Ryan and Brian do Crosswords

Tough Thursday puzzle by Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town.  And surprising that there’s no mention of his Phillies.  Perhaps this puzzle was constructed before his cheesesteak-eating team ruined my October.  (By the way, for those of you who care, October Gonzo is a total fraud.)

The theme was:

63A. With 64-Across, words that can precede the starts of 18-, 31-, 38- and 55-Across (CLEAR).

64A. See 63-Across (THE).

And the theme answers:

18A. Bridge authority (DECK OFFICER).

31A. Medicated candy (THROAT LOZENGE).  How many people out there think LOZENGE has three syllables?

38A. Comparatively quick communication (AIRMAIL LETTER).

55A. Verizon reference (AREA CODE MAP).  I’m thinking about getting a new cellphone.  I’m with Sprint and I currently own the ultra-crappy PPC 6700.  I’m thinking about getting the HTC Touch Pro.  Looks like a great phone and Sprint is giving me a great deal on it.  My only hesitation is it’s made by the same people who made the ultra-crappy PPC 6700.

Once I got the CLEAR THE bit the rest fell into place fairly quickly.  Nicely done theme.

Other highlights:

14A. E.P.A. pollution meas. (AQI).  No, this does not stand for the Australian Questioning Intonation.  It does stand for Air Quality Index.  On a side note, it has come to my attention that people enjoy the Weather Channel.  This baffles me.

22A. Yahoo! competitor (NETZERO).  The name of this company no longer makes any sense.  Back when they started they offered internet access for ZERO money.  Hence, NETZERO.  Now they charge $9.95.  Why are they still called NETZERO?  (After further review I see they still offer a free package.  10 hours of dial-up internet a month for ZERO money.  I’m sure this is hugely popular with their “still living in 1997″ demographic.)

51A. It lies beneath Wayne Manor (BAT CAVE).  Am I a horrible person because I think these new Batman movies are good but not great?  I mean, I enjoyed watching them but didn’t think they were any better than anything else I’ve enjoyed watching.  Honestly, I’ve yet to see a superhero/comic book movie that I thought was really outstanding.

11D. Marriage requirement (LICENSE).  And that really should be the only requirement.

44D. Italian restaurant chain (SBARRO).  I think the terms “Italian” and “restaurant” are both being used very liberally here.

Great puzzle.  Great job, Barry.

Next stop, Friday.

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Our puzzle-constructing friend from Lollapuzzoola 2008, Barry C. Silk, has delivered another one of his mind-boggling masterpieces for this Saturday after Thanksgiving. It befuddled the heck out of me, that’s for sure. But I’m hardly the LITMUS TEST (1A. Sole deciding issue) for this sort of thing.

Yes, that clue for 1-Across had nothing to do with shoes. Or fish. Which left me baffled for a long time, as I could not stop thinking about either shoes or fish. And that started to seep into other clues. 22A. It might drip from a crack, and all I could do was imagine what kind of skinny little fish could fit through a crack in the ceiling. In the ceiling! That is where my imagined crack was, and that is where from whence the fish came. It’s difficult to detect SARCASM through blogs and emails, and that difficulty has led me to many misunderstandings over the years. Why can’t I just write something nice and pleasant? (Can we discern rhetorical questions from blogs?)

I never heard of the OCEAN LINER (15A) The United States. Who names boats after countries? And who names movies after continents? I’m a little bit leery about the upcoming “Australia,” and I have never seen MADAGASCAR (24D. “The eighth continent,” to ecologists).

I have SELDOM SEEN an ACCESSIBLE BEER COOLER at a cookout — okay, that’s not true, but I was trying to construct a sentence that included three neighboring answers (I’m a little out of sequence with 63A. Rare, 59A. Easy to get into and 61. Container at many a cookout).

The most fun part of the grid was the square of Zs in the middle, making up the core of these answers:

• 37A. Swimming : DIZZY
• 40A. Heckle : RAZZ
• 29D. Kind of oven : PIZZA
• 34D. “The Osbournes” dad : OZZY

Okay, it was fun to me. It was a brief departure from the mental dwelling of shoes and fish.

