Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

This week’s motto: “We will never again be what we have already been.” (We don’t understand this one.)

Somehow, it feels like it’s been months since our last episode. Is that true? We’re not sure. If you have an opinion on this, you should write a review about us on iTunes, and also email us with your thoughts. We can be reached at rbxblog at gmail dot com.

This week’s episode does not include:

• a proper introduction
• Ryan saying the name of our theme song
• anyone playing that damn green pickle turd
• a satisfactory abbreviation for players in the American League
• a running time of less than 38 minutes

Without these features, how could you possibly enjoy this episode? That, dear viewers, is our challenge to you.

 

 Fill Me In #080: This one night, Charlize Theron tickled my stomach. [38:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zambezi and oat.

Last night I saw Gentlemen Broncos, the new movie from Jared Hess, the director of Napoleon Dynamite.  Wow, that was weird.  Some parts were good weird but a lot of it was weird for the sake of being weird.  Mr. Hess may be going down the M. Night Shyamalan road where each successive movie is just a little bit worse until you end up paying $12.50 to watch Mark Wahlberg talk through the scientific method while being attacked by stationery trees.  Only time will tell.

Today’s puzzle was constructed by John Farmer and features a theme I don’t entirely understand.  In five instances, two identical entries cross and their crossing letters spell out RINGO.  Seems quite random to me.  Unless we’re to assume the crossing entries represent the shape of a STARR or that they are symbolic for crossed drumsticks.  Admittedly, I don’t know all that much about The Beatles so there may be some other symbolism at work here.  Anybody else have any insight?

The crossing entries are:

DURAN DURAN

BLING BLING

TWINKLE TWINKLE

SUGAR SUGAR

KNOCK KNOCK

Do people say BLING BLING?  I thought it was just bling.  Or blingadocious.  Or blingalicious.  By the way, a google image search for “crossword bling” comes up with nothing in the way of jewel encrusted accoutrements.  An untapped market just waiting for someone to make their fortune.

Other highlights:

13A. QB Manning (ELI).  Hey, I know something about football!

20D. They line up between centers and tackles: Abbr. (RGS).  Oy, I know nothing about football!  What does this stand for?  Right Guards?  Rear Glanks?

42A. Dress shirt accessories (CUFF LINKS).  Ok, I think I found some crossword bling.

35D. Lennon’s “Two Virgins” partner (ONO).  Well, this is just weird.  If the puzzle is about RINGO and you mention Lennon and Ono in another clue shouldn’t you go the whole way and somehow work Paul and George in there?

I’d love if someone could explain this theme to me.

Next stop, Wednesday.

So yesterday’s (Sunday’s) puzzle was all about a certain verse engineer and in my post I neglected to mention our favorite verse engineer, Amanda Yesnowitz, the Unparalleled Parallel Verse Engineer, A Shining Light to us All.  I feel terrible especially since Amanda went to the trouble of (sort of) telling me what Sun-In is.  To make up for this here is Amanda’s performance of the KenKen song with lyrics by Amanda Yesnowitz.

(This will also be an interesting test to see if Amanda reads my non-weekend posts.)

Today’s puzzle has a byline that almost fits the puzzle’s theme, James Mulhern and Ashton Anderson.  The theme was “A word that rhymes with Doc Ock [and] a word that is made up of letters.]

17A. Like a story that can’t be believed (COCK AND BULL).

The cock’s on the housetop, blowing his horn:
The bull’s in the barn a-threshing of corn:
The maids in the meadows are making of hay:
The ducks in the river are swimming away.

27A. Military strategy during the 2003 invasion of Iraq (SHOCK AND AWE).

45A. Subject of a 1950s “revolution” (ROCK AND ROLL).

61A. Prepare to use a rifle (LOCK AND LOAD).

Fine Monday theme although one that probably won’t show up in The New York Times Big Book of Pacifist-Friendly Puzzles.

Other highlights:

16A. Lyricist Gershwin (IRA).  Amanda.

32A. ___ the Hutt (“Star Wars” villain) (JABBA).  An alternative, and much easier, clue would have been “Spice smuggling native of Nal Hutta and fierce rival of Gardulla the Elder”.  I mean, this is a Monday puzzle.  Let’s give everybody a chance to solve it.

