The weather is warming up after a week of seasonal temperatures (maybe a tad cooler than usual) which is fine by me. I hope it was seasonal wherever you are and that if you had extreme weather it had minimal impact. We’re starting up our election primary season here (the first state involved is an entry in this week’s puzzle) so we all need something to distract us from the news – let’s get to this week’s puzzle.
- Name: Letter Writing
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 80
- Difficulty: Very Easy (my solve time: 5:26)
The title didn’t really give me a good clue as to what the theme was before the solve, but it helped me to see it once I got parts of a few themers. Also having solved today’s New York Times crossword (account needed – maybe you can read about it here) I probably had letters on the brain. The themers are common phrases where a word is replaced by a letter that’s a homophone of the word (a gramogram*) and then clued punnily to reference the letter:
- 17A: [A certain letter’s patellas?]: THE BS KNEES – At first I thought this had something to do with serifs, and “patellas” referred to how they may look like knees in certain fonts. I also got THE BS first, and thought it had something to do with “B.S.” Once I figured out the gimmick, I saw that the letter “B” replaced the word “bee” in the phrase “the bee’s knees.”
- 26A: [Possessive letter owner’s claim?]: THATS MY Q – I think this was the last themer I got – not being a gamer I had a faint recollection of 27D. “That’s my ___” is sometimes seen as a clue for cue, which is often used in crosswords.
- 40A: [Letter that couples share?]: T FOR TWO – By this time I knew almost exactly what to put in here – “Tea for Two” is the title of a song that is the first thing many kids learn to plunk out with one finger on the keyboard.
- 42A: [Letters that could easily shatter?]: GLASS IS – Seeing “shatter” in the clue, I put “glass” in with only the first cross. Soon it was clear the “I” replaced “eye” in “glass eyes.”
- 52A: [Letter in the lockup?]: X CONVICT – If the letter X was in prison, it would be a convict; once sprung it would be an ex-convict.
- 40A: [Comfort food made of divided letters?]: SPLIT P SOUP – I remember the first time I had split pea soup as a child – it was after doing crafts at school where we used dried beans and pasta glued to paper to create artwork. I’d never seen split peas before so asked my mom about them and she made the eponymous soup.
Another speedy solve for me, in the fastest 20 solves of all time. I just kind of followed the easy path, working from NW down to SE and then back up, catching the themers as I came across them. There were a few areas where one or two words escaped me, but I was able to get other nearby words fairly easily so no real delays anywhere.
Canadian content:
- 6D: [“You Needed Me” singer Murray]: ANNE – Anne Murray was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia. She’s sold over 55 million albums worldwide and won four Grammys, including Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1979. “You Needed Me” made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.
- 10D: [Giant landmark in Vegreville, Alta.]: EGG – The “World’s Largest Psyanka” is located in Vegreville, Alberta. A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist method. The psyanka was commissioned and built as part of the centennial celebrations of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1975.
- 12D: [“Sunglasses at Night” singer Hart]: COREY – Corey Hart was born in Montreal, Quebec. He was briefly considered for the role of Marty McFly in the film “Back to the Future.”
- 15A: [Former cabinet minister ___ Anand]: ANITA – Anita Anand is the president of the Treasury Board of Canada since July 2023. She previously represented the riding of Oakville in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party.
- 23A: [CARP part: Abbr.]: RET – Those who are retired are definitely a big part of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons.
- 31A: [Raptor’s org.]: NBA – The National Basketball Association is the home of the Toronto Raptors.
- 32D: [___ Québécois (Blanchet’s party]: BLOC – Yves-François Blanchet is the Chef du Bloc Québécois, which is a federal political party devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty.
- 44A: [Famed Canadian physician]: OSLER – Sir William Osler was born in Bond Head, Canada West, now known as Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario. He has a pretty strong Baltimore connection: he was instrumental in creating the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and became one of the school’s first professors of medicine. He is the source of this week’s quote.
- 51A: [Ottawa-based spy org.]: CSIS – The role of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is to “investigate activities suspected of constituting threats to the security of Canada and to report on these to the Government of Canada. We may also take measures to reduce threats to the security of Canada in accordance with well-defined legal requirements and Ministerial Direction.”
*Bonus Canadian content: There apparently was a Canadian gameshow in the 1980s called “Bumper Stumpers” which required contestants to decode gramograms presented as fictional vanity licence plates.
Other stuff:
- 2D: [Pacific salmon type]: COHO – I considered counting this as this Canadian content, as I know coho salmon are often caught in the waters off BC. But they are also common in Alaska (where I caught a few myself), Washington and Oregon. The ferry that runs between Victoria, BC and Port Angeles, WA is named Coho.
- 11D: [Close calls]: NEAR MISSES – Aren’t these really “near hits?”
- 28A: [“The Hawkeye State”]: IOWA – Iowa is where the first caucuses for the 2024 US Presidential primary elections were held last week. Its nickname the “Hawkeye State” possibly comes from a character in The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, same as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H.
- 38D: [Its symbol is a dot under three arches]: WIFI – It took me a little bit to visualize from the clue but that’s exactly what it is.
- 60A: [Browning’s girl who “passes”]: PIPPA – I had no idea what this was so it was definitely a learning opportunity for me. “Pippa Passes” is a verse drama set in Asolo, which I am really surprised doesn’t appear in crosswords a lot more due to its very useful letters.
Quote of the week:
“Medicine is learned by the bedside and not in the classroom. Let not your conceptions of disease come from the words heard in the lecture room or read from the book. See and then reason and compare and control. But see first.”
– Sir William Osler (Here are a few other of his quotes, some quite interesting)