Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

So, Brian, who is not me (and I am not him) posted about this yesterday but I wanted to give it another shout out.  Patrick “El Blindito” Blindauer is working on a suite of interconnected holiday puzzles that will lead to a larger puzzle and a final answer.  The whole thing will cost you $5 and you have a chance to win a free registration at the upcoming ACPT.  This is a great idea and Patrick is one of our favorite constructors so we highly recommend you all get on board with this. Click here to get all the information and sign up.  The site has got a cool widget to track his money raising progress but it’s far too wide to fit on the sidebar of our blog so maybe we’ll post it in an entry every once in a while.  Go Patrick!

Today’s puzzle was constructed by Brad Wilber and took Brian 12 minutes and 42 seconds to successfully complete.  I have no clue how he did this.  I loaded it up with the intention of completing it in 11 minutes and 37 seconds but did not get the “Thank you for playing” message until 47 minutes and 59 seconds had passed.  Isn’t the ACPT coming up in a few months?  Don’t I want to do better than last time?  Why is my brain not cooperating?

But enough about me.  Let’s talk about Brad Wilber and his excellent Friday puzzle.  Fun fill, clever clues and very little crosswordese.  Good stuff.

15A. Tape deck convenience (AUTO REVERSE).  If I remember correctly tape decks in your car were much more advanced than tape decks in your home.  They had the auto reverse.  They also had the ability to fast forward to the beginning of the next song.  I can’t remember the last time I actually played a tape of any sort.

16A. Boyhood nickname in “The Phantom Menace” (ANI).  To get your weekend started off right here’s some horrible dialogue from the movie.

Anakin Skywalker: Are you an angel?
Padmé Naberrie: What?
Anakin Skywalker: An angel. I’ve heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They live on the moons of Iego, I think. They’re the most beautiful creatures in the universe.
Padmé Naberrie: You’re a funny little boy. How do you know so much?
Anakin Skywalker:I listen to all the traders and pilots who come through here. I’m a pilot, you know. Someday, I’m going to fly away from this place.

Now that’s podracing!

17A. Its clock was featured in the 1945 film “The Clock” (PENN STATION).  Here’s a picture of the original Penn Station before it was destroyed in 1963.

Now before you start feeling all upset, remember the new Penn Station has an Auntie Annies Pretzels.  And those are delicious pretzels.

37A. Where people do stretches (PRISONS).  I can’t be the only one who put THE ARMY here, can I?

51A. “Return of the Jedi” dancing girl (OOLA).  Poor Oola.  Trained in one of the best dancing schools on Ryloth her future seemed bright until she was tricked by Bib Fortuna and Jerris Rudd into becoming a dancer in Jabba the Hutt’s court.  After an ill advised refusal of Jabba’s advances she was eaten alive by a rancor.  Her legend, however, lived on in the form of impersonator Dame Needa, who put on a nightly Oola tribute show at the Gardulla Oola hotel and casino in Mos Eisley.

56A. Shuffling goal (RANDOM ORDER).  I really thought this was going to be BUFFALO.

63A. Modern retelling of the Faust legend (DAMN YANKEES).  Whatever Oola wants, Oola gets.

1D. Sadie Hawkins Day creator (CAPP).  Learned this from crosswords.

12D. Actress Katharine Ross’s actor-husband (SAM ELLIOTT).  There are many people who I don’t look like.  Sam Elliott is one of those people.

23D. Petal-like poinsettia part (BRACT).  Of course, the bract, my favorite part of the poinsettia.

34D. Ship to the New World (PINTA).  How come everybody knows the names of Columbus’s ships?  Why was that an important fact to teach all school children?

50D. Bart Starr’s alma mater, briefly (BAMA).  Here’s how much I don’t know about football.  My first guess here was RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

54D. Entertainment partner? (ARTS).  Has anybody watched Hoarders?  Its a show on A&E (why it’s on A&E, I have no idea) about compulsive hoarders.  It’s kind of horrifying, totally fascinating and makes you want to clean out your entire living space.

Really fun puzzle today.

Next stop, Saturday.

