Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

[This is a reposting.  The original entry got lost when were hacked.  Some pictures may not be here and the comments might be screwy.]

Anyone who knows me on Facebook might have seen my latest status – no, it’s not about shoelaces, like Ryan’s. Mine is about being in a crappy mood. And guess what – this puzzle did nothing to alleviate that mood. So here goes.

Foreign:

• ET ALIA (22A. Plus other things)
• APRES (35A. French following)
• ERES TU (45A. 1974 pop hit with Spanish lyrics)
• SENTA (14D. Wagnerian heroine)
• GEISHA (15D. Companion abroad)
• DANSEUSES (6D. Frequent Degas subjects)
• SAENS (41D. Saint-___ [Faure contemporary])

Obscurity:

• RECTO (24A. One side of a leaf)
• GANTRIES (15A. Spanning frameworks)
• HUSSARS (23A. Brilliantly dressed cavalrymen)
• STERNA (41A. Axial skeleton parts)
• TERRENE (50A. Earthly)
• INDORSED (7D. Supported: Var.). By “var.”, they mean “misspelled.”
• ARCANA (9D. Secrets) – also, perhaps the theme to this puzzle.

Words that are total crap and not actually words:

• FISHIER (1D. Comparatively shady). You tell me the last time you compared shady situations.
• STILES (8D. Subway station sights). They are called turnstiles. I have the album.
• SERENER (21A. Less agitated)
• SNEERERS (48A. Disdainful bunch). Almost an anagram of 21A.
• MARRER (38D. Graffitist, e.g.). The clue also satisfies this category heading.
• DENATURE (32D. Change the essence of)

Gaping Chasms of Ignorance:

• DANSEUSES/HUSSARS. The U.
• ERES TU/ORRIS OIL (31D. Perfume ingredient). The S.

Facts I don’t understand:

• SUPERIOR (5D. Like the 2 in “x squared”). Superscript, maybe. Superior? I don’t see how.
• IN PORT (20A. Harbored). This seems like a made up word that should be a phrase, like “in a port.”
• IGNORE (40D. Slight). I don’t know… Something doesn’t match in my mind about this. I’m torn, and I want to get to the bottom of it… Oh, never mind. I’ll just slight it.
• MARINATE (44A. Imbue with flavor, in a way). Why “in a way”? Isn’t everything “in a way”? And if this entry, which is totally straightforward, needs an “in a way,” then why not DISARMS (6A. Makes less offensive), which is decidedly punny?

Clues I actually liked:

• TRAVOLTA (4D. He played a governor in “Primary Colors”)
• SHOE STORE (25. Establishment with many horns)

Overall, this puzzle had way too many nonsense words, way too many assorted S/E/R combinations scattered about, and was yet another clever-to-create, intriguing-to-look-at and lousy-to-solve puzzle.

I told you I was in a bad mood.

[This is a reposting.  The original entry got lost when were hacked.  Some pictures may not be here and the comments might be screwy.]

Those  of you who follow my facebook status updates know that my shoelaces are driving me nuts.  For some reason they are getting longer and longer.  I’ve double and triple-knotted them but they continue to flop on the ground, picking up dirt and getting caught in various contraptions.  Lately, they been wrapping themselves around the wheels of my office chair at work which makes for a lot of fun when I stand up.  I just don’t know what to do.

Today’s puzzle is by David Levinson Wilk and features a Plinko-style layout.

I have to say, while I enjoyed the layout of the puzzle I wasn’t so keen on most of the fill.  The layout necessitated a lot of 3-letter entries which, in turn, necessitated many foreign words and abbreviations.  That being said, the construction is impressive in that David fit 12 fifteen-letter answers in the grid.

I solved the entire puzzle except for one letter.  Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t get this one letter.  As a matter of fact, I find it astounding that I didn’t get this one letter.

24A. 1974 Rolling Stones hit (DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO).

1D. Mil. base until 1994 (FT ORD).

I put VOODOO DOO DOO DOO which seemed like a reasonable title for a rock and roll song.  It gave me FT ORV but, hey, why not?  Once I had the rest of the puzzle filled in and realized I still had a mistake I went back to this entry.  And I put ROO DOO DOO DOO DOO which seemed less reasonable but still possible.  It gave me FT ORR which sounded like a great name for a military base.  When the applet still wouldn’t accept my answer, that was it.  My brain shut down.  For some reason, I never tried another letter for that box.  Not once did it occur to me that it could be DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO.  I mean, the answer was right in front of me.  It was right in front of me FOUR TIMES!!!  But, nope, couldn’t get it.  I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell my mother about this.

