Ryan Faces the World

On July 6, 1998 Kathryn and I were in a show in New Jersey and had met only a few weeks before.   It was after rehearsals, we were hanging out drinking some Snapples and somehow we missed the last bus back to New York.  This was way before either of us had cellphones so we walked over to the police station and got directions to take another bus, then a train and then another train.  It was about a 2 or 3 hour trip back, we talked the whole time, fell in love and now, 10 years later we went to Martha’s Vineyard to celebrate our first decade together.

We left Thursday night for Rhode Island where were scheduled to take the ferry to the Vineyard in the morning.

I would say for every 100 miles we drive we typically eat one fast food meal.  This time was no different as we enjoyed both Taco Bell and Wendys.  Let the eating begin.

In the morning we stopped off for some donuts at Allie’s Donuts in North Kingstown, RI.  These were some of the best donuts I’ve ever had.  Kathryn liked the purity of the plain glazed while I enjoyed the jelly roll and chocolate glazed.

Now for the ferry.  We decided to take the ferry from RI because it was a much shorter drive than Cape Cod where the other ferries leave from.  In hindsight I’m not sure how good that decision was.  It is much more expensive than the Cape Cod ferries and, we found out later, it’s dubbed the Vomit Comet.  The seas were rough that morning.  I am prone to nausea but in an odd twist of fate it was Kathryn who became afflicted with the ol’ mal de mer.  She made it across without barfing but there were some close calls.

Once on the Vineyard, we took a taxi to our Bed and Breakfast in Vineyard Haven and met with our host.  Oy.  I’m not going to go into too much detail here.  I’ve found that if you write about somebody on the internet they will most certainly find out about it.  And while our host was certainly irritating and overbearing, she didn’t do anything that warrants making her feel bad.  Let’s just say, the room was fine, the breakfast was ok, the coffee was from a machine and the fresh baked cookies were a touch underdone.

We arrived a little too early to check in so we had no choice but to go eat.  Bring on the lobster.

After lunch we were able to check in to the room and found our towels to be shaped like swans.  Kinda weird but certainly deserving of a couple of pictures.

After a quick nap, we headed to the town of Edgartown for the July 4th celebrations.  We had some BBQ out on the lawn of the Daniel Fisher House.

We watched the parade down Main Street which featured a player from the champion Boston Celtics but we are both so NBA-ignorant neither of us knew who he was.

We had some ice cream at Mad Martha’s which we both thought was a little overrated and ridiculously expensive.  4 bucks for a single scoop?  C’mon.

And after strolling through the neighborhood and looking at the unbelievably gorgeous houses we settled in to watch some fireworks.

That was the end of day one.

On Saturday the weather turned lousy.  We didn’t have great weather the whole weekend but Saturday was the only day it rained.

We decided to take the bus down to see the cliffs at Aquinnah.  It took us a few hours to get down there which included a quick stop off for lunch near Allie’s General Store.  We ate mac & cheese and gazpacho on the porch swing of the store.

Once we got to the cliffs we realized there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot to do there.  The cliffs were gorgeous but we didn’t want to stand out in the rain for an hour waiting for the bus to come back.  So we took a quick look and ran back to the bus we just came down on to head back up to Vineyard Haven.  We felt pretty ridiculous and didn’t even take a picture.  Ok, that’s not true.  While I didn’t take a picture of the majesty of the cliffs, I did take a picture of my wife on the bus.  She’s better looking than the cliffs anyway.

Once we got back to the b&b we shared our traditional vacation snack of a bag of potato chips and a can of sour cream & onion dip.  This was followed by a nap.  We then went into the town of Oak Bluffs where we were overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean.

Oak Bluffs is a party town.  Very raucous but quaint in its own way.  It was fun to walk through.  We ended up eating at a place called Zapotec which had some pretty good Mexican food although they do make you pay extra for chips and salsa.  That’s a little chintzy to me.  We took the bus back to Vineyard Haven and that was the end of day two.

On Sunday (our anniversary) the weather cleared up somewhat although it was still overcast.  Today was the day of our big bike ride.  For those of you who don’t know, Kathryn is an accomplished cyclist with a number of century rides under her belt.  As for me, it’s all I can do to stay in a straight line and not pedal myself into walls, parked cars and the sea.  But we had a wonderful time.

