It’s February 9th, 2022 and on this day in 1964 the Beatles made their 1st appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and drew 73.7 million television viewers. Now that the trivia is out of the way, let’s check out this week’s puzzle.

• Title: Click Me, Click Me!
• Grid size: 15×15
• Number of entries: 70
• Difficulty: Medium hard (my solve time: 8:21)

I had no idea what to expect from the title and didn’t get the theme until after I had completed the solve. The themers are common phrases clued straight; the first word of the phrase is something you’d find on most web sites:

• 22A: [*Out of the woods]: HOME FREE – Clicking the home link will take you to the main page of the site.
• 28A: [*Around this time]: ABOUT NOW – If you want to find out more information on the company or organization running the site, click the about link.
• 34A: [*They have a solution for those with poor vision?]: CONTACT LENSES – OK, it’s not clued straight, but the punny clue doesn’t have anything to do with the theme. If you want to communicate with the organization the website is about, click contact.
• 41A: [*”How am I supposed to know?”]: SEARCH ME – To find specific information on a site, click the search link. In my experience, this is rarely successful.
• 50A: [*Haul off unceremoniously]: CART AWAY – If you have clicked on items for sale on the site, click the cart link to see what you plan to buy and how much it will set you back.
• 63A: [Place to find the starts of the starred clues’ answers]: WEB SITES – the revealer.

The themers are in the same order in the grid as you normally find them on web sites (at least in my experience) so that’s clever. However, there is some mildly clunky fill to make the theme work, e.g., as a formerly frequent poker player I’ve never heard 36D used in a game; I normally have seen 47D spelled “pawpaw;” and 60A is far more obscure than anything else in the grid, and awkwardly crossed with 56D and 57D. But those are minor issues and mostly due to my own shortcomings. Otherwise there is some lovely fill (4D, 55A) and the usual clever cluing (32A, 34A) so still an enjoyable solve  This was tough for me; not sure why but it took a while to get a toehold, then it was stop and start the whole way. Maybe I should not try to solve until after I have had my 2nd cup of coffee for the day.

Canadian content

• 21D: [Knife of the north]: ULU – Having lived in Alaska for several years, I knew this right off. In Alaskan airports (and I assume northern Canadian ones as well)  there were signs warning tourists returning home that their souvenir ulus had to be packed in checked baggage or else they would be confiscated by security. Kind of surprised we don’t see this word used more often in crosswords.
• 42D: [Summer event a.k.a “The Ex”]: CNE – I’m guessing “Canadian National Exposition” – *quick google search* – yep.
• 57D: [Atl. shopper’s add-on]: HST – Still scratching my head over what “Atl.” is an abbreviation for, but it was easy enough to figure out that a “shopper’s add-on” was a tax, and a couple of lucky guesses at the crosses gave me the Harmonized Sales Tax.

And that’s it unless I missed something – feel free to educate or excoriate me in the comments below.

Other stuff:

• 1A: [“___ for Alibi (Grafton title)]: A IS – Sue Grafton has ben a godsend for crossword constructors with her alphabetically-titled “_ is for _____” series of private investigator novels. I didn’t realize the series ended at “Y is for Yesterday” –  she passed before she could write “Z is for Zero.”
• 6D: [Executive office: Abbr.]: STE – Short for “suite” in a business address. A missed Canadian content opportunity here: “Sault ___ Marie, Ont.”
• 26D: [“Je pense, ____ je suis.”]: DONC – I recognized this translated as “I think, therefore I am” but couldn’t remember French for “therefore.” I actually like this statement more in French than English. (duh)
• 36D: [Poker player’s “pass”]: NO BET – At first I though the clue was in error and was supposed to say “bridge” instead of “poker” because I had “no bid” incorrectly entered.
• 46A: [Words from birds]: CHEEPS – As an avid Twitter user I immediately put in “tweets,” then when that didn’t work “chirps,” and finally figured out the correct answer. So that added to my solve time.
• 47D: [Fleshy tropical melon]: PAPAW – Stumped me for a good long while, as I know of a “pawpaw” but apparently it can also be spelled “papaw” as well as “paw paw, or paw-paw, among many regional names” according to Wikipedia.
• 55A: [Ferocious flesh-eating fish]: PIRANHA – I knew the answer immediately but couldn’t remember how to spell it – where the heck does that “H” go?! I wordled it through several positions before finding it worked as the “Harmonized” part of 57D through process of elimination and a little luck.
• 60A: [Poetic kin of an iamb]: ANAPEST – Initially had no idea on this one, so really had to rely on crosses. Which was tough, as I know a different spelling of 47D, I had “yips” for 52D, and no idea on 56D and 57D. So this area was the last to fall.

Quote of the week:
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
– John Lennon