Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

New York Times 10:57
The Onion 12:44
Los Angeles Times 10:15 (with cheating)
CrosSynergy 9:25
New York Sun 18:23
Universal 13:45

New York Times
by Gary Whitehead, edited by Will Shortz

I looked at the clock with about four empty squares on my grid. SIX MINUTES AND FOURTEEN SECONDS. Yes, I had all but four squares filled in just over six minutes. That is amazing.

Almost.

What would have been amazing was if I could have taken less than four more minutes to do four more squares.

And without cheating.

The southwest killed me. It’s like San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque and something in northern Mexico all teamed up and beat me to a pulp. For the life of me, I had absolutely no idea on 56A. Deceptive talker or 64A. Chocolatier’s gear, and specifically the squares crossing with 58D. M.p.h., e.g. and the explanation-of-the-theme clue, 56D. What 20-, 37- and 53-Across may do.

(more of this and the other puzzles below… click the link for more!)

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New York Times 6:54
Los Angeles Times 7:35
New York Sun 10:03
CrosSynergy 12:27

(my stories come after the link… read on!)

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

New York Times 7:38 (or 6:06 with one square wrong)
New York Sun 6:02
LA Times 4:31
CrosSynergy 13:21
USA Today 18:19
Universal 13:17

(my stories come after the link… read on!)

(more…)

I need to tape a sign up somewhere that reads: “The New York Sun puzzles have themes, moron.”

This theme was delightful, and extremely helpful in solving. Unfortunately, due to my almost complete lack of intelligence, I spent 25:58 solving this thing, and used almost ten of those minutes on the top left corner.

I saw the puzzle’s title at about the time I got into the mid-40s across clues, specifically at 47A. What drips out of a toppled tub bottle? I am very familiar with this condition, in that my own shower is lined with SHAMPOO OOZE. This led to my discovery of 59A. Hawaiian dressmaking coll. bodysuits? — a clue which still doesn’t seem like actual English — and although I initially thought “coll. bodysuits” might be some awkward term for campus safety officials (I was trying something that ended in GUARDS), I eventually arrived at MUUMUU U. UNITARDS.

[On a side note, I think that "Muumuu U. Unitards" would make a terrific name for a character in a strange play.]

39A. Semidiameters pointed at by me? came quickly as RADII I INDICATED, but the top left was a mystery, and my greatest fear came true — that not knowing the capital of Yemen would lead to my crosswording downfall.

In my mind, I invented an animal called the aardwolf (although it actually exists), but was reluctant to put it in the grid for fear it would become problematic. Little did I know that I was correct with the AARDWOLVES part of 17A. Hyenalike animals from Yemen’s capital?, while accurate in my assessment that I still did not know the capital of Yemen.

The whole top left was filled in and emptied, filled in and emptied. I couldn’t figure 1A. After-dinner orders, maybe, having tried both DRINKS and DISHES before arriving at DECAFS. And I must have ignored the question mark in 14A. Biased writing?, as I never really considered the idea of ITALICS. After Googling the capital of Yemen (that sounds like a euphemism for something), I managed to complete 17A. with SANAA AARDWOLVES. That, combined with using Across Lite’s “reveal” feature to show me what 28A. Sgt., e.g. (NCO – I never remember this one), led me to 3D (CANNONADE), 4D (A LA — my French is tres disastreaux), 5D (FIASCO), which finally helped me with the rest of that section.

Clever and fun, but I’m going to have to keep Googling the capital of Yemen if I want to get any better at this.

NYS Time: 10:41.

I am a huge baseball fan, and never ever have I heard anyone use terms like ALER (69A. Dice-K, for one) to describe any member of an American League team. NEVER. Dice-K is many things: Japanese, slightly red-headed, right-handed, a former member of the Seibu Lions, a current member of the Boston Red Sox, a member of the 2006 World Baseball Classic championship team, a winner of 15 regular season games in 2007, the owner of a rather exciting Major League Baseball World Series Championship ring, the subject of much media scrutiny (both in the United States and Japan) — yes, Daisuke Matsuzaka is a lot of things, but that ridiculous non-word ALER is not one that comes easily to mind.

