Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Today is a different kind of post for us here at BeMoreSmarter Solving Headquarters. Today, we have no blog on the solving process, since today’s puzzle more or less came from our very own offices! Well, “more” in the sense that it was one of the puzzles we used during Lollapuzzoola 2… “less” in the sense that we didn’t construct it. Our dear friend Mike Nothnagel, Pen Pal Extraordinaire and Constructor of the Friday Puzzle (and Oracle) was the genius behind it all.

We’ve been big fans of Mike’s work ever since we first started doing this blog. His themeless weekend puzzles quickly became some of our favorites, and we bestowed him with maybe the second nickname in “Fill Me In” history (Dan Feyer, I think, was the first). When it came time to put together our puzzle roster for the first Lollapuzzoola, we turned to Mike, who designed a wonderful puzzle that seemed themeless at first, but wound up being a big set up to a ridiculous game of Twister. Yes, it’s true.

Flash ahead to this year’s Lollapuzzoola 2, we knew we wanted another Nothnagel creation on the docket, so we checked with Mike to see what he might want to construct. When he devised this themeless puzzle, it was pretty much a no-brainer to use it as our championship round puzzle. The grid was full of wonderful stuff, we worked out two levels of clues (for our two skill divisions), and then Dan Feyer went and solved the whole damn thing in just over seven minutes, edging out Francis Heaney for the Lollapuzzoola title. For those seeking a PDF file of the puzzle, you can get both the version from the New York Times (which was our “Express Division” version), or the slightly easier take (the “Local Division” version). Pictured below: Champions Dan Feyer (Express) and Will Irving (Local), along with Ryan and me. (Plus, you can see Mike’s puzzle in the background!)

Entry of the day, as far as we’re concerned: PAPELBON (56A. Pitcher who struck out the final batter of the 2007 World Series). We like it because it’s Papelbon, and we like it because Ryan and I helped edit this one clue in particular.

There’s an awesome entry on the Wordplay blog, courtesy of Jim Horne. He interviews Deb Amlen, who was one of the angels sent to bless our tournament with logic, sensibility and quality judging. They both have been so wonderful to us, and this interview was quite lovely.

Mike, if you’re reading this post, I’d love for you to tell us whatever you want to about this puzzle. And if you don’t mind sharing your view on the story of watching Will Shortz solve it in front of you, I know we’d love to hear that.

And anyone else solving, or who was at Lollapuzzoola, chime in with your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

Before I get down to why I am the most loser person in the world, I’ve got a few commercial announcements.

DASH (Different Area, Same Hunt) is a puzzle hunt event taking place in eight cities (Boston, Portland, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle,  and Palo Alto, and San Francisco). Every city contributed one clue to the event, and each city will use all the clues from the contributing cities. The hunt will take place entirely on foot and should last somewhere between 5 to 7 hours. We expect the puzzles to be moderately challenging for most teams, taking between 10 – 30 minutes to solve. These puzzles incorporate wordplay, logic, code deciphering, general knowledge, and lots of creativity. For more information, visit: http://www.playdash.org/ Also, you may follow us at the national level on Twitter at @playdash.

Also – the Bay Area Crossword Tournament is coming up on September 12. $25 registration if you do it now, $30 at the door. Four puzzles, three of which are coming from the New York Times and one from a little-known crossword personality by the name of Tyler Hinman.

And now, onto our main event, the Friday puzzle by David Quarfoot. My memory of David Quarfoot is that his puzzles are a) impossible and 2) contain lots of crunchy letters.

And… my memory is accurate, thank you very much. Being the hack solver I am, I spent a good 40 minutes on about 90% of this before I finally had to turn to XWordInfo.com to check up on an answer. No no-Google streak for this wannabe crossword guru.

The puzzle was full of things I just didn’t know at all – or at least, things that were familiar, but never came into focus from the clues. Is this an instance of clues not pointing to answers? No, just a solver who is a moron. Let’s see:

1A. Rallying cry supported by some monks : FREE TIBET. Seriously. Give me something I can grab onto for the first clue. Free Tibet? Good lord, let’s just start off the puzzle experience by pointing out how non-political and non-aware of everything Brian Cimmet can be.

10A. When Antony says, “I am dying, Egypt, dying” : ACT IV. I actually just guessed this. I assume it’s from “Antony and Cleopatra,” but who can say.

12D. Right in every detail : TO A HAIR. This is a phrase? It took some very clever Googling to even find one site that explained this term.