Big news on the Lollapuzzoola front.  We have been given permission to use the ACPT grease boards.  So, we will be having ACPT style finals.  Woohoo!  We’re still not exactly sure how everything will work in terms of divisions and scoring but the whole thing is shaping up to be a lot of fun.  Have I mentioned that we’d really appreciate it if you’d sign up as early as possible?

On to today’s Brad Wilber puzzle.  Man, I totally gave up when I had a no-google in my grasp.  I’m a little frustrated with myself.

I had everything filled in except for 1D. Certain hauling fee which turned out to be DRAYAGE.  I had DRA____ and didn’t know any of the crossings.

19A. “___ Blues” (track on the Beatles’ “White Album”) (YER).  I had _ER and thought it might be HER Blues.  I’m sorry, I just don’t know much about the Beatles.  That should all change once Beatles Rock Band comes out.  The game has an awesome opening cinematic.

22A. “Dilbert” character who was reincarnated as his own clone (ASOK).  I had _SOK.  I used to be a big Dilbert fan.  Apparently, that was in the pre-ASOK era.

26A. Indicator of high-level clef (G CLEF).  Here’s where I just blew it.  On the podcast we’ve been so focused on the F Clef and the C Clef that I never considered the possibility of other clefs.  After being thoroughly frustrated I went to xwordinfo with a “?CLEF” search and G CLEF came right up.  After I put the G in the grid, DRAYAGE immediately popped into the grid.  But there went the no-google.

31A. Prehistoric stone tool (EOLITH).  I had _OLITH and it really could have been anything.  Turns out it was an E as in EOLITH.

So, oh well, my no-google streak is over.  It was coming up on just about 2 weeks but it has now been flushed into the Hudson.

The rest of the puzzle was full of great stuff.

14A. Writer on pictures (ROGER EBERT).  I used to agree with EBERT a lot more than I do now but I still enjoy reading him.  At the very least you know he’s seen a ton of movies, is a great writer and will have some interesting things to say.  Also, he like The Hangover which is the funniest movie I’ve seen since the 40-Year-Old Virgin.

17A. Going bonkers for the British? (ANGLOMANIA).  I’m not sure I understand this one.  Does ANGLOMANIA have some other meaning?

20A. Response to being elbowed, maybe (WAS I SNORING).  Awesome.  My favorite clue/answer in the puzzle.

55A. Clown (MERRY ANDREW).  Well, that is news to me.  On a side note, a google image search for “creepy clown” brings up some of the most disturbing images I’ve seen on the web.  Here’s one that’s relatively tame.

58A. General in the Taiping Rebellion (TSO).  I present to you the General Tso’s Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich.

3D. It’s stuffed in a restaurant (EGG ROLL).  Good one.

13D. Outcome disallowed by the N.H.L. in 2005 (TIE GAME).  I didn’t know this but that’s a good rule change.  I’ve been to exactly one hockey game in my life and it ended in a tie.  Very unsatisfying.

15D. Victim of terrible teasing (TANTALUS).  This was a total guess.  My first thought was that the clue had something to do with hair.

23D. Country star Urban (KEITH).  Tuesday clue hanging out in my Saturday puzzle.

29D. Old Fenway nickname (YAZ).  Is there another 3-letter possibility?

43D. Body art? (EROTICA).  Now here’s a clue where I understand the question mark.  Body art would normally lead a person to think TATTOOS.

45D. “Drop City” novelist, 2003) (TC BOYLE).  You know, I tried to read the Road to Welville but just couldn’t get through it.

51D. Before making the cut? (PREOP).  Another great one.

61D. Interrogator’s red-flag raiser (LIE).  This one seems a little odd to me.  I would think that a LIE is the conclusion an interrogator would make after a red-flag had been raised.  Not the red-flag itself.

Great Saturday puzzle.

Next stop, Sunday.

Well, here’s the deal.  I have barely a third of this Brad Wilber puzzle completed.  Up until an hour ago I had exactly 4 answers written in.  I had a small surge of intelligence which has since evaporated.  I do think I have an outside chance of solving this one.  I think if I could get the 15-letter answer that goes down the middle then I’d be in good shape.  I bet Brian knows what it is.

