I dare say spring has finally sprung – the temperature is warm, I can go for my daily walk in shorts and T-shirt, and we’re getting the deck ready for enjoying morning coffee and evening refreshments. I hope it’s getting nice wherever you are, though I see the middle of the continent had some nasty weather recently – I hope everyone came through OK. On to this week’s puzzle…

• Title: Cobble It Together
• Grid size: 15×15
• Number of entries: 74
• Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 6:24)

A smooth but unfortunately not clean solve for me due to an overlooked typo. The theme is a clever one that brought a smile – the themers are common phrases where the final words in the phrases can be “cobbled together” as they are parts of a shoe:

• 18A: [In a shabby state]: DOWN AT THE HEEL – I drew a blank on this phrase and hadn’t figured out the theme yet so needed nearly all the crosses to get this one. What a heel!
• 27A: [Boneless seafood entrée]: FILLET OF SOLE – I initially had “filet” to start, so took a while to get this one. Apparently both spellings are correct and you can choose whether or not to pronounce the ending “T.” Well, bless my sole.
• 34A: [Energizer, as caffeine or sugar]: PICKER UPPER – I wanted to put “pick me up” in here, but obviously it wasn’t long enough. That’s a downer, man.
• 44A: [Smooth talker’s gift]: SILVER TONGUE – Got this one right off, you silver-tongued devil.
• 57A: [Place to step up or step down]: STAIR TREAD – I initially had the meaning of “take office or resign from office” for the clue, but couldn’t figure out how “podium” or “dais” fit with the theme… Better tread lightly with this one.

Started out a bit slowly in the NW, picked up speed as I moved E and S; maybe too much speed as evidenced by the typo… My solve time was almost half a minute faster than my average for Barb’s puzzles, so I called this Easy. However, I did have one mistake, and there were definitely some non-easy fill such as 49A and 65A, so your experience may vary.

Canadian content

• 2D: [Highway 401 province]: ONTARIO – I was unaware of this highway, but I probably drove on a portion of it at some point when we had family friends living in London, Ont. or when I lived in Detroit and periodically visited Windsor.
• 15A: [Prov. riding electee]: MLA – I remembered this being used in a recent puzzle but didn’t remember what it stood for… let’s see… “Member of the Legislative Assembly.”
• 22A: [N.A.’s only transcontinental trains]: CNS – I didn’t realize (nor did I ever really think about) that Canadian National is the only North American transcontinental railroad. I didn’t realize that they ran trains all the way to the southern US as well.
• 24D: [Grp. with many kickoffs]: CFL – I figured it wouldn’t be the National Football League but rather their Canadian counterparts.
• 40A: [Roadside Assistance grp.]: CAA – If you have a flat or your battery goes dead, it is a relief to be a member of the Canadian Automobile Association.
• 58D: [“___du-Prince Édouard”]: ILE – I’m familiar with Prince Edward Island, so it was easy to see it in French.
• 63A: [CBC sitcom about an inept teacher]: MR D – I have to admit that I’d never heard of this apparently popular show (it ran for 8 seasons and was the biggest midseason debut for the CBC 2011–12 season), but I see it is now available for streaming in the US so I may check it out.
• 65A: [“A Little Bit of Red” singer Ryder]: SERENA – I’m not familiar with Ms. Ryder’s work, though this song seems vaguely familiar, and I like her genre of music so I will have to check out more of her songs.

Other stuff:

• 7D: [Sound of a murder]: CAW – This is a really clever clue, though I guess the sound a murder of crows would actually be “caws.”
• 8A: [Spanish “white”]: BLANCA – I had the masculine “blanco” in for a while until I figured out 13D.
• 14A: [____ -Penh, Cambodia]: PNOM – I normally see this spelled “Phnom” so was scratching my head where to put the “h” before realizing it was only 4 letters, which is an alternate spelling.
• 24A: [Blend together, as butter and sugar]: CREAM – I have made cookies many times and had to combine butter and sugar, but I don’t think I ever knew that was to “cream” them.
• 41A: [Exasperated cry from Cathy]: ACK – I knew this immediately and confidently put in “Ach!” I guess if Cathy was German, maybe…

Quote of the week:
Opening day is the best day of the year – it means spring is here, baseball is back, and everyone’s happy since their favorite team is in first place.
– Me, earlier this week
(actually, I heard it from a colleague many years ago and have remembered it every year since)