Season opener (Sunday brunch: September 23, 2012)

The autumn equinox happens Saturday morning at 10:49 our time, but the hockey season started last night at 9:49, and it was like the off-season never happened.  The blue team still can't shoot, the gray team still can't skate, and the ice at Penn still is horrible, even though they melted down over the summer.  But nothing hurts this morning, and it was a good workout.  Whatever your physical workout is (feel free to share in the comments), we have your mental workout served up.

The October issue of Harper's with the aforementioned Richard Maltby puzzle is now online at http://harpers.org/archive/2012/10.  You're welcome to join in the discussion over at the earlier post.

If you're done with the Maltby, or if you just want a warm-up before taking it on, Falcon has a colourful (remember, it's a Canadian paper) National Post cryptic for you over at his blog.

Meanwhile, it's an acrostic week at both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal (quote from a famous novelist on her craft).

Looking for another cryptic?  Try FT 14,110, set by Cincinnus (follow that latter link, and you'll see that Cincinnius [Michael Curl] is also responsible for the Best for Puzzles site).  Good on 'ya, Michael!