8D. Song standard from Broadway’s “Jubilee,” 1935 (BE____HE__G____).  I’m iffy on whether or not the B is correct.  I think 1A. No backbreaker ends in JOB.  The E I’m confident of as it comes from 34A. Indian currency (SACAGAWEA DOLLAR) and the G has to be right as I get it from 43A. Place where kids may feed kids (PETTING ZOO).  I’m assuming I’ve heard of this Jubilee song before but these possibly correct letters aren’t triggering anything.

Is this going to be like last week?  I struggled mightily to finish Saturday’s puzzle and all the comments were about how the puzzle was more like a Wednesday or a Thursday.  And that people solved it blindfolded.  And one guy solved it without needing to look at the clues.  If that’s what it’s going to be like I wish someone would tell me now before I go on and on about how difficult the puzzle is.

Ok, breakthrough!  CUSHY JOB gives me HONE which gives me SNIT which gives me MAIN DRAG which gives Kevin Bacon.  No, wait, different game.  It gives me BEGIN THE BEGUINE, which may be spelled incorrectly.  I knew I had heard of it.

Now I’ve got the bottom right: 54A. Pulitzer-winning William Kennedy novel (IRON WEED), 57A. It doesn’t add up (NONSENSE) and 59A. Kind of mattress pad (EGG CRATE).

The top right is still a complete mystery to me.

In the middle right, OMOO (36D. Classic novel whose title means “rover”) makes its second straight Saturday appearance.  Has anybody ever read this book?  Right next to it is my most hated of entries ALER (33D. Jay or Ray).

39A. Tony award nominee for “Anna Christie,” 1993.  Could that be MEARA?  Seems to fit.  I think 13D. Like much pulp ends in LITERARY.  UNLITERARY?  Maybe?

Ok, 12D. Like tiny tots is DIAPER CLAD.

Finally got 24D. Financial adviser’s suggestion (FUND).  And I think 23A. Triple Crown winner between Whirlaway and Assault is COUNT something.  I really need to learn some horse racing facts.

28A. Not tall.  Is it TRUE?  A tall tale is a false so that seems to work.

Could the horse be COUNT FLEET?  Sounds like a good horse name to me.

Ok, the top right is done.  18A. Exclamation near a runway is OOLALA.  I had thought of that hours ago but thought it had to be spelled OOHLALA.

Just a few more empty boxes in the middle.

38A. Ring site (__B_).  Right now the only thing I can think of is TUBS.  But wouldn’t the clue need to be pluralized also?  There’s only so many letters that can follow a B.  Never mind, it’s LOBE.

The Jennifer Lopez song is ALL I Have.  Shakespeare’s faint has got to be SWOOND.  Fishtail, e.g. is SLOE?  Hmm, I guess.

And submit…and incorrect.  Something’s wrong.

Oh, for crying out loud, it’s SLUE.  Not SLOE.  Ack.  I needed to check xwordinfo to see if SLOE appeared in today’s puzzle which it didn’t which lead me to the correct answer so I guess that’s technically not a no-google.  But close enough.

Next stop, Sunday.

Clearly, it’s going to take me quite a long time to finish up today’s Brad Wilber puzzle.  I have maybe 17% of the puzzle filled in with.  I would say 87% of what I’ve filled in has a 48% chance of being correct.  So, I can’t talk too much about the puzzle.  The few I’m relatively sure about include:

55A. Player in a docking station (IPOD).  This seems remarkably easy for a Saturday.

41D. What to flash when you need a lift? (SKIPASS).  Great clue.

16A. His tribute to Marilyn was remade for Diana (ELTON).  Another pretty easy clue.  I’ve never been one to be all that interested in the Royals but I was glued to the TV during that whole week.

31D. Buzz generator on Wall Street (HOT TIP).

And that’s about it.  I do enjoy the two Nixon clues.  I have no idea what the answers are but the clues are great.