13D. Two-time president of Romania : ILIESCU. I saw “two-time” and entered HORWITZ.

14D. Facial feature with a point : VAN DYKE. Apparently there’s no such thing as a VEE NOSE.

15A. Company with a maple leaf logo : AIR CANADA. Yeah, I was way off on this because I thought that 2D. One-named Grammy winner of 2007 was RHIANNA, not RIHANNA. Oops. For that matter, I also had AIRHEAD instead of FATHEAD, EEG instead of ECG, TORT instead of TART, ALEUT instead of INUIT and a bunch of blank squares. With all that, IHREOL— doesn’t look like much.

16A. Part of a college cheer : BOOLA. I swear, I never once said this, and I completed four years of college. Did I miss something?

17A. 2004 horror film about a passed-on curse : THE GRUDGE. I remember the poster looked awfully creepy. I never saw the movie.

18A. Major processing center : BRAIN, or what Brian doesn’t have today. I was certain that this was going to have something to do with the military, and Major didn’t mean “primary,” but rather a rank. So much for me outthinking the puzzle.

51D. Get close, maybe : ZOOM IN. It’s not ZONE IN, which is what I first tried. It’s also not ZERO IN, which is what I tried next. This was the entry I had to look up, since I very confidently assumed that if it began with a Z (which I knew from 50A. Princess Fiona’s voicer in “Shrek” for DIAZ), it had to be one of my first two ideas. There couldn’t possibly be three phrases that start with Z and mean “get close,” could there? Yes, there could.

55D. Soften, often : RIPEN. I don’t get this one. How many things ripen more than once? Or does it just mean that lots of things get soft when they get ripe, therefore it happens often, just not to the same thing…? I tried RINSE here, which also doesn’t make sense, but seemed logical. I kept thinking about washing my hands with Palmolive.

The whole area down here was a disaster for me. I didn’t know five of the six long entries that made up the southeast. Aside from VATICAN, I was lost on ADELINA (45D. Legendary soprano ___ Patti), USS COLE (47D. Destroyer in 2000 headlines – do they mean the year 2000, or that there were two thousand newspapers that ran stories?), SIMPATICO (62A. Congenial – I never saw the movie), ERIE CANAL (65A. Construction with many locks – I knew it wasn’t about locks and keys, but I assumed it was about hair) and PENNY LANE (67A. Where “all the people that come and go stop and say hello” – why, why, why could I not get the damn score to “Light in the Piazza” out of my head while reading this clue?”)… All in all, that corner killed me. I needed Google Tickets.

Well, that’s that. I give Mr. Quarfoot’s puzzle an A for being fantastic, and I give this solver an F for failing to know half the stuff.

Ryan, if you want to delete this post and write something more interesting so our readers will be glad they came here, please go right ahead.

It’s always lovely to see a friend’s name in a crossword byline, and today was no exception. Patrick “El Blindito” Blindauer has once again proven himself as one of today’s most clever wordsmiths and puzzle creators. I really marvel at his inventions, whether they are in the grid design, the theme distribution, or in the case of today’s puzzle, the clever re-creation of words to become other things. I will admit, a couple of spots here had me so confused that my addled head spun like a busted wheel in a muddy rut. I admit, it’s probably due to playing “The Maple Leaf Rag” about 10,000 times today, and has nothing to do with this puzzle.

I’ll start with the theme. Patrick has taken some common phrases and names and inverted the final two letters to make the clues clever.

• 17A. Name of Lord Rubble’s feudal estate? : BARNEY FIEF. I think I know that “fief” is a a word, but I sure don’t know what it is. I even know that “fiefdom” is a word. I probably learned it in high school. Maybe something to do with old feudal estate culture, but I can’t be sure.
• 26A. Air in a sooty shaft? : COAL MIEN. I was stuck up here in Quadrant B of this grid for quite a while. I had COAL in place, and then either MEIN or MIEN. But COAL MEIN is a disgusting Chinese food dish with sooty noodles, and that’s not what the clue called for. Like “fief,” I don’t know what a “mien” is, but I’m going out on a limb and assuming it’s some kind of air.
• 33A. Sly little dog? : SNEAK PEKE. Yeah, I think it ought to be “sneaky.” Except SNEAKY PEEK isn’t a phrase. But I don’t know that a SNEAK PEKE is a thing at all. To this, I balk (mildly).
• 46A. Celebration for a Disney dwarf? : HAPPY FETE. I watched the movie “Happy Feet” when I was last in Oklahoma visiting my in-laws. It was very popular with two of my nephews. Honestly, I must have tuned out, though, because I can’t remember one single thing about it. It had dancing in it, right?
• 51A. Bamboozle a “Fargo” director? : SNOW COEN. I was stuck here for a while, too, because I kept trying to make something out of Coen’s first name, Joel. Although now that I think of it, maybe Ethan is the director, and Joel is the writer. I don’t know. But they make great movies. I haven’t seen all of them, I will admit, but I like almost every one I see. Smart and interesting and different, and it seems that they aren’t concerned with making a popular movie, just one that does what they want it to do (like star Frances McDormand, most of the time). I’ve not seen this packaging material before, but “The Hudsucker Proxy” is one of my all-time favorite movies.
• 65A. Property claim along the Rio Grande? : BORDER LIEN. Someone tell me exactly what a “lien” is. I think it might have something to do with property.

