Scrambled TV Signals
by Patrick Blindauer
edited by Mike Shenk
December 4, 2009

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Lifestyle page.


Theme: TV show titles twisted into off-beat but real alternatives. Old feed examiners don't retire, they just go to seed.
SESAME TESTER {22A TV show about someone who examines seeds?} Sesame Street
WHEEL OF TEN FOUR {31A TV show about some CB users?} Wheel of Fortune
THE SADDAM FAMILY {47A TV show set in a bunker?} The Addams Family
SERRATED DEVELOPMENT {64A TV show about a breakthrough in knife research?} Arrested Development
THE PRICE IS GIRTH {84A TV show about junk food repercussions?} The Price is Right
THE DOWNER YEARS {100A TV show about a period of depression?} The Wonder Years
LEAD OR NO LEAD {113A TV show about a filling station choice?} Deal or No Deal. Also on the right side of the puzzle was the gas-themed FUEL OIL {33D Heating need} crossing OUT OF GAS {56A Exhausted}.
Fortunately for the anagram-deficient, only one word of each title was scrambled. Plus an easy reversal in the last.



Other Crosses: 2
The aquatic SEA HAG/AVAST, {43A Foe of Popeye} crossing {45D Salt's “Halt!”}

OTOH, I could have lived without the abbreviated TEL/STDS, {41A Rolodex abbr.} crossing {37D EPA output: Abbr.}, or EMS/TMS, {55A Ambulance letters} crossing {42D Corp. identifiers}. Abbr are bad enough when taken alone. First you have to dredge up the word. Then you have to figure out which letters to toss back. Crossing them squares the pain.


Nomination for Word of the Week: current
OCEAN {39A Site of current events} was a fine mislead as I tried to figure out which CNN subject was most current. Unfortunately it mitigated the equally clever AMMETER {50D Current gadget} as I was primed to look for alternate meanings of current.

The SEALS {77D Ball-bearing creatures}/TEE {42A Ball-bearing item} are a similar mutually defining pair. Or they should be. I had worked up a correct but wonked approach that had SEALS dually defined as creature and as mechanical item containing ball-bearings. No - seals, ball, circus. Duh. After corkscrewing my mind to this extent, it took forever to look straight on and see the golfball resting on the TEE.


News To Me [I got 'em but I didn't get 'em]:
ESP {63A Ability tested with Zener cards, for short} Gotten on a long shot from the scene in Ghostbusters. Make your own.

EEE {73A Possible reading of a Brannock device} Trivia jackpot. Totally new information for a common item. We've all seen them, now we know their name. This is the sort of fix information junkies live for. I won't spoil it, ya gotta look.

DAME EDNA {5D Barry Humphries comic character} Comic not comics.

DDE {61D 34th C. in C.} Nevermind, light dawns. Hint, we are now on our 44th.

ERA OF {65D ___Good Feelings} A specific period during the presidency of James Monroe.


Opportunities To Learn New Things: O
Flying without hitting the Google-net this week.


Admissions of Defeat: 6
Less of a disaster than the amount might suggest, since five errors centered on my inability to spell AMMETER. l still think the clue is clever, even if I couldn't spell the answer. The other was an input error with ARTLOVERS {80D They often end up in a museum}. Sometimes if the across word has provided a letter, I'll skip over the line but not the letter, writing it in the line below instead. ARTLOVEeS was just plain sloppy.


Commentary: Last summer, I heard Leonard Nimoy at Dragon*Con. Once I stopped geeking out and saw Mr. Nimoy instead of Mr. Spock, I came to the conclusion that Mr. N. an extremely artistic and extremely odd person. I would love to be at his table during a dinner party. Extend that dinner invite to this week's puzzle constructor, Mr. Blindauer. Anyone who can pun this outrageously would definitely be able to sing for his supper. Of course, I have no idea how much sociability or charm Mr. Blindauer displays in 3-D. It may be that he's so much cooler online. I know I am.

Space forced me to move the constructor links down from the top. PB is scattered all over the web: Wordplay interview, Cru bio, acting profile, and cast pic.

I first made Mr. Blindauer's ecquaintance at his Kickstarter project. Welcome to a whole new world. The question remains to be see, is it Brave or not? The range of Kickstarter means that people with niche passions can join the other hundred people in the country with whom they Reach. So, are we shaking off our geographically-centered viewpoints and building non-traditional communities that will create foundations for a new form of society? Or are we dissipating our energies in ever more attractive, ever more expanding ways while the same old Powers That Be ferret out and rule over our every thought and action? The Internet: grassroots consensus or new opiate of the masses?


Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan