I hope everyone had a pleasant and reflective Remembrance Day. I went to the National Museum of the Great Lakes for several events commemorating 50 years since the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. There was a concert, tours of a similar museum ship, and a panel discussion ending in a remembrance ceremony. This week’s quote is from the song that is responsible for keeping this event in the public mind for half a century. I also got to experience my first snow of the season. And to top things off I broke a tooth, so I had a couple of emergency visits to the dentist, which I’m using as my excuse for posting this a day late. My tooth is mostly better, so let’s get into this week’s puzzle.
- Name: Lofty Ideas
- Grid size: 15×15
- Entries: 72
- Difficulty: Very Hard (my solve time: 10:26)
“Lofty Ideas” had me thinking this might be a quip puzzle, with the quotation expressing some philosophical concept, but nope, it’s more down to earth. The themers, atypically placed in the Down entries in the grid, are all phrases where the first three or four letters are a kind of tree, clued straight:
- 3D: [Cannes FIlm Festival award]: PALME D’OR – The Palme d’or is the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Palm trees are native to tropical and near-tropical climates.
- 5D: [Initial assessment]: FIRST IMPRESSION – “You only get one chance to make a first impression” is an aphorism I don’t find very useful. I mean, first impressions are important, but I think if you put too much effort into how you initially come across, it’s more likely to come off as fake. Or it will backfire when your true self comes through over time and it’s different from what you worked to present. We’re coming into fir tree season – deck the halls!
- 7D: [Hawaiian fruit salad ingredients]: PINEAPPLE PIECES – Pineapples are typically associated with Hawaii, but they are indigenous to South America. Pine trees have slender needles attached to the branch in bunches of two, three or five, whereas fir tree needles are attached individually to the branch.
- 10D: [Glen Abbey Golf Club city]: OAKVILLE ONTARIO – The Glen Abbey Golf Club has hosted the RBC Canadian Open – Canada’s National Open Championship – 28 times. The town of Oakville will host their Santa Claus Parade this Saturday November 15th.
- 38D: [Aerie places, and what’s depicted in four of the puzzle’s down answers]: TREE TOPS – The revealer, which would have helped me if I’d gotten this entry earlier.
I had a harder time of this than I should have. A couple of places hung me up: The NE where I had a couple of incorrect entries (6D, 15A) that kept me from getting several entries I didn’t know at all (9D, 10D, 27A); and SW, where I had the wrong kind of pasta in 54D, and couldn’t remember the metaphor in 57A. And in general it seemed like a slow solve – I’m blaming the lingering effects of the painkiller the dentist gave me. Otherwise a fun puzzle and nice to see the themers in the Downs.
Canadian content:
- 10D: Glen Abbey Golf Club city]: OAKVILLE ONTARIO – Oakville was named for its abundant white oak trees. It served as a key Underground Railroad entry point, offering a safe haven for freedom seekers escaping slavery in the U.S.
- 11A: [Vancouver-to-Victoria dir.]: SSW – I always picture Victoria as being almost due west of Vancouver so I entered WSW in here initially.
- 17A: [Grey Cup contender]: CFLER – Teams of the Canadian Football League are vying for the Grey Cup, which will be played this Sunday between the Montreal Alouettes and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
- 23A: [Molson Export, for one]: ALE – Molson Export Ale has been brewed since 1903 “to honour the legacy of John Molson.”
- 23D: [46-Down prov.]: ALTA – Alberta is indeed the home of Edmonton.
- 46D: [Freedom Convoy town in 23-Down]: COUTTS – Coutts, Alberta is one of the busiest ports of entry on the Canada–United States border in western Canada.
- 49A: [Cap. of 23-Down]: EDM – Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta.
Other stuff:
- 6D: [Spans of douze mois]: ANS – I knew it was French for “years” but I couldn’t get past the Spanish año.
- 9D: [“Hunger Games” girl killed by Enobaria]: CECELIA – I haven’t read the books, but I’m pretty sure this is a spoiler. But since so many people are killed in the books, it’s probably a minor one.
- 18A: [Concession stands]: SNACK BARS – For some reason I had the negotiation sense of the word concession in my head, as in “making concessions.” So I thought “concession stands” were stances negotiators would take in their back-and-forth. So that slowed me down a bit.
- 19D: [Last track circuit]: BELL LAP – I always thought the final lap in a relay race was the anchor lap, or something like that – never heard this one.
- 26D: [The raft of Adam and Eve on a raft]: TOAST – I was baffled by this as I forgot that this diner slang had been used here before.
- 29A: [“Come hungry. Leave happy.” chain]: IHOP – Ever since I saw this meme (Warning: Category A swears) it’s all I can think of when I see IHOP.
- 65A: [Red sq. on a Scrabble board]: TWS – For some reason I thought triple word score squares in Scrabble were purple. Nope, they’re red and triple letter score squares are dark blue.
Quote of the week:
“Does anyone know where the love of god goes / when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
– Gordon Lightfoot