39A. Veep’s superior (PREXY).  Wha?

11D. Candy with a hole in the middle (LIFE SAVER).  Candy?  I don’t know.  These are mints, right?  I don’t consider mints to be candy.  I’ve never had a craving for big roll of life savers.

32D. Give a Bronx cheer (JEER).  Isn’t it odd that JEER is one letter away from JETER?

52D. “Too rich for my blood” (I FOLD).  Kept reading this as IF OLD.

56D. Trebek who says “And the answer is…” (ALEX).  Couldn’t this clue just have been “Trebek”?

Nice puzzle today.

Next stop, Tuesday.

If you check out the comments on yesterday’s post you’ll get a very detailed explanation from Joe Krozel, Rhymes with Puzzle as to how he constructed that Saturday puzzle.  It’s pretty amazing and even though he’s explained it quite thoroughly it still seems like it might be some sort of magic.

Today’s puzzle is by Sunday favorite Elizabeth C. Gorski and features a MAN OF MANY WORDS theme.  Like most puzzles from Ms. Gorski it’s not too difficult, it’s full of fun and clever fill and is a joy to solve.

I have to admit though, I didn’t no-google this.  I was 2 empty boxes away.  I knew one of the boxes was a vowel so I could have cycled through the vowels in the one box while cycling through the whole alphabet in the other until I hit on the right combination but I just said the hell with it and looked them up.

98A. Faux gold (ORMOLU) and 94D. Tittle (JOT).  I had ORM_LU and J_T.  Obviously, this is the one I knew was a vowel.  I thought “tittle” meant to make someone laugh or to excite someone.  I guess that’s titillate.  Apparently, both JOT and TITTLE mean “a small quantity”.  So, next time you go to McDonalds make sure to order a Big Mac and a tittle of fries.  See what they say.

According to wikipedia ormolu is an 18th-century English term for applying finely ground, high-karat gold in a mercury amalgam to an object of bronze.   How that all means “faux gold” is a mystery to me.

103D. City rebuilt by Darius I (SUSA) and 103A. Beachgoer’s hair lightener (SUNIN).  I had _USA and _UNIN.  I guess since Sammy Sosa showed up a couple time already this week the appearance of a city I’ve never heard of that was rebuilt by a guy who’s never been in my kitchen only makes sense.  As for SUNIN, I’m at a loss.  Is this two words?  One word?  Three words?  I don’t get it.  Personally, my own hair is being lightened by the gradual emergence of my pale scalp.  Could that be what this means?

So, yeah, I could have cycled through all those letters and eventually hit on the right ones but there was no way I was actually going to figure these answers out.

As for the theme, it’s fun but I bet it’s more fun for people familiar with JOHNNY MERCER’s work.  Ten of the songs he wrote lyrics for show up in the grid along with the entry BROADWAY MUSICAL.  Plus, if you connect the circled letters in alphabetical order you get the shape of a clef.  Is it an F clef?  Who knows?  Brian?  Dan?  Jon?  Harry?  What kind of clef is this?

Other highlights:

35A. Thrice daily, on an Rx (TID).  TID?  I thought this was TER.  Has it always been TID?

40A. Bread box? (ATM).  I always struggle with the various ATM clues.  I knew bread was referring to money but I kept thinking about safes and wallets.  In any puzzle, whenever I eventually enter in ATM it always comes as a surprise to me.  I think even if the clue was “Electronic console in many delis and banks where one inserts their bank card, enters their PIN and extracts currency” I’d think, huh, a refrigerator, maybe?

41A. Last non-A.D. year (ONE BC).  I bet they had quite the party that year.

55A. 2001 World Series winner (ARIZONA).  We have a cat named Arizona.  Normally, we feed him wet food in the morning.  Lately, though, he’s been puking and wheezing a bit after eating it so we’re only feeding him dry food today.  He is most distressed.  He’s running around the apartment, caterwauling and banging on doors.  We’ve tried to explain that it’s for his own good but he’s not listening.

12D. “Garfield: ___ of Two Kitties” (2006 film) (A TAIL).  Good lord, there was a sequel?