Other highlights:

17A. Whitney Houston hit recorded for the 1988 Summer Olympics (ONE MOMENT IN TIME).  This one I just knew.  I was pretty keyed into sports during the summer of 1988.  And I actually had this album.  I remember the day I received my SAT scores and realized I’d never have to take that stupid test again, I ran into my room, blasted this song and ripped up all my test prep books.  At the time, I had no idea that I had reached the absolute peak of my academic career and that everything would be downhill from there.  Well, I guess the song was fitting.

58A. Big newsstand seller for some magazines (SWIMSUIT EDITION).  Hmm, ok, I’ll give this one a pass.  But, it really is SWIMSUIT ISSUE, isn’t it?  To me, EDITION means the next version of something.  Like, the 2009 EDITION of the SWIMSUIT ISSUE.  Am I right?  Am I wrong?  Why am I not posting a picture of swimsuit model here?

1A. It no longer circulates around the Seine (FRANC).  Clever.

6A. Skate part (FIN).  Also clever.  I had KEY here first.

9A. Must informally (GOTTA).  I put HASTA here first.  That really confused me for a while.

46A. Behind (CAN).  Hee hee.  Butt.

56A. Anthropomorphic film villain (HAL).  Not knowing what anthropomorphic meant made this clue tricky.  I know now it means “ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human”.  All I could think of were DVD ads.  Isn’t that word used in those?  Surround sound!  Dolby digital 5.0!  Anthropomorphic widescreen!  I may be wrong about that.

I won’t go into all the foreign words and abbreviations I didn’t care for but here are two crossing I could have lived without.

57A. Parisian pronoun (TOI) crossing 53D. German indefinite article (EINES).  Foreign word crossing foreign word.  Bleh.

34D. Austrian article (DER) crossing 39A. Celtic sea god (LER).  Foreign word crossing obscure god.  Double bleh.  Not to mention the fact the LER can also be spelled LIR and LYR.  Triple bleh.

In short, I felt the puzzle was a good try but I think this was a case of clever layout trumping enjoyable fill.

Next stop, Saturday.

[This is a reposting.  The original entry got lost when were hacked.  Some pictures may not be here and the comments might be screwy.]

In the comments for the last podcast there was some discussion as to the existence of a food product called bread & butter pickles.  I can verify that there is indeed such a thing.  I can also verify that they are one of my favorite types of pickles.  A comment on the site wisegeek gives a possible reason for the name:

I read that during the depression people said they were so good one could eat them as a sandwich between bread and butter.

So there you go.  Pickle mystery solved…or is it?

Today’s puzzle is by Joe Krozel, Rhymes with Puzzle and it kicked my ass.  I eventually got everything except for one letter.  That one letter highlighted my ignorance on the topics of tennis and classical music.

53A. Beethoven dedicatee (ELISE).

40D. 1991 and 1992 U.S. Open champ (SELES).

I put ELISA and SELAS.  I really should have known both of these.  I know I’ve entered them correctly in previous puzzles but today this crossing ended in disaster.  This puzzle was HARD and to figure everything else out and still not get the coveted “thank you for playing” message was pretty frustrating.

The theme, I think, is AIR.  All the theme answers started with that sound.

18A. Sinclair Lewis novel (ARROWSMITH).  My favorite chapter is the one where Steven Tyler and Run DMC get together.

26A. Series of sorties (AIR OFFENSIVE).

46A. Gateway Arch designer (EERO SAARINEN).  Well, now I know how to pronounce his first name.

57A. Bomb (AEROSOL CAN).  Huh?

Other highlights:

23A. Venetian feature (LAGOON).  I thought they had canals there.  Aren’t they famous for canals?

34A. Wind element (REED).  Hey, we were just talking about this on the podcast.  I didn’t know that woodwinds and reeds are the same thing.  Brian set me straight.  Although, we were both unsure why a flute is considered a woodwind/reed instrument since it doesn’t use a reed nor is it  made out of wood.