The northeast part of the grid was what did me in, though. It contained three long down answers that simply do not exist in my brain:

• 11D. King Edward VIII, e.g. : ABDICATOR — This is entirely meaningless to me. King Edward the whatever? Never heard of him or his seven fathers. And I don’t know what the answer means either.
• 13D. Leader : PACE SETTER — Sure, I understand it, but it’s not a term (or word? or hyphenated word?) that comes to mind in any situation. “Oh, that guy in the front sure is the pace setter of the group.” No.
• 14D. Added protection against winter weather : STORM DOORS — I had hoped this was going to be about clothing, and I had hoped it was going to be about winter coats, because I had hoped I could poke fun at my father and his nonsense about winter coats. Oh wait, I’ve just brought it up anyway, so now I can. Go read this article. It’s an email based debated between me and my father about proper winter attire. And it’s timely, what with December 1 right around the corner.

Happy December! See you Sunday.

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Is it Saturday today?  It can’t be.  I wouldn’t be sitting at work on a Saturday.  Well, somebody’s got their days screwed up because there’s a Saturday puzzle in the New York Times today.  Good God!  I’ve been at it for 3 and half hours and I still don’t have even half the grid filled.  I have the entire bottom solved and that epic feat pretty much drained my brain of what little solving abilities resided there.

Oh, Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante of Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town, why must you torment me so.

The key to the bottom for me was 49D. Deconstruct? (RAZE).  That Z helped me with 58A. Dish named for the queen consort of Italy’s Umberto I (PIZZAMARGHERITA).  I was also able to get the one right above it, 55A. Film about an aristocrat captured by the Sioux (AMANCALLEDHORSE).

Others I’m relatively sure about:

59A. Ready for the bad news (STEELED).  I had SITTING here first which I think is also a good answer.

60A. It’s a square (SIXTEEN).  Pretty easy once I had the X from 57D. Curse (HEX).

44D. Leader who said “There is no god higher than the truth” (GANDHI).  I had the G from 44A. Basis of some discrimination (GENDER) but it took me a couple of tries to figure out where the H went.

36D. Was shy (OWED).  That took a while.  It’s right next to 37D. Was shy which I think is RANSHORT but I’m not sure.

I have a few at the top:

19A. Xbox 360 competitor (WII).

21. Actress Suvari (MENA).  Wasn’t she the one covered in roses in American Beauty?

6D. Generates (SPAWNS).

And that’s really it.  I’ve got 11 no-googles in a row so I’m going to keep at it for a while.  Here are a few I absolutely don’t know:

15A. King’s honor.  A 15-letter answer.  I have one letter.  It’s a P and provides no help.

17A. Where moles may try to dig?.  This one I think has to do with spies.  Like the moles that are constantly infiltrating CTU on 24.  So I’m thinking CLASSIFIED FILES or something of that nature.  Again, it’s a 15-letter answer and I have one letter.  This time it’s an A and is as useless as the P.

1D. Clear conclusion? I think this is ANCE but I can’t get any crosses to work so I’m starting to have my doubts.

2D. Sweat. WORK?  Maybe?

3D. Like many of Shakespeare’s rhymes.  I think this is either AABB or ABAB or some variation of that.

Could King’s honor start with NOBLE?

18A. Hamburger’s course? I am completely baffled by this.  Are we talking about a hamburger as in the food?  Isn’t Hamburger also city in Germany?  Maybe there’s a guy named Hamburger.  Is he a teacher?  What does he teach?  Ok, ok, wait.  Is it the river that runs through Hamburger?  The ELBE, maybe?

Ok, Sweat is TOIL.  And the mole thing starts with CIA.

5D. Ithaque, e.g. I have _E_.  Could it be a type of EEL?  Could I be desperately grasping at straws?

8A. Shout after a knock.  This could be WHOISIT or LETMEIN or something totally different.

I’ve now been at this about 4 hours longer than Dan Feyer, Winner of the C Division.  I don’t have any idea how I’m going to finish this.  I don’t know who the U.S. Treasurer was in 1984 was or any locations in Nederland or any books about the Babylonian captivity.  But I’ll give it my best shot.

Before I get back to the puzzle I do need to mention that my beloved Dodgers are the 2008 National League Western Division Champions.  It’s been 20 years since they last won a postseason series.  So, here’s hoping.

Next stop, Saturday.

