Siasconset Bookstore (Sunday brunch: August 25, 2013)

If you are the parent of a 12-year-old and a 15-year old, you have to be prepared for awkward questions: “Why is Dad going into the bookstore for a bottle of wine?”

The answer is something of an inside joke, peculiar to Siasconset (pronounced and often spelled ‘Sconset--that's a great entry for the bottom or right line of a crossword by the way, with all the common letters.)  ‘Sconset is a village at the east end of Nantucket Island, where Raydoc and my mother have had a series of summer places and eventually retired to, and where I’ve spent the last week or so of August the last thirty years or so.

You see, as a bumper sticker once said, “Siasconset [is] a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.”  And since it’s a small village, there’s only a handful of shops.  As long as I can remember, there was the bookstore, which doubled as a “packy.”  And yes, they did have books on a few of the shelves (there are a lot fewer now, but the name remains).  It’s a little sliver of a shop, but the merchandise is very well selected, and you can find something to accompany any meal or any other occasion (there are many such occasions in ‘Sconset).

So one of the more coveted possess--ions of mine is the Siasconset Bookstore shirt, in proper Nantucket red, and collared, so I can wear it to the office in the summer.  

In between sips of a gin and tonic, or a glass of pinot noir, here are some of the puzzles I’m working on:

It’s the monthly two-acrostic weekend: Hex in the New York Times (behind the paywall) and Mike Shenk in the Wall Street Journal.

Falcon is back from vacation (did he have as exciting a time as the Human Cannonball and the other participants in last week’s Hex cryptic?) and blogging the National Post cryptic.  Hex spent their Saturday morning watching cartoons.

Also in the cryptic vein is Trip Payne’s ConTex puzzle.  Proof everything’s bigger in Texas.

Nathan Curtis’s weekly variety puzzle is another Around the Bend.  Just a bit harder than usual, but good for a quick warm-up.

You probably haven’t finished all the puzzles Xanthippe posted last week, but just in case she’s got another for you, and some interesting art to go with it.