Now, I must talk about yesterday’s puzzle and my related post.  Apparently, TWO D stands for TWO DIMENSIONAL which is a perfectly fine answer to “Flat”.  I went on and on about how TWOD isn’t a word and talked about how I put TKO’D which I thought was correct and I detailed Brian’s hypothesis that TWO D was an apartment (or flat) number.  How did neither of us understand this answer?  Between solving the puzzle, blogging the puzzle, talking about the puzzle, how did this go so far over our heads?  I’ve used the phrase TWO D many times in my life but yesterday it only looked like TWOD to me.  I was even thinking about getting a shirt made up for the ACPT with TWOD emblazoned on the chest.

This is all to say I believe our blog reached the peak of it’s idiocy yesterday.  I don’t think either of us could become more less smarterer.  And it can only go up from here.  (Or down, depending on how you look at it.)  I, for one, am looking forward to our bright future.

Next stop, Sunday.

A few weeks ago, I completed a Saturday puzzle. I was very pleased with myself. And it seems that ever since then, I have been nothing but a complete failure at this end of the week. And after cheating heartily, I still couldn’t complete it (and get “accepted” by the New York Times applet) — until I discovered that my cheating source had a mistake of its own. Whoops! See what Googling gets you?

This puzzle was pretty much a grid full of Things I Will Never Know, most of which crossed Other Things I Will Never Know (The Sequel). Some examples:

• 31D. Trans-Siberian Railroad stop and 36A. Classic name in copiers : OMSK/MITA. There is only one classic name in copiers, and it is Xerox. Whoever this Mita nonsense is needs to get with the program. And I know about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is not the same thing as the Railroad. But here’s a vide of a delightful (if somewhat manipulated) Christmas light display using music of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as accompaniment.

• 8D. Game played on an 81-square board : SHOGI. Doesn’t matter what this crosses with, what the hello is Shogi? According to Wiklqpedia, it’s also known as Japanese chess, and it’s quite popular with people who are too smart for normal chess. I am not smart enough for normal chess, getting regularly beaten on the “Easy” level against my Palm Pilot years ago, until my inner rage against that particular machine was such that I had to either delete the game from the PDA’s memory, or delete the PDA from my own existence. And to just make me feel really good about myself, here’s a picture of some extremely young children obviously mastering this game that far exceeds my own mental agility.

• 34D. Grp. formed in Bogotá in 1948 : OAS. I wonder if this was just some random social club — you know, like three old ladies got together and said, “Let’s form a club. No boys allowed. Let’s drink tea and eat Madelines and discuss painting and sculpture and our favorite books. We’ll call ourselves the Original Art Society.” And while I know that Wikipedia is not the source of all information, it’s worth pointing out that there are eleven other OAS listings available that aren’t the Organization of American States.
• 1D. City near the Wasatch Mountains : OGDEN. This is the sort of clue that gets under my skin. It makes a very specific reference to a place or thing I’ve never heard of, and then the answer is something else I’ve never heard of. It’s as if the clue is saying, “Okay, we’re looking for the name of a city. And since it would be ridiculous to ask you to just guess the city, we’ll tell you it’s near something else. We won’t tell you what the something else is, but the city we want is near it. Okay? Go.” (And in case you’re wondering, it’s in Utah.)
• 

  31A. Able to stand the heat? : OVEN-PROOF. There’s a term for this?

• 53D. Birthplace of Yves Saint Laurent and 57A. Papal capes : ORAN/ORALES. I was sure it would be OMAN, not ORAN, since OMAN is an actual place that I’ve heard of, and since I’ve also heard of Yves St. Laurent, it stands to reason that he’d have been from an actual place. My knowledge of papal capes is about as deep as my knowledge of four-lettered river names and Asian board games with 81 squares, so the answer could have been anything.

I have about two months before I have to be able to do Saturday-level puzzles at the ACPT. I will make an extremely poor showing, there is no doubt. Maybe the Great Howard Barkin, Knower of All Things, will let me cheat off his paper…

Ultra-fast post today.  My friend Max is in town and we’ve been struggling with this Brad Wilber puzzle for a few hours now.  Right now we have 16 blank boxes but we’re tired and we’re going to sleep.

We got the 4 long acrosses which were great and gave us a very satisfied feeling when we came up with the answer:

15A. Court slam dunk (OPEN AND SHUT CASE).  I figured from the start this had nothing to do with basketball.

