Hello April! It really snuck up on us, but even though I am generally a winter creature, I kind of like the longer days and of course the start of baseball season. I went to my first Orioles game the other night (which they won in a walk off), and I am getting ready for a road trip to see the eclipse next Monday – feel free to guess where I’m off to see it in the comments. Hint: On the train I rode a couple of weeks ago we made a stop at this city. On to the puzzle…
- Name: Custom-built for Critters
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 72
- Difficulty: Very Easy (my solve time: 4:55)
I had no idea what to expect from the title “Custom-built for Critters” – not even a guess, so I just hopped into the solve and went to it. As I say below, it was a smooth solve, and before long I had 35A mostly filled in from the crosses and saw __BONGO_____. I recalled that Barb’s email mentioned music lovers, and the title had “critters” in it, and the clue asked about monkeys… Gibbons are monkeys (well, not really) – Eureka! The themers are mashups of a kind of animal (critter) and a musical instrument. They’re clued punnily as if the resulting instrument was custom-built for the critter:
- 18A: [Church instrument built for vultures?]: CONDORGAN – I remember the huge effort to save the endangered California Condor back in the 1980’s. Maybe they’re recovered enough that they can spare a few to play hymns on a church organ?
- 23A: [Piano built for gobblers?]: TURKEYBOARD – Maybe if a turkey could play the keyboard it would be spared from being the Thanksgiving main dish.
- 35A: [Percussion instruments built for monkeys?]: GIBBONGO DRUMS – I described above how I discovered the theme from this entry. I’m guessing a gibbon would enjoy playing the bongo drums. I tried to find a video of a gibbongo drum player, but no luck so enjoy this short clip of a chimp playing the bongos.
- 49A: [Small guitar built for small crocs?]: CAIMANDOLIN – I got mandolin right off from a few crosses, but I don’t know how I remembered caiman – if you’d asked me what one was out of the blue, I’d have guessed a type of monkey.
- 56A: [Hawaiian instrument built for flounders?]: FLUKELELE – I think I got this one with few or no crosses – name me another Hawaiian instrument besides the ukelele. And when I realized the flounder was a fluke, I laughed out loud at the result.
From a Very Hard solve last week to a Very Easy solve this week, and a solve time nearly half of last week’s – gotta love my consistency! I was definitely on the wavelength of this one – smooth solving pretty much the whole way, and I caught the theme fairly early on. The only one I didn’t know and was the last entry in my solve was 6D – I seem to recall we had a recent clue for “FTS” that was a list of a bunch of “Ft. ___” towns in Alberta.
Canadian content:
- 6D: [Alberta oil town Fort ___, for short]: MAC – Fort McMurray bills itself as a wilderness town and the gateway to Wood Buffalo National Park.
- 21D: [Dam-generated power]: HYDRO – I am pretty sure Canada is the only place where high tension electric lines are called “hydro lines.”
Thats all I found – please let me know in the comments below if I missed any.
Other stuff:
- 7D: [Tolkien “Precious” bearer]: FRODO – A measure of how on the wavelength of this puzzle I was: I have never seen nor read any part of the “Lord of the Rings” series and I pay zero attention to anything related to it, but this came to me right off.
- 36D: [When Virgos and Libras are born]: IN AUTUMN – I had INAU_U__ and thought Barb made a mistake – I’m born in August and know we’re Leos, not Virgos or Libras. As usual, the mistake was mine.
- 44A: [30 foot-long Kipling character]: KAA – Like several other entries in this puzzle, I have no idea how I remembered this, but it came right to me.
- 60A: [“Feed the kitty” call]: MEW – More like a yowl of “Feed me!” in my house.
Quote of the week:
“You ask how I know of [redacted]
Well, I spent a week there one day
They’ve got entertainment to dazzle your eyes
You can go to the bakery and watch the buns rise!
Ah, but let’s not forget that the folks of [redacted]
Unselfishly gave us the scale
“No springs, honest weight,” that’s the promise they made
So smile and be thankful next time you’re weighed!
And “wiv and wet wiv”, let this be our motto
And let’s let those sleeping dogs lie
Here’s to the dogs of [redacted]
We bid you good ladies goodnight!”
– Randy Sparks (and another clue)