Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

All you podcast listeners know that one of our latest hot topics has been soup.  More specifically, Dodger Dog soup.  I think I’m going to make a batch for Brian and I eat during our next recording session.  If you’ve never listened to a podcast featuring the hosts slurping soup then you are in for a real treat.  Quick question: Does anybody have any idea how to make Dodger Dog soup?  Unfortunately, I’m going to have to use lesser dogs as Dodger Dogs are not available in New York.  I’m thinking it should be a bean-based soup.  Any thoughts?

Today’s puzzle is by Patrick “I Non Vedenti Affrontare Tep” Blindauer and features a theme near and dear to my heart.

64A. School cafeteria fare…and a hint to this puzzle’s theme (SLOPPY JOES).  I love SLOPPY JOES.  I love just about any ground beef dish but sloppy joes are way up there.  When I was a kid, my mom used to make Manwich for dinner and we’d have them in taco shells.  The taco shells didn’t do a very good job of soaking up the vast quantities of orange grease which would eventually run down my arm.  Delicious.  I don’t know why sloppy joes aren’t on menus of more restaurants.  There’s a bar in Key West called Sloppy Joe’s that, apparently, was a favorite haunt of Ernest Hemingway.  Who knew?  And here’s a great recipe for SJ’s that is much, much better than Manwich.

Oy, I’ve really made myself hungry here.  But there is more crossword to get to.  The rest of the theme consisted of guys named JOE who are too full of ground beef to spell their names properly.

17A. Olympic boxing gold medalist of 1964 (EOJ FRAZIER).  I don’t know much about boxing.  If it’s not about Ali or Tyson I’m pretty lost.

25A. Hero of Super Bowl III (JEO NAMATH).  Also famous for being on the Brady Bunch.

30A. 47th U.S. vice president (OJE BIDEN).  Yes, I had to think about it.  Who can keep track of these numbers?

45A. Oscar winner of 1990 (OEJ PESCI).  Isn’t it time for My Cousin Vinny 2?  I mean, c’mon already.

51A. Singer on day three of 1969’s Woodstock (EJO COCKER).  Man, I was really into the Wonder Years when I was in high school.  All I wanted was for Kevin to kiss Winnie.  It really weighed on my mind.  I cite that as the main reason for my lousy schoolwork.

Fun and delicious theme.

Other highlights:

2D. Roger who played the same role seven times (MOORE).  I caught about 20 minutes of A View to a Kill over the weekend.  Absolutely ridiculous.  Grace Jones.  Christopher Walken.  A James Bond who was just a little too old.  It’s still fun to watch though.  In this trailer, after Bond’s car gets cut in half, check out the stuntman who looks nothing like Roger Moore.

69A. Archie or Veronica (TEEN).  Here’s a fun cover featuring Archie and Betty.

Hee hee.

Great job, Patrick.

Next stop, Thursday.

OH NO! We have made a glaring mistake! In this episode, we reported two winners of the Jeremy Horwitz Internation Maximum Word Count Puzzle Design Contest (JHIMWCP) — and one of those winners is an invalid entry! I have posted the two grids below — and sadly, as you can see, the second one has two two-letter entries in it. This somehow slipped past our QA department, but rest assured, we have docked them 42% of their pay.

In an effort to make things right, we have proposed the following. Peter Gordon’s 96-word grid is the official winner of this contest. Neville Fogarty, whose 96-word grid contained two-letter entries, has been given a new personal challenge. If he can come up with a new 96-word grid (not a copy of Peter’s, of course), as well as a pangram fill for said grid, we can award him a second-place prize.

This is Peter Gordon’s 96-word grid:

This is Neville Fogarty’s 96-word grid with two two-letter words (23D and 62D):

The two grids are quite similar, actually (rotate either one 90 degrees, and you can see how close they are).

We are terribly sorry for the oversight. And we look forward to Episode 64, when we can blather on for a good 20 minutes on how we screwed up, how we promise never to do it again, and how that’s not a realistic promise.

As some of you know, we will be moving to bemoresmarter.com very soon.  We’re looking to do it at some point in September.  Because of the inevitable screw ups that will happen we want to wait until after Lollapuzzoola 2 but, right now, if you go to bemoresmarter.com it will redirect you to this site.  We haven’t decided exactly what we’re going to do with the new site.  There will certainly be some sort of cosmetic redesign and Brian and I talked about a possible change in direction for blog as well.  We still want to do a daily blog but we may expand the format to cover more of the word puzzle scene and not focus solely on the NYT puzzle.  We do enjoy doing the blog but it hasn’t generated as much interest or discussion as we would like so we’re thinking a change in format might be appropriate.  So I pose this question to you.  What would you guys like to see/read in a puzzle blog?  Also, we’ve talked about having regular contributors to add a few different voices to the site.  Would anybody be interested in that?  Additionally, we’d like to try and have more interplay and crossover between the blog and the podcast.  We’ll be brainstorming about this in the coming weeks and we’d love any input you guys have.  For now, though, it is business as usual.