39A. Set on the court (ASSIST).  Oh, I get it.  Volleyball.

49A. Made a switch in a game (CASTLED).  Clever.  This drove me nuts.  I had ___TLED and for a while the best I could come up with was WHITLED which is a misspelling of a word that doesn’t make sense anyway.

52A. Carriers of arms (SLINGS).  Also very clever.

4D. Like some traffic (STOP GO).  Hmm, isn’t it stop AND go traffic?  My first thought when I saw this was it must be a rebus puzzle.  I figured the AND was hidden in there somewhere.

32D. What’s barely done in movies? (LOVE SCENE).  I guess I went a bit too far when I put in NUDE SCENE.

50D. Unalaska native, e.g. (ALEUT).  Since I didn’t know Unalaska is an actual city in Alaska, this clue took me forever.  I thought it might be a riddle of some kind, maybe natives who live in the opposite of Alaska which would be…Rio?  No idea.  Do states have opposites?

Good, very difficult puzzle today.

Next stop, Friday.

[This is a reposting.  The original entry got lost when were hacked.  Some pictures may not be here and the comments might be screwy.]

The question of the day is:

If the punch line to “How do you find Will Smith in the snow?” is “You look for the fresh prints” then what is the punch line to “How do you find Will Shortz in the snow?”  One answer from tabstop is “Go across and then down”.

Today’s puzzle was constructed by Mike Torch and, I thought, was pretty difficult for a Wednesday.  That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the puzzle.  I did.  I think it’s great.  Just more difficult than I’m used to on Humpday.

The theme deals with the silent K.  What’s up with the silent K?  Why do we use it?  How does it help us as a society?

The theme took in-the-language phrases and added a silent K to turn them into brand new phrases for all to enjoy.

15A. Retired Big Apple basketball player? (OLD KNICK).  How is it possible that Christmas is only 2 months away?

21A. Was well-versed in a will? (KNEW TESTAMENT).

38A. Guinevere, to Lancelot? (LADY OF THE KNIGHT).  The other day I watched some of the Jimmy Fallon show.  Wait, wait, hear me out.  Monty Python was on.  Well almost all of Monty Python.  There was a cardboard cut out of Graham Chapman and, for some reason, Palin wasn’t there.  The reason I’m thinking of this is that they talked a lot about Holy Grail.  And my point is that Jimmy Fallon is completely ill-equipped to be a talk show host.  He mumbles, he’s nervous and he can’t look anyone in the eye.  How on Earth did they think it was a good idea to give him his own show?  Here’s what I expect will happen.  Conan will continue to get beaten by Letterman.  NBC will come to their senses and realize Leno at 10pm five nights a week is pure madness.  Leno threatens to return to the Tonight Show, unseating Conan.  Conan plays his trump card by having sex with everybody who works on his show in order to boost his ratings.  Without a show to host, Leno moves into his chin and tours the country as Chinny McGee, Roadie for Hire.  Jimmy Fallon mumbles.

48A. Macramé company’s goal? (KNOT FOR PROFIT).  Why do I think that macramé is plaster of paris?

64A. Select a sweater? (KNIT PICK).  Using the word KNIT when referring to SWEATERS is very popular in crosswords.  I have never encountered this in my non-crossword sweater experiences.

Other highlights:

1A. Slightly sharp or flat, as a voice (PITCHY).  Did you have OFF KEY here?  I sure did.  I talked to Brian about this PITCHY business.  Here’s what he says, “If you’re singing in tune, you are hitting each pitch precisely.  If I hit a C on the piano, and you sing the same exact note, you are in tune, on pitch, etc.  But if you’re a little bit off the pitch, a little sharp (high) or flat (low), it’s called being a little pitchy.”  This doesn’t make any sense to me.  PITCHY seems to mean the opposite of what it sounds like it should mean.

41A. Like some suspects (USUAL).

Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.

1D. Torre Pendente city (PISA).  You may remember this picture of me from Pisa.

Well, XOP is a whiz at photoshop and he was able to fix it for me.

Now, all of Italy is safe.

Great puzzle today.

Next stop, Thursday.

NOTE: This is an attempt to restore the blog version of Episode 77 after The Great RBX Hack of 2009. If you encounter any weirdness with this post or this episode (or anything, really), please let us know.

