Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

On Ryan’s suggestion, I am returning to Live Writer, a piece of software designed to make blogging easier. I’m writing the blog in Live Writer, and then I will import it to our site. If you’re reading this, then I did it correctly. And if I’m the only one reading it, then I did it wrong.

Oh, also – there’s an article in the New York Times (from Friday) about the second Sunday puzzle. Interesting read, I suppose, although it doesn’t get down and dirty on the subject. Read it here.

Today’s puzzle comes to us from Alan Arbesfeld (pictured at right is Alan LEMON [1D. A mechanic might see it a lot]).  His last Sunday offering was back in February, with a Pajama Party theme. This time around, there’s a note at the top of the puzzle: When this puzzle is done, interpret the answers to the seven starred clues literally, in order from top to bottom. Interpret the answers? Good grief, I spend so much time interpreting the clues, I had no idea there’d be more!

But there is. The seven starred entries are as follows:

• 23A. *Boondocks : MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
• 34A. *Ambulance destination : MEDICAL CENTER
• 50A. *Imam or priest : SPIRITUAL LEADER
• 69A. *When the heavens and earth were created : BEGINNING OF TIME
• 87A. *Deputy : SECOND IN COMMAND
• 103A. *Week after Christmas : END OF DECEMBER
• 118A. *Lights out in New York City : BROADWAY CLOSING

And if we follow the instructions within the answers, we get H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. Very clever, Mr. Arbesfeld. Fun little mini-puzzle within the puzzle. If there’s more depth to it than this, I might have missed it, but then again – I solved this in near record Cimmet time at 13:59.

In general, the fill was pretty easy stuff. Lots of Crossword 101 stuff, with not-so-Scrabbly three-letter entries: NEA, NNE, ERN, AMP, CAN, IRE, ALI, LEA – the basics.  A few odd ducks in the three-letter pond, though. VUE (5D. Saturn offering) – I have no idea if this is a car or something shot out from the planet. I assume the car, but you never know (actually, now I know it’s the car – pictured at right). Also SDS (83D. ‘60s radical grp.) is something I don’t know. Let’s file it in that huge, cavernous pit of things I don’t know. It’s down the street from the size 4 shoebox of things I do know.

Other standard stuff, in no particular order: ALINE, LAHTI, OLEO, EDGER, AGRA, MENU, PSST, ARAL…

Things that were news to me:

• 38D. 1950s Hungarian premier ___ Nagy : IMRE. I have friends whose last name is Nagy. I wonder if they’re related.
• 43D. Pacific capital : APIA. Yes, yes. I don’t know my capitals. Or wait, is this about money?
• 66D. Cousin of a raccoon : COATI. Do raccoons make family trees? This coati looks like he’s about to pounce on me.
• 67D. Something to play : OFFENSE. I don’t understand this one. Does this mean to pretend to be offended, or perhaps to emphasize being offended? Xop loves being offended by people pronouncing things wrong. He nearly tore Ryan’s head off last week after Ryan mispronounced “mischievously” on the podcast.
• 76A. “Sweet” stream in a Burns poem : AFTON. No clue. A stream of Afton? Is this a body of water?
• 82A. Wallop : BASTE. Apparently, this word means more than squirting gravy on turkey.
• 98D. Breakdown of social norms : ANOMIE

And to be filed under “Where Is My Brain?” – 101A. Field for a fault-finder? was clearly GEOLOGY from the beginning. Except I looked at seven squares, thought of the word GEOLOGY, and decided it had ten letters in it and wouldn’t fit.

That’s it for me. I’m tired, and going to bed. Let’s hope Live Writer worked! See you Monday!