I am going to try and get back into the routine I never got into last year, which is eating things mentioned in puzzles. I’m going to start making a list. Today’s puzzle featured CORNBREAD (3D. Hot dog coating at a county fair) and EDAM (59D. Cheese choice), both of which sound delicious. Also delicious would be most things cooked in a WOK (25D. Convex cooker). Can anyone give me an example of a concave cooker? And don’t say an upside-down wok.

Maybe it’s because I know Patrick has had an acting career (he starred in about four seconds of “A Beautiful Mind” — Ryan and I found the clip on the DVD when we did our interview with Patrick on Fill Me In), but I am never surprised to see theater and music references: ABBA (1D. “Money, Money, Money” band), GUYS (5D. “___ and Dolls”), ON MY (29D. “___ Own” [song from "Les Miz"] – question: why is the title abbreviated in this clue, and the answer is not?) and CAT (70A. Mungojerrie or Skimbleshanks, in a musical). Of course, ABBA was hot before “Mamma Mia,” “Cats” started out as a book of poetry, Damon Runyon was an awesome writer before he was turned into a musical, and Les Miz — well, I just saw the pilot for “Glee” (which my wife loved, and I was ho-hum), and too much musical theater now lives in the scary part of my brain that also houses the concept of show choir. It’s a section of my mental attic that I don’t go into very often. I’m afraid of what’s there, and I think it’s a lot safer to just leave it in the corner, aware of its existence, but never making it interactive if I can help it. Even in my line of work as a New York City theater pianist, I try to limit my knowledge of what I do as much as possible. It makes the work day more challenging, yes, but it keeps me sane.

On the subject of music, Ryan asked that I explain ARCS (19A. Slurs, in music). I’m guessing that Ryan thinks it’s the verb slur, whereas it’s actually the noun. A slur is a line drawn over a series of notes to indicate that they are all to be melodically connected as one phrase. At least, that’s what we use slurs for in piano music. String players use slurs to indicate bowing phrases. Singers and woodwind players use them to indicate breathing (everything under the line is in one breath). I will say this — they are not all true arcs. That is, many slurs have a lengthy plateau, if the phrase is long. And sometimes, in piano music, if the slur needs to connect material from one hand into the other, the line is S-shaped. The following two images are slurs. One is somewhat normal. The other is nonsense.

normal

nonsense

I like to list the things I didn’t know, so here’s that:

• 11D. Choisy-___ (Paris suburb) : LE ROI. In French, when in doubt, invoke the king.
• 12D. Pawnbroker, in slang : UNCLE. I was going to argue this, saying it’s nonsense, but then I realized I’d never been to a pawnbroker’s shop. I’ve only seen them in movies (where none of them is ever called “Uncle”), but I guess it might be standard.
• 13D. Ruhr industrial hub : ESSEN. I knew this one, actually. But really — what is there in Ruhr besides Essen? I don’t know what either of these things is, but it’s always ESSEN. It’s a fine crossword-y word, but it’s always ESSEN.
• 34D. Place to overnight in an R.V. : KOA. I don’t know what this is. I thought the place to overnight in an R.V. was in the R.V. What’s a KOA?
• 44A. Charles ___, “Brideshead Revisited” protagonist : RYDER. No “___ Cup” or “Moving van company” today. It’s Thursday, after all.
• 60D. ___ Dubos, Pulitzer winner for “So Human an Animal” : RENE. Enough with Descartes and Auberjonois, let’s get obscure. And by that, I mean people who have won a super-prestigious prize, but still have never before existed in my head.

