Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

I’m a little tired out, having just come from the post-show party in honor the opening performance of “Tin Pan Alley Rag,” a new Off-Broadway show for which I’m playing the piano.

Were there enough clauses in that sentence?

Anyway, since my work day included a party, and Ryan’s work day included converting a PDF into I don’t know what, I get to blog tonight. The puzzle comes to us from Joon Pahk, Squirrel of Discord, who I am coming to recognize as — to be blunt — a freakin’ genius. Not only am I in awe of his puzzle construction, but someone tell me that his comments on this site aren’t some of the most educational, thought-provoking and conversation-worthy comments that we get. I dare you.

This puzzle is no disappointment in the smarts department, either. I was able to solve it in decent Wednesday time (for me), which is the neighborhood of 7-8 minutes. I might have done better but I got all meandery as I was going, and never got into a solid groove. The NW (where I, like many, start most puzzles) was tricky for me, so it took a while before I started getting some entries.

We have a theme, of course, and this one is clued at 38A. Statement about [the long entries]. Those long entries are:

• 17A. Feeling of nonfulfillment : FRUSTRATION
• 24A. Frequent home acquisition : MORTGAGE
• 49A. Burgers and fries, often : FAST FOOD. Have I linked to this before? This site is brilliant – Fancy Fast Food. They take fast food menu items, and essentially re-constitute the food into something that looks like it could be served at a fancy restaurant. The picture at right is reconstituted Big Mac and fries.
• 59A. Item that may have a date stamp : LIBRARY BOOK

And 38A gets IT MAY BE TAKEN OUT as the summary of those four items. The only entry that I wasn’t sure on was “frustration” – I guess I’ve taken “it” out on people or things in frustration, but I don’t know if I’ve taken out frustration on people or things… I guess that means the same thing, I’ve just never quite had it my head that way. You know what? Never mind. It makes fine sense. I’ll move along now.

A few terrific clues that were new enough to me (at least, I don’t remember them elsewhere):

• 6D. Whites or darks, say : LOAD. This took me a long time to fill it and a while still to understand. Perhaps I need to spend more time in the laundry room.
• 11A. “The word” : MUM
• 12D. Let off the hook? : UNPEG
• 23A. Case of bad spelling? : HEX. This depends, I think, on your perspective. If I’m holding the wand, and you wind up with a hex on you, it’s a case of good spelling, isn’t it?
• 31A. Szyslak of Springfield : MOE. This was a total gimme for me (and I’m sure for Ryan). Those who attended Lollapuzzoola last year might remember one of the puzzles in which MOESZYSLAK was an entry. (Oops, gave it away!)

That northwest, where I had trouble… I think it stemmed from 1A. It may be hand-picked. The answer is BANJO, which I’m a little iffy about. In my experience, the technique used to play the banjo is finger-picking, not hand-picking. It’s quite possible that in some circles, people say hand-picked, but I haven’t heard it. What’s more likely is that the clue as written makes for a clever pun, but in my mind, that cleverness is cancelled out by the mild inaccuracy of the terminology. Again, this is only in my experience. Your mileage may vary.

[Update: a Google search for +banjo +“finger picking” gives 30,800 hits. +banjo +“hand picking” gives 2,290. I guess it’s out there, just less commonly used/known.]

Here are three banjo videos, because I think the banjo is awesome, and I couldn’t pick just one. The first features some mean picking, the second is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, “Flight of the Bumblebee,” and the third is classic, old-fashioned brilliance.

I had one Chasm of Ignorance, but I guessed it on the first try, so I won’t call it a Gaping Chasm of Ignorance. It was where 29D. Sailor’s patron and 42A. Hall-of-Fame QB/kicker George crossed. Those answers are ST. ELMO and BLANDA. I have never heard of George Blanda, but if he split his time between kicking and passing, he was probably a fairly talented player. St. Elmo is meaningless to me as a saint, but apparently he had a fire that inspired a film in the 1980s.

In other news, it’s not too late to sign up for Lollapuzzoola 2: St. Elmo’s Return. We already have a lot of folks registered, and we’re looking for more. If you don’t know about it, please read up. Then sign up. Then show up. Up, up, up. It’s going to be awesome.

That said, I’m out for the night. See you Thursday!