Happy September everyone. As predicted last week it’s here, but it apparently dragged July and August with it to bring the warmest days of the year, so definitely not my kind of September yet. I’m off on an international trip next week and I expect the weather to be more seasonal when I return. Until then, let’s set up the fan, grab a cold drink, and get to this week’s puzzle.
- Name: Crosswalks
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 74
- Difficulty: Medium Easy (my solve time: 6:52)
What the title meant was pretty obvious upon opening the grid – two words cross each other, as indicated by the circles. The themers are regular entries, but the circled letters spell words that are kinds of (or describe) walks – hence “Crosswalks:”
- 4D: [Takes chances]: GⒶⓂⒷⓁⒺS – To amble is to “walk or move at a slow, relaxed pace.” It’s crossed with…
- 17A: [___ party (group sleepover)]: SⓁⓊⓂⒷⒺⓇ – To lumber is to describe “slow, heavy, and awkward movement, often involving dragging or carrying something heavy.” Not to be confused with building materials (or smoking materials, apparently).
- 19D: [Oblong overhead advertiser]: BⓁⒾⓂⓅ – To limp is to “walk with difficulty, typically because of a damaged or stiff leg or foot.” Instead of “blimp” I had “billboard” stuck in my head so it took a while to get this. It’s crossed with…
- 29A: [Highway turnoffs]: EXIⓉ ⓇⒶⓂⓅS – To tramp is to walk “heavily or noisily.” It’s also used to describe people not very nicely.
- 36D: [Harsh-sounding]: ⓈⓉⓇⒾⒹⒺNT – To stride is to walk “with long, decisive steps in a specified direction.” It’s crossed with…
- 47A: [Oprah’s book picks, to some]: MUSⓉ ⓇⒺⒶⒹS – To tread is to walk “in a specified way.”
- 43D: [Collapse Inward]: IMⓅⓁⓄⒹⒺ – To plod is to walk “doggedly and slowly with heavy steps” (I have no idea why the circled “P” is showing up smaller than the other letters). It’s crossed with…
- 60A: [Molasses crumb pie]: SⒽⓄⓄⒻLY – To hoof is to “go on foot.” See below for more info on shoofly pie.
This one seemed slightly harder than last week but not all that much so gets the same difficulty rating, even though my time was nearly 30 seconds slower. Some of that is attributable to having a silly typo that took a bit to find. I thought “UPC” for 11A but entered “UPS.” So “SOAST” had me scratching my head for a bit. I figured out the theme pretty early, but the solve was so smooth I didn’t really need to use it to help; I think the only entry it helped with was 36D where I wanted to enter SERIOUS but of course that doesn’t fit.
Canadian content:
- 8A: [Rt. ___ Prime Minister]: HON – I’ve sometimes wondered what the “Right Honourable” meant in a title, so I looked it up. I mainly know it as part of the name of a ship seen frequently on the Great Lakes.
- 13D: [One end of a cross-Canada trek]: COAST – This was the last to fall – I had mis-entered 11A as UPS and thought it was possible that Soast was a coastal town I’d never head of, maybe in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia? Or maybe I had 16A wrong, and 13D was actually “S East” which maybe is a way to refer to the Maritimes? Then I realized I had 11A wrong and finally got the happy pop up.
- 25A: [Bay St. share trader, pre-2002]: TSE – “In 2001, the Toronto Stock Exchange acquired the Canadian Venture Exchange, which was renamed the TSX Venture Exchange in 2002; this resulted in the creation of a parent to the TSX, the TSX Group. This ended 123 years of the usage of TSE as a Canadian stock exchange.”
- 57D: [CBC Journalist Tomlinson]: ASHA – Needed all the crosses to get this one. According to the CBC website “Asha began her career as a writer in Toronto and quickly moved in front of the camera, reporting in London, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Iqaluit.”
- 59D: [Baie-Comeau bag]: SAC – Apparently It’s ship week in the blog – Baie Comeau is frequently seen plying the Great Lakes as well.
Other stuff:
- 32A: [Utter, old style]: SAYST – More commonly seen as “sayest” – and by commonly I mean uncommonly.
- 50A: [Group that Finland joined, April/23]: NATO – Welcome, Finland!
- 58A: [They don’t pitch right]: LEFTIES – Very clever clue and answer. This baseball fan (I’m watching a game while writing this) figured it was some other “pitch” than baseball. Left-handed pitchers are also called “southpaws.”
- 60A: [Molasses crumb pie]: SHOOFLY – After my miss a couple of weeks ago I had to check to see where this dessert originated to make sure it wasn’t Canadian. Pre-pandemic there was a nice restaurant near where I live called the “Shoo-fly Cafe” if I recall correctly. Sadly, they’re no longer in business.
- 62D: [Eon’s one billion: Abbr.]: YRS – I didn’t realize that an eon had a specific number of years to it – I always thought that it was just a really long time.
- 67A: [“Dot dot dot” alternative]: ETC – The amateur radio operator in me really wanted this to be SOS (incorrect, as it would actually be …—…) or ESS as “…” in Morse code is the letter S.
Quote of the week:
“Haul the sheet in as we ride on the wind
That our forefathers harnessed before us
Hear the bells ring as the tight rigging sings
It’s a son of a gun of a chorus”
– Jimmy Buffett