And now, part 3 of the Superman adventure “Crossword Puzzle Mystery”.

[audio:http://crosswords.ryanfacestheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/superman-part-3.mp3]

By the way, I’ve been doing a bunch of old New York Sun puzzles lately, particularly Thursdays and Fridays. They are pretty awesome. If you never did them, you should. You can buy them from Barnes & Noble. Or you can listen to our podcast, and enter our contests (we sometimes give away Sun collections as prizes).

Thanks for a great puzzle, Patrick. And to the rest of you, see you Friday!

May apparently is going to be one of those months where the Fridays are harder than the Saturdays. At least, it better be, because this puzzle was a monster. Joon Pahk, you’re my new nemesis. I did not no-Google it, for those few of you who think I even have such a skill. No, I needed help with one section in the southeast. Otherwise, the puzzle was… insane. Usually I list the things I didn’t know. I’m including here some words I apparently do know, but I don’t understand what they mean, even with the clue nearby. First of all, the two long entries:

• 7D. Government marked by rampant greed and corruption : KLEPTOCRACY. I had no idea this was a word. I thought UNITED STATES might be right, but no. I talked to my wife on the phone tonight while I worked on this, and asked her if she thought KLEPTOCRACY was a word. She said, “Honey, you know I already think you’re cute for doing the crosswords. Don’t push it.”
• 26D. Biochemical arrangement : DNA SEQUENCE. Okay, Joon Pahk. We get it. You’re a genius. You’re a Harvard professor, and you probably teach all the subjects, and I only have a useless music degree and I still never know an F-clef from an F-hole. If you’re sooooo smart, then what’s my DNA sequence, and how can I make it better?

In addition to these entries, which spent most of the puzzle-solving time mocking me from the page, there were these that baffled me as well:

• 3D. Diamond information : ROSTER. Continuing with Ryan’s theory that crosswords + diamonds = baseball, this entry doesn’t sit right for me. I guess in the general sense of a diamond representing the sport as a whole, but as far as the diamond is concerned in a more literal sense, the roster is more dugout information, perhaps.
• 8A. Arms on shoulders : MUSKETS. I thought a musket was like a pistol. I know I’m not right, because I was about to prove you all wrong by including a photo of one, only to find out they’re more like rifles. Fine.
• 9D. Strip of gear : UNRIG. I got the answer, but I’m filing this entry with UNSAFER.
• 12D. Army outfit : EQUIPAGE. Apropos of nothing, I tried FATIGUES here first. Maybe if the clue had a question mark, but I thought I was being quite clever. As far as EQUIPAGE is concerned, it’s one of those -AGE words that shouldn’t be, like signage. Ugh, I hate that word.
• 19A. Add (up) : TOT. This is a word on its own? Not short for TOTAL?
• 25A. Hidebound : STODGY. Now that I look at it, I don’t actually know what either word means.
• 31D. Tumble and toss about : WELTER. As in, “When I have a bit of a cold, I tend to welter through the night.” Apparently.
• 35D. Imperator’s law : LEX. Apparently, “Imperator’s law” = ___ Luthor. Who knew?
• 36D. Flock member : GULL? No. LAMB? Nope. LAIC. Oh, of course. …What?
• 37D. Big name in steelmaking : BESSEMER. So big that bessemer.com returns an error.
• 40A. Polar bears, e.g. : SEALERS. I imagine the polar bears have a whole market for seals and whatnot. The word “sealers” suggests that it’s their profession, not instinct.
• 44A. Poule’s partner : COQ. Holy crap, I had to do a Google image search before I understood this. (All the text searches give m “les poules et le coq” and like.) For those wondering — it’s a rooster for crying out loud.
• 46A. The appendix extends from it : CECUM. No clue. The first three letters here were what I had to look up.
• 51A. Arrangement : LAYOUT. Yes, I got this. But not after I tried PAYOFF, PAY OUT and WAY OUT first.
• 54A. Mounted : ROSE. “The knight rose his horse.” No. “I rose the stuffed squirrel on a board.” Nope. “The one animal rose the other in order to make the animal babies.” Still no. Anyone? Can someone help?
• 58D. Precipitate : RASH. I’m filing this one with hidebound/stodgy. I don’t get it at all.
• 59A. “___ in Love” (”Kismet” song) : HE’S. Okay, anyone tell me the last time you saw a production of “Kismet.” Anyone? And how about this — except for “Stranger in Paradise,” can any of you name a single other song from that show? (And by “anyone,” I mean “anyone except Dan Feyer, WOTCDWOTBD.”)

