Happy August everyone – can it be September now? Actually, despite the hot and often stormy weather, August is one of my favourite months. I’m a little biased, as it’s my birth month, but growing up I liked that my birthday was in a month when school was out and there were no holidays to steal attention from me (I always pitied my cousin Noel – guess when he was born). More recently, it’s become the month I do a road trip to Port Huron (across the St. Clair River from Sarnia) to join up with other ship watching geeks. My picture on the main blog page was taken on my first such trip several years ago. While I wait for time to pass before I head out on that trip, let’s turn to this week’s puzzle.
- Name: Double Talk
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 76
- Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 6:08)
Well, with a title like “Double Talk” you knew it was likely to have two of something in the themers. I recently completed a puzzle where the themers were common phrases that had repeated words (e.g., “enough is enough” and “never say never”) so had that in mind as I started. I had the first few letters of the first themer (17A) and it was no help whatsoever. Then I got the last four letters and the lightbulb went on – the themers are phrases where the last two words are homophones clued punnily to “explain” the phrase:
- 17A: [Will beneficiary on a flight?]: UP IN THE AIR HEIR – An heir is someone who inherits money or possessions from someone else; if they were in an airplane they’d be “up in the air.”
- 31A: [Arab leader into vintage clothing?]: RETRO CHIC SHEIK – Retro chic is “a trend that revisits vintage fashion codes to adapt them to the modern world. This trend masters the art of mixing elements of the past with a touch of [the] contemporary.” A sheik is Arabic for the ruler of a tribe. While this is indeed a homophone of chic as usually pronounced in English, I spent some time in the Middle East and there it was usually pronounced “shake.”
- 38A: [Borscht veggie of the highest quality?]: CANT BE BEAT BEET – Any time you see “borscht” in a clue the answer is or includes BEET, unless it’s about Jewish comedians. “Can’t be beat” is an idiom for something that is so good, nothing can surpass it. A beet is a root vegetable that is often the main ingredient in the soup borscht.
- 51A: [Crack, to a glazier?]: WINDOW PANE PAIN – A glazier is a worker who installs window panes. It would indeed be a pain if one of the windows they were installing had a crack in it. I have some direct experience with this.
As often happens, I started out slowly and it took me a while to break in. I actually was at least a minute into the solve before I was confident anything I had entered was correct. Then I figured out the theme, and that really helped as I was able to guess them pretty quickly. A few minor snags where I didn’t know a Canadian actor, a type of bird, or the spelling of a trouncing. But a relatively major snag was the crossing of 47A/D. I couldn’t get “renowned” out of my head for 47D, and had “National” stuck in my head for 47A. So I left this blank until the end then ran the alphabet – luckily it wasn’t ZED/ZAMED.
Canadian content:
- 7D: [Canucks logo feature]: ORCA – Glad to see this clued as something other than killer whale.
- 15A: [Peterson of “Corner Gas”]: ERIC – Eric Peterson was born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan and played Oscar Leroy in “Corner Gas“.
- 26D: [First Nations leader]: CHIEF – I like that indigenous Canadians are referred to as “First Nations.”
- 43A: [T.O. summer fest]: CNE – The Canadian National Exhibition, better known as “The Ex” is held every summer in Toronto. This year the event runs from August 16 through September 2nd.
- 47A: [Not mun. or prov.]: FED – If it’s not municipal or provincial, the next step up is national. No wait – Federal.
- 57A: [St. Lawrence peninsula]: GASPE – I think I’ve previously related my story of getting fresh lobsters delivered to the ship I was on while we were sailing past the Gaspé Peninsula.
Other stuff:
- 10A: [Cowboy Rogers’ real surname]: SLYE – I was today years old when I learned that Roy Rogers was born Leonard Franklin Slye. I’m kind of surprised I haven’t seen it more often in puzzles, because those are some tasty letters that I bet could get a constructor out of a few jams.
- 14A: [Synthetic fibre brand]: ARNEL – This would have been a snag for me, but apparently I got all the crosses no problem, because I didn’t remember reading the clue when I reviewed the grid after finishing.
- 46A: [Sherpa’s workplace]: ALP – I thought Sherpas worked exclusively in the Himalayas, but apparently not.
- 48D: [Mudville slugger]: CASEY – You often see a clue like this for a sportsball team and the answer is the singular of the team name, e.g., [Baltimore slugger]: ORIOLE. So I was racking my brain trying to remember what the “Mudville nine” were called. Alas, they are never named in the classic poem. The final stanza is this week’s quote.
- 58A: [Similar (to)]: AKIN – Alternate clue: [Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Keegan].
Quote of the week:
“Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.”
–Ernest Lawrence Thayer