Another official in the family (Solution No. 3,323)

Philip (the class of the division), Sabers, and Willie

Well that was an interesting weekend.  Sabers punched his ticket to Nationals and we upped number of officiating credentials in the family by 67%.

After stepping in to referee a few bouts at the fencing tournament a few weeks ago so one of our originally-scheduled refs could compete and qualify the tournament for a higher rating, I figured I should get properly trained and tested. The club had a seminar Saturday, and I passed the test with flying colors—interpreting and explaining why a point in line wasn’t valid, and then spotting the missing tip screw in an epee. So now I have a third refereeing certification. I’m pretty sure there’s never been another combination hockey, fencing, and cricket official before.

Then The Other Doctor Mitchell got a call Sunday morning: one of the people assisting with the skating competition at her club had to go to the hospital—could she come early and serve as accountant?  She agreed, and when she got there, the head accountant explained the basics of the job and said he’d guide her through it.  He didn’t know that the essentials of the job: entering and organizing data, spotting errors and inconsistencies, and staying cool under pressure happen to be The Other Doctor Mitchell’s fortes.  By the end of the day, he was insisting that he put her name in to the USFSA to be added to their roster of officials.  That’s great because even if she doesn’t get paid for this, they’ll take care of travel expenses for events that she works, possibly some of the events Bangle will be skating at this fall.  That will come at a good time, since she’s up to the level now where she and her mom are both on track to qualify for their respective Nationals.

Not quite flying colors on this puzzle though.  I can’t fully parse 13d.  Any of you get it?

Valencia (Sunday brunch: April 27, 2014)

Continuing the wine theme, let me tell you about how I found a soccer allegiance.  When Sabers started German in seventh grade, the teacher had an exercise where each of the students was given a Bundesliga team to follow.  It gave them something to read about and to talk about in class, and played into the sports interests of the typical teenager.  Sabers’s team was Hoffenheim, and I still keep an eye on their results each weekend.

That’s nice, but I should have a team too.  But I don’t any direct connections to Europe (the other Doctor Mitchell was born in Ingolstadt); how do I pick one?  Go with the herd and buy a Barcelona or Manchester United jersey?  How unoriginal.  Then I found an inspiration.  In my wine cellar is a collection of mourvèdres: mourvèdre bring a flavorful but somewhat uncommon grape of the Rhône. There aren’t any big-time soccer teams in Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Contra Costa county, but there are in eastern Spain.  So I picked up a map of La Liga teams, located Jumilla, and saw that the home team there is Valencia.

Anyone else have some soccer stories to share?  Are there any teams out there with jerseys that could pass for a crossword grid?

Erica has blogged this month’s Harper’s and also introduces us to the mercenary she brought in to win the Chicago bedbug wars.  On top of that we learn that Erica likes anagrams almost as much as she likes salads.

Trip Payne has announced his annual Extravaganza; ten bucks gets you a dozen puzzles, a meta, and a crack at a $100 prize to be awarded to two solvers who submit correct solutions by the deadline.

Also vieing for your puzzling dollar is Peter Gordon of Fireball Crosswords, who’s announced another Kickstarter project for a series of bi-weekly crosswords filled with answers ripped from the headlines, or as Peter puts it: “All the News That Fits Symmetrically.”  Subscriptions start at six bucks for twenty crosswords, and the funding is open through June 15.

The weekday cryptic in the National Post is syndicated from the Daily Telegraph (London), running several months behind.  So on Tuesday they ran DT 27,367: their puzzle commemorating the 100th anniversary of the crossword, and Christmas fell on Wednesday (links are to Falcon, who shares Big Dave’s posts and adds some notes on degree of difficulty).  Even if Brit cryptics aren’t your cup of tea, this is worth trying.

Patrick Berry fans, raise a glass. Your favorite constructor is at work in the weekend Wall Street Journal, with a Section Eight.  Hints are posted.

Regular service resumes north of the border.  After two weeks of harder-than-usual puzzles, this weekend’s National Post puzzle (blogged by Falcon) is fairly easy.  The Globe and Mail puzzle by Fraser Simpson is hard.

The New York Times variety puzzle (behind the paywall) is a Split Decisions.  I get the impression that Deb Amlen isn’t a fan either.

Wall Street Journal hints (April 26, 2014)

Below the fold are some hints for this weekend’s Wall Street Journal variety puzzle: a Section Eight by Patrick Berry.

What? He drinks on the job? Intoxicated Braze can’t define ln (Puzzle No. 3,323)

I normally avoid buying a bottle of wine just because there’s a cute animal, a bad pun, or some other attraction on the label, but sometimes you have to make an exception.  With a name like Cryptic Red, I had to check this out.  However, the contents looked interesting as well.  I’m partial to traditional (think Bordeaux) and non-traditional blends, both red and white: they’re a lot like combining different types of wordplay in a clue for a more complex and challenging solve.