Today’s podcast title comes from the results of a poll conducted right here on this very blog.nbsp; You cannot argue with the data.

Here’s what’s coming up on today’s show:

• Woodwinds
• A visitation
• The C chord makes a triumphant return
• Ryan sees something on the horizon
• The father of a boy named Sue
• Two Pasadenas for the price of one

We are still looking for audio of fictional lyric soprano Rosanna Nler. If anybody knows where we can find some clips please let us know.

 

 Fill Me In #077: The Phillies super cream cheese monkey a*s suck. [37:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.

[This is a reposting.  The original entry got lost when were hacked.  Some pictures may not be here and the comments might be screwy.]

It’s going to be a bit of a short post today.  Brian is still in Wisconsin competing in the Iditarod and I’m running everything here at the Be More Smarter offices.  I had to do a lot of work on the podcast tonight which hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging.

Today’s puzzle is by Chuck Deodene and features a CHEERLEADER theme.  The theme answers have circled letters that spell out a cheer that I doubt has been said by any cheerleader in the past 80 years.

17A. Solid with four triangular faces (tetRAHedron). Nerds and geeks will also know this as a four-sided die.

25A. Chief of staff in the Obama White House (RAHm emanuel).

35A. Start of the Bible (geneSIS).  I just read that R. Crumb has put out an illustrated version of Genesis.  It’s supposed to be amazing.

37A. Post-W.W. II demographic, informally (BOOMers).  The first time I heard the term “baby boomers” was when my mom bought the Trivial Pursuit Baby Boomer Edition.  It came out when I was 9 and I’m going to guess I was pretty lousy at it.  My brother always won Trivial Pursuit in our house.  It didn’t matter which edition we were playing.  We used to team up against him and he’d still beat the familial pants off of us.

49A. High muck-a-muck (grand pooBAH).  I was just about to go off on how the term “Grand Poobah” always reminds me of the McRib sandwich but I covered that ground over a year ago.

RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH

Seriously, I’ve never heard anybody actually say this in the context of showing team spirit.  SIS BOOM BAH I know as the punch line to the joke “What is the sound of a sheep exploding?”  I vote for the other sounds in these phrases to be the knew cheerleader mantra.  How about DRON GENE ERS POO!  YEAH!

DRON GENE ERS POO!  DRON GENE ERS POO!  DRON GENE ERS POO!

This may really catch on.

Other highlights:

41A. Bit of wordplay (PUN).  Speaking of Wordplay, I passed Ellen Ripstein on the street last night.  (That sounds like a Paul Simon song.)  I didn’t say anything because she seemed to be in a bit of a rush.  But, Ellen, hello!

47A. 1958 sci-fi classic, with “The” (BLOB).  What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?  We’re watching scary movies this Halloween and we’d love suggestions.  No need to name The Exorcist.  I’ve seen it a few times already and the bejeezus have been sufficiently scared out of me.

66A. Bird of prey’s dip (SWOOP).  We also would have accepted guacamole.  Birds of prey love guacamole.

12D. Online music mart (ITUNES).  I’d say you have until Saturday to talk us out of buying iPhones.

Fun puzzle today.

Next stop, Wednesday.

[This is a reposting.  The original entry got lost when were hacked.  Some pictures may not be here and the comments might be screwy.]

This is going to be a Brendan Emmett Quigley Down Under Starring Tom Selleck-centric blog post.  First off, he’s running a contest on his blog in which you could win a copy of his great, new diagramless book.  (Depending on when you read this post you’ll have to either be speedy or own a time machine as the deadline is Aug 26 at 8:00AM EST.)  Second, on his blog, he goes off on a bit of rant about the 19 Things a Man Should Never Say list from Esquire.  Brendan is right, the list is mostly nonsense and insulting although I strongly agree that “going forward” should never be said by anybody of any gender under any circumstances.  It’s horrible and makes me want to rip my face off.

Third, Brendan has constructed today’s NYT puzzle.  The theme is WISHFUL THINKING and I almost no-googled it but got tripped up by a Nexus of Ryan’s Ignorance.

The theme here is very cool although it took me a little while to get going on it.

112A. NBC football analyst/reporter and longtime writer (PETER KING).  A corollary of knowing nothing about the sport of football is also knowing nothing about those who analyze it.  For myself, I couldn’t analyze a football game my way out of a paper bag.

