Lake effect (Sunday brunch: Nov. 23, 2014)

With SPIRO GYRA turning up in one of the puzzles a coupla weeks ago, I had planned to make this post about the band with the similar name and about how several other performers of “smooth jazz” (cue Chuck Mangione) got started in upstate New York.  But the region made bigger news this week with the gigantic snowstorm that close to paralyzed Buffalo.

Normally, upstaters take snow in stride.  I’m a Syracuse native: the city gets 10 to 11 feet of snow per year on average, the snowiest major city in America.  Buffalo actually gets less snow (8 feet or so) but it gets more publicity.  Part of the reason may be that Buffalo can get more of it all at once.  This was definitely one of those instances. Like Sandy’s storm surge coming on top of an particularly high tide: there were a combination of circumstances that made for a huge snowfall.

To understand them, let me first explain the Lake Effect.  Lake snow happens when prevailing winds blow across the Great Lakes, picking up moisture from the lake and dropping it as frozen precipitation when it comes across dry land.   This week, two factors combined to amplify the snowfall.  First, we had an unusual cold snap for mid-November.  The air and the ground were unusually cold compared to the surface of the lakes, which were warmer because lake temperatures change more slowly.  Second, the winds blew very steadily and from the east-southeast instead of the east-northeast.  They blew right up the long axis of Lake Erie, giving them ample opportunity to store up moisture, which funneled right into Buffalo and Niagara Falls at the end of the lake.  By contrast, Syracuse only got a few inches of snow, because the winds off the lake were all off to the north this time.  

Snowed in?  Here are some puzzles to keep you occupied.

The Wall Street Journal variety puzzle is a tough one: a Belt Line by Patrick Berry.  Bring an eraser: you’ll probably need to make some guesses.   The New York Times has one of Willz’s non-crosswords: a letterbank puzzle with a twist: you must double one of the letters in each of the words you come up with.

I hadn’t noticed these before, but Todd McClary has constructed a cryptic and a variety crossword called Hopscotch as well as a bunch of straight crosswords.  Give them a try.

Falcon found himself disturbing a Medusa while solving Hex’s weekly cryptic.  Sounds dangerous. No snakes found in the Globe and Mail cryptic, but it was pretty challenging.  This week’s Stickler was a nice smooth solve.  

In (mostly) straight crossword news, Patrick Blindauer has announced his latest Puzzlefest, scheduled to go live next month.  And Cross Nerd (Peter Broda) and his team are inviting a guest constructor to provide a puzzle for the Indie 500 crossword tournament.

Chuck Mangione: Land of Make Believe (Esther Satterfield, v.)

Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance

Pits (Sunday brunch: Oct. 26, 2014)

Monday, I groused about the ice at one of my home rinks and the management’s ongoing problems. It’s been like that as long as I’ve been skating there, and I’ve been skating there since Ian Walsh was working Pee Wees.   But there were some years I didn’t skate there.  Around 2000, they fully enclosed the rink (it used to be partly open-air) and reconfigured the boards, moving the benches from one side to the other.

Not surprisingly, they cheaped out on the job.  Instead of buying new glass or at least some replacement panes for the relocated bench doors, they transferred the glass from one spot to another, cutting where the panes were too big.  That left two spots with gaps in the glass about six inches to a foot wide: just enough to catch an arm.  And when the put up protective nets behind the end glass, the eye bolts they bought were too long, and stuck out into the playing area.  If I put up my hand for a penalty in one of those spots, I could cut it on the bolt.  And then the bottom of the Zam door was worn, and if it wasn’t shut tight enough, a puck could slip under.  

All accidents waiting to happen.  If a player got hurt on one of those danger spots during a game I was refereeing, the family would probably sue everyone in sight.  We refs get liability insurance from USA Hockey, but even if it didn’t hit me in the bank account, a lawsuit would be a real pain in the tail.  So I reported the situation to the Risk Management department at USA Hockey, and when the rink didn’t do anything about the problems.  I told my assigner not to give me any more games there. About five years later they finally replaced the boards and glass, and I resumed skating there.  But the place is still a pit.

Much better quality in the puzzles, as always.  First off, don’t forget the annual NYT crossword contest.  You need the solutions to all six of the week’s puzzles to get some kind of meta.  Answers are due at 6:00 tonight, New York time.