We even finally got a little beach time.

After another nap and a shower it was time for our big anniversary dinner.  We ate at the Catch at the Terrace.

Ok, I may have been a tad under dressed.  In my defense, I was wearing my dress sneakers.  Anyway, we opted for the chef’s tasting menu which was out of control.  It ended up being 10 courses including dessert.  I think our favorite was a dayboat scallop that wore a shortrib ravioli hat.  The other courses included an oyster, crab salad, beet salad, monk fish, lobster, sorbet, two dessert souffles, a donut with lemon custard and berries with chocolate.  I think I’m missing a few things but everything was wonderful and a perfect way to celebrate.

And there’s nothing quite like being stuffed full of great food and being with the one you love.

And that was the end of day three.

On Monday morning we reluctantly packed up and got back on the ferry to Rhode Island.

The ride back wasn’t nearly as choppy and we made it without incident.  We stopped off at Iggy’s in Warwick for some clams and a lobster roll.

And we drove back to NY.

It was a great, great trip.  I think we both would have liked the weather to cooperate a bit more but we loved the Vineyard and I’m already planning our next trip.  A wonderful vacation and a wonderful 10 years.  Here’s to many more.

Wow, I’ve been so wrapped up with the crossword blog that I’ve totally neglected my poor original blog here.  So sad.  Well, here’s an update on the non-crossword goings on in my life.

The car.  Ah, the car.  I’ll say this, when you put the key in the ignition and rotate it in a clockwise direction, the car turns on.  When you press your foot in a downward manner on the gasoline pedal, the car travels through space.  To me, those are the most important things and since they’re happening, I’m happy.  There was a lot wrong with the car.  So much that we were able to convince the guy who sold it to us to give us $500 back.  We ended up putting about $1300 of repairs in the car including fixing an oil leak, a new oxygen sensor and new rear brakes.  The suspension systems will probably have to be repaired eventually but for now it’ll do.  Whoever owned this car before us may have been a total nut.  There’s so many little things wrong with it: the solitary cup holder is broken off, the radio display is busted, the AC doesn’t get cool enough and the gas gauge is wildly inaccurate and makes boldfaced and false accusations about the our gasoline level.  Pickles thinks it may have spent some time at the bottom of a lake.  But, it did pass inspection and our mechanic assured us it won’t blow up so we’re good.  All in all, after the money we got from the insurance and the refund from the dealer we’ve only put in about $500 into the car.  It could have been much worse.  And I’m taking this opportunity to learn how to work on a car and make minor repairs.  My first task will be to change the oil.  If I can get someone to take pictures I’ll post them here.

The agent.  Yes, I have an agent now.  No, he has not gotten me any auditions yet.  Which actually is fine.  I just saw him yesterday, he recognized me by sight and seemed very enthusiastic.  The deal is I don’t have a lot of credits on my resume so it’s going to take a while to convince people to see me for stuff.  I really don’t mind if this takes a while.  As long as I feel progress is being made and work is being done then I’m fine.  I’m starting a commercial class on Saturday and I’ve gotten myself involved with a Shakespeare reading group.  I have confidence that the rest will come.

And everything else is good.  The weather is getting nicer and I’m starting to plan some getaways.  Pickles and I are going to Martha’s Vineyard for the July 4th weekend to celebrate 10 years together.  There’s also a 2 day rafting/camping trip I’m hoping to do.  David and I have begun work on a geocaching adventure.  The crossword blog/podcast is progressing.  We just need to get more readers and listeners.  The job is fine although not ideal.  But it’s good for now.  And we have embarked on our plan to become millionaires before we’re 50.  Good stuff.

Ok, I’m officially taking my blog away from all this crossword madness.  All crossword-related entries will now be on a separate blog, Ryan and Brian do the Xwords.  This blog will go back to chronicling my non-grid related experiences.

Our poor car was totaled in an accident a few weeks ago.  Some schmo rear ended Pickles.  Thank god she was alright although we did have some pretty scary moments in the ER.  The past week and a half or so has been spent researching car buying.  We did go to a big used car lot over the weekend and almost ended up buying a car way over our price range.  It was not a great experience.  So, yesterday we bought a car on ebay.  We did a little research on Consumer Reports, surfed over to ebay and one of the cars we researched was being auctioned.  We found it with about 45 minutes to go.  It was in our price range so we took a leap of faith and bid $3600.  We now own a 1998 Mazda Millenia S.  I’m going to pick it up in Trenton on Saturday.