Hello, everyone.  Quick update.  It’s now been four hours since I typed the preceding and I just no-googled the puzzle.  A mere 8 hours after I opened it up.  I was right, the mole thing did start with CIA.  I later figured out it ended with HEADQUARTERS.  I was close with King’s honor as it turned out to be NOBELPEACEPRIZE.  One thing that tripped me up for a while was putting BEHEMOTH instead of VEHEMENT for Very strong.  Oh, I also had ELTON instead of ASTIN for John of “Freaky Friday”.  I thought maybe it was a song he wrote.

Great puzzle.  Nothing like a nice brain crusher to start the weekend.

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Wow, I almost destroyed our blog. I tried upgrading the software and completely screwed the whole thing up. The site wouldn’t load and I freaked out a bit. After calming down and having a cool glass of lemonade, I isolated the problem and successfully completed the upgrade. Yowza, that was a wild scene there for a bit.

On to today’s puzzle created by Barry C. Silk, Friend and Confidante to Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town. Great, awesome puzzle and a pangram according to JimH. (Actually, it’s a pangram according to anybody but JimH was the one who brought it to my attention.)  I have no idea how long it took me as I started it on paper and finished it up online but I did eventually complete the no-google.

It took me a while to get going on this as I only knew a few answers to start off.

51D. Counselor on “Star Trek: T.N.G.” (TROI). I have no clue why this bit of information has stayed with me. I haven’t watched an episode of TNG in at least 15 years. But I remember her full name, Deanna Troi and that, while not being a full-fledged telepath, she could somehow sense people’s feelings. I think her big line was, “I sense pain…”.

14D. Half Dome’s home (YOSEMITE). Second straight puzzle with a Yosemite reference. This one was such a gimmie that I feared I was missing some trick. The M was very helpful in completing 26A. One of the Coreys on “The Two Coreys” (HAIM). I had HA__ and never realized both their names start with the same two letters and are 4 letters long. Good for them.

Here I am overlooking Half Dome.

That was pretty much all I had to start off. The bottom left was the first major section to fall and I more or less worked my way around counterclockwise. Besides being a pangram the puzzle had a couple of other interesting features.

Two answers with consecutive A’s:

34D. It’s a downer (QUAALUDE). Besides NyQuil, I don’t have a lot of drug experience so I needed quite a few crosses to figure this one out. Once I came up with 50A. Records that may be broken : LPS, 54A. Seeing the sun rise, say (UPEARLY) and 58A. Home to Hitsville U.S.A. (DETROIT) the correct drug came into view.

12D. Orange County seat (SANTAANA). I grew up near here and hung out at the Main Place mall. I’ve always enjoyed malls. I know they’re all the same and have all the same stores but there’s something about them I enjoy. Although my absolute favorite part of the mall is the free samples of Bourbon Chicken in the food court. Here’s an interesting article about that very subject from the Cornell Daily Sun.

This puzzle also had a word that intersected with itself or as Kramer would call it, “The nexus of the universe.”

15A. Place for a skating edge (HOMEICE)

6D. Some players in penalty boxes (ICERS)

Ok, they’re not exactly the same words by ICE does cross with ICE. I am also impressed with myself here. I have watched exactly one hockey game in my life yet I was able to figure both of these out.

Lacking the Kramer video I was searching for, I will post the sides from the scene so you can act it out yourself:

JERRY: Well, what street are you on?

KRAMER: Hey, I’m on first and first. How can the same street intersect with itself? I must be at the nexus of the universe.

JERRY: Just wait there. I’ll pick you up, and, Kramer, stay alive no matter what occurs, I will find you!

KRAMER: Aah!

And because with this upgraded software it’s now easier to post videos here’s one of my favorite Kramer bits.

Some highlights and other interesting bits:

16A. Fox’s cousin (ARAPAHO). I’m not sure I understand this one. Aren’t the Arapaho a Native American tribe?

18A. They come out in the spring (GEMINIS). I wanted this to be PEONIES which is either a type of flower or something I’ve made up.

34A. Sounded like a bufflehead (QUACKED). The name Bufflehead is a combination of buffalo and head, referring to the oddly bulbous head shape of the species. They are also very cute.

