Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

I think Ryan comes home today. I can’t guarantee it, but I think he does. For all of you who have suffered these past ten days without him, he will return soon. Perhaps I will give him the pleasure of not recovering from jet lag, not enjoying his post-vacation at-home time, and instead delving straight into the blog and the podcast. Hahahaha! I am so evil! No wonder you all like him more.

A heads-up about tomorrow’s puzzle. On Sunday, there will be an element of the puzzle that will not work in either Across Lite (the PUZ files) or in the Java applet on the New York Times website (huzzah, I hate the applet). So if you’re among those who don’t get the dead tree edition of the Times, you’ll need to locate a PDF of the daily puzzle. It will be available at Jim Horne’s Wordplay blog, and we’ll try to get a copy of it here as well. (However, I will not be home from work tonight until about 10:00, so it will be a later arrival for us.)

Anyway, on to today…

Barry C. Silk, friend and confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town is the constructor of this fine Saturday puzzle. The only weird thing – where’s the baseball? Barry, we talk about how you always include two baseball references in every puzzle. I don’t see any. Well, except 23A. Nobel-winning chancellor who must be Jackie BRANDT, a one-time all-star outfielder for the Orioles. Or maybe 49D. Dud (FLOP), which can be used to describe just about every starting pitcher in a Boston Red Sox uniform. Two months ago, Ryan and I were joyous over the very definite possibility of a Red Sox/Dodgers World Series. Now, we’ll both be lucky if our respective teams aren’t removed from Major League Baseball by the end of the season.

Oh, sorry. The puzzle. Even without baseball, Barry does open the puzzle with what I think might be a rather signature move. Lots of people do this, but Barry maybe more than others. He sticks a fun phrase (and in this case, one with an X) into 1-Across. Here, it’s a pet that hisses when frightened, and it’s not a HOUSE CAT (my first try), but rather a BOX TURTLE. Who knew?

That stacks nicely with APRIL FOOL and STARE DOWN (which I don’t totally get – Cow with a drawn-out look. I guess cow must mean something other than a cow). In the opposite corner, we finish the grid off with TUMBLE DRY, AIR COOLED and STEEPNESS. I like the first two, but the third is mostly word-finishers, I suppose.

Somehow, AIR QUALITY INDEX (31A. 0-to-500 scale that goes from least to most hazardous) jumped out at me with only two crossings, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. The other 15-letter entry went down the middle – LOW HANGING FRUIT (8D. Easily reachable goals). When is Sukkot? I know it’s about hanging fruit in your house, but I don’t know when it happens. In the spring, probably.

I’m going to file YEST (35D. Very recently: Abbr.) with Caleb Madison’s SAR (for Sardinia) in a box labeled “horrible non-abbreviations that we pretend are abbreviations anyway.” If anyone else would like to file anything there, please be my gue. (Clue for that last word: Household visitor: Abbr. [5])

I want to write more, but I’m going to be posting a new puzzle of my own as well, so I’ve got to tie things up here. Barry – I really liked this puzzle. Totally up my mental alley (which sounds creepy, but isn’t), I was able to get through this in good Saturday time, somewhere around 25 minutes. Thanks, Barry!

See you Sunday!

I couldn’t be more excited about Lollapuzzoola. Are you all sick of me talking about it yet? Well, I’m sorry. It’s just going to be awesome, and you’ll have to be there to see for yourself. Awesome, and then more awesome. Plus snacks. Come on.

Sadly, the constructor of today’s puzzle will not be at Lollapuzzoola. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say why he won’t be there… But I can say who he is: Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town. (By the way, Doug is going to be at Lollapuzzoola, so perhaps he can bring a little Barry Silk hand puppet to give us the effect of Barry being there. Doug, what do you say?)

I got off to a smoking start with this Friday puzzle, which was great. Earlier today, I got my ass handed to me with an old New York Sun Warrior puzzle (1/23/04) that seemed to consist entirely of things I had never heard of. BOO BOISIE? WYANDOTTE? CHEMISES, MUSCOVY, ATTAINT… Good lord, did I feel stupid most of this evening after failing to even get half of that grid. But wait – what puzzle am I blogging?

Barry’s. Right. 1A jumped out at me – Alternative to newspaper classifieds was most clearly CRAIGSLIST. Just the kind of entry you like at 1A. It’s gettable, it’s fun, it’s new. That corner was as fast as a Monday, somehow. MAGNA CARTA (15A. Constitution precursor) and ORANGE PEEL (17A. Curacao ingredient), and I was flying.

Little by little, the stacks on the right fell – AUNTIE MAME (12D. Play for which Peggy Cass won a Tony in 1957) and STAR GAZERS (14D. Night watchmen?) helped out over there. A whole bunch of answers I wasn’t the least bit sure of led me to the SE: MORENO (41D. Puerto Rican-born Oscar winner of 1961) and RAZOR (43D. Trimming aid) showed me the way to PRIZE FIGHT (51A. A bout to remember?), EAT ONES HAT (55A. Have some humble pie) and SHARON TATE (57A. “The Wrecking Crew” actress, 1969).

