I’ve had a bit of a whirlwind few weeks – a short but fun trip to the midwest last weekend to visit a dear friend, went to my niece’s high school graduation yesterday, and keeping busy with plenty of work. I’m looking forward to taking a break, and completing this puzzle is part of that – come join me as we solve.
- Name: Growth Spurt
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 74
- Difficulty: Very Hard (my solve time: 11:34)

Screenshot
As often happens, I had no idea what the theme was going to be from the title. “Growth Spurt” could mean a reference to things that experience a brief, intense period of growth, or some sort of gradually-lengthening word gimmick, or maybe something else. The “growing word” gimmick is probably the closest way to describe it – the themers (all grid-spanners!) are phrases that start off with a word (or in the first one a letter) that builds on the starting word in the previous themer (except for the first one, obviously):
- 17A: [Casual summer attire]: Ⓣ-SHIRT AND SHORTS – We start off with T which isn’t really a word, but is used (and seen in crosswords) fairly often as a word standing in for the shape – think “sporty car roof style” (T-top). This was the last themer I got – I had the end of the phrase but not much of the start, so was trying to think of different kinds of shorts.
- 30A: [Not so much]: ⓉⓄ A LESSER EXTENT – We build to TO. I had a few crosses and got this one pretty quickly.
- 35A: [Dubliner’s cherry greeting]: ⓉⓄⓅ OF THE MORNING – And now TOP. This one gave me pause as I’ve mostly seen it as “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!” and I couldn’t make that work, then realized it’s the full spelling of the words.
- 44A: [Gives a little refill, as coffee]: ⓉⓄⓅⓈ UP ONES DRINK – Now we get to TOPS. I’ve sometime asked a coffee drinker if they want a “warmer” as a refill for their drink, so I had that in mind. Also, I usually hear that you “top off” a drink, but it was easy enough to get “up.”
- 58A: [Earth in utter chaos]: ⓉⓄⓅⓈⓎ TURVY WORLD – And we end up at TOPSY. The awkwardly worded clue gave me a hint that “world” was likely in the answer. The origin of topsy turvy is not completely known, but likely from the obsolete word “terve” which means “to overturn.” I say we bring terve back! “After review, the play is terved and the runner is safe at second.” As for Topsy, that was the name of an elephant that Thomas Edison allegedly electrocuted in order to show that his rival Tesla’s alternating current was more dangerous than the direct current Edison was promoting. This story is probably not true, but I learned it through an unusual event that I participated in back in 2005.
Nice gimmick, but I may be missing it if there is something more involved with building from T to TOPSY – let me know if you have thoughts in the comments below. I didn’t really see the gimmick until about 3/4 of the way through the solve, but it did help with getting a few letters. I doubt I would have ever got it if the letters weren’t circled. Lots of open space and those grid-spanners gave me pause, and it took me a while to break in. I came across several things I was not sure of or unfamiliar with, and the intersection of two of them cost me a clean solve.
Canadian content:
- 3D: [It was once “The Automaking Capital of Canada”]: OSHAWA – I’m embarrassed to say I had no idea on this one, and even more embarrassed to say that had OTTAWA in there for a short time. Poor Oshawa.
- 11D: [Jays or Leafs, on a scoreboard]: TOR – Even I knew right off that Toronto is home to the Blue Jays and Maple Leafs.
- 20A: [___-Sky Highway (Vancouver-Whistler highway)]: SEA TO – I drove some of the Sea-to-Sky Highway many years ago on my first visit to Vancouver. Unfortunately it was in awful weather with rain and lots of fog, so I didn’t see much. Still quite impressive.
- 39D: [David, son of onetime “As It Happens” host Barbara]: FRUM – I am more familiar with “As It Happens” than I am with “Q” but the son of a former host is beyond my knowledge.
- 51D: [“Bird on a Wire” singer Connie]: KALDOR – This is the one that cost me a clean solve – I’ve never heard of Connie Kaldor, and I though “Bird on a Wire” was most famously associated with Leonard Cohen – but that was “Bird on the Wire.” And actually, it appears Connie is more well known for “Bird on a Wing” so I’m not sure what’s happening here. Crossed with incorrect 53A, Connie Celdor seemed perfectly cromulent.
- 54A: [Rapper and “Q” host before Tom Power]: SHAD – Even though I’m pretty sure Shad has been in this puzzle before, I did not remember him. And I never knew of Tom Power – sorry, guys!
- 65A: [Rush or Sons of Otis]: TRIO – I got this from Rush, of course. But I’ll have to check out Sons of Otis sometime.
Other stuff:
- 19D: [Letter opener]: DEAR – OK – you got me. All I was thinking about was sharp pointy things until I got all the crosses.
- 38D: [French/Belgian river]: OISE – I tried Yser, Ouse, and others that are not on this list.
- 40D: [West who said “To err is human but if feels divine”]: MAE – Mae West had a lot of funny things to say, so she’s the source of this week’s quote.
- 46D: [Island of Hawaii’s capital]: OAHU – At first I thought the correct answer was was Hilo, which is the county seat for the island/county of Hawaii, so when I saw it was Oahu, I thought it was an error. Then I realized I had parsed the clue incorrectly, and it was asking what island the capital of the State of Hawaii was on.
- 53A: [Biggest size at Starbucks]: TRENTA – I was absolutely certain that Italian for 30 was trente. I guess I mixed it up with French.
Quote of the week:
“When caught between two evils I generally pick the one I’ve never tried before.”
– Mae West