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.]

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.