This was quite a puzzle, Mr. Squirrel of Discord. I applaud your work, but please go back to teaching or something because I am not smarter enough to handle this sort of thing too often. You’re getting prolific and popular, and your puzzles are appearing more and more. I know that’s a good thing, so cheers to you. (And if you have a chance to swing by this site to explain yourself on a few points, that would be swell, too.)

Thanks, Joon. In all honesty, I’m excited to see what’s next.

See you Saturday!

Lauren: “Listen. I’ve got this whole high school thing psyched out. It all breaks down into cliques.”
Patty: “Cliques?”
Lauren: “Yeah, you know. Cliques. Little in-groups of different kids. All we have to do is click with the right clique, and we can finally have a social life that’s worthy of us.”
Patty: “No way! Not even with cleavage.”
Lauren: “I tell you, this year we’re going to be popular.”
Patty: “Yeah?”
Lauren: “Yeah. Even if it kills us.”

Do you think Eric Berlin was a fan? For that matter — were you a fan? I checked out IMDB and Wikipedia, and discovered that “Square Pegs” only ran for one season! Twenty episodes. That was it. I couldn’t believe it. This was etched into my mind as a much more substantial show. Come on, the Pac-Man episode? Brilliant.

Okay, it’s not brilliant. And I’m perpetually confused by the laugh track choices. It seems there isn’t one, and then about every ten jokes or so, there’s suddenly a laugh. Also, what is with Slash? I mean, he wears the glasses, but then constantly has to lower them to see people.

As for the puzzle, what we apparently have are a fleet of ten SQUARE PEGS, which are things that may not go in ROUND HOLES (65A and 69A). The letters are in different arrangements each time, fitting within a 2×2 block of squares. The 2×2 segments are marked with circles (one per square), so I suppose each block is four pegs in four holes, perhaps? Perhaps I’m being too literal. Or I’m channeling my inner Ryan as I try to explain this in as complicated a way as possible.

Discovering the gimmick was both useful and frustrating, as I deciphered the rest of the grid. I might not have known 39A. Medicinal syrups (IPECACS) and 46A. 1976 top 10 hit for Hall & Oates (SHE’S GONE), but that the letters I marked in blue were the ones in the round holes made it a quicker-figurer-outer. These two crossed with 29D. Suckers (SAPS) and 7D. Cause of a limp (GAME LEG). The other pegs showed up here:

• 14A. Grps. : ORGS / 22A. Wickfield’s scheming partner in “David Copperfield” : HEEP / 16D. “Nights in Rodanthe” star : GERE / 17D. Careered : SPED
• 23A. Felt suspicion : MISGAVE / 27A. Cartoon skunk : PEPE / 3D. Orator’s challenge : LISP / 4D. Swallow : INGEST
• 25A. Becomes peeved : GETS SORE / 30A. Frowning : DISPLEASED / 11D. Unsettled feeling : ANGST / 12D. Boo-hoo : WEEP
• 50A. Bright spot in the night sky : DOG STAR / 56A. Came through the wall, maybe : SEEPED / 38D. Mint relative : SAGE / 51D. Exterminator’s tool : SPRAYER
• 89A. “Farewell, ___” (Dylan song popularized by Joan Baez) : ANGELINA / 95A. Refrigerator part : CRISPER / 69D. Packs again, as groceries : REBAGS / 90D. Patriarch of a tribe of Israel : EPHRAIM
• 92A. Tap site : KEG / 96A. Horseshoers’ tools : RASPS / 80D. Instructions part : STEP / 81D. Doesn’t look at all youthful : SAGS
• 102A. Sounds familiar : RINGS A BELL / 111A. Took : ACCEPTED / 98D. Representative : AGENT / 76D. Remove, as a necklace : UNCLASP
• 118A. Spice Girl Halliwell : GERI / 122A. Many unread messages : SPAM / 84D. Silencers? : EARPLUGS / 113D. Natl. Library Card Sign-Up Month : SEP. Do you remember when the Spice Girls were popular? Oh my god, what the hell was that all about?
• 119A. Fizz ingredient : SLOE GIN / 123A. Small mistakes : LAPSES / 97D. Not up : ASLEEP / 108D. Physics 101 units : ERGS

In all, the puzzle was fairly easy. I got through it quickly, despite not knowing a few things:

