I forgot to welcome everyone into December last week, so a belated Happy December to all! It’s definitely getting to be winter-like here; we’ve had a few dustings of snow with promises of more between now and the end of the year. Speaking of the end of the year, you’ve seen Barb’s news, so let’s savour the last few of these unique puzzles and hope we can still periodically find and enjoy her work in other venues.
- Name: Isn’t it Ironic?
- Grid size: 16×15
- Entries: 70
- Difficulty: Very Hard (my solve time: 11:57)
“Isn’t it Ironic?” is arguably a Canadian title, as it’s a lyric from arguably the most well-known of Alanis Morissette’s songs (though “You Oughta Know” is probably the winner of that contest). In this instance, it’s used to characterize this week’s theme of various medical professionals who have ailments they specialize in – “Physician, heal thyself!“:
- 21A: [Certain doctor, ironically]: TOOTHLESS DENTIST – We can argue over whether it’s irony or coincidence, but I’m not sure I’d be able to go to a dentist with no teeth. Of course, if he kept his mask on I’d be none the wiser.
- 25A: [Certain doctor, ironically]: DEAF AUDIOLOGIST – Coincidentally – or maybe ironically – I went to see an audiologist today. Her hearing seemed just fine; mine was pretty good as well, though I’m losing some of the higher frequencies and have mild tinnitus.
- 43A: [Certain doctor, ironically]: SNEEZY ALLERGIST – Well, they may be sneezing because of pepper in the air, or they have photic sneeze reflex (also known as ACHOO syndrome – really!). In any event, I hope they wear a mask or don’t see patients when they’re on a sneezing jag.
- 52A: [Certain doctor, ironically]: BLIND OPTOMETRIST – I guess it may be possible to become an optometrist if you were blind, but I imagine it would be very hard to practice. And I think it’d be more tragic than ironic if an optometrist went blind.
Another Very Hard one this week. There were some indicators that it would be difficult even before I started solving – it’s a larger than usual sized grid (16×15), there are many very long entries including two grid-spanning themers, and there are only 70 total entries. Personally, it was a slow but steady solve, and I had a harder time with the themers than I should have. Sure, they all had the same clue, but once I got the gimmick, I should have been able to figure out the doctor from the ailment, or vice versa. The problem was that it took me a long time to get either of those – it seemed each themer had a few really hard crosses that kept me from quickly getting one word or the other. Finally, I had a wrong entry at 15A (Elena vs. Eleni) that I only caught on review when I saw that “NAMH” was definitely wrong for 5D. I remembered the movie “The Secret of NIMH” that must be based on the book (which I hadn’t heard of), and quickly made the correction.
Canadian content:
- 9A: [Bosom buddy, in Baie-Comeau]: BON AMI – Baie-Comeau is located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and is part of the Manicouagan-Uapishka World Biosphere Reserve, one of the largest biospheres in the world.
- 9D: [Like Canada’s northern forests]: BOREAL – Makes sense, as boreal means northern, originating from Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind.
- 17A: [Ben Heppner’s fortes]: OPERAS – Ben Heppner, who hails from Murrayville, B.C., appeared in the puzzle at least once before, and that must have stuck with me because I only needed one or two crosses to get this one.
Other stuff:
- 3D: [Part of BOGO]: GET ONE – Needed a couple of crosses to figure out whether it was the first or second half of this phrase. Coincidentally (not ironically), BOGO appeared in the same puzzle that Ben Heppner last appeared in.
- 16A: [Canberra research sch.]: ANU – The Australian National University is located in the national capital, Canberra. Another clue for this could be: [___ Garg, publisher of the “A Word a Day” email and website]. I’ve enjoyed AWAD for over 15 years and each email ends with a quote (I may have “borrowed” one or two for this blog…). Anu gets this week’s quote for himself.
- 18A: [Trying person?]: ATTEMPTER – I got AT pretty quickly and tried to make ATTORNEY fit, with no luck, and this stayed unfilled until nearly the end of the solve.
- 37D: [It prints the headlines?]: EEG – This is a really good clue that gave me a chuckle. An electroencephalograph measures electrical activity in the brain, and prints the results out as lines on a graph. Headlines – get it?
Quote of the week:
“Words in a person’s word stock are like paints on a palette. It helps to have just the right shade when you need it.”
– Anu Garg