Today’s puzzle is by Donna S. Levin and celebrates the 40th anniversary of men walking on the moon.

20A. New York Times headline of 7/21/69 (MEN WALK ON MOON).

28A. Subject of a photo beneath 20-Across (NEIL ARMSTRONG).

45A. With 55-Across, message left by 28-Across for future explorers (WE CAME IN PEACE).

55A. See 45-Across (FOR ALL MANKIND).

I was not alive in 1969 but, if I was, I’m sure I would have been glued to the TV when this happened.  By the way, shouldn’t we have colonized the moon by now?  What about the plan to send all our prisoners to Jupiter?  Is that still happening?

I would really like to go into space.  But not just to orbit the Earth.  That would be fine but what I’d really like is to have my own space craft and travel to other galaxies and get into adventures.  Can you get nauseous in space?  I hope not because that would blow the whole thing.

Other highlights:

18A. Places to put briefs (LEGAL PADS).  I thought briefs were the legal pads not what’s written on them.  Are you sure I work in a law firm?

25A. 1988 Dennis Quaid/Meg Ryan movie (DOA).  I saw this movie in the theater with my dad.  It’s a remake but I remember it being pretty good.  Quaid is poisoned and has something like 36 hours to live and he has to solve his own murder before he dies.  He goes around and asks people, “Why did you kill me?”  Good stuff.

66A. Anglo-Saxon laborer (ESNE).  Is this referring to the medieval Bishop of Hereford or the Esperanto Society of New England?  I guess they both fit the clue.

46D. Julia’s “Seinfeld” role (ELAINE).  I’m finally getting Pickles to watch the entire run of Seinfeld.   We started with the first episode a couple of days ago.  Certainly not the greatest episode.   It’s hard to see it in context but there just wasn’t anything else like it on TV.  Sitcoms all had to have some big problem that somehow got solved by the end of the show.  Nothing happens in this.  They just sit around and talk.  Odd things about the first episode:

• Different theme music.
• It’s called The Seinfeld Chronicles.
• Elaine isn’t in it.  Instead there’s a sassy waitress named Claire.
• Kramer hasn’t left the building in 10 years.
• George has hair.
• Jerry wears bright red sweatpants.

Here’s a great bit from later in the run.

Next stop, Wednesday.

We just can’t leave you alone, can we?

It’s Fill Me In, the crossword podcast! This week’s episode has been optimized for your enjoyment. It includes:

• Viewer mail (some, not too much)
• References to soup (one, maybe two — again, not too much)
• Discussion of puzzles (about 11% more than last week)
• Six mentions of Joe Krozel (possibly more)
• One mention of Christina Applegate (because we deleted the other one)
• A brand new contest – we’ve already received a few “Papplebaum” emails (that’s how Crosscan spells it), so here’s the contest: Take an eight-letter, two-word phrase that means “eats,” and which contains an “e.” Write it in all capital letters with no space and without the “e.” What’s left is a seven-letter string of letters that, if turned upside down, remains unchanged. What’s the phrase?

No lederhosen are in play this week, so you’ll have to provide those at your end. But get ready for some altoflut (whatever that might be), because here’s Episode 63!

 

 Fill Me In #063: If you were a flute, what kind of animal would you be? [33:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Oh, and we’re sorry… We used the studio to do some non-podcast projects, and screwed up a little bit. The sound quality here in Episode 63 is a wee bit metallic, and while we might seem to be regressing into inferior ways, we are actually not — next week, we will be better yet again!)

Zambezi and oat.

Oh my, I really overslept.  It’s already past 10 and I have to get over to the studio so we can record this week’s podcast.  I must have been tuckered out from being in the sun at Yankee Stadium yesterday.  So now I’ve been to both new New York stadiums.  Even though Yankee Stadium cost twice as much I have to say I think Citi Field is a much nicer place to see a ballgame.  Much more inviting and MUCH better food options.

So, today’s puzzle by Pancho Harrison featured a fine Monday theme:

57A. Factory supervisors…or a hint to the starts of 20-, 36-, and 42-Across (PLANT MANAGERS).

20A. What the love of money is, they say (ROOT OF ALL EVIL).

36A. Stop a prevailing trend (STEM THE TIDE).

42A. Quickly turn the pages of (LEAF THROUGH).