76D. “The Wizard ___” (OF ID).  Nice little misdirection here.  I used to read a lot of Wizard of Id when I was growing up.  You know, I’m not even going to search for a strip to post here.  It’s probably going to be horrible which, in turn, will make question how I spent my time in my formative years.  Who needs that on a Sunday morning?

97D. 7-Up, with “the” (UNCOLA).  I feel like it’s been years since I’ve had a 7-Up.  Do they still call it the Uncola?  And what makes it an uncola?  Isn’t it still full of chemicals and high fructose corn syrup?  Here’s a 1971 slightly creepy commercial with longtime spokesman Geoffrey Holder.

Fun puzzle, today.  I’m off to have a tittle of breakfast.

Next stop, Monday.

All you podcast listeners (that’s all of you, right?) should check out yesterday’s Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle.  It was constructed by James Sajdak and features the clue Wielder of Mjöllnir.  Yes!  Thanks to Dan Feyer, Winner of the C Division, Winner of the B Division, Winner of Lollapuzzoola 2 for giving us the heads up.

Today’s New York Times puzzle is by one of our favorites, Joe Krozel, Rhymes with Puzzle.  Joe can always be counted on to provide fun, amazingly constructed puzzles and his latest offering does not disappoint.  Compared to last week’s Bob Klahn Grid of Impossibility, today’s puzzle is a bit on the easy side but that doesn’t detract from its excellent design and enjoyment factor.

The first thing I noticed was the quadruple stack of 15s running across the center.

32A. Overhead shower (INCOME STATEMENT).  This time I was onto the whole shower/shower trick but got fooled by overhead.  I thought the answer might be some sort of projector but, clearly, I was wrong.

37A. 1988 comedy starring Richard Dreyfuss and Raul Julia (MOON OVER PARADOR).  I knew this one immediately and got it without any crossings.  Even though I’ve never seen it, the combined help of being a huge Dreyfuss fan and being super aware of all that went on in 1988 made this one a gimmie.

38A. Song with the lyric “City of a million warm embraces” (ARRIVEDERCI ROMA).  This one was a bit more difficult.  Made even more difficult by my insistence on trying to fit CHICAGO in somewhere.  Even though we’ve said arrivederci to Roma they say as long as you through a coin into the Fontana di Trevi you’ll definitely come back.  (We forgot to do that but we took our picture in front of it so hopefully that will count.)

39A. Pomelo relatives (MANDARIN ORANGES).  Other names for the pomelo include: Chinese grapefruit, jabong, lusho fruit, pompelmous, and shaddock.  Shaddock?  Isn’t that a fish?

Hopefully Joe will read the blog today and tell us how he was able to accomplish this impressive stacking.

Other highlights:

26A. “Tootsie” Oscar nominee (GARR).  Seriously, who’s better than Teri Garr.  You know what?  As soon as I finish writing the blog, I’m going to make myself a sandwich and watch Tootsie.

28A. Charter (LET).  What does this mean?  LET like in “let an apartment”?

45A. Where things are bolted down on base (MESS ROOM).  Love the clue but isn’t it MESS HALL?

3D. One maturing quickly, for short (TBILL).  What did I put here first?  TWEEN.

6D. “That was the turnoff!” (YOU PASSED IT).  I have no sense of direction.  Even with a GPS I’m constantly missing exits and tearing off in the wrong direction.  I think I might get a t-shirt made up that has a picture of GPS and the words “recalculating route”.

8D. Charging giant, informally (AMEX).  Great clue.

12D. 1998 film featuring Colonel Cutter (ANTZ).  As soon as I read the clue, I knew it was ANTZ.  No idea why.  I barely remember the movie and I certainly don’t remember Colonel Cutter.  I didn’t write it in right away because I had no reason to believe I was correct.  Finally, I couldn’t deny my destiny any longer and typed my way to correct entry glory.  Colonel Cutter was voice by Christopher Walken, by the way.

28D. Renoir at the Getty (LA PROMENADE).  This got filled in entirely by crosses.  Beautiful painting, though.

45D. Tacit storytellers (MIMES).  You’ve got to hand it to mimes.  People hate them but they keep showing up to the party.

Really great puzzle today.  I can spend the rest of Saturday feeling more smarter.  And watching Tootsie.

