OMG I totally spaced on the blog this week – work is crazy busy and family things happening. Here’s a quick recap of this week’s puzzle – hope everyone is doing well.
- Name: All Shook Up
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 70
- Difficulty: Very easy (my solve time: 5:04)
From the title I figured anagrams would play into this week’s theme and I was right – the themers are phrases where the second half is anagrammed (“shook up”) from the first half (or vice versa) and clued punnily:
- 19A: [More pale-looking seafaring thieves?]: PASTIER PIRATES – I got the first half quickly and the lightbulb came on – knowing the gimmick really helped with solving the rest of the puzzle, hence my 4th-fastest solve time ever.
- 31A: [Ceramics makers stage a protest?]: POTTERS PROTEST – What would a potters protest look like? A bunch of muddy folks spinning n circles?
- 39A: [Most cautious restaurant servers?]: WARIEST WAITERS – I think restaurant workers have plenty to be wary about.
- 52A: [Mass deliverers are doggedly determined?]: PRIESTS PERSIST – This one gave me the most (i.e., a tiny bit of) trouble, as “mass deliverers” made me think of UPS or Amazon workers transporting a lot of stuff. It became clear quickly, though.
Admittedly I was in a quick-solving mindset seeing as I should have finished this about 20 hours ago, but this was a smooth solve. Anagrams are usually hard for me to see, but for some reason these came to me pretty quickly, probably because I was able to get the crosses easily. I liked the theme and think it was well executed, and I can see where it might be a more difficult solve.
Canadian content:
- 1D: [St. Lawrence peninsula]: GASPE – I’ve sailed past this peninsula several times but it’s name escaped me so needed most of the crosses to get it.
- 8D: [Canadian yard, roughly]: METRE – Initially I was thinking of the size of a plot of land a house was on, not a length, so was trying to fit “acre” or “hectare” in here. I guess it’s a North American yard, since it’s the same length in the US by agreement of several nations.
- 11D: [Bluenose coin]: DIME – I knew this one right off having sailed alongside Bluenose in a Tall Ships parade many years ago.
- 12D: [Feminine ones, in Québec]: UNES – I can never get the pronunciation of “un” or “une” right and always get strange looks from Francophones when I try to say it.
- 28D: [Polar beast on a toonie]: BEAR – Why isn’t it called a “bearie”?
Other stuff:
- 27A: [Brass instruments rarely playing the melody]: TUBAS – I played tuba in my college marching band, but never played the melody, unlike this tune by the Canadian Brass.
- 37A: [“The Raven” poet’s initials]: EAP – Gotta call out Baltimore’s favourite Edgar Allan Poe, who penned the namesake of our NFL team. And he’s the source of this week’s quote.
- 59A: [Cheese type meaning “recooked” in Italian]: RICOTTA – Coincidentally, “biscotti” means “twice baked.”
- 42D: [Tech stuff destined for the dump]: E-WASTE – Most “words” that use the “e-” preface are awful and I hate seeing them in crosswords; they seem like a cheat to help a constructor out of a bind. But I think e-waste is a good and legit entry, as well as a looming problem.
Quote of the week:
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream”
– Edgar Allan Poe, from ‘A Dream Within a Dream’, 1849