Seems like a really nice car.  And the dealership we bought it from seems like a good place.  At any rate, they have 100% positive feedback.  In a way, it’s a completely crazy idea to buy a car without seeing it in person but, you know, everything seemed to fit.  It was right in our price range, it was near NYC, the auction just happened to be ending right when we looked at it, etc.  It’s got 116k miles on it.  I’m hoping it will last at least 3 years or so by which time we’ll have the money saved up for something a little newer.  But, who knows, maybe it will last us 10 years.  I hope the cassette player works so I can plug in my xm radio.

I’ll post some pictures when I pick it up.  Here’s hoping.

That’s right, I met my goal and finished ahead of at least one person.  As a matter of fact I finished ahead of 92 people.  That’s right, I place 607th out of 699 entrants.  Oy, I didn’t really know how I’d stack up to everyone else.  I do know I was hoping to place a little better than that.  On the upside I did finish in the top 87%.  On the downside, that’s not very good.

The puzzles broke down like this:

#1.  Mon-Tues difficulty - Scored 860 points. (Tyler’s score: 1230)  I finished it with about 6 minutes to go but my score tells me I made some sort of mistake which cost me the additional 150 points for a 100% correct puzzle.   If I had those extra points I probably would have broken into the 500s.

#2. Wed-Thurs difficulty -  Scored 440 points. (Tyler’s score: 1565)  I had a lot of trouble with this one and couldn’t finish.

#3. This was a Merl Reagle puzzle.  Scored 1040 points. (Tyler’s score: 1950)  I almost finished this one.  But not quite.

#4. I can barely remember which one this was.  Scored 560 points. (Tyler’s score: 1950)  I think was the one that had a number of long answers with the same clue, “Digs”.  Just couldn’t get going with it.  I think I needed to take a Rock Band break.

#5. Oy!  Forget about it.  Scored 120 points. (Tyler’s score: 1615)  See that score?  That means I got 12 words right.  12!  I did a lot of staring at empty boxes.

#6.  Scored 1265 points. (Tyler’s score: 1990)  This might have been the Elmer Fudd one.  Can’t remember much about it.  Did ok but didn’t finish.

#7. Sunday-style.  Scored 1435 points. (Tyler’s score: 2450)  This was the only other one I finished.  I did make a few errors though.

Unfortunately I did not complete any puzzles 100% correctly.  That’s a disappointment.  Brian and I did have a great time though.  It was a little intimidating to be around so many smart word nerds.  So now I have a whole year to get better.  My new goal is to finish ahead of 14% of the entrants.  I think I’m going to set some crazy goal like finishing 5,000 or so puzzles before next years tourney.  I haven’t decided on a number yet. Plus, I’m probably going to move all this crossword stuff onto a separate blog.  I’ve been neglecting keeping up with my personal stuff on here.

Here’s a picture taken by someone unknown to me.  Brian and I just happen to be in it.

Constructed by Patrick Berry and edited by Will Shortz.

Aaagh! So close. I had 12 empty boxes left and I thought and I thought and I huffed and puffed but in the end I had two major mistakes that prevented me from finishing this off without help. One in the top right and another in the top left.

I finished off (or at least I thought I did) the top left first. First clue I got was 3A. Final Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor comedy (ANOTHERYOU). I’m not sure how I remembered the name of this movie. I never saw it but I kind of remember it being sad because Pryor was so ill at the time. But, c’mon, you’ve gotta give it up for Stir Crazy and Silver Streak. That led to 37A. “Notorious” setting (RIO) which was a guess but a 3-letter place ending in “O”? what else is it going to be? I got a few of the other shorter answers in that area: 16A. Presently (ANON), 14A. Putting regular gas in a diesel engine, e.g. (NONO), 34A. “Caribbean Blue” singer (ENYA), 22D. Pool owner’s nuisance (ALGAE), 25D. Clodhopper (YOKEL). Those helped with 21A. “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind” speaker (OPHELIA), I knew that was Shakespeare but I needed a little help figuring out who said it. I was pretty happy with 2D. Like most 1950s recordings (MONOPHONIC).