Next stop, Sunday.

Today would be great day for everybody to watch (or rewatch) the original Friday the 13th.  It’s the only one of the series I’ve seen but it’s actually not bad.  You’ve got bad acting, really short man shorts, Kevin Bacon, an impromptu game of Monopoly, a ridiculous villain and an honest-to-goodness scary ending.  Brian and I watched it with the wives in Halloween 2008 and I nearly jumped out of my skin.  This year’s scary moment was provided by [REC] and it’s still freaking me out a bit.

Today’s puzzle was constructed by Dana Motley, a name I’m not familiar with but apparently this is her 29th NYT puzzle.  I did no-google it but it was a struggle and I’m not sure I understand everything I entered into the grid.

6A. Watch things, briefly (LCDS).  I put SCAN here first thinking it meant to briefly watch things.

15A. Hot time in Montréal (AOUT).  You know how much we love foreign words here at the Be More Smarter offices.  This clue is usually answered by ETE but today it’s 4 letters long hence the French word for August.

21A. American goldfinch (YELLOW BIRD).  Hmm, is a Yellow Bird a type of American goldfinch?  Or are American goldfinches yellow birds?

26A. Funshine, Grumpy or Love-a-lot (CARE BEAR).  According to Wikipedia, in their last movie Oopsy Does It!, the insignias which used to be called tummy symbols were renamed “belly badges”.  Here’s a fun game, see how many times you can read the preceding sentence before you burst into flames.

29A. Meridian shower (GLOBE).  Never fails.  I always fall for the shower (when stuff falls from the sky)/shower (hey, check out my Pog collection) misdirection.

33A. Moves quickly, as a cloud (SCUDS).  Ok, since when?  When has anybody you know (even slightly) looked up at a beautiful sky and remarked on the scudding of the clouds?  Clouds waft.  Very dense pudding scuds.

47A. Was an accountant? (NARRATED).  Once I noticed the question mark (only took me 20 minutes) this one was pretty easy.

51A. Bygone laborer (ESNE).  Poll of the day: Would you rather be stuck on desert island with foreign words or with words nobody uses anymore?  Which would be more helpful in acquiring coconuts?

60A. Source of high anxiety? (ACROPHOBIA).  Ohhhhkaaayyyy, why the question mark?  Isn’t high anxiety more or less a literal translation of acrophobia?  The question mark made me see if MARIJUANA would fit.  Which, in turn, made me think of Rob Schneider.  Which is never a good thing.

10D. Best Actor Tony winner for “Mark Twain Tonight!” (HOLBROOK).  Why do I know this?  Why do I know he’s married to Dixie Carter?  I couldn’t tell you one thing in which I’ve seen Hal Holbrook.  Ok, not true.  I went to see Master Class on Broadway starring Dixie Carter and Hal was in the audience.

13D. President who was born a king (FORD).  Ok, just looked this up.  Gerald Ford’s birthname was Leslie Lynch King, Jr.  Nice clue.

26D. Piccolo duet? (CEES).  I just this very minute figured out what this means.

30D. Item-concealing shoplifting aid  (BOOSTER BOX).  This was the last thing I entered.  Why?  Well, I’ve never heard of it.  Does it actually exist?  I don’t know.  The only thing I’ve ever shoplifted was a bag of confetti when was I six.  I eventually confessed my mother and took it back.  And by “eventually” I mean 5 seconds after I left the store.

34D. Honoree of a 1998 ticker tape parade (SOSA).  Wow, I forgot about that.  We all really got sucked in that, didn’t we?

43D. Dog for logs (ANDIRON).  This makes absolutely no sense to me.

I think I liked this puzzle but I don’t think I loved this puzzle.  It was not a total joy to solve but I appreciate it.  Nice interlocking of words and all that.

Next stop, Saturday.

Going to be a short post today.  I had work coming out my Yazoo River last night.  Once I got home, it took me almost 40 minutes to come very close to solving today’s puzzle and another 5 or 6 minutes to search the web for what I had wrong.  In my defense, I’ve been up for a very long time.

Speaking of today’s puzzle, it was constructed by Brendan Emmett Quigley Down Under Starring Tom Selleck and, as is the norm for BEQ, it’s great.

