Ryan solves the NYT, 11-6-9
For those who didn’t hear, we got hacked yesterday. The site was down yesterday for a few hours and it looked for a little while like all of our posts were gone for good. Luckily, everything had been backed up on October 22nd and we were able to restore our site to that point. We have the posts after that date saved offline and we will be restoring them over the weekend. Until we do, the commenting system may be a little screwy (well, screwier than normal). All of our comments from the missing posts are still in the system and they appear to be latching on to random entries. So if this post has a bunch of comments about last Thursday’s puzzle please do not be alarmed.
Why would somebody hack our site? There’s certainly no money to be gained. Is it possible that people sit around and write programs simply because they enjoy destroying other people’s work? Really? I do not like these people. These people are bastard people.
Narrowing down a list of possible suspects I’ve come to the conclusion that the person who did this is none other than Philadelphia Phillie centerfielder Shane Victorino. Mr. Victorino has done everything in his power to make my life miserable for the past 2 years and I find it very suspicious that on the first day he has some free time our site gets hacked. Mr. Victorino, why do you hate me?
Today’s puzzle? Ah yes, today’s puzzle was constructed by one of our all-time favorites, Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town. This has got to be one of Doug’s best weeks. First, his team wins the World Series and now his puzzle holds the coveted Friday slot.
Given Doug’s bad taste in baseball teams the center of the grid sports an unsurprising entry.
31D. Baseball nickname that’s a portmanteau (AROD). Yankee fans are finally happy with Arod. Isn’t that just dandy.
The puzzle is great. Full of fun fill and fun clues.
10A. Page with convictions (OPED). I couldn’t wrap my head around this one. I kept thinking it was a person’s name (like Ellen Page) or a verb (as in, call someone’s name over the PA system with convictions).
14A. Dull type (IGNORAMUS). Ignoramus is great word.
15A. Campus V.I.P. (PREXY). Doug is so full of beans because the Yankees won that he feels he can just make up words.
17A. Clearly riveted (AGAPE). I put IN AWE here first.
36A. Subject of the 2005 biography “iCon” (STEVE JOBS). Have I mentioned that we love our iPhones?
37A. Spotted (LENT). Oh my, this was tough. I was sure it was SEEN. Then I had _ENT and I wrote down all the words it could possibly be. And about 10 minutes later I figured it out.
56A. Best in shows (EDNA). Never heard of her.
5D. A tall Roman column is named after him (TRAJAN). Here I am lost in Rome. If only I knew the name of that huge column behind me.

8D. “The English Patient” Oscar winner (JULIETTE BINOCHE). I remember this because everyone thought Lauren Bacall would win. Hey, remember how The English Patient was 15 hours long?
9D. Comment when following someone (I SEE). This is my favorite clue in the puzzle. Very clever.
10D. Source of ballpark pitches (ORGAN). Well, I knew it wasn’t going to have anything to do with throwing a baseball. I thought it might be referring to advertising so I had ___ AD for a while. On a side note, the last two vestiges of the Dodgers’ time as the most stable franchise in baseball are Vin Scully behind the mic for 60 years and Nancy Bea Hefley on the Dodger Stadium organ for 22 years.
35D. Sight-seers at the Prado? (OJOS). I got this one pretty quickly but really enjoyed it.
Great puzzle today. Great week for Doug. And, Shane Victorino, we’ve got our ojos on you.
Next stop, Saturday.
15D. 2001-05 Pontiac made in Mexico (AZTEK) and 28A. Converted from coal via distillation (COKED). What the hell? All I could tell was that it wasn’t AZTEC, because I had C—ED, and C-CED didn’t make any sense any which way. The crossing here is the K, but we’ve never heard of coking. Coke is for drinking (if you’re Ryan). Coke Zero is also for drinking (if you’re Brian).
23A. National park with the Pink Cliffs : BRYCE CANYON

The crossing is at the first E in Sethe. My initial entry was an O. I realize that the clue for 6D is in the present tense, but I might argue that you have to make some kind of commitment to go beyond being someone’s passing acquaintance (i.e., merely meeting them), and that such a commitment requires time. If this time is to pass, one will not have done “more than merely meet” until the end of said time – at which point they can say that they got to know that someone. Look, I’m sure Joon or someone will chime in here and tell me about verbs and tenses, and it probably involves being transitive (which continues to mean zilch to me), and I should have known better and I should have entered GET to know instead of GOT to know, but the truth here is that neither Sethe or Sothe is actually a name that anyone has, so while I might admit that this one could be my fault, I will only take partial responsibility for my lack of success. [NOTE: After writing this, I found the image above to add to this post. I now see that the author of this book has one of the most wonderful first names in all the world, and I should really pay more attention to her work. My apologies.]
This is exactly the kind of crossing that annoys me. It’s two proper names, neither of which is normal. Back when we were preparing for Lollapuzzoola 2, I was doing a lot of work on the puzzles and talking with constructors about one thing or another. Doug Peterson’s puzzle, when I first did it, had plenty of trivia I didn’t know. But the thing that made the puzzle a joyous solve for me was that there were no trivia vs. trivia crossings. Every place that there was some obscure name of a horse or a Nepalese emperor or a planet from another solar system, it always crossed with normal, definable words – words which, even if I didn’t know them, I could work out the options based on standard rules of English. But here, when it’s a crossing of TPNNOWIN (two proper names, neither of which is normal), I will suggest that the crossing square could have reasonably been B, C, D, F, K, L, M, N, S, T, V or Z. Maybe MAYBE I will admit that “Rafe” has existed elsewhere in the world as a name. However, the only places I have ever heard it are where “Ralph” is pronounced as “Rafe” — in H.M.S. Pinafore (the male ingenue is named Ralph Rackstraw) and with the actor Ralph Fiennes.
When is London Broil not flank steak? I’ve never eaten London Broil, so I have no idea. In fact, the only thing I know about London Broil is that during Act Two of “The Odd Couple,” Felix is preparing London Broil for the Pigeon sisters, and since Oscar isn’t concerned with the timing of dinner, the broil is ruined, and Felix is furious. Ryan and I want to do a reading of “The Odd Couple” at some point. We will be looking to cast the rest of the characters from crossword people we know. About the only request I have is that Andrea Carla Michaels be one of the Pigeon sisters.
47A. Chateaubriand accompaniment, often : BEARNAISE SAUCE. I think this might be another steak dish I’ve never had. Isn’t chateaubriand a steak dish? I’ve also never had bearnaise sauce. Is it good? (And by the way – how is this dish different from London Broil, other than the vegetables on the side?)