8D. Losing pitcher in the 1956 World Series perfect game (MAGLIE). This was not something I knew off the top of my head. I knew Don Larsen pitched the perfect game and that he beat the Dodgers but I didn’t know his opposition was Sal “The Barber” Maglie. So named for the close shaves he gave batters. I suppose this counts as a Dodger reference even though it not only references a loss but Maglie is much better known as a member of the hated Giants. But I’ll count it. So hopefully they’ll win this afternoon and I’ll update their crossword record in tomorrow’s post. (And, to be fair, in his next puzzle I think Barry should incorporate some reference to a devastating Phillies loss.)

The puzzle also featured a number of what my wife’s family would refer to as groaners:

47A. Their feet don’t walk (POEMS)

49A. It turns up in a field (PLOW)

50A. Records that may be broken (LPS)

57D. Root word? (OLE) I have to admit, I didn’t understand this one at all until I read JimH’s post. “Root” as in root for a bullfighter. Great clue.

The newest member of the “Thank God for Umlauts” department:

45D. Dwellers on Lake Vänern (SWEDES). Not a chance I would have figured this out otherwise.

And, finally, two new members of the “There Was Probably a More Interesting Way to Clue These But This is a Family Newspaper” department:

35D. Open, as a jacket (UNZIPPED)

37D. Reached the peak (CLIMAXED)

That’s it for today. Great puzzle, Barry.

Next stop, Sunday.

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One clue! I was one clue away from a no-Google Friday, but couldn’t pull it off. I had a bunch of wrong ideas surrounding a complete mystery, and while that also may describe my theories about dating during my sophomore year of high school, it also describes much of the top portion of this outstanding Barry C. Silk puzzle. Why outstanding, do you ask? This themeless puzzle has five 15-letter answers spanning the grid, two pairs of them stacked. Those answers:

• 13A. Detector of some potentially dangerous waves : EARTHQUAKE ALARM – Pictured at right, this earthquake alarm was available for sale in 2006 with the following copy text: “The Earthquake First Aid Alarm. Box sits quietly until box feels earthquake. Then box rings alarm, flashes handle and offers First Aid kit. Just in case, you see. Around $50.00 including LED lamp, mobile phone charger and AM/FM radio.”
• 17A. Question of concern after someone has had a bad experience : ARE YOU DOING OKAY?
• 34A. Rapidly increasing pace : EXPONENTIAL RATE
• 53A. Where moles might be found : CIA HEADQUARTERS
• 56A. Creator of big suits? : ATTORNEY GENERAL

Nice work, Mr. Silk! My problems arose at the top, where I managed to get the last seven letters of that 13A. I then decided with absolute certainty that the middle of the answer must be SMOKE. This meant that 6D. Arab League member was OMANI, which is a word I have seen in crosswords a lot, and I think exists somewhere east of where I live. Wait a minute — OMANI doesn’t leave me with any good possibilities for 6A. Block boundaries: Abbr. … Hm. Oh, there’s another middle eastern word I don’t really know — how about AMMAN? Sure, that works. Oh, then Clive OWEN gets to be the “Children of Men” star (21A). That’s much better than Clive OMNI, which is what I had before. Is Clive Owen any good? He seemed to be on the verge of breaking into the bigtime (I mean the super stardom time) for a couple years, and now I haven’t heard from him in a while. And to tell you the truth, I don’t notice the difference.

In the meantime, 8D and 3D go together as Slopes. SKI RUNS, of course. Wonderful. And 2D. Like a perfect game is probably RARE. Now my 13A answer was -AU–SMOKEALARM. At this point, I figured it must be some form of “nautical” that I don’t know. NAUTA? NAULI? On to 17A, where I was sure I was misspelling something, because I knew with absolute certainty that it would be IS EVERYTHING OKAY. It doesn’t matter that that’s 16 letters. I was sure. It didn’t go with most of the rest of my wrong answers — which led me to (correctly) assume they were wrong, but for all the wrong reasons.

So much wrongness.