I thought I wouldn’t have too much trouble with it as I got the rebus within the first couple of minutes.  I don’t know how the name DIAMOND JIM BRADY came to me but it did.  There are 5 DIAMONDS hidden throughout the grid.  Is there any significance to the number of diamonds or their placement that I’m not catching onto?

My downfall was 17A. Tending to cut off (ISOLATIVE).  I had ISOLAT___ and just couldn’t come up with the rest.  All I could think of was ISOLATING which I knew didn’t work with the crossings.  I came close when I put in ISOLATINE which I don’t believe is a word unless Apple has a solatine factory I don’t know about.  That screwed up that whole area and I was too beat to figure it out.  Kinda blows as I made my way quite well through the rest of the grid.

20A. Like some fancy soap bubbles (TORIC).  I don’t get this.  I was trying to think of fancy soaps.  I think the only two brands of soap I know are Dove and Lava.

32A. Chapter’s starting point, usually (RECTO).  I’m guessing this has something to do with the Bible?

65A. Marine snail (WHELK).  Not sure where I pulled this one out of.

14D. Some A.L.’ers (DHS).  C’mon!  Totally unnecessary!  This could have been “Some Yanks” or “Some Chi Sox” or something along those lines.

Really good puzzle today.  Whenever I do a BEQ puzzle I feel like I’m way behind him in cleverness, hipness and smartness and it’s always a fun challenge to try and catch up.

Next stop, Friday.

Amy Reynaldo!!!  We want to know.  How on Earth did you solve Bob Klahn’s Saturday puzzle in 7 minutes?  Seriously.  Let us know.  Odalisque is just a word that you can come up with?  Reveal your secrets.  Reveal your “syst”.  Either email us, comment on the blog or be a guest on our podcast.  You cannot keep these secrets to yourself any longer.

Today’s puzzle was constructed by Kelsey Blakely and featured an ingenious theme that took me a while to wrap my head around.

39A. Start of a count…or the letter frequencies in 17-, 30-, 46- and 64-Across (ONE TWO THREE FOUR).  One, two, three, four?  That’s amazing!  I’ve got the same combination on my luggage!

After I filled in the entry I had no idea what it could mean.  Now, it seems fairly obvious but at the time it was a mystery.  Turns out, all four theme entries are made up of one letter that appears 1 time, one letter that appears 2 times, one letter that appears 5 times (Three, sir.) 3 times and one letter that appears 4 times.  Very clever.  Would someone like to explain to me how one comes up with entries like this?

17A. User of barley malt (BEER BREWER).

30A. Emphatic boast of responsibility (I DID INDEED).

46A. One way to be armed (TO THE TEETH).

64A. “And away go troubles…” company (ROTO ROOTER).

I think this is one of those themes that I enjoy more upon reflection than I did while actually solving the puzzle.

Other highlights:

10A. Where “La Dolce Vita” was filmed (ROMA).  My plan is to eventually post all of our vacation pictures here on the blog, one clue at a time.  Here I am outside one of the best gelaterias in ROMA.

20A. Sharing properties (SIMILAR).  Man, I really thought this was going to be SUBLETS or something.

37A. Turf group (GANG).  Ba-da-da-da-daaaaa, ba-da-da-da-duh-da-daaaaa.

38A. Slo-___ fuse (BLO).  I have no idea what this is.  I just googled it and I still have no idea.

51A. Marvel Comics villain with an eyeball-like helmet (ORB).  This guy I’ve never heard of.  Apparently, he was stunt motorcycle rider who slid 25 yards on his unprotected face after an accident.  He was fine for the first 24 but that last yard left him hideously disfigured.  This next bit is straight from wikipedia: “After his recovery, for reasons never adequately explained, Shannon was given a powerful motorcycle helmet by They Who Wield Power. The helmet, which was modeled to look like a giant eyeball, could hypnotize people. A later version could also shoot powerful laser beams from its pupil.”  So, there you go.  Origin story solved.

63A. ___ Jannings, Best Actor of 1928 (EMIL).  How come when I hear the name “Emil Jannings” I think of figure skaters?

7D. Gilder’s need (TOW).  I read this as GILDER’s need.  This confused me as GILDER makes me think of only one thing (even though it’s spelled differently).

