1968 hit song spawned 1978 movie 1981 TV show / MON 8-17-15 / Gucci alternative / Bit of textspeak unshortened / Mysteries starting with Tower Treasure House on Cliff / Pueblo brick /

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: tiny bit tougher than your average Monday, but I've been drinking, so...

THEME: HARDY HAR HAR — first parts of the first three themers represent someone LAUGHING OUT LOUD (65A: Bit of textspeak, unshortened ... or a hint to the starts of 17-, 27- and 49-Across)

Theme answers:

• HARDY BOYS SERIES (17A: Mysteries starting with "The Tower Treasure" and "The House on the Cliff")
• "HARPER VALLEY PTA" (27A: 1968 hit song that spawned a 1978 movie and a 1981 TV show)
• HARVARD GRADUATE (49A: Crimson alumnus) — pretty sure she meant "Crimson alumna"; she is one, after all

Word of the Day: XCI (21A: 91, to Nero) —

Roman numerals, the numeric system used in ancient Rome, employs combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as follows:

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.

The Roman numeral system is a cousin of Etruscan numerals. Use of Roman numerals continued after the decline of the Roman Empire. From the 14th century on, Roman numerals began to be replaced in most contexts by more convenient Hindu-Arabic numerals; however, this process was gradual, and the use of Roman numerals in some minor applications continues to this day. (wikipedia)

• • •

I can't really believe that "HARDY BOYS SERIES" (?!?!?) is a thing—by which I mean "a decent stand-alone answer"; the SERIES part feels forced—but it's Monday, so why not be a little loopy, if only to liven things up a bit? "Unshortening" LOL is kind of interesting, and the fact that all themers are 15s adds another unexpected (i.e. unMondaylike) dimension to the puzzle, so that's OK. The fill is living in the past, once again. Mostly short and old and boring. But I've seen much worse, for sure.

["And he can see no reasons 'cause there are no reasons..."]

Not much else to say about this, so see you tomorrow, I guess. Oh no, wait. Maybe I can talk about the awesomeness that was Lollapuzzoola 8, the crossword tourney I attended last weekend (Aug. 8). Sure, why not? So it's probably easiest to do as a kind of photo essay. I will keep it as short as possible (ed.: it's not short, iamsorrythatiamnotsorry). First we drove to our friends who live up the Hudson, and then took the train down into the city, only we started on the west side of the Hudson and then changed in NJ, which I would not recommend despite the early part of the trip which involved taking one of those awesome superhigh train bridges that get blown up in westerns. That was cool. But the ride over to NYC from Jersey was dire, in that it was all underground and eventually I was like "Why is everyone getting off?" because we'd never really picked up speed but that's apparently how one gets to Penn Station by train from NJ. Then we walked across town (we brought only backpacks) to the Hotel Chandler, which we stayed at 'cause we got a good deal and it was near where PuzzleGirl and Doug were staying and also I love Raymond Chandler, so all the stars were aligned.

 [I like being in New York *this* much...]

Our good friend Linda was in the city for some annual college reunion thingie she has with Carleton people, so we saw her for a drink, and then another drink and food, before heading out to meet up with crossword people. Angela (PuzzleGirl) likes Irish pubs so we went to one for dinner, and most people liked it but I thought it was meh. I left at some point to go drinking with my friend and future co-constructor Lena Webb at this place in the Bowery where her friend was bartending, a place called something "+" something ... gotta look it up. I want to say "Pork + Poutine," but that's not right ... aha, it's Saxon + Parole. Anyway, it was a lot of fun drinking whatever Lena put in my hand and talking crosswords with her and a few other people there (including Andrew Ries of Aries Puzzles).