So Google. Google, dear Google. Where is the D.H. Lawrence Ranch? I have no idea. I don’t even know what country it is in. Ah, Google, thank you, it’s near Taos. That’s in New Mexico, which is in the United States. Wonderful. TAOS took me away from SMOKE, and opened up EARTHQUAKE. It gave me STS for 6A. All that told me that 6D was SUDAN. That 14D. Powerful piece was not a piece of writing, but a chess piece (QUEEN). Apparently, 5D. Like clichés is SHOPWORN. Didn’t know that word. SKI AREA is the sneaky non-S plural, which gave me some comfort (that 18A. Mauna ___ was still probably either KEA or LOA, and there wasn’t a third Mauna Something out there). The mystifying K shared by 32A. Arizona’s ___ Peak National Observatory (KITT) and 32D. Lumber features (KNARS) was a lucky guess, I think. I don’t know either of these things, but the K seemed right. I never think of lumber as having features — but crossword puzzles do that, they give features to inactive, inanimate objects, objects that don’t offer many options for use. I’m not a fan of equating “identifying characteristic” to “feature,” but it is what it is.

I am mostly embarrassed by not getting the baseball clue quickly enough. 22A. Bosox nickname had me stumped for a while. And then I wrongly put AGAPE for 16D (Like curious onlookers), the only name I could plug in there was PAP, as in Jonathan Papelbon, current closer for the Boston nine. Who was famous enough to get a nickname? Well, the answer is the great number eight, Carl Yastrzemski, also known as YAZ. The Red Sox won tonight in big fashion, 10-0 over Texas. Matsuzaka improved to 14-2. Pedroia had three hits. Good stuff.

In non-puzzle news, I need to take a moment here to shout out to Dan Feyer, winner of the C division. Dan and I had lunch together a couple weeks ago, when he came to the theater I was working at. We had a great lunch (I had a shrimp and avocado salad; I believe Dan had a turkey panini), and then Dan saw my show. I had intended to repay the favor (and see Dan’s show the following week), but got too bogged down in subsequent work, and wasn’t able to get out there. I’m sorry, Dan! And further, I’m sorry I didn’t talk of this on the last podcast. I got home from Vermont, and was so immediately swamped in not one, but two entirely new projects, I all but excised Vermont from my mind. When it came time to record the podcast, I was so exhausted from the new jobs, I completely blanked on anything I had prepared to discuss (including our lunch). I hope you’ll forgive me, Dan.

If I remember, I’ll talk of our lunch on the next podcast. Perhaps I’ll give tips on preparing a quality panini.

See you Saturday!

[Hey, all.  Ryan here.  I was one letter away from no-googling this.  When the applet wouldn't accept my solution I thought I made a mistake in the KNARS section.  Turns out I had that all correct but screwed up in the top left when I put BEAM instead of BEAK for 1D. Rail part.  That gave me MEA in place of KEA for 18A. Mauna ___.  I'm not up on my various Maunas so MEA looked as right as anything.  By the way, what type of rail uses a beak?  

I agree with Brian that this was a superb puzzle.  It took me a long time to get going on it.  After a half hour I only had 3 or 4 clues answered.  Took me another hour or so of chipping away to get the rest of the grid filled.  Which made it all the more frustrating that my no-google didn't happen.  Let's see, how can I repay Barry for the BEAK/KEA debacle?  Well, I'm certainly not going to sit here and mention that the Dodgers just swept the Phillies in a 4 game series for the first time since 1962.  No, that would be beneath me.  Hmm, I'm sure I'll think of something.]

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It’s Saturday so here’s where I would normally say it’s late, I’m in the middle of solving the puzzle so here’s what I have so far.  Well, it is late, but I somehow solved this Barry C. Silk puzzle in 45 minutes and 6 seconds.  I’ve never solved a Saturday puzzle in under 5 hours much less in under 1 hour.  How did I do this?  Well, there is a long answer and a short answer.  The long answer involves a number of mathematical equations that calculate letter frequency based on both the constructor’s and solver’s current location, processor speed of the computer or pencil being used in the solving and, of course, El Nino.  The short answer is, I’m a genius.  In the interest of saving space (after all, the Internet is only so big) I’ll go with the short answer.

I actually did have a few things going for me on this one.

1A. Conductor of many TV experiments (MRWIZARD).  I watched Mr. Wizard everyday after school on Nickelodeon.  I still remember many of the experiments like how to cut a hole in a standard piece of construction paper that you can fit a person through.  It was a great show.  No crazy characters or high production values.  Just a guy teaching kids about science.

