We’re a third of the way through August already – blink and you’ll miss it. I’m starting to see signs of the end of summer – some trees just barely starting to change colour, more leaves in my yard after a breeze, and clear nights are getting almost pleasantly cool. Fine by me – bring on a nice long fall like the nice long spring we had here. I have a couple of short trips the next two weekends, but they shouldn’t interfere with my solving and blogging, so let’s get into this week’s puzzle.
- Name: Both Sides Now
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 70
- Difficulty: Medium (my solve time: 7:40)
The title didn’t really register with me, and I didn’t get the theme until after I finished the solve and was reviewing the grid. Turns out Barb has used this title before, but for a different gimmick. This time, the themers are common words or phrases with certain letters circled; the circled letters spell “street” in alternating directions and the revealer is “two way street” – i.e., one on which you can drive in different directions on both sides:
- 15A: [Refusal to speak to]: ⓈILENⓉ TⓇⒺATMⒺNⓉ – An eastbound street starts us off. The silent treatment is an awful and childish way to treat someone – don’t do it.
- 31A: [Business tricks not to be shared]: ⓉRADⒺ SⒺCⓇEⓉⓈ – Now heading west. At least we didn’t do a UEY or UIE 😡 To a minor extent, in my job I have to be concerned with trade secrets.
- 38A: [Under-the-tongue measurements]: ⓉⒺMPⒺⓇAⓉUREⓈ – We continue westbound, into the sunset. I never thought about it but a recent podcast I listened to pointed out that other than when using the Kelvin scale, there isn’t a mathematical relationship between two temperatures; i.e., 40℃ isn’t “twice as hot” as 20℃.
- 58A; [Wetlands worker’s spray]: INⓈECⓉ ⓇⒺPⒺLLENⓉ – And back east to finish. As much as I have tried to abate the mosquitoes in my yard, I also need to use insect repellent when sitting out on my deck in the evening (as I am now).
- 64A/65A: [With 65-Across, situation requiring give-and-take, and what’s shown in the words formed by the circled letters]: TWO WAY STREET – We’ve driven on both sides now – time to head home.
I never really felt comfortable with this solve – several times I entered an answer then erased it, only to end up reentering it as the correct answer. Not sure why – it wasn’t particularly difficult, though there were a few oddball entries, and while it solved as essentially a themeless I never felt I hit any real snags. Maybe I’m just particularly tired – I’ve had a few long days at work. I considered rating it Medium Hard, but looking at my stats 7:40 falls right about in the middle of solves I’ve previously rated Medium.
Canadian content:
- 23D: [___ de Montréal]: ILE – Having been there just a few weeks ago I should have known this one right off, but I needed at least one cross.
- 59D: [E-file destination]: CRA – Well I knew this wasn’t IRS, but took me a while to remember the Canada Revenue Agency.
That’s it unless I missed something – feel free to point out anything you see int he comments below.
Other stuff:
- 1A: [Difficult Scrabble pieces to play]: C TILES – I initially put Q-tiles in here, as that is definitely my hardest to play, but I can see where C can be difficult as well.
- 20A: [Hulking galoot]: APE – I put OAF in here, which caused me to remove START from 15D, which I had to reverse later on.
- 22D: [“Divine” Midler]: MISS M – I confidently put BETTE in here which caused me to remove (and later replace) STEWS in 34A.
- 27D: [“Golden Boy” playwright]: ODETS – I knew absolutely nothing about Clifford Odets before this puzzle, not even sure I’d ever heard the name of the play before. So he’s the source of this week’s quote.
- 29A: [Kind of down]: EIDER – Had the “sad” meaning of “down” in my head for way too long, so needed all the crosses for this one.
Quote of the week:
“Music is the great cheer-up in the language of all countries.”
– Clifford Odets