Brian solves the NYT puzzle: Fri., 11-20-09

So far, life here at the new site has been quite nice. Thanks to everyone who's reading our blog, especially those participating in the comments. Please feel free to chime in (if you're shy), or to continue to chime in (if you're less shy). We love it.

I have to admit -- I haven't been doing as many crosswords recently as I used to. And by "used to," I mean "over the summer." Lately, it's the dailies (most of the time), and that's about it. I need to get back into shape. Today's Alan Oschwang puzzle kicked my ass, and it shouldn't have.

For starters, there were things I have simply never heard of. And a bunch of them seemed to crowd the northwest section of the grid to the point of extreme frustration:

• 17A. Cape Cod components : GABLE ROOFS. First I thought of the place in Massachusetts. Then I thought of the alcoholic beverage. Finally, I thought of the houses, but even there, I had the same problem as my first two premises -- I have no idea what makes up any sort of Cape Cod, be it topographical, mixological or architectural.
• 2D. Baptist leader? : ANA. Someone has to explain this to me. Where's Joon?
• 3D. "The Waltons" grandpa : ZEB. Probably short of Zeblock or something. I've never seen a single EPISODE (26A. Season opener, say) of "The Waltons."
• 5D. Still : EVEN SO. I desperately wanted this to either reference either photography or alcohol-making. Even after I figured out that neither of those was it, I had EVER SO stuck there for too long.
• 7D. Vaunt : CROW. I didn't know what "vaunt" meant. I'm not sure I do now, either. It's not a bird, right?
• 10D. 1990s White House chief of staff Bowles : ERSKINE. Why did I want this answer to be PITNEY? I have never heard of this fellow.

So a whole bunch in the top got me off to a terrible start. Speaking of starts, 1A. Tae Bo alternative is JAZZERCISE. Last year, we saw JAZZ HANDS in a Hinman/Walden puzzle, and it also sat at 1A. JAZZ COMBO once lived at 1A as well. Although there have been a handful of JAZZ entries that did not take the top spot in the grid, I think it's interesting that there seems to be some desire to put these fun letters early in the puzzle.

Other things I didn't know:

• 22D. Early Chinese dynasty : WEI. I'm sure this is the sort thing I'm supposed to "know from crosswords." I may be coming to terms with the fact that I am no longer able to learn new things.
• 24D. Irish statesman Cosgrave : LIAM
• 45D. Buffalo National River locale : OZARKS. Shouldn't this be THE Ozarks?
• 55D. Kind of brandy : PEAR. Is this a flavor, or an actual kind of brandy? I feel like "kinds" of brandy are not flavors, but methods by which the beverage is crafted. As I write this, I realize that maybe flavoring counts, so what the hell do I know.

Plenty of fun entries as well today: AUGUST, EQUUS, ZOLAESQUE, KRIS (although I'd rather see this clued as a weapon than a Kristofferson), ZIPLOC, TRIXIE and EATS ONE'S HAT -- which upset me, since I've been working on a puzzle design that used I'LL EAT MY HAT as an entry. I guess I could still finish it, but now the wind's out of my sail.

That's all I've got for now. I have a feeling that Ryan will be back before you know it, and you'll all be returned to the blog you've grown to love.

Brian (almost) solves the NYT puzzle: Thu., 11-19-09

I can't leave Ryan to christen the new site with all of his fabulous prose, so I have to sully the place a bit with my own. New site, same crap. By the way -- we're continuing to add features here (partly because we're still learning what we can do, and partly because we're taking this all step by step), so keep us posted on what works, doesn't work, what you like and don't like, etc.

Today's puzzle comes to us from two good friends of BeMoreSmarter, Tyler Hinman [insert kickass nickname here] and Jeremy "Two-Time" Horwitz. I have to say, I'm excited for the future of puzzle construction. As with most forms of art and media, the culture moves in waves, generationally speaking, and crosswords are no different. I find myself usually more in sync with the newer constructors of today than some of those with the lengthier resumes. (Okay, maybe I'm still suffering the pains of Bob Klahn's puzzle from a couple weeks ago.)

In this puzzle, I'm far more excited by the fill of the grid, and that so much of it is what we call "wide open." We haven't talked much about this term, and what it means for puzzles. Basically, it's big white expanses in the grid. According to Jim Horne's xwordinfo.com site, there are 94 "open" squares here. Check out Jim's analysis of this grid. It's pretty intricate stuff. (As a comparison, Paula Gamache's puzzle from yesterday had 66 open squares.) (And as a further comparison, Frank Longo's puzzle from November 22, 2008 had 127 open squares. Holy crap.)

Okay, so the puzzle itself. We've got a theme, albeit a relatively inconsequential one. Three film directors who can boast a one-letter title to their credits:

• 17A. "Z" director, 1969 : COSTA-GAVRAS
• 32A. "M" director, 1931 : FRITZ LANG
• 51A. "W." director, 2008 : OLIVER STONE

It's a fine theme, but 31 theme squares seems rather low, especially considering that it's a list theme with no real meta-puzzle or anything else going on.

