Sorry for skipping last week – no travel or anything interesting – just several extra long days at work that kept me from even looking at my personal email until Friday. I hope everyone was able to enjoy the recent holiday weekends and get your summer off to a fine start. My weekend included a barbecue with friends, time at the swimming pool, a baseball game, and lots of relaxing. So I’m all rested and ready for this week’s puzzle – I hope you are too.
- Name: Kapow!
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 74
- Difficulty: Medium Hard (my solve time: 7:44)
Hit a few snags, but was able to work them out, and I thought my solve time might be a bit longer than it turned out. The theme fits the title: the themers are all common phrases not about violence where the last word is a synonym for a hit, clued punnily as if it were:
- 17A: [Discusses slapping styles?]: TALKS SMACK – To talk smack is to taunt someone, such as during a sporting event. Hopefully that’s all in good fun and doesn’t rise to actual smacking.
- 24A: [The old one-two?]: PAIR OF SOCKS – Everyone knows what a pair of socks are and that they are frequently orphaned when doing the wash. I guess a one-two punch in boxing is a pair of socks.
- 36A: [Jab from a Honolulu boxer?]: HAWAIIAN PUNCH – Hawaiians are pretty easygoing in my experience, so if one hauls off and hits you, you may have deserved it. All I can think about when I hear Hawaiian Punch is this old tv ad.
- 51A: [Surprisingly successful blow?]: LUCKY STRIKE – A lucky strike is an unexpected instance of good luck, but it’s probably better known as a brand name. A boxer knocking out their opponent with one blow would probably consider that a lucky strike as well.
- 59A: [Wallop landed on a rival veggie grower?]: GARDEN SLUG – A garden slug is a real pest – I think I have some eating holes in the leaves of my basil, beans, and other vegetables. If you ever come to blows over gardening, it may be time to take up another hobby.
This was more difficult than I expected. I solved generally diagonally NW to SE, but there was a lot of jumping around as I hit snags, and a couple of areas gave me a hard time. NW had a few entries that had me stumped – had no idea on 1D, and only had TEAM for 2D, I was thinking south of Yukon for 23A (and was wrong anyway). Another area that gave me trouble – self inflicted – was SW, where I confidently entered SALT for 66A and had to see that three of the four crosses wouldn’t work with that, so I went back and read the clue more carefully.
Canadian content:
- 9D: [Edmonton CFLer]: ELK – I could only think of the Oilers so needed the crosses the get the proper team and sport.
- 15A: [Astra automaker]: OPEL – I’m counting this as Canadian, since while the Astra was sold in the US, its Canadian sales were much higher per capita.
- 23A: [Yukon neighbour: Abbr.]: NWT – The Northwest Territories are east of Yukon, and Alberta is not south of Yukon, and isn’t usually abbreviated ALB.
- 53D: [“___ Meanie” (Justin Bieber song)]: EENIE – I wouldn’t know a Justin Bieber song if you played it to me, and I’m fine with that. Justin was born in London, Ontario.
- 67A: [First Nation of Canada’s north]: DENE – I initially entered CREE, as that is used often in crosswords and I had 48D entered correctly and it worked with that. I soon saw the other crosses didn’t work and learned about the Dene Nation. This week’s quote comes from one of the nation’s Chiefs.
Other stuff:
- 1A: [On a naval mission]: AT SEA – Refreshing to see this clued as something other than synonyms for “confused.”
- 1D: [Goes to]: ATTENDS – Took forever to get this as I couldn’t get “attacks” out of my head even though it didn’t fit the clue.
- 2D: [Join forces, as in sport]: TEAM WITH – OK, I had “team” but all I’d ever heard of was “team up” and I couldn’t think of what other phrase would work that ended in H. One of the last to fall.
- 14A: [Home with a smoke hole: Var.]: TEPEE – I saw the “Var.” and entered TIPEE, as I have usually spelled it with the “E” so “I” seemed like a variant. I guess the usual spelling is TEEPEE and the original spelling is tipi.
- 18D: [End of many Dutch town names]: STAD – I’m more familiar with towns in the Netherlands ending in “dam” but there are several that use “stad.”
- 20A: [RCA studio rival]: EMI – I was thinking movie studios so tried to make RKO or MGM fit in here.
- 28A: [Hummus and salsa]: DIPS – Another one that gave me trouble in this area – I was thinking they were tapas or something else.
- 48D: [“When is a door not a door?” e.g.]: RIDDLE – “When it’s ajar.” he he
- 58A: [Goose of the Aloha State]: NENE – If you do crosswords, you know the state bird of Hawaii. But did you know it’s pronounced “nay-nay?” Me either.
Quote of the week:
“We have lived with the land, not tried to conquer of control it or rob it of its riches. We have not tried to get more and more riches and power, we have not tried to conquer new frontiers, or out do our parents or make sure that every year we are richer than the year before.
We have been satisfied to see our wealth as ourselves and the land we live with. It is our greatest wish to be able to pass on this land to succeeding generations in the same condition that our fathers have given it to us. We did not try to improve the land and we did not try to destroy it.
That is not our way.
– Philip Blake, chief of the Dene Nation, “Statement to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry,” in Dene Nation: The Colony Within