Greetings everyone – it’s still hot and humid, and I had four things to do today and only got two of them done – and neither were this blog entry. So I’m a little behind the eight ball here, and will try to keep it short and sweet. Let’s go!
- Name: For Your Ears Only
- Grid size: 15×15
- Entries: 68
- Difficulty: Hard (my solve time: 8:48)
All I could think of after I saw “For Your Ears Only” was the theme song to the James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only.” But the theme has nothing to do with that – the themers are common phrases clued straight, the answer includes a synonym for “story” as per the revealer:
- 17A: [Ruthless adversary]: MORTAL ENEMY – A tale is a type of story.
- 27A: [She/her designation]: FEMALE GENDER – A legend is a type of story.
- 31A: [Cartoon featuring a boy with a football-shaped head]: HEY ARNOLD – A yarn is a type of story. I tried to fit “Peanuts” in here – but Charlie Brown’s head is only football-shaped if you call soccer football.
- 39A: [Really loses it]: BLOWS A GASKET – A saga is a type of story, especially in Iceland.
- 54A: [Privileged information, and what 17-, 27-, 31- and 39-Across have in common]: INSIDE STORY – The revealer.
A hard one with no real toehold until I had a lot of random-hopping-around-the-grid fill entered and was able to get a few of the themers. I didn’t suss the theme until I had finished, but it was pretty obvious. If I’d started in the SE and got the revealer sooner, it may have heloed with the solve. There is (was if Barb sees my email and sends out a correction) an error at 11D – I’m pretty sure Barb had LEMONADE in there at some point but during the construction had to shorten it to LE MONDE and didn’t catch the necessary clue change. It was pretty obvious to me, so I don’t think it really affected my solve time given the difficulty of the puzzle overall. The idea of “stories” is the inspiration for this week’s quote.
Canadian content:
- 1D: [Like the Blue Jays stadium]: DOMED – If I recall correctly, Rogers Centre (then SkyDome) was the first baseball stadium with a retractable roof.
- 10D: [CSIS member]: SPY – While I’m sure the Canadian Security Intelligence Service employs analysts and administrative staff, I’m fine calling them all spies.
- 19A: [Summer setting in NWT]: MDT– The Northwest Territories observe Mountain Daylight Time in the summer.
- 22A: [National ___ (Canadian daily)]: POST – I’m not too familiar with the reporting of The National Post, but I just followed them on Bluesky so we’ll see.
- 35D: [“The National” or “World Report”]: CBC NEWS – “The National” and “World Report” are, respectively, TV and radio news shows of the Canadian Broadcasting Service.
- 38A: [Canadian passenger rail line]: VIA– I have a bucket list item to do a trans-Canada rail trip, and I guess It will be on VIA if I ever get to it.
- 50A: [Big Alberta resource]: OIL– The oil sands are a major source for oil from Alberta.
Other stuff:
- Running behind so I may add to this later – check back or add your own in the comments below.
Quote of the week:
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– Maya Angelou