Guest crossword by Tony Orbach

CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE: [ OY! MTV RAPS] 
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]

PROGRAM: [Java]

PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ OY! MTV RAPS]

PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]

ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ OY! MTV RAPS] 
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]

I can understand those who frequently mistake me for Tony Orbach. We’re practically the same person. We both write crossword puzzlers. We’re both parents. We both used to be in rock bands (Tony in action circa 2008, yours truly in 06). Really, the only difference between us is that Tony’s dad is regularly on television and my dad’s never been on once. Speaking of Mr. Orbach, the above’s a picture of Jerry and Tony taken just last week, if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, I’m glad to have this puzzle. Let’s do the interview.

BEQ: So how’d you get into puzzles in the first place?

Tony: My father loved crosswords. He did the New York Times every day but also did the second puzzles on Sundays and the Times of London cryptics. Being a musical theater person he was friends with Stephen Sondheim, who would come to our house with Mary Ann Madden when they were the puzzle gurus at New York Magazine. Mary Ann’s wordplay contests were discussed in our house each week. The fun those generated! Along with the fact that I had a serious crush on Mary Ann, I was pretty well hooked on playing with words from about age 10.

A breakthrough puzzle moment came while working a Thomas Middleton acrostic with my dad when I was about 12. He was slowing down a bit and I noticed the clue {Omnipresent} and, with no letters, meekly offered “Uh, dad? Is that ‘UBIQUITOUS?” The kudos he gave me hooked me deeper on all things puzzly.

I took my first stab at constructing a puzzle while in the van with my band. If memory serves, we were somewhere near the Natrick/Framingham exit … It was a Puns and Anagrams puzzle for my dad, which I gave him for his birthday. The only clue/entry I remember was 9 letters: {Gave A- to Broadway’s Jerry in Russian Studies class}

BEQ: Talk to me about your band.

Tony: I played the tenor sax in the band, Urban Blight. We played from the end of the 70s, when half of us graduated from high school, on through the 80s and into the 90s. As children of the 60s and 70s, we loved funk, rock, ska and pop and pretty much incorporated all of it into our original music. We played with a lot of different bands over the years, but my favorite bill was Red Hot Chili Peppers, Urban Blight and the Count Basie Big Band! We played on a snowy night in Buffalo when the entire city was watching the Grateful Dead play the stadium.

I still love to play and am currently doing some gigs with my trumpet-playing friend, Kevin Batchelor, and we have a new CD with his band Grand Concourse. It is original ska music. Yes, this is more than a 3-letter bit of crosswordese for me.

BEQ: So your dad’s a puzzlehead, you’re a puzzlehead, are your kids puzzleheads?

Tony: My kids are into puzzles too, to varying degrees. My daughter Sarah Kate, 22, has attended the ACPT with me since I first went, the year they filmed “Wordplay. She is a two-time “Best Handwriting” champ. It has become our yearly ritual, and has expanded to include wife Martha and son Peter who mostly like to hang out in our old home of Brooklyn and talk with all the wonderful puzzle people.

No spoilers here, but Peter actually provided the seed entry for this puzzle. We were in the car and a certain artist came on the radio and Peter blurted out the tweaked name. It still makes me laugh, and I want to credit him for it.

BEQ: I know you’ve done some solo work as well as some collaborations, I think some of your best stuff is done with Patrick Blindauer. Now, we all know Pat’s one of the All-Time greatest guys on the planet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tease him. Do you have any funny Patrick Blindauer stories?

Tony: One time a bunch of us went to the Second Avenue Deli after Patrick’s boss, Peter Gordon, and I decided that the midwestern-raised Patrick needed to learn about New York Jewish deli food. As a native New Yorker, I know about all kinds of ethnic foods and take for granted that everyone does. However, if we’d ever talk about rugelach or kugel Patrick hadn’t the foggiest what we were on about. Well, we ordered a sampler of all the classics for young Patrick to try, and he gamely tried and enjoyed all. At some point near the end of the meal, Patrick took note of the wallpaper, which has a pattern of the restaurant’s logo (the restaurant’s name, in an Hebraic-looking font) and he asked, “Those symbols; is there a Chinese affiliation to this place?” After a beat, the whole table burst out in laughter, with Patrick laughing hardest, to the point of tears. He really did not know this stuff!