But this all led to my first blunder. For 1D. Agitated (INAPOTHER) I put in INABOTHER. I’ve never heard of a pother before. So the “B” in there gave me BOTTER instead of 18A. Person at the wheel? (POTTER). I just figured BOTTER was something I wasn’t familiar with. Turns out nobody is familiar with it as it doesn’t exist.

I started off the bottom right with 32A. Coca-Cola creation (TAB). Yick, I do not like diet soda. I drink regular Coke like I’m never going to see it again but diet sodas and I do not have a good relationship. Again, I got some of the shorter answers like: 58A. Poses (ASKS), 39D. Go for a party, say (VOTE) and 43D. Actress Streep (MERYL). That was the biggest gimme in the whole puzzle. Those helped me with the acrosses: 42A. It protects car buyers (LEMONLAW) and 46A. #1 Beatles hit with the only known vocal contribution by Linda McCartney (LETITBE). Not so good with the Beatles trivia. Those led to the 4 big downs: 36D. Home for the Ojibwa and Cree (MANITOBA), 27D. Continuously (ATALLTIMES), 28D. Stop working (TAKEABREAK), and 33D. “Don’t spread this around, but …” (BETWEENUS).

The bottom left was tougher and looking at it now I still can’t believe I figured it out. I got 50D. Practically unheard-of (RARE) and 53D. Rule out (BAR) right away. Then I got 45D. Picture writing, of a sort (REBUS). So I knew that 52-Across 52. 1990 #1 rap hit that starts “Yo, V.I.P., let’s kick it” ended in BABY. Then came the big guess of the day, 41D. Wisconsin city that’s home to S. C. Johnson & Son (RACINE). All I had was the “A” and somehow my hand filled in the rest of the letters. So I was looking and straining at 52-Across, thinking of songs from high school and, boom, here comes Vanilla. 52A. 1990 #1 rap hit that starts “Yo, V.I.P., let’s kick it” (ICEICEBABY).

And that led to 38D. Split right before your eyes? (BIFOCAL) even though I had SINUSES in there for a while. Then I got 35D. Tightly embrace (CLEAVETO) which led to 47A. Soft spread (BEDCOVER). I was sure that was going to be something like cream cheese. And the rest fell into place with 55A. Bernard Malamud’s debut novel (THENATURAL) and 57A. One who refuses to shake hands, maybe (SORELOSER).

And that brings us to the top right.  I figured that 20A. Most useless would end with EST and start with “S”.  Couldn’t figure out the rest though.  I did get 26A. Sound of a dropped scoop of ice cream (SPLAT), 12D. Lifesavers, for short (EMTS) and 13D. Others (REST).  Then I got 10D. “The Great God Brown” playwright (ONEILL) which led to 15A. One abandoned at the altar? (MAIDENNAME) which, in turn led to my big blunder with 5A. Barely mention, as something one doesn’t want to discuss (SKATEOVER). I had GLOSSOVER in there.  And, of course, I couldn’t get the downs to work.  But, for some reason, instead of thinking GLOSSOVER might be wrong I figured MAIDENNAME was the mistake.  I have no idea why.  What else could it be?  Anyway, after much staring and pulling of hair I broke down and looked up 5D. ___ volatile (SAL) which showed me GLOSSOVER was indeed wrong.  I figured out the right answer and the rest of the downs fell into place.  7D. Having a single purpose (ADHOC)  8D. Flowers named for their scent (TEAROSES)  9D. Tendency toward chaos (ENTROPY)  6D. Goes to bed, in Britspeak (KIPS) I had to get with crosses.

I liked this puzzle.  I would have liked it better if I could have figured the whole thing out, but, what can you do?

A day and a half till the tourney.  C’mon brain, be more better!

Constructed by Matt Ginsberg and edited by Will Shortz.

I like this one. It had a bunch of answers that could mean one thing and the opposite of that one thing. Does that make sense? Well, here’s what I mean:

1D. Last under use or erode under use (WEAR).

19A. Begin operating or stop operating (GO OFF).

20A. Confirmation or uncertainty (RESERVATION).

30A. Unchanged or novel (ORIGINAL).

38A. Words of praise or words of condemnation (NOTHING IS BETTER).

