Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Hey everyone, it’s your second- (or third-, perhaps) favorite blogger from this site. Ryan is off vacationing with his wife, so I’ve been left with the joyous task of telling my wife to go to bed without me because I have to stay up late solving a Friday puzzle. Hopefully you can put up with my nonsense for a few days until Ryan gets back and makes you all happy again.

Today’s offering is courtesy of our good friend Kevin G. Der-Hyphen-Youkilis. Kevin is, of course, famous in the crossword community for his puzzle last year which featured one black square. Okay, it was eightteen. But it was a record. For those wishing to relive Kevin’s glory, here’s a link to the Across Lite version of that record-breaker. I’m sure I’m breaking rules by downloading it from the New York Times site and then sharing it with all of you. But it’s my little snarky way at biting back at the Times for not giving you easy access (i.e. a paper version) of the second Sunday puzzle two weeks in a row.

Forget last August, though. Today there is a very normal number of black squares (29), and a completely doable puzzle. That’s right, no UNSAFER this time around. I had one mistake in the puzzle that I wasn’t able to spot on my own, and here’s a (non-)surprise — it was the crossing between something foreign and something I’d never heard of. What can you do.

I bolted out of the gate quickly on this, knowing 9A. Pianist Jarrett and others (KEITHS). I used to listen to jazz a lot in a desperate effort to understand what was so great about it. I mean, I’m a musician, for crying out loud, and I don’t like jazz. What is wrong with me? (Maybe it’s that I don’t look like this while I play the piano.) After spending the better part of six months listening to a lot, going to see bands play, even playing with a trio a few times at a club myself, I eventually determined that I have no business being a musician because I still don’t like jazz. Here I am a decade later, still trying to shake off this pesky career.

KEITHS opened up the obvious (and incorrect) KMART for 9D. Target competitor. Clever, Kevin. Trying to throw me off. (The answer is actually KOHL’S.) I invented a wrong word for 1A. “In one era and out the other” phenomenon, but at least it got me partially on the right track (my answer: TIME SLIP; the correct answer: TIME WARP). One of my favorite movies is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and how can we have TIME WARP in a puzzle without having “The Time Warp” here on the blog?

I tried to find a funny clip from “Kate & ALLIE” (34A. Half a 1980s TV duo), but, well, it was “Kate & Allie,” so funny was difficult to come by. Instead, here’s Allie (Jane Curtin) in a far better bit of television from a decade earlier. Dan Aykroyd plays Kate here, and seems to turn in a much more vibrant performance than Susan Saint James ever did.

When I was eleven years old, my parents realized that they were almost out of time to fulfill their lifelong dream — to have their only son sing in a boy’s choir. Yes, so in the final 18 months before my voice dropped to the dulcet baritone you can hear weekly on “Fill Me In,” I joined the Boy Singers of Maine. The new season began in August, I think, with a week-long overnight camp at a place called Pondicherry. It had all the basics of camp life — the boys who had been there before tortured the new boys mercilessly. Ah, youth. Anyway, after the torture was complete, we sat around the campfire and sang a bunch of songs. At least, the boys who knew the songs sang them. The first song I remember from that campfire began with these lyrics:

Jeremiah was a bullfrog.
He was a good friend of mine.
I never understood a single word he said,
But I helped him drink his wine.
Oh, yes, he always had some mighty fine wine.

This is, of course, the opening to “Joy to the World” by Hoyt AXTON (39A). Now, why a bunch of pre-pubescent boys were singing about helping some drunken amphibian get more drunk is beyond me. But at age eleven, that was my first foray into music — and it went a lot further with me than my efforts to become one with jazz piano.

I want to give more of Kevin’s puzzle its due, so here are a few favorites from the grid:

• 13D. Grassy bottom : HULA SKIRT
• 24D. Girl with considerable pull? : MILK MAID
• 31D. One cooking a return : TAX EVADER
• 35A. One might stand in a chamber of horrors : WAXWORK
• 37A. Calligraphy, some say : LOST ART
• 55D. Like Magic? : TALL

My apparent Trivia Box was the X crossing between 56A. Cheerios, abroad (ADIUEX) and 47D. Meter-candles (LUXES). I’ve never heard of the latter (neither clue nor entry), and I was just confused by the first one — “Cheerio” is already an abroad term, isn’t it? Or am I to suddenly assume that I’m British?

The last subject I’d like to explore here is that of cluing. As I’m reading this puzzle, I feel like the clues might be what identify the character. Yes, the fill is assorted and full of great letters and feels generally quite current and new-fashioned, and Kevin is a young guy, so that all makes sense. But Kevin, if you’re reading this, please drop a comment down below and tell us about your cluing methods. Do you write them? Did Will change a lot of them? I think the clues are quite diverse and well-written, and it’s a skill I’m working at on my own puzzles, so I’m eager to hear what you (Kevin) or you (any other reader) might have to say on the subject.

Everyone, please dive into the community pool that is our comments down below. Let’s get chatty!

See you Saturday!