The new Harpers is out, and this month’s Richard Maltby cryptic is too.  That means it’s also time for Erica to take apart last month’s Playfair Square.   Even though she and her Sweet Vladimir were winners (again: good for you!), her blog brings the smack from the get-go.  “This was some real bulls***” she says.  But Erica and Vlad were smart enough to pull out a bag of Scrabble tiles to solve the cipher.    I got partway through the cipher (the puzzle wasn’t unduly hard) but never got around to finishing.  I’ll try Erica’s trick.  Bonus in her post: her mom makes an appearance.

The Wall Street Journal variety puzzle is a Rows Garden by Patrick Berry.  It was the easiest Rows Garden I’ve ever solved.  But there are hints elsewhere on the blog if you need them.

Likewise, the Fred Piscop diagramless (Wordplay link: spoilers!) in today’s New York Times posed little difficulty as well. I’ve posted a solution in case you’re stuck on anything.

For your straight cryptic pleasure, there are three weekly puzzles by Hex, Stickler, and the syndicate for the Globe and Mail.  These will be harder than the WSJ and NYT puzzles.

New York Times solution: February 2, 2014

Boy, that was a chore.  Patrick Blindauer had a great concept here: a straight crossword where you had to anagram each answer before entering it in the grid, but the solving experience is ruined by some really crummy fill.  There are some nice anagrams, particularly the big one in the middle, but its the bad parts that stay in your mind.

I had to hit Google a few times to check whether the entries I was arriving at were real words or phrases (note the words “other crossword entry” in the instructions.  Now I see why Deb Amlen was stumped: the anagrams were more work than play.  Over at Wordplay, several commenters had even stronger reactions, but Patrick stuck up for his puzzle, reminding people that all but one of the entries in the puzzle, even the ones people were complaining about, had previously appeared in NYT puzzles.

Anyway, here’s the solution.  Click and drag over any of the spaces in the table to see the original clue answer or the anagram that goes in the grid.  Look below the fold for the completed grid.

	ACROSS	ANAGRAM		DOWN	ANAGRAM
1a	CHIT	ITCH	1d	aMIASMA	I AM SAM
5a	PERPS	PREPS	2d	GAITER	TRIAGE
10a	LOSE	SLOE	3d	SCRAPE	CASPER
14a	BARA	ARAB	4d	HOB	HBO
15a	LEASE	EASEL	5d	ROPED	PEDRO
16a	SITE	IEST	6d	TRAIT	RAITT
17a	I’M SO	MISO	7d	SEES	ESSE
18a	DEDUCTIONS	DISCOUNTED	8d	SPEC	PECS
20a	ASP	SAP	9d	LOS	SLO
21a	TREES	ERTES	10d	NIXES	SINEX
22a	SET	TES	11d	INSOLENT	LETS IN ON
23a	POSTAGE	AGE SPOT	12d	EOS	SOE
25a	EXISTS	SEXIST	13d	TED	ETD
28a	CRIME	MERCI	19d	TUES	UTES
29a	HANS	NAHS	21d	SPICE	EPICS
31a	SAN	NAS	24d	CREWS	SCREW
32a	COMRADE	RCA DOME	25d	HIRES	SHERI
35a	POEM	MOPE	26d	PASS	SAPS
36a	BRITNEY SPEARS	PRESBYTERIAN	27d	EST	TSE
39a	WIVE	VIEW	29d	STONE	TONES
40a	REELING	LEERING	30d	REAM	AMER
41a	TAN	ANT	33d	BLARE	ABLER
42a	DEWS	WEDS	34d	EDDY	DYED
43a	GORGE	GEORG	35d	GAMES	MAGES
47a	CRATER	CARTER	36d	PAIN	PINA
49a	ENDEARS	ED ASNER	37d	TERRACES	RETRACES
51a	TIA	AIT	38d	GAINS	INGAS
52a	SALLY	ALLYS	39d	CAV	VAC
54a	TEE	ETE	42d	STEW	WETS
55a	RESISTANCE	ANCESTRIES	44d	POUNCE	ONE CUP
58a	CAAN	NCAA	45d	GREATS	RETAGS
59a	PERE	PEER	46d	AGREES	GREASE
60a	OVALS	SALVO	48d	RITES	TIERS
61a	GUSH	HUGS	49d	LEVEE	ELEVE
62a	SOTS	TOSS	50d	SYNOD	DYSON
63a	NOELS	OLSEN	52d	LARA	ARAL
64a	PEAS	APSE	53d	SILL	LILS
			55d	PAT	APT
			56d	EON	NEO
			57d	TOS	TSO
			58d	AHN	NHA