45A. Approve or penalize (SANCTION).

55A. Easy to see or impossible to see (TRANSPARENT).

60A. Entangle or disentangle (RAVEL).

13D. Remaining or gone (LEFT).

52D. Add to or remove from (TRIM).

59D. Move gracefully or move clumsily (TRIP).

Pretty clever stuff. The rest of the puzzle wasn’t too hard. There were a couple of answers familiar to me. 2D. “Hurlyburly” playwright David (RABE). I was in a horrible, horrible production of Hurlyburly about 10 years ago. It’s not a very good play to begin and we were all early 20-somethings totally miscast as world-weary drug-addled Hollywood types. The whole thing was a complete embarrassment. 16A. Dodgers all-star pitcher Eric (GAGNE). Used to be a big hero of mine. I wore a Gagne t-shirt under my tux for my wedding. I just loved the way he went about his work. Turns out he was cheating the whole time. Nice.

What didn’t I know? 5D. Grounds for legal action (GRAVAMEN). Huh? According the thefreedictionary gravamen is the part of a charge or an accusation that weighs most substantially against the accused. 10D. Jiang’s husband (MAO). This refers to Jiang Qing the last wife of Chairman Mao Zedong. 42A. TV’s Kojak (THEO). Who loves ya, baby? 68A. Olaf’s girlfriend in Lemony Snicket books (ESME). Apparently this is a character named Esmé Gigi Genevive Squalor. Never read the books. 41D. Dr. ___ Hahn of “Grey’s Anatomy” (ERICA). I’m beginning to realize my knowledge of pop culture ends around 1989.

Two more puzzles until the tourney.

Constructed by Lee Glickstein and edited by Will Shortz.

This was a sticky one for me. I got through it but not without staring at some empty boxes for a while. The area that gave me the most trouble was towards the middle with 21D. Short order cook’s utensil (FRYPAN). Is a pan a utensil? I was thinking more along the lines of a spatula or tongs or something. I even had FRY and still was thinking FRYDAD or FRYLER neither of which are actual things. I finally figured out 34A. Defaulter’s loss (REPO) which gave me the “P” and it finally made sense. REPO took me way longer than it should have. I had the “R” and the “O” but the “E” was tricky as that crossed with 26D. Concise, in Cannes (BREF). You know how I don’t know Spanish? Well, I don’t know French even more so.

Two answers which I feel I’ve just seen and yet I still had trouble with them were: 27A. Cassidy portrayer of TV and film (BOYD) and 42A. ___ lion, beast slain by Hercules in his first labor (NEMEAN). William Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy. The Nemean Lion had skin too tough for weapons so Hercules shoved his hand down its throat and strangled it.

There was also a theme in this puzzle. Revealed in 36A. Members of this can be found in the center of 17-, 24-, 51- and 60-Across (NUCLEARFAMILY). And the them answers are Make Tracks (SKEDADDLE), Sources of ready cash (PAWNBROKERS), Turkey insert (THERMOMETER), Got by (on) (SUBSISTED). Fine theme, didn’t do much for me though.

What else didn’t I know? 28D. Vietnam’s Le ___ Tho (DUC), he was awarded the Nobel Peace Price along with Henry Kissinger for his part in the Paris Peace Accords. 56A. T. Boone Pickens, for one (OILMAN), although it sounds like he could be from the Hazard County he is actually the 117th richest person in America. Take that, Uncle Jesse. 57A. With full force (AMAIN) which is simply a word I’ve never heard of.

Enjoyable puzzle. And I have 3 days to get much better at these.

Until tomorrow (or thereabouts).

Constructed by Nancy Nicholson Joline and edited Will Shortz with the theme Winners’ Circle. I did this one with my dear friend Max. We both thought the theme was a lot of fun and very clever. Each theme answer had referenced to past Academy Award winners. The first reference had a longish answer in which the circled boxes revealed the second reference. This is one of those themes where I have no idea how they were able to come up with it. Well, actually, they’re all like that but this one even more so.

1A. Theme of this puzzle (THEOSCAR).

