“Beware the ides of March.” Well, I guess that was yesterday, but that’s when I solved today’s puzzle. I just learned that the “ides” of a month are tied to moon phases. So keep an eye on the moon and let’s get to this week’s puzzle.

• Title: A Mixture of Music
• Grid size: 15×15
• Number of entries: 74
• Difficulty: Very Hard (my solve time: 15:58)

Oof. This was a tough one for me. So much I didn’t know (and maybe a few unfair entries/crosses…). After two puzzles in 3 weeks that I finished in the top 10 of all time fast solves, this one ends up being the Slowest Solve Ever™️. Gory details below; the theme was actually pretty straightforward – two songs that share a word in their titles, mashed together and clued as a “collaboration” between their (presumably) well-known singers: 

• 17A: [Burton Cummings/Jim Croce collaboration?: NO TIME IN A BOTTLE – I have no idea who Burton Cummings is, but I know the Jim Croce song “Time in a Bottle” very well. “No Time” is a song I recognize but would be hard pressed (until now) to tell you who sang it.
• 27A: [Elton John/Hall & Oates collaboration?]: ROCKET MANEATER – Easiest themer for me to get; very familiar with “Rocket Man” and as a child (well, young adult) of the 80’s “Maneater” instantly became an earworm.
• 47A: [Bruce Springsteen/Bryan Adams collaboration?]: BORN TO RUN TO YOU – 2nd easiest for me to get as a longtime fan of the Boss and I well remember hearing “Born to Run” played on my high school radio station in between classes. “Run to You” is a little less familiar, but definitely know Bryan Adams as he spells his first name incorrectly 😉
• 59A: [Melissa Etheridge/Beatles collaboration?]: YES I AM THE WALRUS – The themer I liked the most and had the hardest time getting for several reasons.

Ironically ( I think I’m using that correctly here), I got the theme pretty quickly, but had the hardest time remembering the songs and totally whiffed on lots of the fill. I wracked my brain trying to remember the Bryan Adams hit and while I am very familiar with “Yes I Am,” several wrong entries had me blank on “I am the Walrus.” Just a trainwreck of a solve for me. Specifics under “Other Stuff” below.

Canadian content

• 5A: [Prov. party electee]: MLA – I was today years old when I learned that elected members of Provincial and Territorial legislative bodies are referred to as “Members of the Legislative Assembly” (except in Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador) – I like this way of distinguishing between national and regional members of the legislature.
• 17A: [Burton Cummings/Jim Croce collaboration?: NO TIME IN A BOTTLE – Burton Cummings was born in Winnipeg on the very last day of 1947.
• 34D: [Yuk. or Nun.]: TERR – Yukon and Nunavut are territories, along with Northwest which made an appearance here recently if I recall correctly.
• 47A: [Bruce Springsteen/Bryan Adams collaboration?]: BORN TO RUN TO YOU – Bryan Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario and is one of the best selling music artists of all time.
• 5D: [Lady of LaSalle: Abbr.]: MME – Assuming the LaSalle in the Clue is the one in Quebec, the abbreviation for Madame applies.

Other stuff:

• 5D: [Combo word for a blue sky blocker]: SMAZE – I really had to reach way back for this – I knew it as a portmanteau of “smoke” and “haze”, but entered and erased it several times because I thought it was too obscure and not used much any more.
• 14A: [Good guy for a think tank]: IDEAS MAN – I’d always heard this as “idea man,” but I guess in a think tank you want many ideas so…
• 35D: [Make germ-free]: SANITATE – Sanitize. What on earth is sanitate? I am really curious to hear if this stumped anyone else – let me know in the comments below.
• 38A: [“Brave New World” pills]: SOMA – I’ll admit that I haven’t read “Brave New World,” but this seems like a really deep cut.
• 40D: [____ Hassan, Arabian Nights character]: ABOU – Crossed with 38A, 46A, and 53A – oof.
• 41D: [Side dish bowlful]: SOUP – I usually have soup as a main course, so all I could think of was cole “slaw.”
• 52D: [South American rodent]: COYPU – Come on. How on earth would anyone get that? This word has only been in the New York Times crossword 7 times since 1955 and the last appearance (and only one in the “Shortz era”) was in 1998. Feel free to commiserate with me in the comments, or let me know how ignorant I am of a well-known, crossword-friendly, South American critter.
• 53A: [Chow down]: GRUB UP – Is this a Canadianism? I’d never heard this phrase before and it totally killed me in SE
• 54A: [Org. in thge “Six Million Dollar Man”]: OSI – Obscure trivia about a popular but forgettable 70’s TV series (that I think I watched every episode!) crossed with the unknowable 52D. Only way I got it was to run the vowels that had to be the 2nd letter in 52D.
• 56D: [“____ quiet!”] OH BE – I had “or be” quiet in here for so long it’s embarrassing.
• 60D: [Some pasta endings]: INI – That I had ONI in here for a long time helped hide “Yes I Am” from me.

Tip of the week:

Stop multitasking. It seldom works as you do each task less effectively. You also end up wasting time by forcing your brain to switch back and forth between tasks.