My head is full of useless crap, but here are two more stories.

SYZYGY is the word spelled by Rona in the off-Broadway (maybe it made to Broadway) play, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I went to see it because I can't spell very well and laughed out loud when it came after Sunday's puzzle.

ASHKENAZ is known from a long research paper I did in grad school on Leon Trotsky, who came from said sect. I tried to challenge the conclusions of a great book called 'Three Who Made a Revolution.' It was complete grad student folly.

If you didn't know, Will Nediger is a Scrabble player deluxe and was once ranked in the top 250 on the tracking sites. Now you know why there are all of those Zs and Ys.
PhillySolver | 04.28.08 - 11:19 pm | #

A truly insane Tuesday puzzle! Fortunately, four of the five themers were gimmes for me, as a Jewish baseball fan who grew up in S.F. and works in musical theater. Though I've never heard of Ashkenaz.

Isn't Will Nediger one of those 20-something wunderkinds? How does he have time to go to college, create crosswords and be a Scrabble champ too?

Philly, the musical's full name is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and it did have a nice run on Broadway. Indeed, the first line in the show is "Ms. Perretti... please spell 'syzygy'."

Orange says: I expanded the musical's title in Philly's comment before I read this one, so now your remark looks pointless. Sorry about that!

Is Will Nediger in his 20s now? I think he was 17 the first time I did one of his puzzles.
Dan | 04.29.08 - 12:03 am | #

Finished the puzzle-- but had no idea what the theme was until looking here. SFC was new to me.
Matt | 04.29.08 - 5:53 am | #

Thanks for the links for FERULE/FERRULE. I just bought a necklace at a craft fair that combines green FERRULES with small purple vintage chandelier crystals by slipping the ferrule (the old kind made for square erasers) upside down over the crystal. It's a neat effect, and now I know the technical term!
Jan (danjan) | 04.29.08 - 7:04 am | #

On Sunday a team named SYZYGY qualified for the 2008 UPA College Ultimate Championships in the women's division. The tournament will be held May 16-18 in Boulder, CO, and footage will appear later this year on CSTV, CBS's college sports channel.

Orange comes clean: Oh, yeah—that's why I know the word SYZYGY. From our alma mater's women's ultimate frisbee team of the same name. Thanks for the reminder!
SethG | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 7:07 am | #

> Hell, I didn't know New York had a Tussauds.

alas, we do. on the "new" 42nd street.......

"sfc" -- southern fried chicken, anyone?

;-)

janie

Orange adds: And NCO means "new crispy original," right?
jlsnyc | 04.29.08 - 8:43 am | #

O, you've found my achilles heel with the cute animal pictures. The nutcracker's sweet, but the Manx has a look on its face that says to me, "Hey! Somebody just stole my tail, and I'm disTINCTly non-plussed about it (though not non-pussed)."

Have you ever used the phrase, "{I/you/he/she} ZIGged when {I/you/he/she} should have ZAGged?" That's exactly what happened when I did the NYT, last night. Of course, a more observant person might have noticed that this resulted in ALCATRiZ....

Russell

Orange says: All the Manx cats look embarrassed to me. It's as if they know that cats are supposed to have long, expressive tails, and theirs are just...gone.
Russell G. Brown | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 8:49 am | #

You're half right, Orange, Will N. was 16 at his first publication and 18 now. (Teen constructors list) Didn't realize Jangler was so young too!

Loved the LAT theme. You probably know that Sidney Poitier named his daughter Sydney. I just saw ELIA clued with an essay title, on my ongoing tour of the NYT archives - Trip's Sat. 8/5/06. XWordInfo also shows a Norris from last December.
Dan | 04.29.08 - 10:28 am | #

@Orange: Thanks for the shout-out. I've already seen a spike in visitors. :)
Pete M | 04.29.08 - 12:29 pm | #

all of today's puzzles made me happy. the LAT's [Electronic memory game with colored buttons], SIMON, was an unexpected nostalgic moment ... ah, middle school. i don't like to brag, but i used to be really good at SIMON. (okay, that's not quite true. i love to brag. and i was only decent at SIMON.) anyway, i loved that clue, especially considering the alternative was probably something idolatrous.

so my big fat greek wedding had both a NIA (vardalos) and a GIA (carides)? it must be the crosswording movie of the decade!
joon | 04.29.08 - 12:43 pm | #

Prepare to learn something you probably couldn't care less about: asl.
MM | 04.29.08 - 3:04 pm | #

I usually make these complaints to Peter Gordon, but here goes:

Will:
SYZYGY/SFC crossing is too hard for a Tuesday!

I saw Putnam County and still had no clue about SYZYGY. SFC seems bogus to me.
barrywep | 04.29.08 - 3:21 pm | #

ASL is often seen as "a/s/l", which stands for "age/sex/location".
Matt J. | 05.01.08 - 2:06 am | #