17A. Seriously deteriorate (GO TO RACK AND RUIN)

48A. Writing that mixes reportage and fiction (GONZO JOURNALISM)

51A. Not a total knockout (LOCAL ANESTHESIA).  Took us a while to get boxing out of our brains.  After we figured it out, Max, who doesn’t do crosswords regularly, said, “I gotta say, these guys are pretty clever.”

Clues that continue to give us trouble:

38D. DC Comics superhero.  This is very frustrating.  It’s something MAN.  All we can think of is STARMAN but that was a movie with Jeff Bridges.  I don’t know if he was also a superhero in the comics.  On a related note, I believe Robert Hays was in the short-lived Starman TV series.  What ever happened to Robert Hays?  Airplane, Airplane 2, some movie called Trenchcoat or something, then nothing.  I think I’ve seen him in a mustard commercial but that’s been it for 15 years or so.

37D. Cousin of a crocus.  A crocus is a flower, we think.  That’s as far as we’ve gotten.

29A. Designing women.  Of course our first answer was Meschach Taylor which neither fit nor made sense.  I came up with SALONS which doesn’t really work but seems to be on the right track.

26A. Precursor of Pascal.  We think this is COBOL but can’t get the COB to work with anything.

26D. Points.  We have __MS.  No clue.

There are a couple of others in the same areas that are stumping us as well.  This has not been my smarterest week of all time.  I’m hoping a nice sleep will clear things up for the morning.  Great puzzle though.  Very, very clever and contains one of my all time favorite clues:

22D. Creator of a bathroom cloud (TALC).  Ok, I’ll admit it, our first thought was TURD.  There you go.

Next stop, Sunday.

• Main Entry: ocher
• Variant(s): or ochre \??-k?r\
• Function: noun
• Etymology: Middle English oker, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French ocre, from Latin ochra, from Greek ?chra, from feminine of ?chros yellow
• Date: 14th century

1. an earthy usually red or yellow and often impure iron ore used as a pigment
2. the color of ocher; especially : the color of yellow ocher

• ocher·ous \??-k(?-)r?s\ or ochre·ous \??-k(?-)r?s, -kr?-?s\ adjective

Apparently, they’re interchangeable. Great. (All the “yellows” you see in the above picture are considered by the vast internet to be “ocher.” Also, the brownish border around everything is ocher as well, according to some Pantone-ish color palette I found in one search attempt.)

Although I had trouble with the spelling of OCHRES (6D. Canyon tones), my big stumbling block happened at 36D. Be discordant (JAR). Really? Jar? Hmm. Also, I pulled a typical Brian move by being completely unable to process the “Abbr” portion of 42A. Schedule maker: Abbr., and therefore, I continued to be completely unable to figure out that I-S actually could make some sense. Speaking of the IRS, I need to complete my taxes one of these days…

I have to say, this puzzle was chock full of wonderful answers. I got off to a very hot start, and had the whole northwest (except maybe one square at approximately Yreka, CA) and the whole southeast (except the bottom-most, right-most square) rather quickly. 1A. Luau lighting is of course a TIKI TORCH, 15A. Singer who plays herself in “D.C. Cab” is IRENE CARA, who makes a doubly rare appearance (one-bly: both names; dou-bly: it has nothing to do with “Fame”). I bow to the creator of this gem of a puzzle with respectful humility (9D. HAT IN HAND).

32D. Ticker with headlines is a NEWS CRAWL – my old television had shifted its image so weirdly that any news crawl I saw only showed the very tops of letters… It was sort of like doing a cryptogram puzzle, as I had to decipher the text based on a strange code in which letters only looked like the tops of letters. 56A. Norman Rockwell specialty is AMERICANA. My favorite is the one where the three umpires are deciding whether or not to play in the rain. I think Ryan has that print in his dining room. Speaking of Ryan — what happens when our podcast WEARS THIN (59A. Stops being funny, say)? And don’t you dare answer that it can’t because it would have had to be funny in the first place. Don’t you dare. I’ll unsubscribe you right now. (Okay, no I won’t.)