Okay, hang on. What’s with all the actors from forever ago? Peggy Cass (1957), Rita Moreno (1961), Sharon Tate (1969)… We also had Renata SCOTTO (11D. Her 1965 Met debut was as Cio-Cio-San in “Madama Butterfly”). That’s four famous women from 1957-1969. I’m curious what effect these women may have had on Barry Silk. Was he alive during these years? How old was he? Did these women have a lasting impression? Or is it just a coincidence that they all show up in this puzzle – where there’s not a single other woman anytime from 1970 onward. Puzzling…

And with that… Adios, until Saturday.

Good old July 17th, a date that symbolizes the final 36 shopping days until Lollapuzzoola 2: The Son of Puzzoola.  August 22nd.  Grease boards!  Google tickets!  Oreos!  Speed solvers!  Slow solvers!  Tables!  Pencils!  Divisions!  Ventilation!  And, of course, puzzles of varying sizes and difficulties!  Hope to see you there.

Today’s puzzle is by two of our favorite crossword buddies, Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town and Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town (pictured at right).  Much like Doublemint Gum, when these two guys get together the result leaves my mouth feeling minty fresh.

For the first few minutes this puzzle looked completely impossible but somehow my brain commanded me to enter FAIR SHAKE in 1-Across and I was off.  And a relatively speedy 40 minutes later, I entered in BURL (a completely made up word) and was done.  Very enjoyable puzzle.

Of course, because it’s Doug and Barry, a Yankees fan and a Phillies fan, respectively, the puzzle had a couple of baseball entries.

30D. Rose with a hit record (PETE).  One of the few gimmies.

52D. Outfielder Francona (TITO).  TITO had a 15 year major league career, he hit .363 in 1959, led the league in doubles in 1960, and was an All-Star in 1961 but he is probably most known for nowadays for fathering the current manager of the Boston Red Sox, Terry Francona.

My question to Doug is, What the hell?  Barry gets an ex-Phillie in there plus you have a Red Sox connection but no Yankee references.  What happened?  And how come there’s been only two Dodger references this entire season?

The rest of the puzzle was filled with fun stuff.  I especially enjoyed:

63A. Opposite of avant-garde (OLD SCHOOL).

15A. 63-Across? (ALMA MATER).

Other highlights:

17A. Having a lot to lose? (CORPULENT).  I thought this might have something to do with real estate or auctioning off something.  I don’t think I’ve ever described someone as CORPULENT although I can’t imagine anyone would appreciate it.

20A. Most night owls (LATE RISERS).  I’ve always stayed up way past my bedtime.  And morning Ryan is usually pretty made at nighttime Ryan.

22A. Pietà figure, literarily (JESU).  Michelangelo finished the sculpture La Pietà in 1499.  It’s at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City and Pickles and I will be seeing it in person in September.  It has been kept behind bullet proof glass since an attack by a mentally disturbed geologist (really, is there any other kind?).

58A. Comment from the beat (I NEED A NAP).  Another of my favorites.  It took me while to figure out where they were going with this.  All I could think of was a beat reporter.

6D. Berry with juicy parts? (HALLE).  When you read this, what did you first think of?  Parts as in body parts?  Or parts as in acting parts?  I’ll admit it, I thought of body parts.  Personally, I think Monster’s Ball would have made much more sense if they cast an actress who wasn’t quite so unbelievably attractive.

7D. Chilling, so to speak (AT EASE).  Here’s a new word I learned today, chillaxing.  I will use it often.

8D. Honorary title bestowed on Bill Clinton, Muhammad Ali and Mae West (KENTUCKY COLONEL).  I went with PERSON OF THE YEAR which also has 15 letters.  I thought it was a bit of a stretch to think Mae West would be named person of the year but I thought maybe the honor was bestowed on her from Bosom Enthusiasts or some other like-minded organization.

24D. Site of Robert E. Lee’s last victory (COLD HARBOR).  I have no idea how this came to me.  I had the D and the H and “boom!” went the dynamite.

25D. Means of getting some answers (OUIJA BOARD).  OUIJA ends in an A?  I thought it ended in an I?  Have I been pronouncing it wrong this whole time?

45D. “Hoffman” co-star Cusack (SINEAD).  Well,  it was Joan or John and I only know one other Cusack.

Great puzzle, guys.

Next stop, Saturday.

Brian: Have we started?

Ryan: Our commenting system is screwed up.

Brian: I know. But that won’t stop us from blogging until the OVERAWEs come home.

Ryan: That was a good clue. The fact that the answer started with OV really tricked me.  I was trying to come up with some word like OVINATE.

