Greetings everyone – back home after a short but enjoyable weekend in Montreal. I didn’t notice any of the smoke from the Quebec fires during my visit, but it was here to greet me in Baltimore on my return home. Rain is helping wash it away now, so there’s that silver lining. On to this week’s puzzle.
- Title: In the Midst of It All
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 80
- Difficulty: Medium (my solve time: 6:59)
I completely forgot the title during the solve, and the solve seemed a lot like a themeless. When I went to review and figure out the theme, I think the title actually misled me a bit; only when I read the revealer did the lightbulb come on. The themers (all common, unrelated words or phrases clued straight) all have the letters REC in the middle of the word – hence “REC CENTRE”:
- 18A: [Worthless stuff]: DRECK – “Dreck” comes from Yiddish (filth, trash), and German before that.
- 25A: [“I’ll do it easy!”]: SURE CAN – “Simple as pie!” was the first thing that came to mind but obviously wouldn’t fit (and wouldn’t fit the theme either).
- 33A: [Military enlistee]: ARMY RECRUIT – “Navy” would have worked as well, but not the other services. Although it still would have allowed the execrable “UEY” at 26D. Yuck.
- 48A: [___-Roman wrestling]: GRECO – This was actually the theme for Tuesday’s New York times puzzle – the themers were figures from Greek and Roman mythology crossing each other in the grid (with different names, of course).
- 69A: [Sports facility featured in five Across answers]: REC CENTRE – The revealer; ironically in which REC is not at the centre of the answer.
This was a mostly smooth solve – except until I got to the SW corner. I had no idea whatsoever what 68A was, especially since I was positive I had nearly all the crosses correct. Well, it turns out while you don’t call your “Nan” Mom either, BE DUE makes more sense than BEDAE. I also wasn’t sure if 19A ended with a C or a K, but that was easy to figure out. Otherwise an enjoyable solve, with some nice long interesting entries (3D, 11D), and broken symmetry, I guess to make the revealer fit.
Canadian content:
- 10D: [“Barrett’s Privateers” singer Rogers]: STAN – Though I couldn’t remember the name of this song, I am very familiar with the work of Stan Rogers and have several of his albums.
- 19A: [Ex-Vancouver Canuck Stojanov]: ALEK – As mentioned above, didn’t know whether his name ended in C or K (or possibly X, but I knew 13D wasn’t TIX TOK). He was born in Windsor, so solid Canadian content.
- 41D: [Financial rival of TD]: RBC – It appears they are still officially the Royal Bank of Canada as opposed to many companies who now officially go by their initials only (IBM, KFC, etc.).
- 56D: [“Race Against the ___” (CBC sand sculpting show)]: TIDE – Never heard of this show but easy enough to figure out. I’ve seen a gazillion other creative reality shows (baking, cooking, glassblowing, pottery, fashion, etc.) so might as well try to find this one.
- 67D: [Antacid brand]: ENO – While it appears you can get Eno in the US, I’m guessing it’s much more well known in Canada. Also nice to see someone/thing other than poor Brian used as a clue for this word.
Other stuff:
- 20A: [Island between Sicily and Africa]: MALTA – I pride myself on my geographic knowledge but my mental map had Malta way further west in the Mediterranean.
- 26D: [Driver’s one-eighty]: UEY – I dislike this entry with white-hot ire, along with UIE and any other infernal permutations.
- 43A: [Instrument in “I Got You Babe”]: OBOE – Never really thought about it, but I would have guessed it was an English Horn.
- 54A: [Rudder area]: AFT – While technically correct, aft is mainly used to indicate direction aboard a vessel (or in relation to a vessel), whereas the rudder is normally located in the stern.
- 68A: [Anticipate a birth day]: BE DUE – As mentioned above this caused me a bit of trouble. Part of it was the confidence that I had all the crosses correct, but also that I failed to parse the answer as two words.
Quote of the week:
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
– Jack Handey