8D. Refuse to let go of (DWELLON).  I just watched an episode of the West Wing where President Bartlett says there’s only 3 words in the English language that begin with DW: dwell, dwarf and dwindle.  I have no idea if that’s actually true but once I had the DW the rest was easy.

31D. Oahu “thank you” (MAHALO).  My parents took me to Hawaii twice when I was a kid.  I was the kid on the beautiful beaches wearing long pants and wishing he could be home playing video games.  (I was a pain in the ass kid.)  Anyway, on our second trip the plane touched down and the attendant said something and ended it with mahalo.  I thought I was quite the wiseacre and started making fun of the word and how it doesn’t mean anything and blah, blah, blah. (I told you I was a pain in the ass kid.)  I guess I was a talking a little too loudly because some big Hawaiian dude stared me down and said, “It means thank you.”  He was offended, I peed a little and I’ve never forgotten it.

62A. “Nothing to get upset about” (IGNOREIT).  I worked a puzzle recently that had the same answer and a similar clue.  Once I had the IG in place the rest was easy.

There were also quite a few standard crosswordese answers that showed up.

27A. “Frank TV” airer (TBS).  I’ve seen this advertised during Braves games.  Looks terrible.

37A. Bite (NOSH).  I’m Jewish, I live in New York, I’m well-versed in noshing.  (Amanda, you may use “Well-Versed in Noshing” as a song title if you’d like.)

48A. Unhappy face (MOUE).  Once I saw this in a puzzle for the second time I decided to commit it to memory.

49A. U.S.-born Jordanian queen (NOOR).  This is the only thing I know about Jordan.  The clue could have been “Jordanian queen” or “Jordanian” or “Jo” and I would have written in the same thing.

64A. Periodicals with unturnable pages (EZINES).  I don’t think anybody likes this word.  Not Will Shortz, not the constructors, certainly not the solvers.  But if it helps the constructors out of a tight spot then I can deal with it.

Other clues that caught my eye:

9A. Many people get 100 on it (IQTEST).  This clue is bizarre to me.  Don’t many people get all kinds of scores on IQ tests?  Do most people get 100?  Is that some sort of cut off point?

19A. Scottish : Mac :: Arabic : ___ (IBN).  I don’t understand any part of the clue or the answer.  The B was the last letter I entered into the grid as I was also unfamiliar with 2D. Cousins of oribis and dik-diks (RHEBOKS).

55A. The Guinness book once dubbed her “television’s most frequent clapper” (VANNA).  Seriously, who else could this be?  You gotta love Vanna White.  While looking for a video to post here I realized that looking at game show clips on youtube is the most addictive thing on the internet.  I must stop.

7D. Drifter (ROLLINGSTONE).  Love that a Rolling Stone answer is next to a Beatles answer:  21. Title woman of song who “lives in a dream” (ELEANORRIGBY).

43D. Players with saving accounts? (GOALIES).  At first I thought this was referring to relief pitchers.

47D. Columbus discovery of 1493 (STKITTS).  I figured this was going to be an island of some kind.  Once I had the ST in place I guessed the rest.

53D. About 5.5 million Europeans (DANES).  Did anybody just know this?  I filled it in with crosses.

I thought this was a great puzzle with loads of difficult but gettable clues.  Barry also collaborated with Doug Peterson, Crossword Gentleman and Man About Town on the Sun’s Friday puzzle.  Really difficult but super fun with a few punny answers that made me want to throw my computer out the window.  And both Barry and Doug will be constructing a puzzle for Lollapuzzoola 2008.  (Registration now open.)

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Once again it’s way too late and I haven’t solved the puzzle. I have most of this Barry C. Silk offering but a few choice clues continue to stump me. I’m not ready to give up on my no-google streak yet but it’s not looking good.

The theme is ACROSS THE BOARD and the theme answers have circled letters that spell out the names of chess pieces. Keep in mind, I haven’t checked these answers yet so they may be wrong.

22A. November 5, in Britain (GUYFAWKESNIGHT). KNIGHT is hidden in there or as I call it, the horsey guy.

29A. Wild sheep of the western United States (ROCKYMOUNTAINBIGHORN). KING.

44A. Best actor of 1991 (SIRANTHONYHOPKINS). For Silence of the Lambs. ROOK.