Brian: Is that a word?

Ryan: It’s possible.

Brian: Did you no-Google this? I had to look up two squares.

Ryan: I did no-google this. In fact, I had a no-google week. The last letter I put in was the Q in TIMOTHY Q MOUSE. What squares did you have to look up?

Brian: I guessed the A between HAARLEM and ADOREE — I mean, it could have been any vowel, and while my first guess was an A, I did look it up.  And I also had to look up the N in MYNAH/NSW.  I still don’t know what either of those is.

Ryan: HAARLEM is actually the source of the name of a neighborhood in Manhattan.  Chelsea.  Isn’t MYNAH a bird that makes fun of you?

Brian: No, that would be ALISON.  And I don’t think your neighborhood joke works without me saying “Oh really? Which neighborhood?”

Ryan: What if I put an ellipsis in there? HAARLEM is actually the source of the name of a neighborhood in Manhattan…Chelsea.

Brian: Maybe… but then it’s like you’re doing stand-up. Which is weird, since you’re a) not a comedian, 2) sitting at your computer, and iii) have no audience.

Ryan: Ok, we’ll try it your way. You know, Brian, HAARLEM is actually the source of the name of neighborhood in Manhattan.

Brian: Oh really? Which neighborhood?

Ryan: Harlem.

Brian: [press start on laugh track]

Ryan: We would be remiss if we didn’t mention this puzzle is by our good friend Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town.

Brian: We’ve pointed out Barry’s penchant for baseball clues in his puzzles, and there’s one at 2-Down, although I’m not familiar with him. Cesar CEDENO, five-time Gold Glove winner.  How many Gold Gloves have you won?

Ryan: Which position?

Brian: Sitting at your computer with no audience.

Ryan: Three. And I’ve come in second twice.

Brian: Impressive.  I once led the league in consecutive meals without leaving my desk chair, but that’s a rather dubious distinction.

Ryan: That might account for the dead mice.

Brian: Yeah, the room smells a little mousey right now.  Oh well, what are you going to do?  Hey — what happened to our plans to recreate the magic of Walter MATTHAU and Jack Lemmon by putting on our own production of “The Odd Couple”?

Ryan: I’m all for it, we just need to find some pigeon sisters.  What did you think of the theme? SECRET INGREDIENTS.

Brian: Good, although I’ve never cooked with JASMINE. I thought that was just a candle fragrance.

Ryan: I’ve made a lot of JASMINE rice.  I like themes like this. They may not be the most exciting but once you figure it out, it makes it easy to fill in those blank circle squares.

Brian: Yes, I was able to do some of the ingredients before solving the entries they were hidden in. Except I tried SALT instead of DILL. Which is fine in a puzzle (if you can erase it), but terrible in actual cooking.  I might have liked to see the long entries (those hiding the ingredients) have something clever about them, rather than just be long entries.  Like puns about cooking or something.

Ryan: Well, I think, technically, you can eat any of the theme answers.

Brian: Oh, and I have. I took a bite out of JAMES A MICHENER just the other day.

Ryan: EMIL and EMAILS both appear in the grid. Is there some sort of theme idea there? EMILS EMAILS.

Brian: What about TEASE and ATEASE?  Maybe the theme was actually “Added As”

Ryan: I was thinking about a theme for a new puzzle.

Brian: Hey — HAARLEM also has an added A.

Ryan: I was thinking more along the lines of 17A. Computer correspondence of Zapotek (EMILS EMAILS)…25A. Money repeatedly used to get cartoonist Keane out of jail (BILS BAILS).

Brian: Get back at a flirt (TEASE A TEASE).  Not quite the same…

Ryan: Could be a different theme though. Something else to look out for in Barry’s puzzles are Beach Boys references.

Brian: I have to say — I don’t know WENDY. I tried to make RHONDA fit in there. Was that the Beach Boys?

Ryan: I think the song you’re thinking of is Help Me Rhonda. Which may or may not be an actual song that may or may not have been performed by the Beach Boys.

Brian: I understand that Barry C. Silk, FACODPCGAMAT is not going to attend Lollapuzzoola 2 because of a Beach Boys concert? He is a die-hard fan.

Ryan Yes, they are his favorite group. I wasn’t aware they were still performing.

Brian: We’ll have to perform some Beach Boys hits at Lollapuzzoola just to make him jealous. Whaddya say?

Ryan: You know me, as long as I get to play the keytar I’m happy. Well, we should start wrapping this up, we have to be in the studio tomorrow to record a podcast.

Brian: I know — seven hours from now, we’ll be creating audio gold.

Ryan: Good puzzle today.

Brian: Yes. And I especially liked it because my nephew (and owner of my birthday) SOLOMON appears there at 25-Across.

Ryan: I enjoyed YODELS at 107-Down.

Brian: I enjoy Yodels any time of day.

