Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords

Yup, so Pickles and I are leaving for Italy today! Buy me a vowel because O my god, I can’t believe it. After all the planning and anticipation it’s actually about to happen. So here’s what, in theory, will go down today. I’ll be meeting Pickles at Penn Station around 4pm. We will then:

1. Get on a train to Newark
2. Fly to Brussels
3. Fly to Milan
4. Take a bus from Malpensa airport to Milano Centrale
5. Get on a train to Rome.
6. Hop on a city bus (#75) to the Trastevere neighborhood where we will disembark and meet up with the owner of the apartment we’re renting for 4 nights.

As I sit here at work, this list of steps seems rather hard to fathom and, quite frankly, appears to border on the fantastic. But, that’s what we’re going to do. I just hope we get there before the other 11 teams.

What do people know about the International Herald Tribune? Will told us they print the puzzle (except for Saturday) but are they on time or six weeks behind?

On to today’s puzzle which was constructed by C.W. Stewart (why does her name make me think of cereal?) and features a very fun theme that, I have to admit, I didn’t fully grasp when I was solving.

20D. *”Cheers!”…or a hint to answering this puzzle’s five starred clues (BOTTOMS UP). The entry is positioned so the B is at the bottom and the P is at the top. And the other starred clues are all positioned in a similar fashion. What I didn’t notice while I was solving is all the theme entries start with a synonym for the tuchus so the bottoms are indeed up. (On a side note, Bottoms Up is also the name of a Paris Hilton movie. The movie, unsurprisingly, looks dreadful. And it features what may be the worst tagline I’ve ever seen. “Are you down for some Tinseltown partying?” Wow. Everything about that sentence makes me want to retch.)

6D. *Auto accessory (SEAT COVER).

12D. *Crewman on the tail of a bomber (REAR GUNNER).

28D. *1968 Barbra Streisand starring role (FANNY BRICE). The fanny pack is the worst thing ever invented. I’ve long maintained that everybody looks like a dork while wearing one. But, you know, here’s Hulk Hogan sporting a fanny pack and it works. By god, it works!

35D. *Beef cut (RUMP ROAST).

Very fun theme.

Other highlights:

40A. Tricky highway maneuvers (MERGES). Hmmm, really? Isn’t merging just the normal way to get on a highway? I think a better clue might be ” Normal highway maneuvers that become tricky after one slips a rabid gopher down one’s pants”.

3D. ___ place (TENS). Ok, so I don’t get this.

5D. Twin Tony whose #6 jersey was retired (OLIVA). One of my favorite ALers. (You see! You see how that doesn’t work? You see how it can’t be used in an actual sentence?)

45D. Fountain orders (SHAKES). So here’s something remarkably unfunny.

I have to say this movie looks better than Bottoms Up.

Ok, I’m off to Italy. Brian will be solo blogging until I get back. Remember, Saturday September 5th. Mike Nothnagel’s Lollapuzzoola puzzle will be in the New York Times. And there will be a blurb about us! A blurb!

Next stop, Rome.

Pickles and I witnessed Manhattanhenge yesterday.  Two times a year, the sunset lines up with the street grid of Manhattan and the result is this:

It was way cool although I just barely dodged that SUV.

On to today’s puzzle by C.W. Stewart, a name that makes me want to have cereal.  It featured a fun Monday theme: ALL TUCKED IN and the word ALL was indeed tucked into the theme answers.

17A. Ditch digging, e.g. (MANUAL LABOR).

24A. Money borrowed from a friend, e.g. (PERSONAL LOAN).  This is an odd way to clue this.  I get the kind of punniness of it but none of the other theme clues are puns.

37A. The Dalai Lama, e.g. (SPIRITUAL LEADER).  Wasn’t this same exact entry used yesterday?

47A. Slash symbol, e.g. (DIAGONAL LINE).

Fun theme and well done.

Other highlights:

29A. Bald person’s purchase (WIG).  I appreciate that the term BALDY was not used here.

31A. “Airplane!” or “Spaceballs” (SPOOF).  What the hell happened to this genre?  These used to be smart, hilarious and infinitely quotable.  Now they’re the cinematic equivalent of stuff you scrape off your shoe after spending an unfortunate night in a petting zoo.

46D. ___ Skywalker of “Star Wars” (ANAKIN).  I really could start a daily blog that just consisted of me complaining about the Star Wars prequels.  Did you know Academy Award nominee Haley Joel Osment was up for the role of Anakin in Phantom Menace?  But, because George Lucas hates his fans, the role went to that one kid with the bowl cut who couldn’t out act a sickly bantha.  “Now this is what I call pod racing!”  And that movie is what I call the first in the series of 4 major disappointments that ended with Indiana Jones and the Crystal of the Crappy Crap.