• 43D. Game with balls : BOCCIE. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in writing. I know the game, but I would never have imagined that this was the spelling.
• 60D. Amy of “Field of Dreams” : MADIGAN. I could not think of her name. I knew it, of course, but I couldn’t find it in my head. “Field of Dreams” is a great movie, and if I was making a list of my favorite baseball movies of all time, it would be on it. My list:
  1. Bull Durham
  2. The Natural
  3. Field of Dreams
  4. Eight Men Out
  5. Mr. 3000

  (okay, just kidding about the last one)

• 78A. Layered rock : GNEISS. I’ve seen this before, and I actually thought of the word with only two of the crossings in place. I still don’t know what it means. I wonder if this is the picture I posted the last time I didn’t know this word?
• 83A. Eyeball covering : SCLERA
• 95D. Political columnist Thomas : CAL

Great puzzle. I had a good time with it. By the way, the video above is from hulu.com, which is apparently a great place to watch old and new television episodes, provided you don’t mind watching on your computer.

And in other news, if you’re not following us on Twitter, you should. Our name is bemoresmarter. And today, Sunday, April 12 (also known as Easter to some of you), we are having a contest. We’ll be Twittering out a trivia question around noon o’clock today. First person to twit us back with the right answer wins a prize. Join the fun! Twit along! Yay!

See you Monday.

What’s the opposite of “retroactively”? Because that’s how Joe Krozel’s record-tying puzzle was un-tied. Today’s grid, a nineteen-black-square delight, was set to tie Manny Nosowsky’s standing record for fewest black squares. At least, that was the case when it was designed almost a year ago. But since then, our Facebook friend Kevin G. Der-Hyphen-Youkilis went and invented computers that could create anything, and came up with an eighteen-black-square grid that pre-empted Joe’s. To Joe’s credit — this puzzle does not contain nonsense like UNSAFER.

I was actually able to essentially no-Google this bad boy in about forty minutes. I say “essentially” because I had one Trivia Box that simply required the 26 available guesses to get right. Actually, it only required the first one, as the curious letter in question was an A. That crossing: 42A. Looped vase handle and 43D. Old tombstone abbr. meaning “at the age of.” The two words are ANSA and AETAT. That second thing might not be a word. I don’t know how to parse it. And in this instance, there was barely even a way to discern whether it would be a vowel or consonant. Plenty of things looked similarly mid-spectrum between Right and Wrong for both answers.

Joe talks in great detail in a blog interview with Jim Horne over on Wordplay. It’s a little tech-heavy, but I found it quite interesting. One of the things Joe pointed out was that it was easier to create a minimalist grid with double-stacks of fifteens than with triple-stacks (like Manny Nosowsky’s and Kevin Der’s puzzles had). Joe used four pairs of double stacks, two pairs across and two pairs down. Nice entries, too:

• 15A. Estate taxes, e.g. : INTERNAL REVENUE. No, I have not finished my taxes yet.
• 17A. Grosbeak relatives : SCARLET TANAGERS. I had no clue what these were. And by “these,” I mean both the clue and the answer.
• 50A. Tons of work to do : A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE. This is not the case in my current line of work. I have tons to do and absolutely nothing on my plate. You don’t understand? Clever job I have at the moment.
• 53A. Carnival offerings : PLEASURE CRUISES. I’m not sure I get this. Does this mean Carnival like in Rio? Or like at Coney Island? A pleasure cruise sounds lovely, but it doesn’t sound like something you can get at the fair.
• 2D. Without reservations : UNCONDITIONALLY
• 3D. Try to get a better view : STAND ON ONE’S TOES. Two answers with “on one’s” in them. This may be my only real disappointment in the puzzle.
• 12D. Operator’s line : ONE MOMENT, PLEASE
• 13D. It included the Eastern and Western fronts : EUROPEAN THEATER. Is this related to ETO? That’s about the only new acronym I learned last year, and now clues like this are making me wonder what I think I know.