59A. It’s quite different from the high-school variety (PROFESSIONALWRESTLING). PAWN.

77A. Viking, for one (PUBLISHINGCOMPANY). BISHOP.

91A. Army supply officer (QUARTERMASTERGENERAL). QUEEN.

102A. Egg roll topping, perhaps (CHINESEMUSTARD). CHESS. This is a weird clue. I’ve never had an egg roll topped with Chinese mustard. I always dip egg rolls into Chinese mustard.

Ok, here’s what I don’t have yet.

20A. Injustice (RA__EA_). What is this? The crosses are 8D. Natural bristle (A_N), 9D. Year that Michelangelo began work on “David” (M_I), 12D. Illinois city, site of the last Lincoln-Douglas debate (A_TON). Could that be Alton? Akton? No clue.

56A. Trail to follow (SP_O_). Spool? Sprol? Spoon? The crosses are no help. 47D. Ancient Greek coins (OB_LS). OBALS? 43D. Go rapidly (SKI_R). I may have something wrong here. The only word that I know of that fits is SKIER and that doesn’t make sense with the clue.

67A. Eurasian ducks (_MEWS). Smews? I didn’t even know there were Eurasian ducks.

62D. Capri, e.g., to a Capriote (I_OLO). I figure this is a foreign word that means homeland or home or something of that nature.

I have everything else. So I’m going to have a nice sleep, wake up, sit back down here and everything should become crystal clear. Hopefully, I’ll update this post at some point with the report of my latest no-google.

In the meantime, did I mention registration is open for Lollapuzzoola 2008?

Next stop, Monday.

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Nothing like a nice no-google Friday to start off the weekend. I thought this Barry C. Silk puzzle was tough and it took me many MOOTs (Multiples of Orange’s Time) to finish it but finish it I did. I was able to quickly fill in 20A. Big name in Web-based correspondence (GMAIL) and 50A. Gifford’s replacement as Philbin’s co-host (RIPA) but the rest of the grid remained empty for a very long time. Looking at it now, I have no idea what got me going as the clues and answers still seem foreign to me.

I liked most of this puzzle. There were a few things I wasn’t crazy about:

28A. Reads online (EMAGS). Ok, so “reads” is a noun here? Fine. But EMAGS? Never in my life have I heard anyone use this term.

33A. Ranked (AROW). I guess I understand this but it’s just not working for me.

37D. Barnes & Noble acquired it in 1987 (BDALTON). This one I don’t like because it reminds me of those horrible B. Dalton commercials. The ones that featured a character named B. Dalton. He wore a bow tie and at the end of every ad he said “You can call me Books” in such a way that made you never want to read again.

Those minor quibbles aside I thought this was quite a nice, smart puzzle.

1A. It can be used to get your balance (ATMCARD). I put HORIZON here first. My wife got a little seasick on the way over to Martha’s Vineyard and somebody told her to keep her eyes on the horizon. ATM CARD is a much better, more clever answer. By the way, the story of our Martha’s Vineyard adventure can be found here.

16A. Modem, e.g. (ENCODER). I’m a little confused here. xwordinfo.com has a different clue for this one. Jim has Many a software company employee. Was there a last minute change?

23A. Ice (DOIN). I like this one. I’d like to see a puzzle full of mafia terms.

26A. Early Japanese P.M. Hirobumi ___ (ITO). Nice Friday way to clue a pretty standard answer.

27A. Old sitcom couple’s surname (MERTZ). This one took me a while to come up with. That Z really helped me out as it gave me BEDAZZLE which opened up the top right.

29A. Comparable to a pin? (ASNEAT). I had NEATAS here for while. That really gave me fits.

45A. Back ___ (FORTY). Who would like to tell me what this term means?

47A. Stay-at-home worker? (UMP). I tried MOM, DAD and POP before I figured this one out.

53A. Charming person? (HEXER). I tried like heck to squeeze PRINCE in here but it just wouldn’t fit.

58A. Argue (CONTEND). This was the last answer I filled in. I didn’t know 36. “Mécanique Céleste” astronomer : (LAPLACE) so the crossing didn’t help. I had WONTEND and DONTEND at first, neither of which make much sense.