Ryan:  Two reminders.  Sign up for Lollapuzzoola.  You’ll be incredibly glad you did.  And, if you’re cheesed off by the absence of the Second Sunday Puzzle from the NYT Magazine, sign our petition.

Next stop, Monday.

Lollapuzzoola 2: The Son of Puzzoola update:  Please let us know if you’d like to construct a puzzle for the event.  Remember, even if your puzzle is used in Lollapuzzoola you can still compete in the tournament.  And even if you don’t have a puzzle constructed right now we’d still love to know that you have interest in constructing.  Thanks.

Christina Applegate update:  Still no contact.  On the bright side, if she googled “Christina Applegate crosswords” right this very minute we’d be the 3rd and 4th results to come up.

Today’s puzzle by Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town.  Wow.  After about an hour and a half I had basically nothing.  There were exactly three gimmies in this one and they were all 3 letters long.

5D. Family name in a Lew Wallace novel (HUR).  I don’t know why I know Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur.  I’ve never read the book.  Maybe it’s because I’ve seen the movie at least 20 times and his name is always in the credits.

27D. First name in objectivism (AYN).  Now here’s a case where I have read the book (The Fountainhead) but haven’t seen the movie.

39D. Org. concerned with decay (ADA).  Cute clue.  Made me feel smart to figure it out.  Then I spent the next 90 minutes looking at empty squares and that smart feeling slowly seeped out through my socks.

And that was about it for last night.  I got a few others.  Newbies are directed to FAQS.  Indy Jones and others are PROFS.  (By the way, there’s some new Indiana Jones game that’s not being released on the xbox.  What the hell?)  Dungeons and Dragons player option is an ELF.

After that I went to bed, got up, stared at the puzzle some more and somehow no-googled it 3 hours later.

The key to the whole thing was figuring out 1A. Louisiana State won the first one in 1968 was going to end in BOWL.  I didn’t know what BOWL but the W almost immediately led me to WIENERSCHNITZEL (8D. A dish akin to cotoletta alla milanese), a 15-letter answer that opened up a great deal of the puzzle.

Here is a great WIENERSCHNITZEL commercial.

Barry has completely ruined our crossword tip that states all Barry C. Silk puzzles contain some baseball clue.  Nice going.  But maybe, to quote Brian’s favorite saying, this is the exception that proves the rule.  (For those of you who don’t know, Brian’s second favorite saying is “let’s agree to disagree”.)

22A. Abyssinian language? (MEW).  When will I stop being fooled by these cat breed clues?  Clearly not today.

33A. Wilt Chamberneezy, more familiarly (SHAQ).  I don’t even begin to understand what this could mean.  I’m assuming it has something to do with Shaquille O’Neal.

35A. Line on which a dip needle is horizontal (MAGNETIC EQUATOR).  Fun placement of this entry as it goes horizontally across the middle of the grid.

Crossword construction question.  I’m still confused as to when you use a question mark and when you don’t.

44A. Ones with stalking feet? (LIONS).  The spelling gives away that this is a pun so the question mark doesn’t seem needed.

50A. Fan setting (ARENA).  This is a pun with no funny spelling but doesn’t have the question mark.

So, I don’t get it.  What is the determining factor?

52A. Splinter, to Woody Woodpecker (NIECE).  Yes, I put LUNCH here first.  It would make for an interesting family reunion for the Woodpeckers.

55A. Tonsorial accessory (STROP).  Clearly, I don’t know what tonsorial means.  UVULA was not the right answer.

59A. 1950 Tony winner for Best Actor in a Musical (EZIO PINZA).  Once I had the Z from WIENERSCHNITZEL I knew this was going to be the French guy from South Pacific.  Took a lot of brain cells to finally come up with the answer though.

4D. Bond analysts’ field?: Abbr. (CHEM).  Here’s where I thought the baseball was going to be.

7D. Traveler’s connection (ONRAMP).  Does anybody know what an OCLAMP is?  Because that’s what I had written in here for about 2 hours.

Another great puzzle by Barry.

Next stop, Sunday.

Today’s is the the second puzzle in less than a week by our good friend Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town.  And for those of you have listened to Episode #51 of Fill Me In you’ll notice that the puzzle falls in line with our Tip of the Week: Barry loves baseball and his puzzles almost always include some sort of baseball reference.  Today’s reference (2D. How baseball games rarely end: IN A TIE) is much more obvious than last Friday’s (It has top and bottom parts: INNING) but still, it’s there and for one of the few times in recorded history, Brian and I have been proven correct.  We rest our collective cases.