The bulk of the theme is made up of a quote.  Yes, the dreaded quote puzzle.  Today, though, I found the quote to be a lot of fun and very gettable.

A wish by Peter King on 9/21/09:  MY GOAL IN LIFE IS TO BE A CLUE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE.  I’VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE THAT BUT IT’S TRUE.

I have no idea if Mr. King has known this puzzle was going to appear or if he opened the puzzle today and was surprised to find it was all about him.  I also don’t know how Brendan knew he wished this on 9/21/09.  Maybe it was in one of his articles.  Whatever it is, I enjoy the self-referential entries and I’m sure Mr. King is completely thrilled by this.  Wishes do indeed come true.

As for my nexus of ignorance, up in the top center I had a number of entries that were just slightly wrong.

10D. Noah Webster, for one (DEFINER).  I had REFERER which not only makes no sense but is also misspelled.

12D. Pullover, e.g. (KNIT).  I had UNIT.  As in, a pullover is one unit of clothing.  Also as in, Ryan doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

9A. Its motto is “Under God, the people rule”: Abbr. (SDAK).  I had SRAU thinking that was maybe some sort of secret society.  Like the Masons or something.  My other thought was that it was something from Bolivia.  SRAU sounds vaguely Bolivian to me.

27A. Nita of silents (NALDI).  I had a number of things here.  I think the closest I got was NEDDE.  I know she shows up in puzzle a lot but I simply can’t remember her name.  Nita Naldi, Nita Naldi, Nita Naldi…I’ve already forgotten it.

34A. Actress Merrill (DINA).  This, I just didn’t know.

24D. Obama’s honorary deg. from Notre Dame (LLD).  Didn’t know this either but  I figured he got some sort of law degree.  LLD stands for Doctor of Law.  I’ll repeat that.  LLD stands for Doctor of Law.  We have a number of lawyers he read this blog.  Matthew Besse, Michael Marcus, explain.

Favorite entry:

61D. Piazza dei Miracoli town (PISA).  Hey, I was there!

Least favorite entry:

75D. Member of the Brew Crew, e.g. (NLER).  Gaaaaaahhhhhh!  Seriously, we’ve talked about this.  It must stop.  Those of you who listen to the podcast will know that we are trying to raise the profile of fictional lyric soprano Rosanna Nler in order to get this entry clued differently.  Please spread the word.

Great puzzle today.

Next stop, Monday.

I found some odd grammar in our neighborhood yesterday.  Our local Salvation Army (which does not take donations of any kind) has a number of signs posted which state “No Trespassing or You Will Be Arrested”.  They don’t say “Don’t Trespass…” or “If Caught Trespassing You…”.  It seems like they’ve set up a choice for the neighborhood.  Either we have the rule “No Trespassing” or we’ll have to arrest you.  Am I explaining this correctly?  Does this seem odd to anybody else?  Brian said it seemed like the sign had two titles like “HMS Pinafore or The Lass that Loved a Sailor”.

Today’s puzzle is by Paula Gamache and is very nice.  So nice, in fact, that I couldn’t bear to finish it.  And by “couldn’t bear to finish it” I, of course, mean “couldn’t finish it”.  I tried but, in the end, the bottom right absolutely stumped me.

Here’s what I had:

47D. Like new ones (CRISP).  New dollar bills are totally overrated.  Incredibly difficult to count.

41D. Nonhuman baby sitter? (TEEVEE).  The length of this entry stumped me for a while but with a few crossing I got it.

39D. Alternator driver (FAN BELT).  Ok, sure.  I got this with a bunch of crossings.  I pretty much know how to add gas to a car but that’s about it.

37D. Stand where you lie (BED TABLE).  The puzzle was full of “the other meaning of the word”.  No, not the one you’re thinking of.  The other one.

57D. It has a ball (EYE).  Isn’t the eye and the eyeball the same thing.  I mean, what beside the eyeball makes up the eye?

56A. Dupe’s exclamation (IVE BEEN HAD).

Ok, here’s what I had wrong:

53D. Lee side (REBS).  This is probably the most clever clue in the puzzle.  I put REAR thinking of the sea and a boat.  Not once did the Civil War cross my mind.