Ok, two things.  First, why isn’t ROOT at the bottom and LEAF at the top of the grid?  Or am I being picky?  Second, is PLANT MANAGERS the hint or is it just PLANT?  Does ROOT manage things by being OF ALL EVIL?  Am I thinking too much about this?  Probably.

Other highlights:

31A. Ninth-inning pitcher (CLOSER).  We got to see Mariano Rivera come in to close out the game yesterday.  That was fun.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him pitch in person before.

48A. Mexican revolutionary ___ Villa (PANCHO).  This is cool.  I’m glad Mr. Harrison got his name in there.

54A. “Oh bushwa!” (MY EYE).  I’m quite sure I’ve never heard anybody exclaim either of these.  Oh bushwa?  Is that a real thing?

70A. Like Georgia Brown of song (SWEET).  My English teacher in the 7th grade was named Georgia Brown.  She was one of those teachers who arranged the seating alphabetically.  For me, this always meant I ended up in the center of the front row.  In this particular class John Heim (that’s right, I’m calling him out!) sat behind me and throughout class he slowly pushed my seat forward until I was about 2 inches from the chalkboard.  No amount of pleading would make him stop and not-so-SWEET Georgia Brown didn’t do anything about it besides snickering a bit.  Ah, junior high.  What a freaking nightmare.

37A. Go from gig to gig (TRANSPOSE).  Just seeing if you’re paying attention.  But the answer still works, right?

Ok, that’s all I have time for today.  I’m already going to be late and Brian is not going to be pleased.

Next stop, Tuesday.

Ok, the Dodgers won yesterday which also marked the 3rd time they’ve been mentioned in the puzzle this season.  Their record on those days is 1 win and 2 losses.  So far, the Dodger/NYT crossword connection has not been so great.  Let’s all try to work on that, ok?

Today’s puzzle.  Hmmm.  Today’s puzzle…by Lynn Lempel…hmmm…I have to say, I didn’t have a great time with this one.  I eventually no-googled it but the whole thing was a real struggle.  It was just one of those puzzles that I didn’t really connect with and I could never get on a nice roll.

The theme was fine.  YOU ARE THERE.  The letters U and R were added to in-the-language phrases.

24A. Corrupt financier’s command? (BURY ALL ACCOUNTS).  How does one bury accounts?

30A. Mama Bear at the stove? (FURRY COOK).  Famous bear #1.

54A. Alpo or Purina One? (CUR RATIONS).

72A. Greeting from Smokey the Bear? (URSINE WAVE).  Famous bear #2.

92A. Pumpkin grower’s cry of surprise (OH MY GOURD).

101A. Scheduled activity at a Vegas chapel? (HOURLY MATRIMONY).  Pickles and I got married in Vegas by an officiant who worked in a drive through wedding chapel.  Classy all the way.

3D. Songbird at an eye drops factory? (CANARY IN THE MURINE).

34D. Sodom or Gomorrah (TOWN WITHOUT PURITY).  I’m not very good with all the Bible jazz.  I thought these were people.  I’d never heard of a Town Without Pity but, apparently, it’s an old movie.  Is it also a saying?  If it’s just a movie title it doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the answers.

So, yeah, this puzzle just never clicked for me.  Did anybody else have a similar experience?

Other highlights:

38A. “Catch-22” bomber pilot (ORR).  All of a sudden, Bobby’s not good enough?

51A. Word with beauty or parlor (PARLOR).  This one drove me nuts.  I couldn’t get POWDER out of my head.

53A. Heat (ESTRUS).  This is the periodic state of sexual excitement in female mammals.  I’d never heard of this which may explain why high school went the way it did.

81A. Singer John with the album “Bruised Orange” (PRINE).  Seriously?

97A. Something made in the still of the night? (BOOZE).  Oh, I wanted this to be HOOCH.

109A. What drives you to get better? (AMBULANCE).  Great clue.  Very clever.

Ok, it has now become quite late.  I’ve got to get ready as Pickles and I are headed to the Yankee game.

I’m sorry I didn’t like this puzzle more.

Next stop, Monday.

Why am I up so late?  I never have a very good answer for that.  Tonight, though, I’ve been doing a lot of laundry.  I’m getting new headshots taken in the afternoon and I’ve got to bring quite a variety of clothes.  I had to dig quite deep into my closet to find that variety as I tend to wear basically the same thing everyday.  Anyway, the pics will be online at some point next week and I’ll post the link here.  I’d love your opinions.

Today’s puzzle was by Joe Krozel, Rhymes With Puzzle.  I would say this was a bit on the easy side both for a Saturday and for a Krozel offering.  Of course, I say that but looking over the clues I really have no idea how I figured out most of this stuff.

