Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

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!