INIGO:  You’re sure nobody’s following us?

VIZZINI:  As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways, inconceivable. No one in Guilder knows what we’ve done. And no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast. Out of curiosity, why do you ask?

INIGO:  No reason. It’s only, I just happened to look behind us, and something is there.

41D. China’s Lao-___ (TSE).  Not to be confused, of course, with Lao Che, the Chinese gangster who tricked Indiana Jones into giving him the remains of Nurhaci, first emperor of Manchu Dynasty.  Totally different guy.

56D. “Less filling’” brand (LITE).  Wha?  I don’t get this.  Isn’t something like MILLER LITE the brand?  LITE is just the adjective of the brand, right?

Fun puzzle, today.

Next stop, Thursday.

We have risen from the e-ashes! We may have been hacked a week ago, but that won’t stop us. Of course, none of you noticed, but we were destroyed! and emotionally scarred! and now we’re back!

This is the seventy-ninth of an ongoing weekly series where your hosts, Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht, talk about crosswords, crossword solvers, crossword constructors, and a whole bunch of whatever else they just happen to think of.

Today’s episode includes:

• Answers we got right and wrong (including Peter Maas, Isaac Asimov and Amy Tan)
• People who both write to us and don’t (including Daniel Rosen and Jonah Kagan)
• Contests that may or may not earn you prizes (such as cookies or puzzle books in Italian — they are on the way!)
• Also a ton of bumping the microphones. We’re not sure why. We think it’s Brian’s fault.

We feel fairly confident that if you liked at least 30% of the past seventy-eight episodes, you have a 30% chance of liking this one. Besides, it includes a reference to this video:

But now, the podcast:

 

 Fill Me In #079: Go to Connecticut, take a right, and just keep going. [35:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you have a chance, rate us on iTunes. We’re trying to reach double figures in the category of “number of reviews.”

Zambezi and oat.

Hey, it’s countdown day!  11…10…9…well, that’s the end of the countdown but that’s pretty cool anyway.  I guess we’ll get another one next year on December 11th but that’ll be it for this century.  Speaking of countdowns I’ve been watching some documentaries on the history of NASA space missions.  Fascinating.  They just put these guys on the top of missiles and launched them into space.  And I’m amazed that in the ‘60s they had the technology to communicate with people who were floating beyond our atmosphere.  Did people even have remote controls back then for their TVs?

Today’s puzzle is by Alan Arbesfeld and has a great theme.  Great!

61A. and 63A. Name associated with the starts of 17-, 23-, 36-, 45- and 57-Across (WOODY ALLEN).  My mom is the biggest Woody Allen fan there’s ever been.  We had all his great early films on VHS and we’d watch them over and over and over again.  At the time, my two favorites were Sleeper and TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN.  I think the movies are even better now that I get the jokes I didn’t understand as a kid.

Here’s the first 8 minutes of Take the Money and Run which contain one of my favorite lines ever.

Here’s the rest of the theme answers.

17A. Happen (TAKE PLACE).

23A. First cable series to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama (THE SOPRANOS).

36A. Process involving illegal drug profits, say (MONEY LAUNDERING).

45A. Flip side of the Beatles “If I Fell” (AND I LOVE HER).

57A. Retreat in fear (RUN SCARED).

Other highlights:

28A. “Your Moment of ___” (“The Daily Show” feature) (ZEN).  These are mostly pretty excruciating but I look forward to them every show.  I can’t get the embedding to work properly from The Daily Show website but here’s a link to a good one.

41A. Feelings, informally (VIBES).  Wasn’t this also a terrible movie with Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper?  Checking imdb…yes, it came out in the banner year of 1988.  The tagline was “Put your hands on our hands and feel the… VIBES.”

26D. Catches, as fly balls (SHAGS).  In 8th grade P.E. class all the mean kinds called me Shag because I had long, unruly hair.  When we started softball in the Spring and Ms. Strande told us to go to the outfield and SHAG fly balls that was a bad day for me.

Oh, and my favorite line from the Woody Allen clip?  Cello teacher: “He had no conception of the instrument…he was blowing into it.”

Fun puzzle and great theme today.

Next stop, Wednesday.