Boo! Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all are able to enjoy the crisp fall air and hand out goodies to the neighbourhood kids. Halloween has been kind of a bust the past two years during the pandemic, but hopefully things will take a turn for the better this year. No Halloween-themed puzzle this week, but it is decorated quite festively, so I guess it’s dressed up for trick-or-treating. Let’s get to it.
- Name: A Man of Many Colours
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 74
- Difficulty: Medium Easy (my solve time: 6:51)
I was kind of scratching my head over the title – I get the “many colours,” but didn’t get the “man” part. Until just as I was starting to write this I took a look at the grid again, and the “man” popped out at me: ROY G BIV – the mnemonic you use to remember the order of the colours in a rainbow. The circled letters in the grid are all colors that work with the Across clues to form a phrase:
- 18A: [Special occasion marked on a calendar]: RED LETTER DAY – On the calendars issued by the U.S. government the holidays are indicated by red letters for the date.
- 23A: [Tangerine kin with crimson flesh]: BLOOD ORANGE – While I’m familiar with the fruit, I just learned that Blood Orange is also a musician.
- 30A: [Donovan hit with the lyrics “They call me ___]: MELLOW YELLOW – OK great – now I have this song running through my head… “E-lec-tri-cal banana…”
- 35A: [Niblets mascot who says “ho ho ho”]: JOLLY GREEN GIANT – If you’re not familiar with this mascot, here’s 21 minutes of commercials to educate you.
- 43A: [Winnipeg football player]: BLUE BOMBER – Looks like they’re doing pretty well this season – they’re 14-3 and lead the CFL West Division
- 52A: [“Hammer and Nail” folk duo]: INDIGO GIRLS – Amy Ray and Emily Saliers met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students. And they are the source for this week’s quote.
- 57A: [Extremely timid type]: SHRINKING VIOLET – The first violet that comes to my mind is Violet Beauregarde, and she was no shrinking violet – quite the (literal) opposite.
It would have ben a neat trick to make the colours work in the down entries as well, but that would have been quite difficult (if not impossible). It was a nice touch to have them in the correct order and have just the first letters work with the down entries. It was a pretty smooth solve for me, with only a few snags that I had to leave blank and return to later.
Canadian content:
- 11A: [Two-in-one levy in P.E.I.]: HST – I was unaware of the Harmonized Sales Tax – it combines the previous provincial sales tax (PST) and the goods and services tax (GST).
- 22A: [Angus ____ Institute (vote tracker)]: REID – “Canada’s non-profit foundation committed to independent research.”
- 28D: [Canadian Club or Wiser’s]: RYE – I’ve had Canadian Club but never Wiser’s – I’ll add it to my shopping list. My home state of Maryland used to be known for rye whiskey, and it’s kind of making a comeback.
- 43A: [Winnipeg football player]: BLUE BOMBER – Also a themer.
- 50A; [Algonquin babies, or baby carriers]: PAPOOSES – While I have not seen it used in an offensive way (and I don’t think it is offensive as used in the puzzle), this word may be considered offensive, particularly when referring to a First Nations child. “Archaeological information indicates that Algonquin people have lived in the Ottawa Valley for at least 8,000 years before the Europeans arrived in North America.”
- 51D: [Upper house of “le Parlement”]: SENAT – One of three parts of the Canadian Parliament – wait, “three?” I didn’t realize the monarch was considered part of Parliament.
- 52D: [Former NHL hockey announcer Dick]: IRVIN – His dad was quite the hockey player and rather famous himself.
Other stuff:
- 16A: [What to say in a throat exam]: AAH – I never know if this is AAH or AHH – used the wrong one first, of course…
- 24D: [He wrote of a chocolate factory]: DAHL – I was a voracious reader of Roald Dahl when I was growing up; I probably got to his collections of racy short stories a bit younger than I should have. This entry is probably why Violet Beauregarde came to mind when I solved 57A.
- 29A: [Naturopathic herb]: SENNA – I had no idea what this was – had henna in there briefly, but knew it was wrong. Senna apparently has some efficacy for certain conditions.
- 39A: [Have, in the Hebrides]: HAE – Drew a blank on this. and crossed with 39D this was the last square filled.
- 39D: [Letters meaning hypertension]: HBP – I thought this would be an abbreviation for some medical term, not just high blood pressure.
Quote of the week:
“There’s more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.”
– Indigo Girls