3A. Film (1954), actress (2003) (ONthEWATerFRonT) and THERON. Charlize Theron won for Monster which was not such a great movie. Everyone has their Charlize Theron story and here’s mine: I was an extra in The Devil’s Advocate. It was a dance club scene and around 3AM I was starting to lose it. She came over and gave me a friendly tickle in the stomach and told me to hang in there. That was pretty cool. 37A. Director (2003), actor (1962) (pETeRJAckSON) and PECK. I think a lot of people were upset that LOTR: Return of the King one Best Picture because they didn’t feel it was a weighty enough film. Whatever you think of sci fi/fantasy I mean, c’mon, from a filmmaking standpoint all three films were amazing. Gregory Peck won for To Kill a Mockingbird which I have never seen. I read the book in high school and I remember it as one of the few books I read all the way through. I wasn’t such a big reader back then. 61A. Film (1992), actor (1958) (UNFORGIVEN) and NIVEN. Unforgiven is one of those movies that gets better after repeated viewings. David Niven won for Separate Tables. Haven’t seen that but I loved him in Murder by Death. 71A. Actor (1934), actor (1995) (cLaRKgABLe) and CAGE. You’d think Gable would have won for Gone With The Wind but he actually won a few years earlier for It Happened One Night. Can you imagine someone winning nowadays for the lead in a screwball romantic comedy? Apparently, Oscar thinks being really funny is really easy. And the less said about Nic Cage the better. 94A. Actress (1986), director (1962) (MARlEeMaTLIn) and LEAN. Matlin won for Children of a Lesser God which I haven’t seen. David Lean won a couple of times but in 1962 it was for Lawrence of Arabia which is one of the best films of all time. Pickles and I saw it on the big screen a few years ago. I recommend that to everybody. And epic in every sense of the word. 112A. Actress (1983), supporting actor (1999) (SHIRLEYMAcLaine) and CAINE. Maclaine won for Terms of Endearment which I recently wept my way through. My favorite Shirley Maclaine movie? The Apartment. Jack Lemmon is so good and Maclaine is so cute. Michael Caine won for The Cider House Rules. Didn’t care for the movie and didn’t care for the book. And why is Tobey Maguire somebody who is in movies? He needs a smack.

17D. Film (1993), actress (1987) (SchINDLerSLIST) and CHER. Schindler’s List, great movie. It’s certainly not the kind of thing you pop into the DVD player on a whim but every couple of years you’ve got to sit down and watch it. Cher won for Moonstruck, another one I haven’t seen. I know, I know, snap out of it! 46D. Song (1942), supporting actress (1994) (wHiTeCHRIstMAS) and WIEST. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bing Crosby movie. I did see Diane Weist in Bullets Over Broadway, one of Woody’s last great ones.

What didn’t I know? 15A. Is afflicted with sigmatism (LISPS), I just assumed this had something to do with the eyes. Turns out it’s a defective pronunciation of sibilant sounds. 22A. French pen filler (ENCRE), I’ll just assume this is French for ink. 25A. Nothing, to Nero (NIHIL), man, you just don’t hear Latin that much anymore. 35A. Isabel Allende’s “___ of My Soul” (INES), here’s her wikipedia page. 73A. Destination of the Bounty in “Mutiny on the Bounty” (TAHITI), another movie I’ve never seen. 111A. Soil improver (HUMUS), a brown or black organic substance consisting of partially or wholly decayed vegetable or animal matter that provides nutrients for plants and increases the ability of soil to retain water. And it has nothing to do with chickpeas. 5D. N.F.L. guard Chris (SNEE), ah, football, a sport I know nothing about. 13D. Detective superintendent Jane of TV’s “Prime Suspect” (TENNISON), Helen Mirren has had quite a career. 93D. Mother of Paris (HECUBA), was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy, with whom she had nineteen children. That is a lot of children.

One small quibble with this puzzle. 112D. Jrs. no more (SRS), seriously? I couldn’t believe that was actually the answer. It just seemed so out of place with the cleverness of the rest of the grid.

But, overall, a really enjoyable puzzle. Good work.

Constructed by Barry C. Silk and edited by Will Shortz.

I think the theme for this puzzle was Things Ryan Doesn’t Know. If so, they did a bang up job. I did get a few on my own. Notably 40A. Indications of good bowling (XES) and 40D. Exotic estate (XANADU). And the other ones were 43A. Home to Al Jazeera (QATAR), 43D. Faultfinder’s concern? (QUAKE), 19A. What flamingos often stand on (ONELEG). But after that I had to start hitting up google.