The southwest was more challenging for me, in that I had many ideas, but nothing seemed to fit. 24D. What a potential player must pass is a SCREEN TEST, not a STRESS TEST. 25D. Summons, e.g. is a COURT ORDER, and not a CALL TO -DE-, whatever that was supposed to become. 31A. Future star turned out not to be CAMEO (my first guess) or COMET (my second guess) but COMER, which I don’t care for without its “UP AND” prefix. And we had our daily dose of Make Brian Feel Like He Has No Business Being A Musician with 58A. Repetition symbol (SEGNO), which I decided could end with any of at least eight available vowels.

I was useless in the northeast, which is sad since I’ve lived my entire life in that geographic region. 12D. Get all sentimental (TURN TO MUSH) and 13D. Big sticker? (ELMER’S GLUE) are a delight. If only they had come to the forefront of my brain sooner. 10D. Loungewear stymied me in that I was looking for something that I alone could wear to a lounge — PAJAMAS! But no. Apparently, it’s CAFTANS. I have never worn a caftan. Never once.

I just got an email from Ryan asking if I was blogging now, so I’ll stop and let him add on whatever he feels like adding on. In red, apparently. I have no control over anything.

See you Saturday.

Brian doesn’t like the red, nobody else likes the pirate. Not only did people not like the pirate, it seemed to anger and disappoint everyone. I guess I won’t be doing that again. So here’s a new color for everybody which is either blue or purple or brown or whatever. People tell me they can see a 45 in the circle below. I see a bunch of dots. Personally, I think it’s an elaborate ruse. Not sure what the goal of the ruse is but I can assure you it’s nefarious.

Anyway, I thought this Brad Wilber puzzle was great. I no-googled it in under an hour. I actually got the northwest (Urumqi on a map of China) in about 30 seconds but then my supervisor gave me a job so pretending to work slowed the whole process down. But the whole puzzle was great fun and full of fascinating fill.

Like Brian I misspelled OCHRES which I thought to be an extension of my colorblindness. And I also put in PAJAMAS for loungewear. Honestly, CAFTANS don’t look that comfortable. Kind of a big sheet with a head hole.

I got TIKITORCH right away. I love all things tiki. I have tiki shirts, tiki mugs, tiki signs, tiki music. I love the whole tiki lifestyle and hope to turn our basement in our future house into a full blown tiki lounge. A great website for tiki stuff is Tiki Farm. They sell a few things by my favorite tiki artist, Shag.

The Qiqihar area was a bit more difficult but once I got 10A. Do the dishes? (CATER) everything fell into place. When I was a kid, I went to school with a girl who would cover her hands in ELMERS GLUE, wait for it to dry and then peel it off. Even as an 8 year old I found this behavior to be bizarre.

The key to the Lhasa area was 26. Sight in Lancaster County, Pa. (AMISHBUGGY). The Amish appear in two of my favorite Harrison Ford movies. Witness, of course. But also The Frisco Kid, a wonderful movie where he plays a Wild West bank robber who helps a rabbi played by Gene Wilder get to San Francisco. Such a wonderful movie and I’m still waiting for the sequel.

47D. Radio code word before 43-Down (ROMEO). 43D. Radio code word after 47-Down (SIERRA). Romeo Sierra? Please explain.

60A. Billet-doux suggestion (TRYST). I don’t understand this one either. Has anybody tried those Rosetta Stone language learning CDs? I really want to have a working knowledge of some other languages. The Rosetta Stone stuff seems great but they’re crazy expensive.

Really and truly, a great, fun puzzle. One of my favorites since we started this blog.

Next stop, Saturday.

Well, would you look at that, another incredibly difficult Saturday puzzle. This one was by Brad Wilber and I got little of it pre-google than I did last week but not much. Here’s what I got:

• 57A. Time of Ta’anit Esther (ADAR). Kind of a guess as I still don’t know all the Hebrew months but this is the four-letter one I remembered.
• 50A. Crispy Twister sandwich offerer (KFC). I stopped eating at KFC years ago when reports came out that they abuse their chickens.
• 33D. High-occupancy vehicles? (CLOWNCARS). My favorite clue in the puzzle despite my highly rational fear of clowns.
• 7D. Letters on a new car sticker (MSRP). Monday clue hiding in Saturday puzzle.
  