[Brayden, me, Lena, in the opening credits of our new TV show, probably about lawyers]

The next day was the tourney. It was a gorgeous sunny Saturday and we got up early to blog the Saturday crossword in a crappy little Starbucks with Lena and her boyfriend Brayden (which, if you read last Saturday's write-up, you already know). Then we headed up to All Souls Church (home of the tourney), but not before dropping in on Oren's Daily Roast coffee shop, because ... well, Starbucks didn't cut it, and also, OREN! It's just so crossword-ish, I couldn't not go there on tourney day. The basement of All Souls was jammed—biggest attendance Lollapuzzoola has ever had at something over 200 competitors (!?). It's always overwhelming trying to say hi to all my friends and acquaintances and blog readers. Never enough time. But a great joy nonetheless. This year I decided to compete in the Pairs division (w/ my wife), which was fun even though we didn't win. I thought we just had to beat Karen von Haam and her mom, but there was this other couple that we didn't know about who had won the Pairs division the previous two years (Julian Ochrymowych & Marcia Hearst), and so even though my wife and I blew past Karen and her mom on the wicked hard Puzzle 4 and stayed ahead of them through the 5th and final puzzle, we still only came in 2nd, and (much to my chagrin) there is No Hardware for 2nd place in the Pairs division. Not even steak knives. Boooo! I want my trophy, Brian Cimmet!

 [Adesina Koiki (of "A Lot of Sports Talk") strikes a quintessential solver pose]

The puzzles were great. I mean, great. The easy ones, the brutal ones, all so thoughtful, so polished, so funny. Renewed my faith that crosswords can be awesome. Constructors were Patrick Blindauer, Anna Schechtman, Mike Nothnagel, joon pahk, Doug Peterson, and (for the final puzzle) Kevin Der. Final puzzle was back-breaking. Three of the very fastest solvers in the country solved it on stage, and only one of them actually finished—with less than 10 seconds to go, Francis Heaney pulled it out. Very exciting (moreso in the room than on video, but here's a taste anyway):


Then I had a lovely dinner out at Candle Cafe where I'm 73% sure Jonathan Franzen was at a nearby table, although it could've been just another bespectacled guy in his '50s. Then a long walk home because after a day of sitting and crossword-stressing and stress-eating, we needed it. Next day was the Blue Jays/Yankees game at Yankee Stadium after a nice morning walking around the Madison/30th area. Coffee at Birch Coffee where a nice man brought the his dog ("it's not mine, I'm dogsitting") in and chatted us up and when he found out where we were from cried, "Oh, BingHAMton ... with the balloons!" This was technically correct, as the annual SpiedieFest & Balloon Rally (a Binghamton summer staple) had just happened. "I read about it in 'Time Out New York.'" ANYway, went to the game with a bunch of folks and the Jays beat the Yankees, who couldn't score to save their lives and who were shut out at home two days in a row for the first time in like a billion years. Group of raucous, drunken Jays fans were the most entertaining part of the game. Still, there was beer, and a bright green field, and my friends, so the day was not a waste.

[Superfriends! Also dorks.]

After the game we ended up going down to the Union Square area for reasons I don't quite remember, and eating Brazilian food, and then wandering over to the Flatiron Building area in search of ice cream. We "settled" for gelato at Eataly (a terrible pun, but Great gelato and espresso). That was the most magical part of the weekend, sitting outside near the Flatiron Building, drinking coffee and eating gelato as the sun set. Who was there? PuzzleGirl, Brad Wilber, tourney co-organizer Brian Cimmet, Doug Peterson, Penelope, Erik Agard, and Mike Nothnagel. I think that's everyone. (Finn Vigeland ditched us after the game to be with people of his own hip, young demographic, and Sam Ezersky ditched us before the game even ended, in order to catch a bus back to VA.).

 [Penelope and Erik in the classic back-to-back defensive gelato-eating posture]

And that was my weekend. Nice leisurely Monday morning walk up to Grand Central, where I saw the fabulous Rachel Dratch (and tried not to stare/squeal in admiration) and also saw a yoga / athletic-wear commercial of some kind being filmed. Lots of different kinds of lean, muscular people standing around waiting for their turn on camera while an assistant kept adjusting and readjusting and rereadjusting the yoga mat in the middle of the station as the sunlight shifted. Nice leisurely train ride up the Hudson. Nice lunch with friend in Beacon (where I weirdly saw a member of my department walking along the sidewalk), then back across the river to Cornwall to retrieve our car and drive home. So, the upshot is, the tourney rules, NYC rules, people are nice, puzzles can be great if you treat them right, the Flatiron Building is beautiful at sunset, train rides along the Hudson are oddly soothing, and if you don't go to Lollapuzzoola next year (or Indie 500 in DC next May/June—a similarly entertaining and professionally-run tourney), then I don't know what to say. You better have a good excuse.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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