52D. 1930s-‘40s heavyweight champ Joe (LOUIS).  Apparently, the same thing that happened to the spoof genre has happened to Eddie Murphy.  Remember when you would watch his movies and the corners of your mouth would turn upwards.  And then you’d open your mouth and, instead of demands for a refund, laughter would come out.  Those were the days.  Here’s a great bit from that era.  I don’t know if any kids read this blog (shouldn’t you be in school?) but there’s a couple of f-bombs towards the end.

Solid Monday puzzle.

Next stop, Tuesday.

I figured out the theme surprisingly quickly in this C.W. Stewart puzzle. It was clear something was up as soon as I read 1A. Revenue/Result. The theme is a rebus with IN/OUT occupying the rebus squares.

The theme is revealed with:

39A. Choice for a dog, as well as a hint to this puzzle’s theme (IN OR OUT). It’s a fun idea and done well while sticking to the Wednesday difficulty. The theme also made me hungry for an In-N-Out burger. Why won’t they open one next door to our apartment building? Or at least somewhere closer than Las Vegas. For those of you who have never been, In-N-Out is the best fast food burger ever. All fresh food, nothing frozen. And they have a “secret” menu that everybody knows about from which you can order all types of goodies. The Animal Style Fries are my personal favorite. Of course, some people stray a little too far from the regular menu.

This puzzle also contained two bits of completely random pop trivia:

15A. 1980s Geena Davis sitcom (SARA). Apparently, this was on in 1985. The imdb has almost no information about it other than the episodes were 30 minutes long and it was nominated for an Emmy. Which Emmy, you ask? Why, it was the Emmy for Outstanding Technical Direction/Electronic Camerawork/Video Control for a Series. Not surprisingly, it lost out to the Benson episode “Home for Christmas”, an episode widely remembered for its legendary video control.

17A. 1985 Kate Nelligan title role (ELENI). C.W. Stewart clearly spent 1985 watching things that nobody else would remember 24 years later. I spent 1985 watching Back to the Future featuring Crispin Glover.

Moving on, I think it’s important to point out that I’ve never really been sure who BAAL is. He shows up a lot in crosswords. Today he has his normal cluing in 51A. as False God. I always picture him as Zuul from Ghostbusters, living in Dana Barrett’s refrigerator. There is much talk lately about a Ghostbusters 3 being made. I think that’s a wonderful idea as long as it doesn’t suck.

Do people really use SALSA as a Doritos dip? Doritos are already flavored like SALSA. This seems like overkill to me. It’s like dipping Lays into mashed potatoes or having a crouton sandwich.

EZINES is not as bad as NLER but, still, it’s a term that nobody uses. It kind of makes my toes curl every time I come across it.

I think my favorite clue is 9D. They may be covered and circled (WAGONS). Great clue that makes perfect sense once you know the answer but, without crosses, I never, ever would have though of it.

Lots of Biblical clues today which I continue to know nothing about. LEAH, LABAN, ABEL, SLEW. I just cannot get them in my head.

Really nice puzzle today.

Next stop, Thursday.

I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like Clue. They either like the board game or the movie or, most often, both. And it certainly made for a great theme in C.W. Stewart’s puzzle.

51D. Game associated with the starts of 17-, 23-, 32-, 40-, 47- and 54-Across (CLUE).

17A. Traditional Christmas dessert (PLUM PUDDING). PLUM PUDDING, honestly, seems a little gross to me. Dried fruit and beef fat. I’ll try anything and it’s probably pretty good but I’d prefer if you didn’t tell me what was in it before serving. Thank you.

23A. Red bird with black wings and tail (SCARLET TANAGER). People enjoy bird watching.

32A. Traditional January event (WHITE SALE). I’ve given up buying anything white. I now buy clothing items that are the same color as the food I will inevitably spill on them.

40A. 1999 Tom Hanks film, with “The” (GREEN MILE). Ok, it’s no Shawshank Redemption but it’s still a great movie.

47A. Home remedy for skin irritations (MUSTARD PLASTER). Really? I thought this was for respiratory ailments.

54A. Shade close to azure (PEACOCK BLUE). I am color blind and have always had trouble seeing the difference between azure and PEACOCK BLUE.

And to wrap up the Clue theme:

Other highlights:

66A. Area between curbs (STREET).  I enjoy the phrasing of this clue and I plan to use it the next time I can’t think of the word STREET.

5D. Parts of baby bottles (NIPPLES).  NIPPLE or NIPPLES has been used 3 times in the Will Shortz era.  Each time it has been clued as a bottle part.  Disappointing.

