Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: none
Word of the Day: "The STRATTON Story" (3D: "The ___ Story, Jimmy Stewart baseball movie) —
The Stratton Story is a 1949 film directed by Sam Wood which tells the true story of Monty Stratton, a Major League Baseball pitcher who pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 1934-1938. This is the first of three movies that paired Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, the others being The Glenn Miller Story and Strategic Air Command. // James Stewart plays the part of Stratton, who in the off-season of 1938 accidentally shoots himself in his right leg while on a hunting excursion. When his leg has to be amputated, it looks as though his pitching career is over. Nevertheless, with a wooden leg and his wife Ethel's (June Allyson) support, Stratton is able to make a successful minor league comeback in 1946. (wikipedia)
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Hey everyone. Coming to you live from the Lollapuzzoola 3 Crossword Tournament in Queens. Well, not live. It's the day before, and I'm in a midtown Starbucks waiting for Brendan Emmett Quigley to show up so we can drink or ... drink, before our dinner at 8pm. Not the most exciting or romantic place to be spending time in NYC, but I gotta get in blogging time wherever I can this weekend. Can't really foist the blog off on guest writers yet again when I just did that last week, so I'm putting this thing together bit by bit, whenever I find time. Puzzle took me a good deal longer than my typical recent Saturday outings, but I don't normally solve in loud public places after a 3-hour bus ride, either, so let's just say it was Challengingish, for a Saturday.
Hardest part for me, By Far, was the SE. First, there's RUN AMOK, which is wrong. That's a big obstacle if you were dumb enough to put it in with virtual certainty (instead of its correct cousin, RUN RIOT=>49A: Go wild). I also stupidly had CUT INTO (?) for PUT IT TO (34A: Cheated in slang), though that got fixed well before I finally made the SE work. I've heard of a RAMJET, but not not not a SCRAMJET (56A: Hypersonic plane engine). Yikes.
Figured TOKYO had to end with JOE (35D: 1949 Humphrey Bogart/Sessue Hayakawa movie), but -CORE didn't seem like a valid ending for 59A: Longstanding issue. What did you have in there at first? I had both MEDICARE and (my favorite wrong answer of the day) RED SCARE before my brain decided TASK (51D: Job) crossing PESKIEST (61A: Most difficult to manage) could work, and things started to loosen from there. OLD SCORE! Well ... of course? Did not know that those words in the 34D were PARTICLEs (34D: Fermion or boson), and never (I don't think) heard of a SOUR SOP (39D: Cousin of a custard apple). Yee+ikes. Rough stuff. But doable stuff, ultimately.Loved the NW above all other places. Who wouldn't like a FIST BUMP (1A: Pound of flesh?) AT THE ZOO (15A: 1967 Simon & Garfunkel hit) (in front of the RARE BIRD exhibit?) (17A: One in a million). Nice nice stuff. Loved the clue on 31D: It's all downhill from here (MT. EVEREST). Otherwise, just solid Saturday stuff.
BEQ just showed up, so I have to go drink. Back in a bit.
Nope, false alarm. I mean, he *is* here, but we've decided I should just finish this up so I don't have to think about it any more tonight.
Bullets:
- 16A: Armor plate protecting the hip and thigh (TUILLE) — whoa, mysterioso. Played D&D as a child and studied medieval lit in grad school and Never stumble on this fabric-sounding answer.
- 25A: O.K. (HUNKY DORY) — Brendan claims this is the third ... no, second-best Bowie album. "Lodger" is third. "Station to Station" = #1. Discuss.
- 38A: "Be More Chill" novelist Vizzini (NED) — I take it this isn't an Italian guy. "Be More Chill" doesn't sound like it's trans. from the ITALIANO. After Flanders and Rorem, all NEDs are insanely obscure. Weird. Odd. Look it up. I've run into half a dozen lately whom I'd Neh-ever heard of.
- 40A: "World News Now" airer (ABC-TV) — wanted MSNBC or CSPAN until I got that terminal "V" and knew it would be something-TV.
- 44A: Kind of accent used by Ado Annie (OKIE) — I asked BEQ what musical "Ado Annie" was from. His reply: blank stare. (it's "Oklahoma!")
- 1D: Baccarat alternative (FARO) — I wanted KENO at first. I ... don't play any of the games named in this bullet.
- 13D: "Take it from me, elections matter" speaker (AL GORE) — HA ha.
- 24D: Port on Italy's "heel" (TARANTO) — BEQ and I were trying to figure out a way to make this answer the actual city of TORONTO. Could only convert one of the "A"s.
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