Going Pro

Greetings this week from an undisclosed location (Hint: Read my bio – feel free to leave your guesses about where I am in the comments). I’m on only my second work trip of the pandemic – I used to travel about every other week in the Before Times – so this blog is fueled by hotel wifi and fast food meals. But having Barb’s puzzle to solve is a little like being at home so lets see what she has to offer this week…

• Title: Going Pro
• Grid size: 15×15
• Number of entries: 70
• Difficulty: Easy (my solve time 6:26*)

“Going Pro” is the title of this week’s puzzle, and before solving I thought it was a play on the name of the GoPro sport camera and that maybe the themers would all have GO and PRO in them or something like that. However, the theme uses the meaning of “pro” as being “for” something so each of the themers is a common phrase with the word FOR added in to make a new phrase, which is then ?-clued:

• 20A: [Party invitation to an amnesiac?]: COME AND FORGET IT – Once the amnesiac is at the party the host will need to say “Come and get it!” once the food’s out – several times, I suspect.
• 25A: [Declaring a kid’s card game verboten?]: FORBIDDING WAR – I haven’t played the card game War in – ahem – years, but I’ve lost a bidding war for the purchase of a house, so feel free to take a guess at my age in the comments. I will not acknowledge correct answers.
• 43A: [Pardon someone for poking you?]: FORGIVE A NUDGE – I often need someone to give [me] a nudge to remember to do something, so I always forgive them.
• 49A: [Headlock first, strangle hold next, then half-nelson?]: WRESTLING FORMAT – I have no idea if that is a logical progression for wrestling grips (I think that’s the right term), but I know they are all performed on a wrestling mat.

This was a pretty traditional “start in the NE and work gradually S” solve for me though I did have an unexpected snag*. It felt like a smooth solve and my time reflects that; some of the Canadian content and obliquely-clued fill slowed me down but the crosses came fairly easily. I really liked this one – fun theme and interesting fill, all well clued.

Canadian content:

• 25D: [Sainte-___ Quebec City suburb]: FOY – This has appeared at least once in previous ClassiCanadian puzzles.
• 41A: [Chris Hadfield’s Ontario birthplace]: SARNIA – This one is right in my wheelhouse for multiple reasons:
  • I’m a huge Chris Hadfield fan. If you haven’t seen his version of “Space Oddity” click that link RIGHT NOW. OK, now you’re back from that:
  • I have been to Sarnia and sailed past it many times while on a ship on the Great Lakes. I spoke with Sarnia Traffic on the radio many times.
  • Finally, I look at Sarnia pretty much every day from the StreamTime LIVE Port Huron camera which I love operating as well.
  • If you’re guessing where I am this week and think it might be in or near Sarnia from the picture in my bio, guess again.
• 45A: [Butter ____ (iconic Canadian treat)]: TART – I didn’t think I knew of these until I saw pictures and read the recipes for them. My wife makes these or something very close and they’re delicious (she hasn’t a drop of Canadian blood).
• 62A: [Mad scientist of Action Man toys]: DR X – One of my mistakes; I’m counting this as Canadian since Action Man was the UK version of G.I. Joe and there was an RCMP uniform available for him.

Other stuff:

• 2D: [Vocal quality of Ferris Bueller’s teacher]: MONOTONE – I knew this one right off as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is one of my favourite movies of all time. (Another clue for those playing the “guess my age” game)
• 8D: [Prefix meaning “four”]: TETR – Yeah, with my last name beginning with those four letters I learned this early on.
• 10D: [Gloria who led Miami Sound Machine]: ESTEFAN – My major error – I had ESTABAN (which I thought had been accepted as correct), I caught it when I saw 20A as COME AND FORGAT ABOUT IT and thought Barb had made a mistake. I was just about to email her when I said “I ought to check my own work first” and found I had totally mangled Gloria’s last name. 🙄
• 11D: [Will Shortz, for the New York Times crossword, e.g.]: EDITOR – While I have my nits to pick with Will Shortz, my Twitter handle is purely out of love.
• 15A: [Short letters?]: IOU – This may be a perfect clue – nearly cryptic, but just this side of that line.
• 24A: [“Time Cycle” composer Lukas ____]: FOSS – Another one of my mistakes. Absolutely no idea on this one even after Googling, as I got some confusing results that seemed to imply “Lukas Foss” was a band and “Time Cycle” was one of their albums, and… well, let’s just leave it at that.
• 29D: [Lennon’s tribute to Ono]: WOMAN – This is true, but I had the lovely “Oh Yoko!” in mind for this one.

Tip of the week: If you haven’t travelled in a while, be sure to triple check what you’ve packed because, if not, you will definitely forget something.

*My time this week is actually a tad slower because I thought I got the “Congratulations!” pop up from Across Lite (I didn’t, but I hit “OK” too quick to notice) when it turned out I actually had 3 wrong entries, which I found when reviewing the grid to write up this blog. But I think I would have caught them pretty quickly on review.