Plenty here that I didn’t know:

• 4D. Some Spanish murals : SERTS (pictured at right)
• 10D. Prizes for video production : AVAS
• 20A. It’s north of the Dodecanese Islands : SAMOS. I had SAMOA here first, as a total guess. I don’t know what SAMOS is.
• 22A. Joseph ___ Ratzinger, birth name of Pope Benedict XVI : ALOIS. I knew his first and last names. But his middle name? Hey pope, what’s my middle name?
• 22D. Having no aisles, in architecture : APTERAL
• 25A. Nigerian native or language : EDO. It’s not just Old Tokyo anymore.
• 33A. Reactionaries : TORIES. This does nothing to help me understand British politics.
• 38A. Want ad abbr. : EOE. I actually knew this, but since I wasted my time last year on ETO, I don’t know what EOE is.
• 39A. Herbal brew : SAGE TEA. Never heard of it.
• 48A. French shooting match : TIR
• 52D. Title of respect in 8-Down: Abbr. : SRA. Is this just “senora”?

As has been the case more often than not in 2009, I have found Saturdays easier than Fridays. What is going on? This is very perplexing. Perhaps Ryan can help me figure it out in our next podcast, which may or may not happen in the next few days. We’ll see.

Random thing I just noticed: The edge black squares in this puzzle are in the inverse of the compass points from Joe’s last puzzle. Perhaps he has a grid design throughline. Hm.

See you Sunday!

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.

(First, a disclaimer. Ryan has been the one editing the joint posts lately, and his turn out looking great. Brian edited this one, and his turns out looking awful. Sorry about that. We’ll try to figure out what to do to alleviate this problem in the future.)

Brian: So Ryan, tell me — how is the New York Times applet treating you today?

Ryan: Not well.  My page refreshed an I’m, once again, staring at a blank grid.  Does this ever happen to Dan Feyer?  (He finished this puzzle in 7:01, by the way.)

Brian: I don’t think screen refreshes ever happen to Dan Feyer.

Ryan: You know he’s only 3 divisions ahead of you.  You’re pretty close.

Brian: Yes, he was ten seconds of proofreading on Puzzle 7 away from the A Division crown, and I was one wrong square away from ACPT obscurity. That makes us very close indeed.

Ryan: It’s as if you were brought together by KISMET (24D. It’s written in the stars).

Brian: Nicely done. So how about this Zack Kushner puzzle? “One More Thing” is the title. Seven clever theme answers here, and at least six of them seem to make sense.

Ryan: In-the-language phrases with PS added somewhere.  My favorite would have to be USE THE FORCEPS LUKE (47A. Advice to actor Perry when delivering a baby?).  Which one doesn’t make sense to you?

Brian: ASPS FOR ME. The clue is 67A. Cleopatra’s last request? — I’m a little foggy on my Cleopatra knowledge, but wouldn’t she have asked for no asps? Or did she request being bitten by a snake and dying through the slow pain of a venomous infection?

Ryan: Yes, to the second one.  That’s how she committed suicide.  Her love, Marc Antony, eloped with Jennifer Lopez and she became distraught.

Brian: I had no idea it was suicide. Those crazy Egyptians. Now quick — without looking, what is an AQUIFER?

Ryan: My first guess would be AQUIFER is an imaginary word.  My second guess would be to say AQUIFER?  You brought her.

Brian: AQUIFER (27A. Freshwater source), SEINERS (48D. Fishermen with nets) and ESTIVAL (49D. Summery) — I don’t know any of these words. Nor did I know SPEE (81D. Ill-fated German admiral), or what beer PONG (69D) is. Finally, the only LANDAU I know is Martin, and unless he quit acting to become a coachman, I don’t understand that one either.

Ryan: I suppose you did know what ULIAS was.

Brian: Uh, no. But I know what an ALIAS (109A. False front) is.

Ryan: Pickles and I used to watch ALIAS alot and we had a little we’d always do to the theme music.

Brian: Wait. You’re going to make no acknowledgment of inventing the word ULIAS, and instead you’re going to CITE some B-PLUS SCHTICK from way back? That SEEMS like a rather SMUG WUSS move, if you ask me. (9D. Refer to; 35D. Nearly excellent; 38D. “I don’t get no respect,” to Rodney Dangerfield; 37A. Appears; 11A. Too big for one’s britches, say; 30A. Pantywaist)

Ryan: Oh, jeez, I did make up ULIAS.  It’s not EXULTS?  Oh, well, no no-google for me.  It is ALIAS in the puzzle and it was ULIAS that we did the dance to.

Brian: That makes more sense. I’ll give you theme music to an imaginary show if you… well, what will you give me? Maybe… RAVIOLI (112A. Literally, “little turnips”)? Yes, you can just give me ravioli. Lobster filling. Some kind of buttery, creamy sauce. Doesn’t that sound delicious?

