Double Dip for Denis

Kudos to my friend Denis O'Hare, who I've written about previously here and here. It was Good Friday for Denis last week, who not only had a movie opening, but (and this is the exciting part)—was in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle!

Ah, swoon.

The movie was "The Eagle," starring Channing Tatum (or is it Tatum Channing?) and Jamie "Billy Elliot" Bell. Denis got to ride a horse, wear a breast-plate, the whole nine yards. Haven't seen it yet (hey, my kid had to make a totem pole devoted to early-African-American surveyor and almanac-maker Benjamin Banneker —it's as exciting as it sounds—why a totem pole for Black History Month? Don't ask me, it's progressive) but I plan to. Poor Channing endured some extra-testicular torture on set which sounded pretty painful.

"The boiling water poured where?"

But enough of Hollywood. What warms the cockles (and not in the Channing Tatum way) of my heart is Mr. O'Hare's inclusion in Friday's crossword. I'm a pretty religious devotee of the NYT crossword; I sit down with my iPad and do it pretty much every day but Saturday (best time: 7:46 on Monday). So I let out a scream of surprise when I saw 32-Down: "Actor O'Hare from 'Milk.'" It's odd, to say the least, when one part of your life pops up in another.

Here's the puzzle, completed, courtesy of the most excellent crossword blogger Rex Parker (http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/):

My time? A deplorable 1:57. But it was worth it.