But today’s puzzle doesn’t just feature that one clue.  Oh no, Barry filled the whole grid with answers and wrote many corresponding clues.  Such as 63A. Crossword maker or editor, at times (CLUER).  That is what Barry is, at times.  He is a CLUER.  Not to be confused with EWER even though they rhyme.  Besides showing up in puzzles from time to time ewers have very little to do with crosswords as they are pitchers.  But not baseball pitchers.  Oh no, these type of pitchers don’t deliver curve balls, they deliver tasty items like water, nectar and very thin yogurt.  Which brings me to my point.  Is anybody watching the new MLB channel?  For those who are, have you noticed that when talking about pitchers the announcers will often say, “So and so is out on the bump today.” or “Let’s see how so and so did on the bump.”  See, they’re using the word “bump” instead of the far more correct word “mound”.  Doesn’t that just make you want to rip your face off?  But, I digress.

Today’s puzzle also features a word ladder.  The hint to the ladder is STANDARD WORKDAY and the ladder goes from NINE to FIVE.  As it is currently 4:49am and I am sitting at work this standard clearly does not apply to me.  I once worked this fabled 9 to 5 shift for almost a year. It was alright though I was often disoriented during my commute by a giant yellow orb in the sky.

The ladder went thusly:

NINE

15A. *Small part of a spork (TINE).  I applaud Barry’s use of “spork” here when “fork” would have been sufficient.  It makes me think of two things near and dear to my heart.

1. Taco Bell – one of the few places you can reliably find sporks.
2. I have a great Star Trek-themed t-shirt that features Mr. Spork.  Brian loves it ever so much and is constantly asking me to wear it. 

Wikipedia tells me that the spork has been manufactured since the 1880s and has also been known as a foon (foons are used exclusively for Sunday leakfast) or a runcible spoon (a term invented by Edward Lear).  There is a similar utensil in Finland called a lusikkahaarukka (lusikka meaning “spoon” and haarukka meaning “I can’t pronounce this”).

18A. *Musical quality (TONE).  See Viewer Mail Theme Song.

22A. *Made tracks (TORE).

35A. *Teed off (SORE).

44A. *Put into piles (SORT).

56A. *Locale in a western (FORT).  Wikipedia also tells me a movie version of F Troop is being developed by one Bobby Logan, director of Meatballs 4.  I predict this will end in disaster.

64A. *It may precede a stroke (FORE).

67A. *Ax (FIRE).

FIVE

Barry also includes two completely made up words.  SESSILE which he has decided means “Permanently attached, in zoology” and HEXOSE, Barry’s terms for a “Simple sugar”.  Used in a sentence: The sessile nose jutting from Mary-Theobalda’s face was magically enchanted and sprayed sweet hexose whenever she sneezed.

While we are so recently removed from the subject of baseball I should mention that the Dodgers are currently 0 and 1 when mentioned in the puzzle during the 2009 season.  I will soon create some sort of widget in the sidebar so everyone can track this highly scientific exploration of the synchronicity of crosswords and baseball.

We do have a very primitive draft of the Rogue’s Gallery up.  We will soon be adding pictures and bios.  If you are not mentioned and want to be please write in or comment.

Speaking of commenting, I want to remind everyone that you can now leave video comments.  All you need is a webcam.  We look forward to hearing from you in an A/V manner.

Great puzzle, Barry.

Next stop, Thursday.

Seeing our friend Barry C. Silk (Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town) in the byline tells me two things. One, there will be some kind of baseball reference in the puzzle; and B, there will be a crossing that I cannot get no matter what.

Both were in effect here. 3D. Residents of dry, open country in South America (GUANACOS) and 19A. Kings Peak’s range (UINTA) are both words that never existed until today, and incidentally, cannot be pronounced using our standard repertoire of vowels, consonants and diphthongs. Kudos, Barry, for inventing as you do. (Oh, and the baseball? 8D. It has top and bottom parts – INNING. It’s a little tricky, I think, because it has ONE top part and ONE bottom part, but I guess that means it has parts, plural…)

While I’m thinking of it — Alfred Kinsey’s field is ZOOLOGY (7D)? Since when? There was that movie about him where Liam Neeson and Laura Linney had sex the whole time or something. I didn’t see it. I thought his field was sex. And it’s zoology? Hm. Other things I had no clue about:

• 2D. Hooked, as a nose : AQUILINE. I was going to post a picture of an aquiline nose, but somehow my research gave me this image to freak the hell out of you.
• 25A. Rapper ___-A-Che : RIC. According to his website, “There are certain things rap doesn’t need anymore of. Thugs, drug dealers, playas, and pimps are a few of those MC positions that have all been filled–to the brim.” If you ask me, rap also doesn’t need any more rappers.
• 26A. Texas county named for a Civil War general, with its seat in Longview : Whatever, the clue is a book in itself. The answer is John GREGG. Any of the multiple parts of this clue would have been enough to stump me — Texas county (nope), Civil war (nope), general (nope) or Longview (nope). So why make me feel four times as stupid? Mike Nothnagel — if I feel four times as stupid after reading a clue like this, is that considered basic multiplication? Or is there a constant of some sort that is applied because we’re talking about my feelings? Would it be any different if my feelings weren’t hurt, but rather I was, say, complimented?
  
