Raiders vs. Irish Midrash

Raiders vs. Irish
by George and Barbara Barany
"Midrash" by George Barany (the morning! of November 14, 2013)

A few days ago, while Barb and I were having our usual Sunday dim sum brunch, we discussed the Minnesota State HIGH_SCHOOL (61-across) League [MSHSL] FOOTBALL (first part of 66-Across) championships tournament, for which our local team, the ROSEVILLE Raiders, has made it to the SEMIFINALS (20-Across).  Later today, i.e., Thursday, November 14, 2013, starting at 7 p.m., they will be playing the ROSEMOUNT Irish at the METRODOME indoor stadium in downtown Minneapolis.   

Noticing that the two rival teams share the same first four letters in the names of their respective 9-letter communities, it occurred to me to write a so-called "Schrödinger (or is it Heisenberg?) puzzle" around this theme.  An early, and arguably the most famous example of the genre, ran on Election Day 1996, and Will Shortz calls it his favorite crossword ever [in this video, watch for about 2 min starting at 17:45].  Another wonderful example, published on my crossword website, is Executive Decision, by my friend Tom Pepper.  In the "midrash" that Tom and I wrote about that puzzle, we provide a further review and links.  My own first try was The Old Song and Dance, constructed with my friends Noam Elkies, Michael Hanko, and Martin Herbach, and featured a single Schrodinger square.  The current effort is far more ambitious, which accounts for the relatively high word count and the number of black squares. Moreover, I knew that to pull it off (especially on such an aggressive timeline), I would have to count on the help and combined creativity of some super-smart people—their names are found on this puzzle's main page.

So, let's see what happened.  As shown below, there are two answers that fit the clues.  Depending on how you anwer five deliberately ambiguous Down clues, you would predict 40-Across, the "Winning team on this puzzle's date" [i.e., of the as-yet-unplayed November 14, 2013 game] to be either Roseville or Rosemount! In more detail, "Travelers' accommodations: Abbr." (37-Down) could be answered either as RVS (abbreviation for recreational vehicles) to furnish a V for Roseville, or as RMS (abbreviation for [presumably hotel] rooms) to furnish an M for Rosemount; "Giant from NY" (41-Down) can be answered as ITT (a giant corporation with headquarters in White Plains, NY [state]) or baseball Hall-of-Famer Mel OTT, who starred for the NY Giants (before they moved to San Francisco in 1958) from 1926-1947; "Something that might get one into trouble with the cops" (42-Down) can be answered as LIE (self-explanatory) or UIE (slang for an [illegal] U-turn); "This may make one wish for a tall glass of pure water" (33-Down) refers to BILGE (stagnant water that accumulates on the bottom of a ship) or BINGE (after going on a gluttonous spree of eating and/or drinking, it's natural to want some water to try to regain one's equilibrium); and finally "Palindromic word worth 7 Scrabble pts. (if not challenged)" (39-Down) refers to MEM (an abbreviation for "memory" or "member") or MTM (an abbreviation for Mary Tyler Moore, whose TV role of Mary Richards is immortalized with a statue on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis).  With respect to the latter clue, the answer is a bit more nuanced: "pts." in the clue signals the answer word is an abbreviation, yet the rules of Scrabble forbid abbreviations and proper nouns; unfortunately, MEM has another meaning that Scrabble will accept! Also, for the record, we originally had 41-Down clued as "Native: Suffix" which could be answered by either ITE or OTE [typical crosswordese, so we were pleased when an alternative WAY (16-Across) was recommended by one of our team]. Finally, a different approach to an ambiguous clue for BILGE or BINGE, i.e., "It might necessitate a pump" (a water pump in the former case, and a stomach pump in the latter case) came to our attention too late to modify the puzzle.

With such a tricky middle section, the goal for the remainder of the puzzle was to use as many easy words and corresponding clues (including fill-in-the-blanks), as possible.  Also, a real effort was made to give the puzzle a distinct sports flavor.  Let me just point out a few of my favorite examples: 

  • PEGLEG (1-Across) pays tribute to Peter Stuyvesant, the man whose name graces my own HIGH_SCHOOL alma mater.  Our sports teams were called Peglegs, but while I was a weak contributor to the swim and tennis teams, I did Captain the Math Team!  The clue further pays tribute to my least favorite assigned reading in high school English class, i.e., Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.  However, there is no doubt about the fact that AHAB has been a godsend to crossword constructors everywhere.
  • THE (10-Across) is a "definitive article" and is a shout-out to Definitively Defined, my recent Wall Street Journal puzzle with HIGH_SCHOOL student/crossword wunderkind David Steinberg.
  • Note the various "Asset for ..." clues, used for ABS (7-Across), TOE (24-Across, with a football bonus), EAR (2-Down), and EYE (12-Down). TEE (54-Across) got a football clue, echoing one in a puzzle Brent Hartzell and I did for the local college team, the clue for DIN (55-Across) reminds us of how loud it can be inside the Metrodome, the clue for OOOO speculated on the scoreboard for a shutout, and TDS (70-Down) is short for "touchdowns."  POP (29-Across) could have been clued for myself, with respect to my two kids (Michael and Deborah, both alumni of RAHS), but I thought it would be more fun to refer to the Midwestern version of what back East we called "soda." 
  • ERA (34-Down) could have had a fun, albeit straightforward sports clue, since it is the abbreviation for earned run average.  I could have also gone the historical route.  However, I thought it would be important to remind solvers of this puzzle of the enormous strides that young women students, athletes, and student-athletes have made due to Title IX, while at the same time, the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has never been ratified by the states.
  • One of our less sports-minded beta testers questioned the clue for TIE (48-Down), but the saying "A TIE is like kissing your sister" is well-known: search for the word "kiss" here or look at this (which I find credible).  Otherwise, my favorite TIE clue is "No-win situation," although our clue for OTS (30-Down), short for "overtimes," addresses how games are resolved if the score is even at the end of regulation time.  I also couldn't help thinking about the time my mother gave me two ties as a birthday present.  I immediately put on one of them, and she asked, "What's the matter, you don't like the other one?"

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