October is here – my favorite month! So it’s the inspiration for this week’s quote. And it is a gorgeous day – clear, mild, sunny – and I’m sitting out on the deck enjoying it while solving crossword puzzles. The weather looks like it will be like this for the next week or so, which is great as I’m going to an outdoor oyster festival on Thursday and helping with a boat tour on Saturday. And I’m trying to ride my bicycle more; much easier to get motivated for that when the weather is nice. So I need to hurry up and finish this puzzle and blog entry so I can get out and enjoy it while it lasts – let’s go!

• Name: Reverse Psychology
• Grid size: 15×15
• Entries: 74
• Difficulty: Medium Easy (my solve time: 6:44)

I didn’t think much about it before solving, but “Reverse Psychology” would have given me a hint of the gimmick, and may have helped with the solve, not that I had that much trouble with it. The themers are common phrases (or a title) where the last word ends in ST; those final letters are reversed, and the resulting nonsense phrase is clued punnily:

• 17A: [Dijon Ditzes?]: FRENCH TWITS – A French twist is a simple but elegant hairstyle created by gathering the hair in one hand and twisting it upwards until it turns in on itself against the head, then securing it with bobby pins or other accessories. I don’t know if any of the characters in this book sport this hairstyle.
• 29A: [Act as chief grower of potatoes, turnips, beets, etc.?]: RULE THE ROOTS – One is said to rule the roost if they act in a domineering or haughty manner, similar to the dominant rooster in a chicken yard. I guess if you were really good at deriving mathematical exponents, you could also be said to rule the roots.
• 44A: [Utopic pieces of real estate?]: PARADISE LOTS – “Paradise Lost” is an epic poem by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674) that concerns the biblical story of the fall of man. If you owned several pieces of property in this town in Newfoundland and Labrador, they would be Paradise lots.
• 59A: [Feline A-listers?]: ALL STAR CATS – Any show, movie, etc., where the majority of the lead roles are played by big-name actors is said to have an all star cast. Here’s a picture of my all star cats when they were kittens and first tried their hand (paw?) at solving a crossword.

A smooth solve with only a few snags that were easily gettable from the crosses. It got slightly easier when I figured out the gimmick and had the last two letters of four entries.

Canadian content:

• 4D: [“Happy Feet” singer Fred]: PENNER – Fred Penner was born in Winnipeg (that’s a mini theme in this puzzle), and is known for the songs “Happy Feet” and “The Cat Came Back” and his television series “Fred Penner’s Place.”
• 26D: [“Let it Ride” group, for short]: BTO – Bachman-Turner Overdrive was founded in Winnipeg in 1973 by brothers Randy, Robbie, and Tim Bachman, along with Fred Turner.
• 37A: [Popular country song here?]: O CANADA – Congratulations to the Blue Jays for winning the American League East – I look forward to hearing this song play before the games deep into the playoffs and hopefully into the World Series.
• 38D: [Feature of CBC Radio but not CBC TV]: NO ADS – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation‘s funding is supplemented by revenue from advertising on its television broadcasts. CBC Radio employed commercials until 1974, but since then its primary radio networks have been commercial-free. In 2013, the CBC’s secondary radio networks, CBC Music and Ici Musique, introduced limited advertising of up to four minutes an hour, but this was discontinued in 2016.
• 40D: [Previous name of B.C.’s Nuu-Chah-Nulth nation]: NOOTKA – In 1778 Captain James Cook misunderstood the name of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth nation to be “Nootka.” The inlet where Cook first encountered the Nuu-Chah-Nulth is now known as Nootka Sound.
• 47D: [Ontario’s fourth largest lake]: SIMCOE – Lake Simcoe is the fourth largest lake located entirely within the borders of Ontario, after (large to small) Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul and Lake Nipissing.
• 62A: [Issa, Bob or Lara]: RAE – Bob Rae has been the Canadian representative to the United Nations since 2020. Lara Rae was born in Glasgow, Scotland but is a Canadian comedian best known as the longtime artistic director of the Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

Other stuff:

• 9D: [Hearty French soup]: POTAGE– All I could think of was French onion soup, so needed a few crosses before potage came to mind.
• 12D: [Raccoons’ back alley “diners”]: DUMPSTERS – They don’t call them trash pandas for nothing. And I just found a minor league ball club I now must go see.
• 39A: [Four years for a U.S. President]: ONE TERM – If only.
• 49A: [Port city of India]: SURAT – I was unfamiliar with the city of Surat, which is one of the fastest-growing in India.
• 56A: [Donald’s election competitor, 2024]: KAMALA – I’m trying so hard to forget 2024 that I initially entered “Joseph.” 🙄

Quote of the week:
“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell (from “Attachments“)