Ryan solves the NYT, 10-22-9
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.