49D. Chrissie of the Pretenders (HYNDE).  Lot’s of music-related clues.  I got close on this one.  I had HYNES.

48A. Her alter ego is Princess Andora (SHERA).  I feel I should get points for this one.  I had SHIRA.  That’s really close.  I mean, I knew what the answer was I just spelled it wrong.  I would have been right on Jeopardy.

Here’s what I couldn’t figure out:

59A. Time to pull a product (SELL BY DATE).  This was frustrating.  I had two wrong letters and just couldn’t figure it out.  I had SELLAYE___.  The best thing I could come up with was SELL-A-YEAR I, thinking it was maybe some yearly sales event.

61A. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” songwriter (PETE SEEGER).  More music clues.  Yes, I knew the song.  No, I didn’t know who wrote it.

42D. Ugly Dungeons & Dragons figure (SEA HAG).  This clue I’m not in love with.  I played a lot of D&D in my day and I certainly don’t associate sea hags with the game.  Plus the word “figure” seems unnecessarily misleading.  There’s lots of numbers and figures in D&D, the whole fighting system being based in math.  I don’t know.  Boo, on this clue.  Why not reference Popeye?

43D. Busy (ORNATE).  Again, not what you’re thinking it is.

44D. Irish (DANDER).  I was completely lost on this.  I understand it now.  Irish, as in getting your Irish up.  The best I could come up with was PADDIE.  Somebody explain my thinking there.

The rest of the puzzle was also full of great clues.  I especially enjoyed It begins where a person hails from for TAXI RIDE and Routine delivery for ONE LINER.

I had a very odd moment when I was trying to figure out 17A. “Baby Hold On” hitmaker, 1978 (EDDIE MONEY).  Again, I know next to nothing about music.  The only crossing I had was the N.  After staring for a bit I thought, hey, TINA TURNER fits here.  Later on, when the entry directly above EDDIE MONEY did, indeed, turn out to be TINA TURNER I was quite surprised and I only hope I can harness this power to do good.

Great puzzle today.

Next stop, Sunday.

We here at the BeMoreSmarter headquarters officially don’t like the Philadelphia Phillies, even if we here in Brian’s head don’t actually care. It’s solidarity, and if Ryan hates the Phillies, then so do I.

Sadly, do you know what goes along with hating the Phillies? Hating fans of the Phillies. And today, that specifically means Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town. Barry has chosen a Friday on which to provide us with a Saturday Stumper, even though that’s Newsday’s thing and this is the New York Times. Clearly, there has been a mix-up. Did you get stuck with an unsolvable puzzle like we did? Let’s look.

Gaping Chasms of Ignorance:

• 10D. ___ Heights (GOLAN) and 21A. Mythical Hun king (ATLI). I don’t think Joon Pahk can get on my case for this one. Maybe he’ll argue that I should know ATLI, but I will argue back that he forgets I have a music degree. As for the crossing, we’ve got two proper names, neither of which actually exists. [NOTE: Upon further examination, it seems that Atli is a variant on Attila. We thought Attila the Hun was real. Someone – Joon – please explain.]
• 15D. 2001-05 Pontiac made in Mexico (AZTEK) and 28A. Converted from coal via distillation (COKED). What the hell? All I could tell was that it wasn’t AZTEC, because I had C—ED, and C-CED didn’t make any sense any which way. The crossing here is the K, but we’ve never heard of coking. Coke is for drinking (if you’re Ryan). Coke Zero is also for drinking (if you’re Brian).
• 34D. They help with dating (TREE RINGS), 31A. 1980s El Salvadoran president (DUARTE) and 48A. Sacrifice site, in Siena (ARA). I broke through this southeast corner with great pride when I came up with this entry for 34D: GREETINGS. Absolutely, when you’re beginning to date someone, the beginning of each date is crucial – the way you say hello, be it with flowers, a kiss, a wave from the hired limo, whatever. GREETINGS are pretty important. And since ATA seemed as likely a place in Siena as ARA… and DUARGE might as well be someone from El Salvador… why not?

