Oct 29, 2010 10:05 AM

Decoder Ring: Stephen Colbert Encounters Some Real Gridlock

Stephen Colbert encounters himself in black and white — in the New York Times crossword. Plus, runaway trains and submarines, the World Puzzle Championship, and (of course) Brett Favre.

Welcome to Decoder Ring, the roundup of topical puzzles and puns the world serves up for our amusement, if only we take the time to notice. If you come across some, send them to decodewired@gmail.com.

The 39-Across Report: This week’s highest-profile puzzle was Tuesday’s New York Times crossword (spoiler here), a highly timely tribute to Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, which invades Washington, D.C., tomorrow. Colbert took notice of the puzzle and demanded recompense:

The Colbert ReportMon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

<a then Appears in the York Times</emssword Puzzle</a>a targe[ertnation.com</a>

<](http://www.colbertnation.com/)d style="_blanull Episodes</a> <a target="n> <a target="n[ar Alive</a>

The](http://www.colbertnation.com/video/tag/March to Keep Fear Alive) le was authorby Chris Handman — though you wouldn’t know it from the clip, as Handman’s credit line was bafflingly covered up by a Post-it note. (Crossword puzzlemakers, rally against having your names covered by Post-its!) Times newcomer man allow Seattle puzzle blogger Jim Horne write about the construction process on <a href="http://wordplayplayg</a> puzzle went fronception on September 28 to publication on October 25, which required a monumental amount of scrambling and approvals. Editor Will Shortz told me this week: “I began to have

gngs about the puzzle two weeks ago, because the rally/march was starting to take on a partisan tone, and I don’t want NYT solvers to k tossword shows a political bias. Just before I left New York for the WPC [see below], I iled the <ees‘ standarditor,ng out the facts and asking his opinion. He gave the puzzle his blessing. (Whew!) The bottom line is how elegant the theme is, with the two events on Saturday each having titles of 5 + 15 letters, with the 15-letter parts starting with infinitives and stretching cleanly across the grid. Wow. That STEWART and COLBERT are seven letters each, thus balancing themselves symmetrically, is a terrific bonus. Crossword constructors kill for coincidences like this. Despite the ephemeralness of the theme and the potential for some solvers to object on political grounds, I thought it was just too amazing not to run. I’m really pleased with the result. The blog comments have been overwhelmingly positive. And to get a personal shout-out on Colbert’s show Tuesday night — very cool!” Things t

ranity this week: <ul> <li>T

re- n a less aptly named vessel than the British submarine H.M.S. Astute, h last week w astute it <a href="http://www.nydantry of Scotland</a>.</li> <li>Speaking e

ransport that crash into things, my television is ablaze with commercials for <a href="http://www.metae new Tony m about a runaway train loaded with dangerous chemicals. Okay, that could neveppen wait, it did! The film is “inspired by true events,” specifically the staggering story of <a href="http://kohlin.cled uncolled through northeast Ohio carrying two cars of molten phenol — something you do not want crashing into your town. It’s amazing that no one saw this coming, because if a train is going to go insane, it’s the one whose number leads people to call it “Crazy Eights.” (Bonus bit of pointless fun: Unstoppable stahris Pine. wntown Seattle, two neighboring streets are Pine Street and Pike Street. Both, as it turns out, have the names of captains named Chris from the recent Star Trek film:is Pine p Kirk, and fictional character Christopher Pike was Kirk’s superior officer. What? I told you it was pointless.)</li> <li>Could this wee s- the death knell of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre’s awe-inspiring consecutive-games-started streak? Favre’s at 291 regular season games, which is one game behind Manning — that is, Peyton and Eli Manning cineho, as the active QBs with the second and third longest streaks, have 198 and 94 starts respectively. Combined, the brothers Manning caught Favre in that category last week, and they seem unlikely to stop at 292. Favre has an avulsion fracture in his ankle — though given the sordid photographs he allegedly sent to former Jets hostess Jenn Sterger, maybe a revulsion fracturill end F’s streak first. (Then again, given the rather private nature of the photos in question, maybe “streak” isn’t the word Favre wants to hear.) Puzzlemaker Eric Harshbarger reminds me that Sterger spelled backward is REGRETS, which means that “looking back, Favre might have regrets.”</li> </ul> T e Nrong> Last week,Rofer joined the Decoder Ring of Honor by being being the first of many to drop the knowledge that “Dash Point Road” translates to a Morse code “N” (that is, “dash, dot”). This week, inspired by reader Cory Calhoun’s suggestion, I want to know what this series of words anagrams to: APROPOS, BALKIER, DESIST, DODGER, FORESTS, KEYNOTES, and LAMEST. If you’re the first to send all seven related anagrams to <a href="decodewired@gma>, you’ll be a Ringer. Where th

eweek: About 30 msaw, knocking noggins in the <a href="http://wpc2010.p</a>, the hardest puzzlepetition in the world. National teams from all over the world battle head-to-head over language-neutral puzzles which are not at all kind. The USA won the team challenge, and Taro Arimatsu of Japan won the individual title. I had the honor to co-write the team event when it was last held in the United States; you can read my writeup of that <a href="http://www.math throwdown</a> if you like. We’ll more coverage upcoming in Decode. Mike Selinke

and puzzle designer who heads the Seattle-area studio Lone Shark Games. He also writes a blog about non-puzzly stuff called <a href="http://selinkers</a>.