Welcome back to everyone’s favorite podcast of cruciverbalist interviews! In today’s episode, we discuss appropriate and not-so-apprioriate topics with the editor of The Onion’s crossword, Ben Tausig.
Fill Me In #035: Slice this open and cry! [49:23m]:
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You can find more about Ben at http://groups.google.com/group/inkwell. In conjuction with this episode, I (Brian) have done two recent Onion puzzles, and I’m offering a little of my blog stylings to them. If you want to do the puzzles yourself, you can access them (and many other dailies) at Ephraim’s Crossword Puzzle Pointers. There are probably other places that link to them as well, but this is where I go to get my daily fix.
December 3, 2008 (solved in 18:48)
The theme of this grid seems to be Things George W. Bush Is Leaving Behind At The White House For Barack Obama. We have:
- 1A. and 20A. White House item #1, bequeathed from 43 to 44 : BIN LADEN DARTBOARD
- 33A. Item #2 : NAILIN PAYLIN TAPE. Did this ever get made? Or was Palin’s quick exit from the political spotlight just cause to terminate production?
- 41A. Item #3 : CAN OF SPAGHETTI-WS. I had hoped this was a real product. If it is, the grande olde internette cannot find me a picture.
- 52A. Item #4 : EAR WARMER. I totally don’t understand this one at all. Can anyone explain it to me?
- 67A. Item #5 : PRETZELS
While these are a good poke of fun at outgoing President Bush, I’m not sure I follow them all. Then again, I haven’t followed much of what Mr. Bush has done these past eight years as most of it makes me sick to my stomach. If Spaghetti-Ws taste like their O brethren, then I’d be happy to eat them. Incidentally, that was the first of the theme answers to fall for me, which led me to (incorrectly) believe that we were doing a W-for-O swap on the theme (trading George’s popular initial for Barack’s). That not being the case had me a little confused. Nonetheless, an enjoyable, perhaps somewhat NYT-Wednesday-ish style puzzle.
December 10, 2008 (7:50)
Very clever wordplay at work here in the theme to this puzzle. I understood the premise of the theme before finishing the grid, but only after I was done could I look back at the theme answers and fully understand what was happening. The whole thing was clued at:
- 61A. What presidential term limits mercifully ensure, and what each of this puzzle’s theme answers “receives” : NEW BLOOD
And in each of the theme answers, a normal phrase had either an A, B or AB replaced with an O (serving as both an initial representative of the new blood and a blood type).
- 17A. Film part shot at the dairy farm? : MOO SCENE (Presumably it was MOB SCENE, with the B replaced)
- 18A. Move around the rowboat? : OARHOP (BARHOP)
- 30A. Rejected spreadable soda variety? : CHEESECOKE (CHEESECAKE, which I have never thought of as “spreadable.”)
- 36A. Numismatist’s affliction? : COIN FEVER (CABIN FEVER). I can never remember fast enough whether numismatism is coins or stamps. What is the word for stamps?
- 49A. Right-leaning R&B act? : THE GOP BAND (Was this THE GAP BAND? I don’t know… I think of FILL ME IN as the best R&B act around, to tell you the truth.)
- 59A. Broadcast with updates about Disneyland? : OC NEWS (ABC NEWS). I was a bit confused here. Aren’t Disney and ABC affiliated? What does OC have to do with anything?
Good puzzle, and just from these two, we get a mild sense that The Onion has no feelings whatsoever about politics.
So our thanks to Ben Tausig, and to The Onion for their delightful contribution to the puzzle community!
Zambezi and oat.