Tasting notes: Nice medium garnet color,  off-clear (which is good: not excessively filtered), leggy.  Tart cherry aromas getting broader with more time in the glass.  Big mouthfilling start continues with the cherry flavors giving way to blackberry peppery zinfandel in the middle.  Medium-full body, substantive.  Pleasant medium-length finish with clean raspberry fruit and light tannins, a little warm (14.3%).  Very impressive: excellent winemaking and blending, a serious wine to accompany good food.  The only disappointment with this wine was the lame anagramming on the back label identifying the contents as a cabernet sauvignon/zinfandel/petite sirah blend.  (score 8/10).

Here’s this week’s puzzle

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/179481/puzzle-no-3323 

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): easy to moderate

Hozom’s comment: And the Lits Keep on Coming! in which Hot and Trazom crow over some of their favorite exclamation point clues.  Now there’s something for an intrepid crossword statistician to analyze: what constructors come up with the most and lits, and who can keep up the longest batting streak of including one in each regularly scheduled puzzle?

Weekly cluing challenge over at Word Salad: LITERAL

Payday (Solution No. 3,322)

Look below the fold for the solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,322

One of the questions I’m frequently asked about refereeing is what we get paid.  I’m fortunate enough that the money isn’t as important as the physical and mental workout and as staying involved in the game even in my 50s, but the financial side was on my mind last week: first doing my accounting for tax purposes, and second because one of the paychecks I was waiting for from late 2013 finally arrived.

The short answer is that our game fees are on the order of $30 to $65 for youth games, depending on level, $80 to $100 or more for top-tier juniors if you’re good enough, and $60 to $80 for men’s league. There are a few programs that pay less (I’m not going to do any games for the rink that paid me only $20.00 for a single where I had to leave for the rink at 6:00 am).

When I finished my tax return, the bottom line was a small net income to declare, which means in effect that refereeing successfully paid for my trip to State Games on top of other expenses like the new helmet and visor.  Since I knew my expenses in 2013 were going to be fairly high, that was a satisfactory outcome.

Most officials work more games in a season than I do, and make more money, but they don’t have the family commitments (or the outside interests).  I’ll admit those men’s league doubleheaders are sweet when the checks come in though.  As long as my hockey avocation is earning money rather than costing it, I’ll be satisfied.

Holy Week (Sunday brunch: April 20, 2014)

Happy Easter to all, and a joyous Passover as well.  I think these holidays are best when you get a good story to tell out of them.  This year, one of Bangle’s classmates was scheduled to lead the Palm Sunday procession over to St. Luke’s, where we join with our neighbor churches for the blessing of the palms. But she got hit with a softball Saturday and was sporting a lovely black eye.  Of course she went ahead and led the procession, and her father made sure to get lots of pictures.

“Truly, I tell you: one of you will betray me tonight.”
da Vinci’s painting brought to life in Glenside.

Usually during Holy Week, we’ll have the Passion story read at least once, if not twice, but this year for Good Friday, we instead heard the Living Last Words, a companion work to the Living Last Supper that our church has put on the past several years.  Both pieces tell the narrative as seen through the eyes of the participants.

The teens were the performers in the Living Last Words, and Sabers (as the centurion) and Bangle (as the shepherd) gained much praise for their portrayals.

Meanwhile, my friend Burt scored the one-liner of the season: “I thought my wife and I would never hear those words from my daughter: ‘Let’s have the Seder at our house this year.’”

Got a story to share?  Comments are open.  On to the weekend’s puzzles.

The Wall Street Journal has a Hex variety cryptic: quite appropriately an Egg Hunt.  The solution is posted elsewhere on the blog.  Ask there if you need any of the clues explained; some of them are pretty clever.

Falcon found the Hex straight cryptic in the National Post to be harder than usual for the second week in a row.  I thought the same, and we probably both finished on the same answer.  And the Fraser Simpson puzzle from the Globe and Mail (printable, Java) was pretty hard too.

We learn this week from her latest Brit cryptic that LizR likes King Crimson.

The New York Times puzzle (behind the paywall) is a Hex acrostic.  Deb Amlen has comments and some answers at Wordplay.

If you didn’t see the update to Thursday’s post, Puzzazz released a new book of variety crosswords by Mike Shenk, and it shows off the advantages of the app really well.

Wall Street Journal solution (April 19, 2014)

Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s Wall Street Journal variety puzzle: a cryptic Egg Hunt by Hex.  If you want explanations of any of the clues, please ask in the comments section.

I have links to more cryptics for you each week: The Nation puzzles by Hot and Trazom on Thursdays (solved and annotated the following Monday) and a puzzle buffet for you each weekend on Sunday Brunch.  Join us, won’t you?