• 16A. Title housewife in an Oscar-winning film (MRSMINIVER). I don’t know what part of my tuchus I pulled this out of as I’ve never seen the movie and don’t know anything about it but I had the “S” and it just came to me. Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 Academy Award-winning drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Greer Garson in the title role. The film is based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, Mrs. Miniver.

And that was pretty much it for the pre-google answers. The first one I looked up was:

• 5A. Play for which Julie Harris won the 1952 Tony for Best Actress (IAMACAMERA). Cabaret is based on this play. Doesn’t change the fact that I’ve never heard of it but interesting nonetheless.
  

So that sat on top of MRSMINIVER and help me get a bunch of the downs. My favorites of which were:

• 5D. Response to “Don’t panic” (IMCALM). Thought this might be a reference to Hitchhikers Guide.
  
• 11D. “Lose” at the office (MISFILE)
• 14D. Get into it, so to speak (ARGUE)

Over in the top left I had to look up:

• 37A. Song title followed by the lyric “Lovers say that in France” (CESTSIBON). Here’s Eartha Kitt performing this song in 1962.

And with that I was able to figure out the rest of that section. It was filled with lots of great stuff including:

• 1D. Techie’s drawing (SCHEMATIC)
• 2D. Cell’s lack (PHONELINE)
• 3D. Indicators of intelligence? (CODENAMES).  My second favorite clue in the puzzle.
• 1A. Pound sign letters (SPCA).  I was thinking of Great British Pounds here.
  
• 15A. Galley output (CHOW).  I put in GRUB here at first.

The bottom of the puzzle was much more difficult as it was filled to brim with stuff I didn’t know.  What areas did my ignorance cover today?

• 32D. Douglas is its capital (ISLEOFMAN).  The capital of the Isle of Man and its largest town. It is the Island’s hub for business, finance, shipping, transport, shopping and entertainment. It is also home of the Isle of Man Government.
• 31D. Some airplane runners (TAILSKIDS)
• 56A. Its currency unit is the ariary (MADAGASCAR).  It is subdivided into 5 iraimbilanja and is one of only two non-decimal currencies currently circulating.
• 58A. O. Henry specialty (PLOTTWISTS).  His wit, characterization and plot twists were adored by his readers, but often panned by the critics. Yet, he went on to gain international recognition and is credited with defining the short story as a literary art form.
• 47A. Swedish soprano noted for her Wagnerian roles (NILSSON)
• 43A. Cousin of the sandpiper (CURLEW)

Many, many other answers I didn’t know like PRADO, STOMP, TREERAT, PULE and PIMA.

Saturday’s are supposed to be hard and this one certainly lived up to the bill.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to file enough of these facts away to be able to get going on these without google.  But, for now the big G is my friend.

Right in the middle of this one. I started it before I went to bed last night, got about 25% done, went to sleep, and filled in another 25% or so.

I started it off with two gimmies:

• 3D. 2006 Tony-nominated “Sweeney Todd” actress (LUPONE). This show got a lot of buzz. I didn’t get a chance to see it but the whole show was done by 6 or so actors and they played all the instruments. Some people loved it and others hated it.
• 48D. Charles Darwin’s ship H.M.S. ___ (BEAGLE). I learned this at the natural history museum a couple years back.

LUPONE helped me with:

• 23A. Nickelodeon nut (REN). A guess, but it fits.
• 26A. Ready to be driven (TEEDUP). I also got its sister clue 49D. Ready to be driven (INGEAR).

BEAGLE and INGEAR helped me with:

• 50D. Steering committee’s creation (AGENDA). I guess they mean a committee that’s steering an organization? Maybe?
• 54A. Host and winner of the 1966 World Cup: Abbr. (ENG), filled in by crosses.
• 61A. Dedicatee of “The Muppet Movie” (EDDIEBERGEN). Had the GEN and I remembered he was in the movie and I think he passed away before it was released. [correction below]
• 65A. Dish with coddled egg (CAESARSALAD). I think this is right. Had the ALAD plus the “C” from 52D. Language in which “k” and “v” are the words for “to” and “in” (CZECH). Of course, I’m not sure about that one either.
• 55A. With 59-Across, it lasted from about 3500 to 1000 B.C. (BRONZE) and 59A. See 55-Across (AGE).

