Happy Nunavut Day! Let me know in the comments if you celebrated and how. I’ve never been to Nunavut, although I’ve been close enough to see it from a ship, and I’ve watched “North of North” and am waiting for Season 2 to come out. At the moment, I would much prefer to have their weather than the muggy, hot summer we’re having here. Too hot to sit out on the deck, so I’m sitting inside with a cold drink and a fan blowing on me. Wherever you are, I hope you’re staying cool and able to relax and spend a few minutes solving this weeks puzzle.
- Name: For Starters …
- Grid size: 15×15
- Entries: 76
- Difficulty: Very Easy (my solve time: 4:41)
Maybe I’m just hungry, but I expected “For Starters …” to have themers with appetizers included in the answers. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad theme idea… Well, until that crossword is created, here we have common phrases clued straight and starred (*) in the themer spots in the grid, and two entries – the first and last Across – with the same clue “Word that can precede the starts of the answers to the starred clues” and the respective answers are BLACK and WHITE:
- 18A: [*Parker Brothers product]: BOARD GAME – Parker Brothers (now Hasbro Games) created such well-known board games as Monopoly and Scrabble. You can write on both a blackboard and a whiteboard, but be sure to use the correct writing implement.
- 23A: [*Not too with it, mentally]: OUT TO LUNCH – Apparently the meaning of out to lunch has shifted from being absentminded to being crazy over the last few decades. You’re really not with it if you black out, and you definitely don’t want to get caught in a whiteout (though this is a good song).
- 37A: [*Mill beside a salt shaker]: PEPPER GRINDER – I love fresh ground pepper so we have several pepper grinders in our kitchen. I only have black pepper in my grinder, though I have a jar of white pepper as I use it in several recipes I make regularly.
- 51A: [*One who marries for money]: GOLD DIGGER – A gold digger is a person who only pursues romantic relationships with wealthy partners for financial gain. Black gold is a slang term for oil, as anyone who’s watched the opening of “The Beverly Hillbillies” knows. White gold is an alloy, made of pure yellow gold, with other metals like nickel, palladium, platinum and silver added to achieve the “white” color.
- 58A: [*Musical shift, as from G major to D major]: KEY CHANGE – A key change is a staple in pop music and is unofficially a required part of any Eurovision Song Contest entry. Black keys and white keys make up the piano keyboard that you’d be playing a key change on.
Unlike last week, this was smooth sailing from the get-go, and my solve time was my 2nd fastest of all time for ClassiCanadian puzzles. I essentially solved in a clockwise manner, then filled in the few blanks I had. Nothing really held me up, though I had “Niner” stuck in my head for 44A and needed the crosses for the last two letters of 32D. Though I prefer a bit more difficulty, this is an exceptionally well-crafted puzzle, with lots of themers – though I didn’t include them above, 1A and 69A are definitely part of the theme – and the fill is interesting and well-clued. This week’s quote takes its inspiration from the theme and the final themer (and because Nina Simone is a badass).
Canadian content:
- 16A: [Drake’s genre]: RAP – Aubrey Drake Graham was born in Toronto, and apparently he and Kendrick Lamar aren’t getting along too well.
- 22A: [Canadian Londoner, e.g.]: ONTARIAN – This is a great entry – interesting, unusual, but not impossible to get, and the clue is just vague enough that I thought “expat” for a moment.
- 44D: [Serviette]: NAPKIN – I first heard “serviette” used instead of “napkin” in Canada, so it’s Canadian to me even though apparently it’s commonly used in many countries that speak British english.
- 50A: [2002 detainee Maher ___]: ARAR– Maher Arar has had dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship since 1987. In September 2002 he was detained at New York’s JFK airport while attempting to make a connecting flight to Montreal. He was renditioned to Syria via Jordan where he was beaten and held for nearly a year before being released.
- 63D: [Singer Carly ___ Jepsen]: RAE – Carly Rae Jepsen was born in Mission, BC. In the summer of 2007, she placed third in the 5th season of “Canadian Idol.”
Other stuff:
- 7D: [Crazy as ___]: A LOON – Missed Canadian content opportunity: “What’s on a dollar coin?”
- 32D: [Globe-shaped]: SPHERIC – I got “spher” right off but then hesitated when I saw that “spherical” wouldn’t fit. So I moved on and got the crosses no problem.
- 47A: [Suffix with infer- or inter-]: NAL – Infernal is one of my favorite adjectives. But it did take me a bit to get this.
- 67A: [There’s ___ in “team”]: NO I – …but there is a “me!“
Quote of the week:
“Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It’s like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can’t be found on any instrument. That’s like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.”
– Nina Simone