Welcome to April everyone, and happy holidays to those who celebrate. I’m having a hectic week, so this may be posted later than usual, but don’t let that stop you from solving. Come to think of it, I hope you’re not reading this before you solve, since I basically give away most of the answers below… In any event, let’s get to it.
- Name: Auto Incorrect
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 70
- Difficulty: Medium (my solve time: 9:58*)
I thought too hard about the title this week, figuring that the gimmick would be that a part of the themer was misspelled, especially when I had a confidently entered wrong entry crossing the one of the themers. As it turns out, the title was actually a pun on the theme – the themers were phrases often used idiomatically (and clued that way), which also could be taken literally as actions a driver might take that would cause them to fail a driving (road) test:
- 15A: [Have absolutely no regrets]: NEVER LOOK BACK – They say you should not worry about the past because there’s nothing you can do about it; easy if you never look back. If you do that when taking a driving test, the tester will probably fail you, especially when you back into something.
- 26A: [Misinterpret as an insult, perhaps]: TAKE THE WRONG WAY – It’s bad enough to misunderstand something; it’d be worse to get lost during your driving test.
- 44A: [Force to retreat with no escape]: BACK INTO A CORNER – A retreat with no escape is basically a defeat, so that’s bad. On top of being lost, and failing to look back, then you back into a corner (the curb, I assume) – you are not getting your license today, pal.
- 58A: [What those who 15-, 26-, and 44-Across might do]: FAIL A ROAD TEST – The revealer. I honestly had no clue what the gimmick was until I got this one and had an “a-ha!” moment. Very clever.
For reasons, I didn’t solve this using my usual application Across Lite, instead using an online solving site. Being unfamiliar with the interface and having several non-solve related interruptions added at least a minute and a half to my solve time, *so while my 9:58 clock time would normally call for a rating of Medium Hard or Hard, I called it a medium. It was a pretty smooth solve with a few missteps, but nothing huge. It’s a really nice puzzle with the long themers/revealer (2 grid spanners) and lots of interesting fill.
Canadian content:
- 2D: [Game show host who was once a CBC news anchor]: TREBEK – I know only one Canadian game show host, and I had the lead “T” so it was pretty easy.
- 25D: [Salmon also called chinook]: TYEE – This is the one I confidently put in as “COHO” and it misled me to think the ends of the crossing themer was misspelled (e.g., WHO instead of WAY) which could have been done by auto correct. So that led me astray and made the revealer a real “a-ha!” moment. According to this New Zealand (?) site, “The name Tyee means ‘Chief’ in the local language of British Columbia where they were originally found.”
- 35A: [CFL’s Elks, on a scoreboard]: EDM – The Edmonton Elks didn’t have a great 2022 season, but there’s always next year – and the 2023 season starts in May.
- 39D: [CTV news anchor Sandie]: RINALDO – I don’t even watch American TV news so I needed all the crosses for this one.
- 49A: [Fredericton-St. John dir.]: SSE – I spent a little time in the Maritimes and know where St. John is, but was kind of fuzzy on Fredericton’s location but figured it had to be inland and probably north from there, so guessed south-southeast and 👍.
- 61A: [Ontario’s Elgin county setting]: LAKE ERIE – I’m quite familiar with Lake Erie and know many of the cities and towns on its shore, but not too familiar with the counties. Luckily by the time I read the clue I had ___EERIE in the grid, so…
- 63A: [Rapper who hosted CBC’s “Q”]: SHAD – While I’ve listened to “Q” it hasn’t been recently, and I have very little knowledge of rappers, Canadian or otherwise. So I needed pretty much all the crosses and took a wild guess at 55D/63A as my last remaining blank square and was pleasantly surprised to have a clean solve.
Other stuff:
- 1A: [Poor sleeper’s woe: Var.]: APNOEA – Since the first hit doing a search on “apnoea” is from the Scottish National Health Service I’m guessing this is a British English variant of our “apnea.”
- 8A: [X-ray units]: RADS – I confidently put in “RAYS” completely ignoring that that would violate the no-answers-in-the-clue rule and that a “ray” is a pretty non-specific “unit” for x-rays.
- 19A: [Eff-aitch link]: GEE – Not a big fan of this clue, but it is clever. However I’m most upset by the missed Canadian content opportunity – the actress who plays my favourite character (Drummer) on The Expanse – Cara Gee!
- 41A: [Something to do with your buds?]: TASTE – Ha! Taste beers, of course.
- 45D: [Models a new dress, maybe]: TWIRLS – It’s funny how sometimes you notice something that’s rare or you haven’t seen much before and then you start seeing it everywhere. This is about the fourth puzzle I’ve done in the last week that has had “twirls” as an answer.
- 55D: [Miley Cyrus’s singing sis]: NOAH – I didn’t know Miley had a sibling, much less a singing sister with an unusual name. So had to guess at the last letter.
Quote of the week:
“You know how Wile E. Coyote only falls into the canyon when he looks down? Just don’t f-ing look down.”
– Tom Tomorrow (Happy Birthday, Dan!)