[NOTE: Here’s why not – 54D. Representation of 34-Down: Abbr. is YRS, which doesn’t make any sense with GREETINGS. Although now that I read it, “Representation of tree rings: Abbr.” sure seems clunky…]

Entries Which I Don’t Know (Or Think Need To Be Challenged):

• 16A. Spendthrift’s antithesis : STINTER. My favorite online definition of STINTER is “an economizer who stints someone with something.” Thank you, Free Online Dictionary.
• 23A. National park with the Pink Cliffs : BRYCE CANYON
• 25D. Fancy to a fault : ADULATE. I don’t understand. “To praise excessively.” What is faulty about this?
• 37A. They won’t cover your back : HALTERS. Stupid me, I had HATTERS in here for a while, and kept thinking it was pretty random.
• 38A. Hand over : RENDER. I had TENDER in here for a very long time, making 1D a complete mystery to me.
• 39D. Below C level? : POOR. What does this mean?
• 41D. 18 or 21, typically : OF AGE. This seems weird. I understand that “He is of age” and “He is 18” means it passes the substitution test. But it still seems weird.
• 52A. Acronym for a kind of PC video screen display : WYSIWYG. This stands for What You See Is What You Get. I have never ever heard this used in reference to a “PC video screen display.” In my experience, it refers to the reliability of a printed product to resemble its on-screen counterpart. This clue suggests that the acronym refers to the screen, not the image on the screen. Very misleading. [NOTE: I got this one anyway.]
• 59A. They don’t move quickly : LARGOS. I don’t like the use of “largo” as a noun.

Gimmes, the Few and Far Between:

• 3D. TIgers’ place : PRINCETON. My first guess was AL CENTRAL, but this was second.
• 29A. Tibia neighbors : PATELLAS. Other than “does it end with an S or an E?” this was easy. I may know nothing about mythology, but bones are a specialty.
• 30D. Fine with the Stooges : LARRY. The effort to play on the word Fine did not do anything to trick me.
• 33D. Take another good look at : RE-EXAMINE
• 37D. Hobby with call signs : HAM RADIO
• 43A. Washington locale : VALLEY FORGE. I don’t know why I knew this, but I did.

So there it was. Barry C. Silk has double-trumped us here with the Phillies and the Friday. Good luck in the World Series, Barry. I have put a hex on Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. What you see is not what you get. Muahahahaha!

Baseball season is officially over here at Be More Smarter Industries.  For the second year in a row, the Dodgers won the National League West, swept a heavily favored midwest team in the first round, devastatingly blew a late lead in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Phillies and depressingly ended their season in Game 5.  Baseball season will resume on Monday, April 5th 2010 in Pittsburgh.

Speaking of baseball, we’re going to start a Be More Smarter fantasy baseball league next season.  We’ve already got a few people involved but we’re looking for more.  If you’re interested leave us a comment or send us an email.

Today’s puzzle is by Joel Fagliano, a 17-year old making his NYT debut.  Joel, of course, hails from Philadelphia.  I will try to overlook that fact in my discussion of his puzzle.

The theme was a lot of fun.

A SHOT IN THE DARK

All of the answers to the starred clues are missing the word SHOT.  [The following observation came to me from Orange's blog via a Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town liason.]  Where the word SHOT should be is instead a black square.  The black squares are dark so you can think of the word SHOT being in the dark.  Very clever.

And here’s the opening sequence from the classic movie.

5A. *Jigger (GLASS).

17A. *”That’s way off” (NOT BY A LONG).

38A. *Photo (SNAP).

39A. *Colorful party drink (JELLO).

40A. *Rejected (DOWN).

62A. *Quick hitch-up (GUN WEDDING).

71A. *Y-shaped item (SLING).

10D. *What “fore” may precede (TEE).

61D. *Track-and-field event (PUT).

Other highlights:

I had a lot of trouble with the crossing of ECRU (1A. It’s similar to cream) and EAN (1D. Suffix with Euclid).  I thought the word was Euclidian not Euclidean.  And it took me forever to think of cream as a color and not something you feed to cartoon cats.  Speaking of that, does anybody give their real cats cream or milk to drink?  I’ve heard it’s not good for their digestive system but any time we give them a little sip they LOVE it.

35A. “For real!” (I MEAN IT).  Anybody want a peanut?

44A. Pack rat (HOARDER).  Fascinating show.

58A. Solo in science fiction (HAN).  I don’t think the Wookie likes being leaned on.

8D. Nick name? (SANTA).  Good one.  I had NOLTE here first.

Fun puzzle, today.

Next stop, Friday.