This puzzle took me nearly eleven minutes, mostly because the fourth of the theme answers eluded me — primarily because I got the other three long answers without understanding the theme. BAGEL HANDLER, HOTEL CHOCOLATE and VOWEL OF SILENCE seemed like awkward phrases, and while I saw the EL in the midst of each, all that led me to believe was that the fourth began with LAPEL (which it did, thank you very much). What I didn’t see was that without the EL, they were far more normal turns of phrase.

A related aside: I am far more accepting of ALL the long clue answers than I am of ALER. Far more.

The bottom right slowed me down, as I knew neither 55A. “Kollege of Musical Knowledge” host Kay (KYSER) nor 59D. “Hercules” spinoff (XENA). I also had 40D. Slaughtered according to Islamic law (HALAL) off to a wrong start (I had LALA-), so my fourth long clue had a lot of empty squares in it. Again, without thinking “lap of luxury,” I was not going to easily see LAPEL OF LUXURY (which I also contend is more appropriate to diamond-studded jackets than ALER is to baseball).

Words ending in -ER I would accept ahead of ALER:

• PITCHER
• RIGHT-HANDER
• WINNER (OF THE WORLD SERIES)
• MEMBER (OF THE BOSTON RED SOX)
• FOREIGNER
• BALLER
• HURLER

Hopefully this post will make non-words like ALER and NLER come morer quicklier to minder.

I’m trying my atrophied brain on another league of puzzles, those from the New York Sun. From what I’ve heard, they’re about a day harder than the Times standards, but they don’t run on the weekends.

I didn’t even think to look for a title — yet there was one. I got the gimmick fairly quickly, but then I stared at 56A. Danger signs for a good two minutes trying to think how FLAGS could be an animal before I realized that it wasn’t one of the theme answers (and my initial choice of REDFLAGS was correct).

I was slowed by insisting (to myself) that 51A. Christ follower? was MAS (it was actually INE – I like my answer better), by trying to make 48A. Celebrated author into a COWARDLY LION (when a LITERARY LION makes so much more sense), and by not knowing either of the proper names in 33A. Lanchester of “Blackbeard’s Ghost” or 33D. Running great Zatopek (ELSA and EMIL, pictured at right).

My time of 14:48 is disgusting, and I will treat myself poorly all day as a result of this dreadful performance.

I’ve been doing the NY Sun puzzles on and off.  I tend to think they’re a bit harder the Times.  I also don’t particularly like the online interface.

I almost finished this without google but I got stuck in the upper left.  The theme dealt with the speed of light.   The title is “Speed Limit 670,616,629 537/1397 MPH”.  Not sure if that’s the 100% correct title as I don’t know what the significance of 537/1397 is.  So, the trick in this puzzle is the word “light” shows up a lot and gets crammed into one box.  Again, I’m a little in the dark here (pardon the pun), what does this have to do with the speed of light?  I guess since I just had to type in an “L” I was able to complete it faster.  Maybe?  That being said, this was a very enjoyable puzzle.

The theme clues/answers:

•  1A. Ecstatic (DElightED).
• 19A. Nighttime memorial, perhaps (CANDLElightVIGIL).
• 26A. Playground game (REDlightGREENlight).
• 31A. 1944 Best Picture nominee (GASlight).
• 52A. Ionosphere phenomenon (NORTHERNlightS).
• 59A. Hanukkah (or an alternate title for this puzzle) (FESTIVALOFlightS)
• 73A. To a small degree (lightLY)
• 74A. Instruct (ENlightEN)
• 3D. Smoker’s item (lightER)
• 7D. Best-selling beer in the U.S. since 2001 (BUDlight)
• 11A. They’re sometimes found in theaters (AISLElightS)
• 27D. Arrive at by chance (lightON)
• 30D. Show happiness (lightUP)
• 48D. Brushes off (SlightS)
• 56D. Emphasize (HIGHlight)
• 62D. Pub offering (lightALE)
• 66D. Match up again? (reLIGHT)

Good theme.

Favorite clues:

• 20D. What one is done with? (DEE).  Love this one.  Even after I got it filled in, it still took me a little while to figure out what it meant.  Perfectly worded.
•  69A. Ho accessory (LEI).  A necklace of flowers?  Not the first thing that came into my head.

Here’s one I don’t understand:

• 1D. Sign of the times? (DOT).  Is this an acronym for something?

I’ll report on the Sun puzzles on and off.  But I think I will start solving them every day.