Ryan solves the NYT, Thu 9-24-9
It’s enough with the hackers already. What do they want from us? Do they really think that taking over our podcast feed and screwing with everyone’s subscription will convince people to buy weight loss pills? Have any of you bought weight loss pills as a result of seeing spam on our site? If you haven’t, please speak up. Maybe we can show the hackers they’re wasting their time. All their attacks serve to do is aggravate Brian and me. Neither of us know what the hell we’re doing when it comes to technically running this blog so it takes hours and hours to undo what the hackers have done. Oy. You heard me. Oy!!
Today’s puzzle is by one of our favorites, Brendan Emmett Quigley Down Under Starring Tom Selleck. As usual he provided us with a fun theme and a tricky yet fun puzzle. As many of you know, we here at the Be More Smarter offices think Brendan is the coolest guy in crosswords and today’s puzzle only helped to confirm our feelings.
The theme appended an extra S onto in-the-language phrases.
17A. Band without a drummer? (THE BEATLESS). Brian is a musician and plays in bands. My dream is that he will play in a band that doesn’t have a bass. And he will call his band the Baseless Accusations. So far, this hasn’t happened. I continue to hold out hope.
24A. “See ya, idiot!”? (SO LONG ASS). Both the clue and entry made me laugh. Both are wonderful ways to say goodbye to someone.
35A. Mission of an Army officers’ school (TRAINING BRASS). Can someone please explain the concept of the training bra to me?
47A. Nice touch from Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend (WHO CARESS). Considering Townshend’s legal troubles, this entry takes on another ickier dimension.
54A. Playful kiss on the Discovery (SHUTTLE BUSS). This one doesn’t seem to fit with the rest. All the other entries are pronounced differently than their in-the-language counterparts. This one is pronounced the same. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just different.
Very fun theme.
Other highlights:
5A. ___ Thule, distant unknown land (ULTIMA). I don’t know anything about Ultima Thule but I did play a lot of Ultima on the computer in high school. Good times.
16A. Musician who started the Obscure Records label (ENO). Much like you almost always see a baseball clue in puzzles constructed by Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante to Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town, you can bet there’ll be references in Brendan’s puzzles to bands and labels of which I’ve never heard.
63A. Like this puzzle…not! (EASY). I can’t tell if this is a pun about the theme or if Brendan is using the last clue in the puzzle to warn us about the difficulty level.
5D. Home of Arches National Park (UTAH). I’ve been there. It’s great and makes you feel like you’re walking on another planet. I have video of me there. Unfortunately, it’s on a HI8 cassette which means it’s a pain in the ass to watch it.
9D. Rapid, to Rossini (MOSSO). Dude, c’mon, seriously.
57D. One to one, for one (TIE). Great clue.
Another great puzzle by Brendan and, shockingly, my 25th no-google in a row.
Next stop, Friday.