Great puzzle and theme by C.W.

Next stop, Wednesday.

I had a tough time with this C.W. Stewart puzzle. I eventually finished it without help but it wasn’t easy. Brian has already detailed the Ball theme so I’ll leap right into the trouble spots.

In the top right I had 8D. “Hey, over here!” (PSST) and 16D. Hide-covered abode (TEPEE) and 31A. Chef Boy-Ar-___ (DEE). But the rest was a mystery until I was somehow able to come up with BUTTERCUP and 12D. Nail down (SECURE).

In the bottom right I, too, got super stuck on SOFTSOAP. According to the freedictionary this means flattery designed to gain favor. I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before but I cannot think in what context it could possibly have been. The three that really threw me were:

50A. Completely behind (ALLFOR). I have just this moment figured out what this means. I’ve been thinking “behind” as in “last”. But it’s really “behind” as in “supporting”. And ALLFOR is parsed as ALL FOR. This may be painfully obvious to anyone reading this but did not make one bit of sense to me while I was solving.

60A. Goes for (COSTS). Another case of a phrase with more than one meaning. Much like Brian, I was thinking “goes for” as in “goes for the brass ring”. As frustrating as these types of clues are, I like them. When you figure it out you get a nice “aha” moment.

51D. Aqualung, e.g., in the 1971 Jethro Tull album (LECHER). I understand that 1971 is referring to a year in the Gregorian Calendar but, other than that, you could have replaced the words with abstract representations of the lesser Smurfs and this clue would have made exactly as much sense to me. Now, doing a little bit of research, I see that Aqualung is a character featured in a album by Jethro Tull, which is a rock band. I am assuming that this, also, was obvious to everyone but me. I had ZEPHER here for a while, thinking that was a type of instrument. It’s actually a misspelling of a blimp-like craft. So, in short, I was close.

Somehow I figured all that out well enough to finish the puzzle.

52A. Play broadly (EMOTE). I don’t think I’ll ever understand this negative connotation of EMOTE. Don’t you want actors to show emotion?

43A. Fancy dancer (STEPPER). I don’t get this one either. What type of dancer isn’t a STEPPER?

53D. Either President Bush (TEXAN). This is not the first adjective that came to mind.

Hey, we were mentioned on another site. Visual Thesaurus put a link to us in their Blog du Jour feature. Thank you very much.

Next stop, Thursday.

It has been a very long day. It’s now 11:09pm as I write this, and I’m just sitting down to dinner. Ridiculous.  But before I made dinner (salmon with buttery peas — quite good), I dispatched the Wednesday puzzle in just a few seconds over my average Wednesday time (9:22 as opposed to my 9:15 average). I needed help in one spot, but the rest was smooth sailing.

The theme today was basically “kinds of balls.” And before you think there’s anything dirty going on, we’re dealing with 38A. Word that can follow the starts of 17-, 21-, 58- and 64-Across and 3- and 40-Down (BALLS).

• 17A. Fund-raiser wear, perhaps : BLACK TIE — The last fundraiser I attended found me wearing a normal necktie. In fact, it was the necktie I had worn at my wedding. Not a black tie, but a diamond-ish criss-cross pattern, varying in shades of brown and orange.
• 21A. Yellow flower : BUTTER CUP — I got this first and “black tie” second, of the themed answers. Still couldn’t figure what word followed them…
• 58A. Artist’s smudge remover : GUM ERASER — A somewhat clumsy clue, but I got it easily enough.
• 64A. 1952 Gary Cooper western : HIGH NOON — I have never seen this movie. Although I have a DVD of it (still in shrinkwrap) in my office. I think I purchased it by mistake and never did anything about it.
• 3D. “All In The Family” nickname : MEATHEAD — Apparently, this was a popular television show. I have never seen it. (And of course I’ve heard of it; I’m being a little sarcastic here.) It came and went before I was allowed to watch television (circa 1987).
• 40D. Cajole : SOFT SOAP — What? I have absolutely no idea what this means. And it was the crossings between this and 60A. Goes for (COSTS) for which I needed help. As for 60-Across, I was thinking about going for a victory or some sort of accomplishment, as in vying or attempting. But really — soft soap? What on earth does that mean? Is it a verb? Or is “cajole” a noun I don’t know?

I’m exhausted, so that’s going to be all for my post here… I’m going to try and get the podcast up before the week gets too old… We’ll see what happens.N

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

New York Times 7:38 (or 6:06 with one square wrong)
New York Sun 6:02
LA Times 4:31
CrosSynergy 13:21
USA Today 18:19
Universal 13:17

(my stories come after the link… read on!)

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