Ryan solves the NYT, Wed 7-29-9
I am cramming as much Italian into my brain as possible before our trip. I want to get the basics down and understand at least a little bit as I think it’ll make our time in Italy more enjoyable. To that end I was hoping to write this entire post in Italian but, so far, all I know how to say is, “the boy is underneath the airplane” and I couldn’t figure out how to tie that into today’s puzzle.
In other news, what is the past tense of the verb “sync”? Is it sank? As in, I sank my iPod.
Anyway, onto today’s Tim Wescott puzzle which featured a theme that, a first glance, seemed to be about crap baseball players. At second glance it still seems to be about crap baseball players but with the added twist that there is one crap baseball player from each MLB Division.
The baseball players show up in circled boxes that are part of longer answers.
17A. Argue forcibly (MAKE A STRONG CASE). ASTRO. The Astros are currently 51-49 and in 3rd place in the NL Central.
28A. Pesticide spreader, e.g. (CROP SPRAYER). RAY. The Rays are currently 55-46 and in 3rd place in the AL East.
48A. Terse (SHORT WINDED). TWIN. The Twins are currently 51-50 and in 3rd place in the AL Central.
61A. Where Olaf I or Olaf II sat (NORWEGIAN THRONE). GIANT. The Giants are currently 54-46 and tied for 2nd/3rd place in the NL West.
11D. Juicer remnants (ORANGE RINDS). RANGER. The Rangers are currently 56-42 and in 2nd place in the AL West.
24D. Shake hands (COME TO TERMS). MET. The Mets are currently 48-51 and in 4th place in the NL East.
Well, I change my mind. The theme is about five pretty good baseball teams and one woefully awful baseball team, the Mets. Don’t let that record fool you. They’re really much worse than that. They do have a nice stadium though. I’ve now been to both Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field wins hands down. It’s not even close. Yankee Stadium is like a big, cold, concrete and steel mall with absolutely zero food variety. Citi Field is warm and inviting with some of the best ballpark food I’ve ever had. Really the only problem Citi Field has is that the Mets play there.
Other highlights:
51A. “Don’t ___ me, bro!” (TASE). Has anybody not seen this? If you haven’t here’s your chance.
66A. “___ la Douce” (1963 film) (IRMA). I posted this clue so I could tell everyone what it means in Italian. Turns out it’s French. That reminds me, did you guys read about the Swedish tourists who, while in Italy, typed Carpi instead of Capri into their GPS and ended up in an industrial town in the Northern Italy instead of the resort island off the coast of Southern Italy? How did they expect to drive to an island anyway?
8D. Yours, in Tours (ATOI). This isn’t Italian either, is it?
19D. “La Boheme” setting (GARRET). What’s with all the French? I’m not going to France.
Nice puzzle today. The theme was a little random but still nice. And, to conclude, il bambino è sotto l’aereo.
Next stop, Thursday.
