Hello everyone – hope the weather is as nice where you are as it is here – after a few hot and rainy days it has cleared up and it’s not yet uncomfortably hot. Which is good, because with the rain my lawn has grown like crazy and it’s nice to mow when it’s not muggy. Enough about the weather, onward to this week’s puzzle:

• Title: Make a Break for It
• Grid size: 15×15
• Number of entries: 76
• Difficulty: Medium (my solve time: 8:17)

If I’d thought more about the title and solved the revealer earlier, this would have been a quicker solve. As it was, I had to finish the puzzle and figure out the theme well after the solve. The revealer is 8A/56A: [With 56A, digital printing process, or what’s depicted in 18-, 24-, 39- and 50-Across]: COLOUR SEPARATION: Each themer is a common phrase (though I’d never heard 39A before) that contains a colour that has been “separated” by certain other (random as far as I can tell, but let’s see what I can do with them) letters of the phrase:

• 18A: [Beyond cell service area]: OUT OF RANGE – Orange doesn’t really go with tofu.
• 24A: [Like the basics]: PURE AND SIMPLE – I guess these maidens are’t wearing purple.
• 39A: [Guy’s night out]: BRODOWN – Whatever those bros do on their night out, they better not OD.
• 56A: [Groom’s partner, jokingly]: BLUSHING BRIDE – Something old, something new, something borrowed something blue. The bride would have good reason to blush if she’d told the wedding guests to “bring [a] dish” to the reception.

I completed this puzzle about 30 seconds below my average, but then had to find a couple of typos, so official finish time was about 30 seconds above my average; so I’m calling it medium difficulty. Kind of a bumpy solve – I had to jump all over the place as I kept running into things I didn’t know and the way the grid is laid out resulted in a few dead ends for me. But it was an enjoyable solve, with a fun theme (once I sussed it out) and nice longer entries.

Canadian content

• 9D: [“Bobby: My Story in Pictures” memoirist]: ORR – While Mr. Orr appears frequently in crosswords, I certainly was not familiar with his memoir.
• 25D: [Vancouver’s Second _______ Bridge]: NARROWS – One might be tempted to put “Avenue” in here (even though it wouldn’t fit), but having visited Vancouver several times for work and vacation I still remember the Second Narrows and the bridges that cross it.
• 48A: [Way to stand in the Canadian anthem]: ON GUARD – Took me a while to realize the answer wasn’t “upright” or “at attention.” 🎶”We stand on guard for thee.🎶”
• 62D: [Quebec town ___ -Julie, known for it’s fudge]: STE – While I am not familiar with this town nor its fudge, a Quebec town that includes a woman’s name likely starts with “Ste.” Based on it’s livability score it just made my list of places to visit.

Other stuff:

• 5A: [Paul’s musical partner]: ART – At first I thought “Huh – none of the other Beatles names are three letters?” then I remembered Simon and Garfunkel.
• 10D: [Mauna ___(Earth’s largest volcano)]: LOA – I have said if the clue is “Mauna ___” the final “A” should already be placed in the grid because it’s either LOA or KEA.
• 35D: [“My religion is kindness” speaker]: DALAI LAMA – I liked this entry so much I decided to use a quote from the Dalai Lama as the quote of the week. You can find more here.
• 45D: [Genre of ABBA and the Spice Girls]: EUROPOP – I never considered the Spice Girls as Europop, and I guess now with Brexit they officially aren’t.
• 46A: [Homophone of use and ewes]: YEWS – I sounded it out and that didn’t help a lot… But at least I didn’t put in YOUS.
• 50D: [It stands on its own two feet]: BIPOD – I confidently put in BIPED and had one more typo to hunt down.
• 53D: [“Charlotte’s Web” girl]: FERN – I haven’t read or thought much about “Charlotte’s Web” in decades but “Fern” popped right into my head as soon as I read the clue.
• 55A: [Alone: Comb. form]: SOLI – Ignoring the “Comb. form” part of the clue, I put SOLE in and forgot about it. Until I had to search for a typo.
• 63A: [Took out of as bank, in a way]: ERODED – Quite a cleverly deceptive clue; would have been easy to put ROBBED here but luckily I had several solid crosses and that wouldn’t have worked.

Quote of the week:
“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.”
– The Dalai Lama