Ryan solves the NYT, Wed 7-1-9
Why is it that as a holiday approaches my job becomes busier? Shouldn’t people be off on vacation already? Good grief. The end result of all this busyness is I barely had enough time to do the puzzle last night and I certainly didn’t have any time to blog. So, now I’m home and instead of crawling into bed after 12.5 hours of staring a computer screen at work I am sitting in a chair staring at a computer screen at home. Don’t get me wrong, blogging is one of the highlights of my day. I’m just saying today’s post will probably be on the short side.
Before I get to the puzzle I should remind everybody that you now have less than 2 months to sign up for our crossword puzzle tournament, Lollapuzzoola 2: The Son of Puzzoola.
The theme of today’s puzzle by David J. Kahn fits squarely in the “I could have seen that coming” category. MICHAEL JACKSON. I wonder if the 6 days between his death and this puzzle marks the shortest time for a tribute puzzle to appear. (Which, incidentally, reminds me we have yet to see a Paul Newman tribute puzzle.)
In 1983 I was 11 years old and a huge Michael Jackson fanatic. I didn’t know anything about the Jackson 5 or Off The Wall. All I knew was the THRILLER album and I played it incessantly. (I’ve never been a big music fan and growing up I owned exactly two records, Thriller and Weird Al Yankovic’s Dare To Be Stupid. Both classics.) I owned the Thriller and Beat It jackets, both of which were purchased at my local Kmart. I had the glove and glittery socks. I think I only wore the full get up to school once, which was probably once too many, but I did enjoy moonwalking around the house and pretending I was MJ. Unfortunately, I was a stubborn, pain-in-the-ass kid and refused to pose for pictures so you will just have to use your imagination. I also went to the Victory Tour and the Bad Tour. Yes, I was a very big fan. As I got older, I grew out of my obsession (the last album I bought was Bad) and as MJ became more and more freakish I distanced myself further. But that album is still awesome. That moonwalk is still awesome. And, I hope, in 100 years that’s the stuff for which he’ll be remembered.
I was a little disappointed to see more references to the DANGEROUS album than to his earlier stuff. I wouldn’t know the song GONE TOO SOON if it bit me on the ass.
Non-Michael Jackson quibble:
22D. Old fast-food chain (NEDICKS). NEDICKS is actually back in New York. It’s owned by a different company but it does exist. The clue seems to imply it is no more.
Ok, I’m off to bed. I’ll leave you with some great MOONWALKING and Thriller, marching band style.
Next stop, Thursday.