It's possible I'm also a bit opposed to the theme because the first entry had me completely lost. I've never heard of Costa-Gavras. And now after reading both his Wikipedia page and his IMDB entry, I realize I've never seen anything he's ever done. To compound things, I had three (count 'em, THREE) Gaping Chasms of Ignorance:

• 5D. Silas of the Continental Congress : NEANE [EDIT: It's actually DEANE, and I was completely wrong.]
  
• 6D. Record label whose house band was Booker T. & the M.G.'s : STAX
  
• 7D. Hip-hop producer Gotti : IRV

I've never head of any of these three things. I errantly guessed STYX and IRA, the former because it was a band I've heard of and the latter because I thought the A was more likely than a V. Whoops.

Aside from all that, there was quite a bit of fill I liked very much. Answers only now, because I'm too tired to type clues: KLEENEX, GEE WHIZ, QUIZNOS (they are awesome), VECTOR, STAR MAPS, JASMINE, IONESCO -- just a ton of fun stuff in the fill. And the clues, in general, were new and different. It helped in that so much of the fill was either contemporary jargon or current-news proper names.

A few workbook questions to get the comments rolling:

1. Have you heard of all three of these directors and films?
2. We might try to hire Oliver Stone to do a conspiracy story on our recent hacks. Who should play Ryan and Brian?
3. Have you been to Quizno's recently? What do you like best/worst about it? And how does it compare to other sandwich shops (Subway, Blimpie, Schlotzky's, etc.)?
4. Bonus question: What's the maximum number of deckers on a Quizno's sandwich?

BeMoreSmarter 2.0

Welcome!

We've been getting hacked a bit too much lately over at our old site, so we've moved. This is our new house. We're still getting things unpacked, so bear with us as we try to get settled in.

Please feel free to contact us with any thoughts or ideas, any comments or to report any problems you encounter. Chances are that we're working on some of them already, but chances are also that you'll point out something we haven't yet thought of.

Thanks for sticking with us!

Ryan solves the NYT, Wed 11-18-9

As most people know I am one of the least musical people ever.  I can't hold a tune, I have no ear for pitch and I'm always off key.  But, during the recording of the last podcast we made a very interesting discovery.  I can sing on key when imitating a cat.  My rendition of the Meow Mix theme song was pitch perfect.  It wasn't pitchy at all.  Go figure.

Today's puzzle was constructed by Paula Gamache and has a poker game theme.

JACKS TO OPEN

Jacks to Open is a 5-card draw variation in which the a player must have a pair of jacks or better to open the betting in the first betting round.  I don't think I've ever played 5-card draw.  My poker experience pretty much begins and ends with Texas Hold'em.  I think Hold'em is more popular because there is more strategy involved.  But I'm not entirely sure.  I've done a little poker playing in the casinos in Vegas and AC and, I have to say, it's a lot of fun.  And stressful.  And I'm not very good at it.  But I can see why people go nuts for it.

Anyway, all the theme answers' first words could be preceded by the word JACK.

17A. Olympic track-and-field event (HAMMER THROW).  How do people become hammer throwers?  It's not the most popular sport and they barely televise it during the Olympics.  But every year there's a whole bunch of hammer throwers competing.  And they're good at it.  Do they just wake up one day and say, yes, I will throw hammers.

30A. Play and film about a noted 1977 series of interviews (FROST NIXON).  Our good friend, Not the Dentist was in a production of this show.  I don't think he reads the blog though so I won't ask him what he thought of it.  I do know he played Frost and he got to wear an awesome wig.

36A. Loosely woven cotton fabric (CHEESE CLOTH).  I'm assuming this is called cheese cloth because it's used to make cheese.

44A. Indoor dipole antenna, colloquially (RABBIT EARS).  You can still buy these for about $15 at amazon.  Apparently, they can pick up HD channels now.  But, if you get HD channels doesn't that mean you have cable or something?  Why would you need antennae?

Other highlights:

1A. Like some cheddar (SHARP).

6A. Spicy Asian cuisine (HUNAN). 

Why is there no cheese in Chinese food?  The very idea of melting cheese over Kung Pao chicken is revolting but why is that?  They have milk, don't they?  All you do is throw the milk in some CHEESE CLOTH and, boom, cheese.  How did that never happen in China?

7D. Escort to a seat, slangily (USH).  Really?  I don't know.  Unless ushers have some private slang they're not sharing with the rest of the world, I'm willing to bet USH is rarely, if ever, said.  I don't think you can just arbitrarily shorten words and call it slang.

18D. Massage deeply (ROLF).  I don't know much about rolfing.  All I've heard is that it's extremely painful.  Isn't massaging supposed to relieve pain?  Explain.

63D. Roll call response (NAY).  I don't understand this either.  If your roll call response is NAY that means you're not there in which case you're not around to make the response.  Or is this referring to some other type of roll call?  A vote maybe?

Fun puzzle today.

Next stop, Thursday.