Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2023! I wish you all the best for this year and hopefully it will be far better than the last several years.
- Name: Business As Un-usual
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 70
- Difficulty: Very Easy (my solve time: 5:16)
I misread the title several times as Business As Usual so it took me a little while to get the punny theme. Luckily, I had another speedy solve so I got to see it soon enough: The themers are occupations that are clued punnily using phrases often used to describe how a business is doing:
- 17A: [Their business is picking up?]: TRASH COLLECTORS – Trash collectors pick up garbage, and if there’s more and more garbage, their business will definitely be picking up.
- 25A: [Their business is going under?]: DEEP SEA DIVERS – Deep sea divers, work under water, if there’s not enough water their business would possibly go under, or you could say business is drying up.
- 42A: [Their business is taking off?]: EXOTIC DANCERS – Exotic dancers take off their clothes, I guess if they get a lot of spectators, their business would really take off.
- 56A: [Their business is growing?]: HORTICULTURISTS – Horticulturists grow plants, including exotic plants, which are very different from exotic dancers, but I digress. If they grow many desirable plants for sale, then their business would definitely be growing.
I’m on a roll the past month or so – three of the last four weeks’ solve times are in my all-time top ten fastest. I don’t think the puzzles are getting easier, I think it may be that after several years of solving Barb’s puzzles and over a year of writing this blog every week, I may be picking up on Barb’s style and some of her quirks and tricks. In any event, a smooth, quick solve that barely gave me time to enjoy the clever theme. I liked that not only were the themers clued punnily, but all the clues had to do with how business was going. The only one I had trouble with was 56A as I kept wanting to spell it “horticulturalists” which is how I have wrongly been spelling and pronouncing it pretty much my entire life.
Canadian content:
- 29D: [C.P.P. recipients]: SRS – Seniors are eligible to receive payments from the Canada Pension Plan.
- 32A: [T.O.’s big bash]: CNE – The Canadian National Exposition is indeed a big bash, and has been clued here before as “The Ex.”
- 53D: [Shallowest Great Lake]: ERIE – Lake Erie is pretty much bisected by the US-Canada border, so I’m calling this Canadian content.
- 61A: [Canadian Club or Wiser’s]: RYE – While I enjoy Canadian Club every now and then I still haven’t tried Wiser’s. Need to correct that some time.
Other stuff:
- 1A: [So-called “missing link”]: APEMAN – I knew I was going to have a quick solve when this answer came to me immediately, though I bet I haven’t heard that word used in decades.
- 11A: [Him: Ger.]: IHN – Though I’ve visited Germany several times and work with several German-speaking colleagues, I don’t think I’ve ever come across this word before..
- 32A: [Like a white-tie event]: CLASSY – I initially wanted to put FORMAL in here but it didn’t work with 26D, so I needed a few more crosses.
- 44D: [Wit and vivacity]: ESPRIT – I could not get “elan” out of my head.
Quote of the week:
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
—Oscar Wilde