Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

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.