Then I moved over to the left with:

• 60A. Slogan ending (EER).
• 64A. Flow checker (DAM).
• 66A. ___-Mere-Eglise (D-Day town) (STE) not sure if this is right be the “E” gave me 37D. “Born to Be Blue” singer (MELTORME).
• 51A. People in a rush (ATTACKERS). I pretty sure this is right.
• 38D. Yield some (GIVE)

Here’s a couple I’m not entirely sure of:

• 29D. Mardi Gras, in the U.K. (PANCAKEDAY), I have never heard of this but it sounds like the most delicious holiday ever.
• 10D. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould (OILTYCOONS). Confident with the tycoon part, not so much with the oil. [wrong on both counts, correction below]

Up towards the top right:

• 34A. ___ -Ball (SKEE). Everytime I go play skee-ball I save up those tickets and think I’m going to keep going back there and save up more and more tickets and cash them in for a TV or something. But I never do.
• 39A. She’s entertaining (HOSTESS). Getting one like this makes me feel smart.
• 44A. Identification aid in an obituary (NEE). Rather morbid clue-ing of a common answer.
• 25D. Be in harmony (MESH).
• 40D. Lead-in to a sheepish excuse (SEE). Maybe?
• 47A. The Danube flow through it (SERBIA). Well, I had the BIA and it’s the only thing I can think of.

And now I’m stuck. I am thinking I have Bergen’s first name wrong. Now I know I do. It’s actually 61A. Dedicatee of “The Muppet Movie” (EDGARBERGEN). And that gives me 43D. Home to some fighters (AIRBASE) and 46A. Prefix with culture (AVI).

Just got 1A. Prolific suspense novelist Woods (STUART). I can picture his ads in the subways.

Well, I think I have to look one of these up. It’s been a while now with no forward movement.

Here’s what I looked up:

• 4D. 1977 Steely Dan title track (AJA).
• 15A. Song sung by Mehitabel in Broadway’s “Shinbone Alley” (TOUJOURSGAI). Wow, I’ve never heard of the song or show. Apparently it had Eartha Kitt in it. It also means my Vanderbilt answer is completely wrong. I think it has something to do with railroads.
• 2D. Soft, think silk cloth (PONGEE). Never heard of this either. Maybe its what they made all the costume out of in Shinbone Alley.

And with those magic letters I was able to figure out:

• 1A. Big flap on the road? (SPLASHGUARD).
• 17A. Traitorous (UNPATRIOTIC). To be fair, I had figured this out a while ago but I guess I spelled it wrong becuase it appeared to be one letter short.
• 5D. They’re often fried (SOTS).
• 6D. Offended (HURT).
• 7D. Member of the 1960s Rams’ Fearsome Foursome (GRIER). As in Rosey Grier from that paper towel commercial.
• 8D. Sports biggies (USOPENS). Tricky, I was looking for a type of athlete here.
• 9D. Insurance fig. (AGT). Also tricky as I thought it would be some sort of statistic.
• 10D. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould (RAILBARONS). Ok, this time its right.
• 24A. Rijksmuseum subject (REMBRANDT).

Alright, I had to look up a few more:

• 16A. Treaty of Rome org. (EEC). Stands for the European Economic Community.
• 18A. First Fiesta Bowl winner: Abbr. (ASU). Football, I know you not.
• 12D. Dangerous swimmer with an oarlike tail (SEASNAKE).

Have to go off an do some things. Good thing I’m not timing myself today. To be continued…

I’m back and, good god, it’s already Sunday morning.  Just so you know, I did eventually finish this puzzle.  I had to look a few more clues up but all the boxes have all the correct letters in them.  Clearly, I’d like Saturday puzzles to take less than a day and a half to complete but I’m glad I was able to finish this up.  I’ve actually already completed Sunday’s puzzle (with an aid from Pickles) which I will report later today.