Happy September everyone!. Coming at you from on the road again – I’ll drop a few hints in this post and feel free to guess where I am in the comments below. I’m currently looking out my hotel window at one of the major US rivers, so that may help narrow it down a bit. Barb has given us a fairly straightforward but somewhat challenging puzzle this week, so let’s get to it.
- Name: Like a Bunch of Animals
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 74
- Difficulty: Hard (my solve time: 9:16)
The title is pretty spot on and I’m kind of surprised I didn’t guess the theme before even starting the solve. The themers are common similes (clued straight but only using one word) in the form of “[characteristic] as a [animal], i.e. things that are “like a bunch of animals”:
- 17A: [Recalcitrant]: STUBBORN AS A MULE – I had most of the crosses for the start of this one so it leapt out at me, and along with the title gave me the theme with little doubt.
- 22A: [Unapparelled]: NAKED AS A JAYBIRD – I’ve never understood how a jaybird was any more naked than any other bird?
- 36A: [Hubristic]: PROUD AS A PEACOCK – A peacock displaying his feathers may be expressing pride, or just looking for a mate.
- 51A: [Hale]: HEALTHY AS A HORSE – For some reason this was the one themer that didn’t come to me nearly immediately. Part of the reason was that I had a typo in the end of 36A, and some trouble getting the crosses, so just didn’t see “horse.” My location this week is well-known for a very famous horse race.
- 57A: [Elusive]: SLIPPERY AS AN EEL – I once was fishing and caught an eel, and while I didn’t find it too slippery, it certainly wriggled enough that it was hard to handle.
I found this to be a hard solve; the themers were (mostly) easy to get but some odd fill and plenty of Canadian content tripped me up. I think the grid was quite impressive – five grid spanning themers all with one-word clues – wow! There were a few awkward entries (see below) and a mild semi-duplication at 4D and 16A but otherwise solid and an enjoyable and somewhat challenging (which adds to the enjoyment) solve.
Canadian content
- 7D: [Aykroyd or Levy]: DAN – Two great Canadian comedians.
- 11D: [N.W.T.’s northernmost town]: INUVIK – Well I knew Tuktoyaktuk wouldn’t fit so needed all the crosses for this one.
- 20A: [Alka-Seltzer competitor]: ENO – I had never heard of this antacid product, it appears it is made by a company based in the UK, and I can’t seem to find it for sale in the US, so I’m calling this Canadian.
- 32D: [Orthodontist’s org.]: CDA – The Canadian Dental Association is “the national voice for dentistry.”
- 35D: [“She’s So High” singer Bachman]: TAL – Well, if I’m learning anything from these puzzles it’s Canadian singer songwriters.
- 39D: [Minister of Transportation ____ Alghabra]: OMAR – I had a typo that had this entry starting with a C, but with an M as the next letter, so this had me flummoxed for a while.
- 59D: [A CFL field has 110]: YDS – I had forgotten that the fields of the Canadian Football League were 110 yards long. I’d also forgotten that CFL teams have 12 players; I guess they need the larger field (compared to the US National Football League) to accommodate the extra players.
- 61D: [Edmonton Grey Cup seeker]: ELK – Speaking of the CFL…
- 68A: [Nat’l. public safety agcy.]: CSIS – The Canadian Security Intelligence Service appears to be similar to the US Department of Homeland Security or possibly the FBI. Maybe closer to the UK’s MI-5.
Other stuff:
- 3D: [Animal source of a skin soother]: EMU – I was thinking of lanolin, which I know is used to soften rough hands and I’m pretty sure it comes from sheep’s wool so initially entered EWE. Apparently there is some skin-soothing product derived from a large Australian bird. Seeing as this was one of the first entries I put in, it kind of set the tone for the rest of the solve.
- 16A: [Bird bill]: NEB – I left the first letter of this blank until nearly the end of the solve as I was sure I’d have to run the alphabet to get it. I must have heard of “neb” before, but it just seemed so wrong.
- 43A: [Hit suddenly, as brakes]: SLAM ON – I initially entered this correctly, but I had a typo in 36A above, having swapped the letters in squares 38 and 39. So I tried “step on” which didn’t help and scratched my head until I saw the error. Still had trouble with that area due to not knowing 35D or 39D, and 38D eluded me for a long time. So this was the last area to fall.
- 55A: [Red, in “in the red,” grammatically]: ADNOUN – I was today years old when I learned about this part of grammar.
Quote of the week:
“It’s not bragging of you can back it up”
– Muhammad Ali (who was born and raised in the city I’m in this week)