Ryan: Lobster ravioli go very well with BULLET PROOF CARPS (115A. Unassailable beefs?).  Yum.

Brian: No. Now you’re being ridiculous. But do we need to do all the theme answers for this post? COOKING WITH GASPS (23A. Rachael Ray activity eliciting oohs and ahhs?), BUILT RAMPS TOUGH (39A. Perpared for heavy on/off traffic?), GOING TOPS THE POLLS (86A. Travel is voted most popular?) and LONG TIME, NO SEEPS (92A. Result of a good basement waterproofing years ago?). Very clever stuff.

Ryan: Yes, even with a bunch of words I’ve never heard of, this is a very nice Sunday puzzle.  Great theme.  I don’t remember running across a Zack Kushner puzzle before.

Brian: I believe it’s his first. And it’s a pangram, according to XWordInfo. Well done, Zack!

Ryan: Indeed.  Before we go, I have one more question to ask you.

Brian: Go ahead.

Ryan: What do you think the original clue for TIP OVER was?

Brian: Okay — this time, something to do with cows.

Ryan: That’s what I thought.  To quote the famous line from Gypsy, “I’m IN AWE, ANTI ROSE.” (Editor/Brian note: we don’t cite clues when Ryan is being ridiculous.)

Brian: Stop. Just stop it now.

Ryan: Goodbye.

PhillySolver here. I volunteered to help with a post during Ryan’s snorkeling adventure and wrote to Brian that I sure hoped it wasn’t going to be a Mike Nothnagel puzzle. I struggle syncing with his left-brained skills. Well, I realize now it could have been worse. In fact it was. My least effective session with a crossword puzzle was a Bob Klahn puzzle from a year ago last December. With Google, three PhDs and a linguist on call, I failed to finish it. I psyched my self out for awhile tonight because although there were some ridiculously hard sections, most of it came to me with the old alphabet game…what letter could fit here weighing the Down and Across options? I think Klahn makes me work like a Sudoku solver. I met Bob last year at the ACPT and he is a nice and clever man, but he laughed like Beelzebub when I mentioned the puzzle.

I did a subjective analysis of the puzzle and it reflects why this is one difficult Saturday Puzzle. The categories are arbitrary and the ratings more so, but here we go…

• 9 Unusual words in the Across fill and 3 in the Downs e.g. 61A. BARONIAL
• 7 Trick or misdirection clues Across and 5 Down e.g. 45A. ALLPRO
• 5 Clever or Word Play clues Across and another 5 Down e.g. ADAGE
• 7 Trivia answers Across and 10 Down (and I do mean Trivia) e.g. MARACAIBO
• 7 Normal clues/fill Across and 6 Down e.g. 10D. EMIT

I am too addled to foot the numbers, but this analysis clearly reflects there was a wanton disregard for fragile egos. I almost didn’t HACK IT.

I like the old explanation that safecrackers used Saltpeter to blow open a safe and were called Petermen. (Brian is supposed to give us a Peterman YouTube clip below.)

There is a tradition of playing a form of Trivia called Quizzo here in Philadelphia that is really an excuse to drink beer all night at the local pub. It has however given me a chance to recall some unusual things like…

• A fish has 15 A. PECTORIAL, Dorsal and Caudal fins.
• The British Navy stored wine rum and gin in big containers and created their own scale for them including firkin, barrel, hogshead, butt and 24A. TUNS.
• Astor, Lee, Gladstone and 61A BARONIAL are styles of envelopes. Please do not use the wrong form when communicating with the English Royalty. They will not be pleased.
• The start of the Civil War is sometimes marked as the bombardment of Fort SUMTER (9D.) in South Carolina. I deduced the Senator from that.
• We have been exposed to 63A. ADAMS ALE (water) 32A. B STAR (Rigel) 44D. ECARTE (Piquet game), 55D. eagle as a COIN and 1D. APPALL in the past few months, so I consider those a refresher.
• I was a bit confused on the Marathon runners warring cities and tried both Sparta and Athens which fit and caused problems. Haiku for 50D. Tanka was hard to erase. My last erasure of a dozen or so was giving up ecozone for ECOTONE and I have not looked it up to explain it. Somebody?
• 41D. ALIBABA was the founder of 35D. ALABAMA, I think. Oh, and I am not sure, but I think Sunbeam tires are offered in a 47D. RADIAL.

Here is a nice mellow clip from Nat King Cole to soothe you as you recover from the solving experience. Brian you pick one…Ramblin’ Rose?