• 11D. Yard sale? : ALE. Oh, I get it. I once drank a yard of something. It’s quite ridiculous, to be honest. Have you seen these things? Look. (I don’t know who the guy in the picture is.)
• 14D. Daniel Decatur ___, minstrel who wrote “Dixie” : EMMETT
• 23D. Plant problem : ERGOT. I couldn’t decide if this was trying to be deceitful because it was about foliage and wanted me to think it was about factories, or that it was about factories and wanted me to think it was about plants. Turns out, it didn’t matter. I was confused by ERGOT a while back when the clue had something to do with cereal. I’m still confused. Is cereal a plant? Mike Nothnagel — what is cereal? Animal, vegetable or mineral? What about Rice Krispie Treats?
• 38D. Transported : JOYFUL. I’m not sure I get this. Is it like when something wonderful happens, and you say, “Wow, that was so wonderful I was transported,” like transported to heaven or something? I need this used in a sentence in a way I understand.
• 44A. Toadlike : WARTY. I did a musical a few years ago where one of the characters sang the word “warty” about twenty times in a row. It was pretty funny. Try it — it’s trickier than you think.
• 47A. Phenomena associated with some dwarfs : NOVAE. Is this about stars and not about Dopey, Sleepy and Bashful? And doesn’t it seem like most of the clues that I don’t know were extra long?
• 55A. Too punctilious : PRISSY, or what I will call anyone who tries to use “punctilious” in a sentence.

Let’s talk about extra-long clues, shall we? It seems that in this puzzle, all the extra-long clues were for things I didn’t know. And it makes me wonder — are the clues extra long to compensate for the notion that most people won’t know the answers? Maybe they’re giving us (the would-be-solvers) a few hints to help us through an otherwise unknown bit of information. And in my case, it didn’t help. No, not one bit. Sad.

I haven’t posted enough recently for my non-existent no-Google streak to matter, but here is the counter anyway, for those fans desperate to find out how I’m doing:

No-Google streak: 0

See you Saturday!

What does it count for if I no-Google about 75% of the puzzle (with one error)? Anything? Do I fail? Ryan is out of town and my wife is asleep, so here I am in the wee hours with an unfinished grid.

This puzzle by Barry C. Silk had me pulling my hair out with the entire northwest territory. He gets off to a very selfish start, offering 1A. Park near Philly’s City Hall, site of the LOVE statue. This is not just one of those run-of-the-mill Stick It To You clues (where the clue makes a very casual reference to something completely unknown, leaving me to feel doubly stupid for knowing neither the clue nor the answer), but a Double Stick It To You clue, what with both the City Hall and the LOVE statue. And I still have no clue. I’ve been to Philadelphia twice. I don’t know anything there. Maybe the Eagles?

So forget the northwest for now. It’s still empty. The rest of the puzzle is full of JBGs — Just Barely Gettables. Things that are like 0.01% over the line of gettable. In fact, one was a complete guess and one I got wrong. So actually not so gettable for me. The total guess was 65A. 1966 hit for the Capitols. The answer is COOL JERK, which I don’t know. The reason it was a guess was the J and the K. 61D. Period in Indian history is RAJ, which only makes sense to me because it’s sort of like RAJA or TAJ or other Indian words like that. The K is my problem. Isn’t the 36D. Passe video store offering a LASERDISC? With a C? The internet shows me over six million Google hits for LASERDISC (with a C), including the Wikipedia entry. With a K at the end (LASERDISK, like in the puzzle), Google shows me 206,000 hits. Barry C. Silk, where’s the proper loyalty to your middle initial? From now on, you are Barry K. Silk to me.

Southwest area, somewhere around El Paso, TX (not to be confused with south-central, where 46D. Texas’s westernmost county [EL PASO] is in the grid), I have never heard of AXILLA (58A. Secret area of the anatomy?). I looked this up, and it’s the armpit. Why is this a secret? I’m confused by the so-called “clever” clue. Is it secret because we don’t talk about them much, the armpits? Let’s do the armpits of the world a service — tomorrow, at some point during the day, please hold a sincere discussion with a friend or co-worker about your armpits. And use the word AXILLA in it.

Oh, which part of AXILLA was your error, Brian? It was the second L. I know nothing about Valentino movies, and 5D/59D. is Rudolph Valentino’s “Blood and Sand” co-star. With blank-E-E (and 5D being four letters), I couldn’t stop thinking about Ruby Dee, and figured that maybe she was in this movie. (HINT: She wasn’t.) Playing the Kevin Bacon game, I can get from Rudolph Valentino to Ruby Dee in two steps — Adolphe Menjou was in “The Sheik” with Valentino and in “The Tall Target” with Dee (picture at left). Who can name another Adolphe Menjou film? Quick, you have until I solve the northwest, or until July (whichever comes first).