I’ll start with what I did know:

20A. Watching Letterman or Conan, say (UP LATE).  Hey, that’s what I am right now.  I was pretty excited about Conan on the Tonight Show.  As it turned out, I only made it through 2 or 3 shows before I lost interest.  I don’t know, there’s something so artificial about the format.  I just can’t get into it.

25A. ___ clue (GET A).  Ok, I got it.

45A. Baseballer Fernando Valenzuela’s nickname (EL TORO).  Fernando and Fernandomania were just slightly before my time so I only had a vague notion that this was his nickname.  To me, he’s always just been Fernando.  I would guess that he and Koufax are the most beloved still-living former Dodgers.  The Dodgers have this silly rule that they won’t retire the number of a player who is not in the Hall of Fame.  They really need to change that.  Even though, unofficially, no Dodger will ever wear 34 again they really should make it official.  The fans would love it.

49A. It turns over before it runs (ENGINE).  Clever.  But not too clever for me.

I guess that’s about all I knew through my first pass.  Looking at it now, that’s pretty paltry.  And it only took me the next 3 hours of alternately solving the puzzle and watching the Dodgers get blown out by the Astros of all teams before I no-googled it.

Highlights:

6A. Jurist who wrote “A Matter of Interpretation,” 1997 (SCALIA).  I thought a jurist was someone on a jury.  As someone who works in a law firm I know shockingly little about law.  One L!

18A. Writer of “Commentarii de Bello Gallico” (CAESAR).  I cannot wait to see his palace when we go to Italy.

21A. Medical inspiration? (INHALANT).  Great clue.  Really, really, really great clue.

42A. “Dig in!” (HAVE AT IT).  I got this mostly through crosses and when I finally got it all in I thought, “Have a tit?  What does that mean?”

50A. Job woe (STRESS).  Well, I have to say, for all the things that I do feel at my job, STRESS is certainly not one of them.

4D. Like a foundling (FORSAKEN).  You know, I really didn’t know what a foundling was before I started this puzzle.  I honestly thought it was a baby tree.

11D. One may act for an actor (AGENT).  C’mon headshots, do your magic!

13D. Theologian Kierkegaard (SOREN).  Oh wait, I knew this on the first pass as well.  As a matter of fact, the only thing I do know about Kierkegaard is that his first name is SOREN.

15D. Before coming out? (PRENATAL).  Two of our very good friends just had a baby.  Welcome to the world, Piper Rose Hirsch!

27D. Star treks? (EGO TRIPS).  I put ELLIPSES first which I still think is a very fine answer.

37D. Charlie of swing (BARNET).  I thought this was PARKER?  Who is Charlie BARNET?  While you’re answering that, could you also tell me who Charlie PARKER is?

Great puzzle today, Joe.

Next stop, Sunday.

Good old July 17th, a date that symbolizes the final 36 shopping days until Lollapuzzoola 2: The Son of Puzzoola.  August 22nd.  Grease boards!  Google tickets!  Oreos!  Speed solvers!  Slow solvers!  Tables!  Pencils!  Divisions!  Ventilation!  And, of course, puzzles of varying sizes and difficulties!  Hope to see you there.

Today’s puzzle is by two of our favorite crossword buddies, Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town and Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town (pictured at right).  Much like Doublemint Gum, when these two guys get together the result leaves my mouth feeling minty fresh.

For the first few minutes this puzzle looked completely impossible but somehow my brain commanded me to enter FAIR SHAKE in 1-Across and I was off.  And a relatively speedy 40 minutes later, I entered in BURL (a completely made up word) and was done.  Very enjoyable puzzle.

Of course, because it’s Doug and Barry, a Yankees fan and a Phillies fan, respectively, the puzzle had a couple of baseball entries.

30D. Rose with a hit record (PETE).  One of the few gimmies.

52D. Outfielder Francona (TITO).  TITO had a 15 year major league career, he hit .363 in 1959, led the league in doubles in 1960, and was an All-Star in 1961 but he is probably most known for nowadays for fathering the current manager of the Boston Red Sox, Terry Francona.

My question to Doug is, What the hell?  Barry gets an ex-Phillie in there plus you have a Red Sox connection but no Yankee references.  What happened?  And how come there’s been only two Dodger references this entire season?

The rest of the puzzle was filled with fun stuff.  I especially enjoyed:

63A. Opposite of avant-garde (OLD SCHOOL).

15A. 63-Across? (ALMA MATER).

Other highlights:

17A. Having a lot to lose? (CORPULENT).  I thought this might have something to do with real estate or auctioning off something.  I don’t think I’ve ever described someone as CORPULENT although I can’t imagine anyone would appreciate it.

