Greetings from home this week and, without a work trip scheduled anytime soon, for the foreseeable future. For those wondering/guessing, I was in Boston last week and posted the blog entry from Logan Airport. We’ve had a stretch of beautiful weather here in Baltimore the past week, but it’s starting to get hot and humid, as it does in the heart of the summer. So let’s stay cool and solve this week’s puzzle inside.
- Name: Going to the Togs
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 76
- Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 6:24)
The title didn’t mean anything to me until about halfway through the solve when I saw that the last words of the metaphorical theme phrases were all articles of clothing (“togs”). Pretty straightforward:
- 17A: [Without thinking twice]: AT THE DROP OF A HAT – I easily got this one, well…
- 22A: [Pretentiously posh]: FANCY PANTS – Really wanted this to be fancy schmancy.
- 37A: [Treatment for the touchy]: KID GLOVES – For some reason I initially spelled it “kidd.”
- 51A: [Be outed?]: GET THE BOOT – I got a kick out of this clue/answer pair.
- 59A: [“Get ready for lean times”]: TIGHTEN YOUR BELT – I would think one would need to tighten their belt some time after the lean times have set in, but best to be prepared, I guess.
This was an easy solve, and I was actually surprised to see my time was over 6 minutes as it felt faster than that. I got the first six across answers one after another, then started working pretty much directly N to S.
Canadian content
- 14A: [Dark time in Drummondville]: NUIT – I didn’t realize Drummondville was so close to Montreal and Trois-Rivières.
- 26D: [Ontario’s cap. City region]: GTA – That’s the Great Toronto Area, in case you hadn’t seen it in this puzzle a few times already.
- 31A; [Freedom Convoy city, 2022]: OTTAWA – When then came to Washington, DC they were more the Free-Dumb Convoy as they tried to roll in the area’s notorious traffic and basically were absorbed by it and disappeared.
- 35A: [“Only ________ you say? Pity!” (Red Rose ad phrase)]: IN CANADA – I was not familiar with this ad but I can see why it was popular.
- 39D: [Comic Hassan or journalist Velshi]: ALI – These Canadian Alis are fairly well known in the US as well.
- 60A: [Montreal Canadiens grp. until 1917]: NHA – I assume this means National Hockey Association… a quick google… yes!
Other stuff:
- 20A: [Prepare to store, as a cord]: COIL UP – For some reason I could only think of a cord of wood and racked my brain to come up with a 6-letter word for “stack” or “cut to length.”
- 33D: [E, at Bata]: WIDE – I almost made this Canadian content as I have been to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto and was hoping that its namesake was Canadian. Alas, he’s Czech.
- 43D: [Midday (ahem) meetings]: NOONERS – I believe I made a comment similar to the clue when this entry was clued innocently in a previous puzzle. 😉
- 65A: [“Wonderfilled” brand]: OREO – This account tracks how often the word “OREO” appears in the New York Times crossword. Give them a follow, and while you’re there, follow me.
Quote of the week:
“As a society I think we should come together and say “a tote bag is just not a good free gift with a subscription””
–Ali Hassan