4D. Stuffed and roasted entree (CAPON). Second day in a row this bird makes it into the puzzle. So what is a capon? According to capons.com it is a delicious, de-sexed delicacy.

38D. It might include a washboard (JUGBAND). I don’t think anyone will believe me but I actually didn’t put STOMACH here first.

Ok, I’ve got to wrap this up. Work is almost done and my weekend is about to begin. There was lots of other really good fill in the grid including: ARCADIA, TEAPOTS, REGALIA, BAKLAVA, DNATEST, LBJRANCH and BEDREST. Fun stuff. And I still have no idea how I solved it. But the elusive no-google week is still intact.

Next stop, Saturday.

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Good puzzle by Barry C. Silk although Brian and I have to come up with a name for the type of theme that can really only be enjoyed after puzzle completion. These themes are usually quite clever but don’t add much to the solving experience.

67A. Something you can do to the starts of 17-, 21-, 37-, 53- and 60-Across (DRAW)

17A. Hotel offering (BATHTOWEL)

21A. Bow-taking occasion (CURTAINCALL)

37A. Poker face (BLANKEXPRESSION)

53A. Cinema offering (PICTURESHOW)

60A. Flintlock need (GUNPOWDER)

Again, very clever and well done but just not my favorite type of theme.

I had a big misstep here which added 3 or 4 minutes to my time.

5D. “If asked, yes” (IWOULD). I put ICOULD which seems to be a valid answer to me. Of course that gave me COMB for 15A. Birth place (WOMB) which gave me slight pause when I first looked at it but not enough to do anything about it. I do have a bit of a problem with that clue. Does birth happen in the womb? I thought that’s where people are before they’re born. Or are they saying a womb is one of the many places involved in a birth? Well, whatever the meaning of the clue, the answer is most certainly not COMB. I eventually found my answer and was able to finish the puzzle.

16A. French-speaking African nation (GABON). Continuing my own personal theme of geographic ignorance, GABON makes an appearance as a country I’ve never heard of before.

26A. Charisse of “Singin’ in the Rain” (CYD). She just passed away last week.

46A. Grier of “Jackie Brown” (PAM). Tarantino’s most underrated film in my opinion. Not as great as Pulp Fiction or the Kill Bills but still very good and features a fantastic performance by Robert Forster.

1D. Internet-on-the-tube company, formerly (WEBTV). Why formerly? This company still exists. Oh wait, I get it, Microsoft bought them out.

10D. Friend of Peppermint Patty (MARCIE). What’s that you say? What would the Peanuts gang look like if they were drawn in the Manga style? Would it be disturbing and make me sleep with the light on? Quite possibly.

35D. Leaf-to-branch angle (AXIL).  Weren’t we just talking about this last week?

Well, I’m sure you already know this but Episode #16 of the podcast (now titled Fill Me In) has been uploaded.  Enjoy.

Next stop, Wednesday.

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Short post today as, again, I spent way to long putting together the latest podcast episode.  I thought this Barry C. Silk offering was hard but good.  I have to be honest though, I didn’t really understand the theme.

56A. Surprises for buyers … or what 18-, 28- and 43-Across contain (HIDDENCOSTS)

18A. 18th-century Parisian design (ROCOCOSTYLE)

28A. Beef cut (DELMONICOSTEAK)

43A. Aggies’ home (NEWMEXICOSTATE)

You know what?  Never mind.  I just got it.  COST is hidden in all of the answers.  Did everybody know this except for me?  I was trying to figure out what the hidden costs are in a steak and a design style.  Well, hmmm.  I feel like a bit of an idiot.  On the upside, I like this puzzle even more than I did before.

4A. Serves at a restaurant (WAITSON).  I was a waiter for about 3 months.  I had a customer write “no tip because of bad service” on their check.  Something about how I didn’t bring him water or food or something of that nature.

10D. Tennis great Ilie (NASTASE).  Funny to see such a common clue flipped like this.

2D. Privilege of those 18 and over (VOTE).  This has got to be the most exciting and interesting election year since I’ve been old enough to vote.  And it’s just now getting cranked up.

49D. Greek goddess of victory (NIKE).  Why don’t they make a bigger deal of this in their ad campaigns?

Ok, that’s it for today.  Episode #14 will be up within the hour.  Tell your friends.

Next stop, Wednesday.

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