  No question, Macgyver is awesome.  Instead of posting the opening credits to Macgyver like you all thought I was going to I’m reposting the opening credits to T.J. Hooker.  I did this for the first time over a year ago and not one person commented on how awesome Shatner and Zmed and Locklear were.  Especially Shatner’s awesome run through the park to nowhere in particular.  Here is a chance for all of you to correct that oversight.

And now, Part 5 of the Superman adventure “Crossword Puzzle Mystery”.

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And, finally, I was watching a Today show video earlier where food critic Alan Richman revealed his favorite pizzas in America.  And Santarpio’s in Boston came in at number 23.  This is the place Joe Cabrera, Boston Ma For Now suggested.  Now we have to go.

Next stop, Sunday.