At this point, I have no choice but to give you a play-by-play of my inability to completely solve this puzzle. So, at 1:44 a.m., here I go.

1:44 a.m.: Apparently, 28D. They’re the fault of faults isn’t CHASMS or SPASMS, but rather SEISMS, which I certainly would never have gotten since it’s totally made up. Other than LEE in place of DEE, this was the first answer I had to look up. It has not broken open the northwest, though. I’m still looking for that breakthrough. I’ll keep you updated as I work.

1:47 a.m.: POEMs don’t follow convention (although of course, some do). There’s nothing called MUHR, but rather RUHR (53A. Arnsberg is on it). So it’s convention-GOERs. That it’s not MUHR is good, since I have MUIR for 22A. Sierra Club founder, and those two would be awfully similar to appear in the same puzzle.

1:49 a.m.: Along those lines, what’s I’M GONE and I’M DONE doing here in one grid? The first is 16A. “Ciao!”; the second is 45A. Confirmation to a busboy. But wow, those are awfully alike.

1:53 a.m.: Can you have a single SCAD of something? 32D. Lot suggests that yes, you can.

1:59 a.m.: I have it in my head that 2D. Result of a combustion explosion is going to be some kind of —–BURN. This is left over from when I thought SEISMS was CHASMS, and I thought 27A. Picked styles was A, B OR C. Now that all looks ridiculous, but I’m stuck on STEAM BURN. I don’t even know what a combustion engine is. Can you get a steam burn from it?

2:07 a.m.: RYANNNNNN! Come home, and solve the rest of this.

2:08 a.m.: Stupid Ryan.

2:09 a.m.: I have to be up in seven hours and go to work. This is going to end quite badly for me.

2:14 a.m.: A few guesses are confirmed by XWordInfo.com. 25A. Prefix with facsimile (TELE) and 21D. Dartmoor setting (DEVON) (No, I’ve never heard of this at all) suggest that 29A. Prepares with hot seasoning is either ANVILS or CAVILS or DEVILS. None of these things involve spice. Or heat. Except anvils, which are used for pounding hot metal. I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. I think DEVILS, although the two foods I know that have the devil in them (Devil’s food cake and deviled eggs) do not contain hot spices.

2:18 a.m.: 8D. Pair of diamonds? is ARGYLES. Dear lord.

2:23 a.m.: More guessing, confirming, realizing I’m an idiot.

2:25 a.m.: 7D. Totally beat. ME ON THIS PUZZLE.

2:26 a.m.: And appropriately, at this hour, ZONKED.

2:31 a.m.: This is nonsense. I am giving up. Here are the answers I didn’t know, even after Googling:

• 1A. Park near Philly’s City Hall, site of the LOVE statue : JFK PLAZA
• 1D. It was captured by British forces in 1917 : JERUSALEM. I’d love it if someday all the stupid fighting over whether there’s an Israel, whether it’s a country, all of that would just end. This is the lamest war ever. There’s tons of the world out there — leave them alone.
• 2D. Result of a combustion explosion : FLASH FIRE
• 3D. Eponym of a national forest in New Mexico : KIT CARLSON. This seems ridiculous. There’s a forest in New Mexico called Kit Carlson Forest?
• 15A. Drawer : ELICITOR. Really? One who draws = one who elicits. Oy.
• 17A. Fazing : RATTLING
• 31A. Fine threads : LISSLES
• 41A. Head word : MEN. I don’t understand this. Head, like bathroom?

Well, there it is. Current no-Google streak is zero for the second day in a row. Sad to be me. I will be back, blogging for your enjoyment tomorrow and Monday. So until then, just hang onto your hats, ’cause Ryan will return soon.

See you Sunday.

Welcome to the last episode of the first season of the universe’s favorite crosshouse trainwreck, Fill Me In. This is Episode 43, and it’s jumbo-sized for your viewing pleasure. We’ve strayed a bit from our standard format, and in this episode, we offer a journey through the 2009 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

We arrived on Friday night, stayed through the awards luncheon on Sunday, and in addition to competing in the tournament, managed to find an assortment of obviously oblivious folks foolish enough to let us talk to them while holding a functional microphone. The result is our inane banter sprinkled with interviews, discussions, predictions and recaps with the biggest names the weekend had to offer.

(The photo at right was taken by Nancy Shack. Brian and Ryan are interviewing Dan Feyer [L] as Amanda Yesnowitz [R] looks on. The rest of Nancy’s photos can be found here.)

