The Blair Puzzle Project
"Home of the Graphy Graphs"
Friday, October 16, 2009
It took 2 puzzle club members
19 minutes 40 seconds to complete the crossword. This is in the 15th percentile for Friday. The fill time was 19 minutes 40 seconds.
Puzzle constructed by Karen M. Tracey. 
School's out for the teachers today, so only two of us managed to get together. When I found this out, I joked with David that I was looking forward to a 14th percentile day...seems that (at least on the day of the puzzle...these things auto update as time goes on...) I sold us short...17th percentile. Woohoo!
Nice, solid Friday, though there was one cross of two obscure (to me) things that I thought made it impossible for me to do without Google on my own: 58A RAFE (Male protagonist in William Inge's "Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff") crossed 36D TENERIFE (Largest of the Canary Islands). I suspect this later one would be more common knowledge on the other side of the pond, as I think the Canary's are a fairly common tourist destination....let's see....wow. There is a lot of stuff on wikipedia. And there is this:
Another cross that had me at the time, but on retrospect shouldn't have, included, firstly, 27A EIDERS (Costal island colonists)...Eiders may be the kind of crossword waterfowl...just too many juice vowels to pass up. Outside of crosswords, not so common. They are famous for their down, which I seem to recall is the warmest of all birds. The live on cold northern sea coasts:
Eider crossed with one of my two favorite clue/answer pairings in this puzzle, 11D ADELIE (Emperor's relative). Should have had this one, but polar birds with lots of vowels just weren't in my head today, I suppose. Stein, however, says he was thinking penguins, but never heard of "Adelie"...had we been in the same room, that would have been communicated, and we would have gotten it in one minute instead of ten...but alas, we are separated by a mile or two. One of the hazards of doing puzzles on days with no school. Like all penguins, Adelies are hard for us humans to resist.
Interesting that Adelie crossed with 23A TUXEDO JUNCTION ("Where people go to dance the night away," in song).
Finally, I wonder if there is a dish that has 17A FLANK STEAK (London Broil, often) with 27A BEARNAISE SAUCE (Châteaubriand accompaniment, often). Let's see....Here. And here's a pic:
Oh. And my other favorite clue/answer in this puzzle? The dastardly clued 9D PEKINESE (Toy developed in China). Yah, Pekes were definitely developed. I'm not sure even the Bulldog is been pulled genetically as far as the Pekinese. They really have to been seen to be believed, in some way...so let's see them...hmm...I have to say most of the vid on youtube on Pekes are loud, noisy crowd scenes, or annoying home dog movies...well, let's go with this one...I apologize for the overuse of superfluous wipes and, well, a soundtrack that isn't really what I would choose. Welcome to the world of the dog show:
Only 17th percentile today, but there were only two of us, so not THAT bad.. 