Here a few I feel I should have been able to get even without any crosses. 17A. Uses a certain iron (SOLDERS), 39A. They hang from the roof (STALACTITES) and absolutely 8A. Service with a queue (NETFLIX). Good god, I look at my Netflix queue 8 times a day.

What didn’t I know? Where to begin? Oh maybe with 1D. ___ Burkina (FASO) which is a landlocked nation in West Africa. 2D. “East of Eden” twin (ARON). I read this book, I enjoyed this book. What is the point of reading if you can’t use it to solve crosswords? 8D. Nostril (NARIS). Nothing tricky, just another name for a nostril which I’ve never heard anyone in the history of world use. And I have a lot of nostril experience. I mean, I’ve got two right over my mouth. 14D. Botanical nutrient conductor (XYLEM). Oh right, the xylem.

Oh, it goes on and on. I did like this puzzle though. It had some very clever stuff. Like 29D. One who might pick up toys (DOGCATCHER). I had BABYSITTER in there for a long while. I also like 6D. Wear for rough outdoor activities (CARGOPANTS).

And the clue that pretty much sums up my solving experience on this puzzle: 37D. Where you might get stuck in a rut (DIRTROAD).

Until tomorrow.

I am now officially worried I’m going to finish last in the tourney.  This Friday puzzle (constructed by Mike Nothnagel and David Quarfoot and edited by Will Shortz) was completely beyond me.  I did an initial scan of the clues and wasn’t picking up on much.  Then I had a small breakthrough with 37D. Its out for a pout (LOWERLIP) which crossed 59A. Subject of the 2004 book “Dancing Revelations” (ALVIN AILEY).  Those two helped me pretty much finish off the lower right with the exception of 56A. Singer of the 1967 hit “California Nights” (LESLEYGORE).  I eventually had to look that up although I seem to remember her showing up in a recent puzzle.

But even without Ms. Gore I was feeling confident with my mostly completed corner but then the filling in of the boxes with the correct letters came to a screeching halt.  I was able to get a few here and there like 34A. Where to find pop art? (SODACAN).  That was a good one but even with the crossing “S” I became completely stuck on  34D. Cause of colonial unrest (STAMPACT).  Before I had the “S” I put in TAXATION, after the “S” I put in SLAVERY which is probably not a subject that’s going to come up in the puzzle.

Most embarrassing moment involved 17A. Providers of exceptional service? (TENNISACES).  Oy!  I had TENN(blank)(blank)ACES and simply could not figure it out.  I thought it might have something to do with Tennessee or something called TENNAFACES.  I’ve been doing xwords long enough to think of tennis when “service” is in the clue and yet I didn’t get it until I finally figured out 6D. Shortening in the kitchen? (TBSP), great clue by the way.

I can’t blame the puzzle for this.  Looking over the grid it really is a great puzzle full of interesting fill.   61A. Outdoor toy that attaches to a garden hose (SLIPNSLIDE).  35D. “You don’t say!” (OHREALLY), I had OHMYGOSH there for a while.  36D. Hide in the woods (DEERSKIN).  1A. Awfully accurate? (SADBUTTRUE).  15A. Salade nicoise ingredients (GREENBEANS).  12D. Bit of kitchen wear (OVENMITT).  13D. Execute exactly (DOTOATEE).  14D. Over, with “of” (INEXCESS).

Well, luckily, my friend Brian and I have a bet going.  We both think we’re going to finish worse than the other so whoever finishes higher, loses the bet and has to treat the other to a night at the ballpark.

Lunch break is almost over.  Quickly, here’s some more stuff I didn’t know.  2D. Eye component (AREOLA).  3D. Where I-25 and I-70 meet (DENVER).  4D. Poet who won a Pulitzer for “The Dust Which Is God” (BENET).  8D. Kinkajou’s kin: Var. (RACOON).  9D. 1883 Maupassant novel (UNEVIE).  10D. Dine, in Dusseldorf (ESSEN).

Good god, I don’t have time list all that I didn’t know in this one.  Didn’t Calvin or someone sleep with a book under his pillow to learn stuff by osmosis.  Does anyone know if that works?  A week and a day till tourney time.

Until tomorrow.