20A. Most night owls (LATE RISERS).  I’ve always stayed up way past my bedtime.  And morning Ryan is usually pretty made at nighttime Ryan.

22A. Pietà figure, literarily (JESU).  Michelangelo finished the sculpture La Pietà in 1499.  It’s at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City and Pickles and I will be seeing it in person in September.  It has been kept behind bullet proof glass since an attack by a mentally disturbed geologist (really, is there any other kind?).

58A. Comment from the beat (I NEED A NAP).  Another of my favorites.  It took me while to figure out where they were going with this.  All I could think of was a beat reporter.

6D. Berry with juicy parts? (HALLE).  When you read this, what did you first think of?  Parts as in body parts?  Or parts as in acting parts?  I’ll admit it, I thought of body parts.  Personally, I think Monster’s Ball would have made much more sense if they cast an actress who wasn’t quite so unbelievably attractive.

7D. Chilling, so to speak (AT EASE).  Here’s a new word I learned today, chillaxing.  I will use it often.

8D. Honorary title bestowed on Bill Clinton, Muhammad Ali and Mae West (KENTUCKY COLONEL).  I went with PERSON OF THE YEAR which also has 15 letters.  I thought it was a bit of a stretch to think Mae West would be named person of the year but I thought maybe the honor was bestowed on her from Bosom Enthusiasts or some other like-minded organization.

24D. Site of Robert E. Lee’s last victory (COLD HARBOR).  I have no idea how this came to me.  I had the D and the H and “boom!” went the dynamite.

25D. Means of getting some answers (OUIJA BOARD).  OUIJA ends in an A?  I thought it ended in an I?  Have I been pronouncing it wrong this whole time?

45D. “Hoffman” co-star Cusack (SINEAD).  Well,  it was Joan or John and I only know one other Cusack.

Great puzzle, guys.

Next stop, Saturday.

We’re just 37 days away from Lollapuzzoola 2. And 37 days away is the perfect time to register. Check out the link to the left for your all-access pass to the day’s events. August 22. It’s a Saturday in August. Be there.

Today’s puzzle by Elizabeth C. Gorski (pictured at right) did what most Thursday puzzles to do me. They leave me thinking I’m a complete moron for not knowing enough things, and not being able to dig my way back out of an improperly filled Gaping Chasm of Ignorance.

Let’s start there, with my errors. Down in the lower left, I got really muddled up. For 32A. Signature piece? I put in BIT – like “Have we started?” for those riotous podcast hosts on Fill Me In. Signature bit. Nope, the answer is BIC. I assume it’s like the pen. I don’t know much else it could be. 43D. ___ fog – well, for whatever reason, my brain went to ICE fog. The errant T from BIT led me to nothing but dead ends for 34D. Deep discounts (CUT RATES – of course, I was trying to make words out of TUT—TES, which was useless). I had –WTS for 54D. 100-lb. units, which meant I had to invent an acronym or abbreviation for something I don’t know (i.e. any letter goes here – unless you want to be correct, in which case it’s CWTS). Add to all that the E from ICE (oh, that answer should have been the far more logical IN A fog), I had no idea for the 53A. Destination of Saul when he had his conversion, in the Bible (DAMASCUS – not to be confused with the imaginary and non-existent DEMOSNUS).

Big ol’ disaster.

Otherwise, the puzzle was delightful. Mini-rebus theme at play here, with four inter-active entries:

• 35A = ANAGRAM
• 17A = ELEVEN PLUS TWO (where PLUS all fit in one box)
• 57A = TWELVE PLUS ONE (again, PLUS in a single box)
• 12D = THIRTEEN. Has anyone ever seen the book “Thirteen” by Remy Charlip and Jerry Joyner? I love this book. It’s just gorgeous. Beautiful watercolors, thirteen different stories all told in thirteen chapters.
• And a bonus: 33D. Possible title for this puzzle – IT ADDS UP.

The clues basically said that 17A = 57 = 12D, and that 17A and 57A were anagrams of each other. (I figured explaining it in a sentence made more sense than repeating the inter-referential clues, right?)

The PLUS boxes also worked going down:

15D. 3.3 in a transcript, maybe : B-PLUS AVERAGE

46D. Puzzled : NON-PLUSED. This caught me off guard. I thought this word had two ESSES (19A. Bobsled challenges). “Non-plussed,” right? Maybe not.

The wife is home, so I’m going to cut this short… Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you all at Lollapuzzoola next month. (Howard Barkin – there might be soup. I have to keep you guessing, though.)

See you Friday!

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!