Special guest stars include:

• Tyler Hinman, [insert kickass nickname here]
• Dan Feyer, Winner of the C Division
• Mark Dixon, you’ll find out why if you listen to the whole show
• Mike Nothnagel, Pen Pal Extraordinaire and Constructor of the Friday Puzzle
• Tony Orbach, XTC Aficionado
• The Great Howard Barkin, Knower of All Things
• Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town
• Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town
• Amanda Yesnowitz, The Unparalleled Parallel Verse Engineer
• and Will Shortz, attendant

We collected a tremendous amount of footage over the weekend, but there was no way to include everyone. We had some wonderful discussions with Jim Horne, Kevin G. Der, Patrick Blindauer, Peter Gordon, Stephen Grant and Merl Reagle (among others), and plan to include some of these segments in our next several episodes.

Here are a few ACPT links that might be of interest:

• Complete standings of the 2009 tournament (and the general ACPT site as well)
• YouTube video of Tyler during the A Division Finals
  
• A great collection of photos by Jeremy Zilar on Jim Horne’s Wordplay blog site here and here.
• Amanda Yesnowitz’s fantastic lyrics to “KenKen,” sung to the tune of Cole Porter’s “Can-Can.”
• Other ACPT wrapup blogs: Jim Horne, Rex Parker, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Trip Payne, Dan Feyer, and… well, if you blogged the ACPT and we left you out, please email us, and we’ll add you to the blog roll.

A warning: The podcast contains clue/entry spoilers. We talk about answers. If you haven’t done the puzzles yet and don’t want to know, it’s best that you save this episode for later. But do save it, and listen when you can.

Thanks to everyone who helped make Season One a big success. We’re looking forward to the start of Season Two sometime in the next couple weeks. Please stay in touch — we’d love to hear from you.

Zambezi and oat.

 

 Fill Me In #043: Season Finale - The 2009 ACPT [64:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Very nice puzzle by our friends Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante to Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town and Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town.  The next time Will Shortz puts out a book of Lazy Sunday Puzzles or Puzzles To Do on the Beach or Puzzles That Won’t Make You Feel Like a Flipping Idiot this puzzle should definitely be in there.  Nothing all that hard about it but excellently constructed and a lot of fun to do.

The theme of The Cruciverbalist (which sound like it should be a TV show starring a Robert Urich-like actor) has to do with the steps of constructing and submitting a puzzle.

BRAINSTORM THEME IDEAS

DEVELOP BEST ENTRIES

RESEARCH AND WRITE CLUES

SEND PUZZLE TO EDITOR

SEE BYLINE IN NEWSPAPER

And that’s really all there is to it.  Maybe I’ll bang out one now.

This also marks our first Oscar prediction post here at the Ryan and Brian offices.  Up for Best Picture:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

1A. Put to sleep (BORE).  What a snooze this was.  Almost 3 hours of Forest Gump-lite.  And the ending was such a cop out.  Ugh.

Frost/Nixon

5D. Dwindles (EBBS).  This is what my interest did by the end of this movie.  Really interesting material done in a not very interesting way.  I have a theory about Ron Howard.  He makes movies about human experiences that people should be able to relate to but Ron Howard has been a huge star since he was a little kid.  What does he know about experiences that everyday people can relate to?  For me, all his movies fall just a little short of enjoyable.  Plus, Frank Langella seems like a total pain in the ass.  He didn’t become Nixon, he was doing an impression but you can tell he thinks he’s the best actor ever.  Having said that, I thought Michael Sheen was great and the scenes with his team of researchers were the best in the movie.

Milk

54D. Better (OUT DO).  As one of my friends put it, Sean Penn was monumental in this movie.  Best performance I’ve seen in a long time.  He absolutely became Harvey Milk.  Watch that scene when he celebrates winning the election.  So simple but so good.  He should not only win the Best Actor award this year but he should win next year also.  The movie was fine, not great by itself but elevated to greatness by Penn.

The Reader

20D. Jacuzzi (HOT TUB).  Most of the first half of this movie took place in a bathtub.  Most of the first half of this movie had me rolling my eyes.  To be honest, though, I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would.  It is way too melodramatic.  The unrelenting love scenes are laughable but the last 45 minutes really grabbed me.  The material was better than the romance novel treatment it received by director Steven Daldry.

Slumdog Millionaire

93D. Zip (OOMPH).  Most energetic and exciting 2008 movie I saw.  Also the most original.  It certainly has its faults.  The story is wafer thin.  But the direction, soundtrack, energy and EARNESTness make up for what it lacks in plot.  Unlike any other movie I’ve seen in a long while.

Who I think should win:

Best supporting actress: Viola Davis
Best supporting actor: Robert Downey, Jr.
Best actress: Meryl Streep
Best actor: Sean Penn
Best director: Danny Boyle
Best movie: Slumdog Milionaire

Who I think will win:

Best supporting actress: Viola Davis
Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger
Best actress: Anne Hathaway
Best actor: Mickey Rourke
Best director: Danny Boyle
Best movie: Slumdog Milionaire

Overall, a relatively weak year for movies.  Hopefully Hugh Jackman and his sexiest man alive aura will make up for that.

Next stop, Monday.