Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

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