Well my New Year’s resolution to consistently get the blog done and posted on Wednesday evening isn’t going too well, so apologies for those who had hoped to read about the puzzle sooner rather than later. No real reason for the delay, other than the usual things demanding my time and attention this past week, so let’s get going.
- Name: Meow!
- Grid size: 15×15
- Entries: 70
- Difficulty: Medium Hard (my solve time: 7:26)
With a title like “Meow!” I knew that cats would be involved – and it’s pretty straightforward: A common phrase has the word “cat” inserted in it and then is clued punnily:
- 17A: [Break by strumming too hard?]: BUST A CATGUT – If you work very hard to achieve something you’re said to bust a gut. The strings of guitars and other musical instruments are made of catgut, which, thankfully, has nothing to do with the innards of felines.
- 27A: [Stage where bereaved wives model their mourning wear?]: WIDOWS CATWALK – A widows walk is an architectural feature on homes that consists of a raised railed platform on the roof, so-named as it was said to be where the wives of seafarers would look out for the safe return of their loved one’s ship. A catwalk is a raised platform where models strut to display clothing during fashion shows.
- 45A: [Alarm ringtone called Rude Hoot?]: WAKE UP CATCALL – A wake up call is a startling event that grabs one’s attention. It’s also what you would request of the front desk when staying at a hotel before we all carried around a phone/camera/email device/alarm clock. A catcall is a rude, demeaning, often sexually suggestive remark made, usually, by men toward women. Why catcallers think this would be attractive to their target is beyond understanding.
- 57A: [Imitation marsh plant?]: MOCK CATTAIL – A mocktail is a mixed drink made without alcohol. Those participating in Dry January (or Damp January) may mix up a few of these throughout the month. A cattail (formally named typha) is a plant that grows in marshy areas, named as the growth near the top of its long stalk is similar in appearance to a cat’s tail.
As a parent of two cats I found this a fun puzzle, getting the theme pretty quickly, though knowing the theme didn’t make getting the themers that much easier. The entire puzzle was a decent challenge, with some fill that had me scratching my head for a while – details below.
Canadian content:
- 9D: [Prime Minister until March 2025]: TRUDEAU – I’ve been distracted by (or trying to ignore) my own country’s politics that I was kind of surprised to find out that Canada is having it’s own political shake up.
- 16A: [Klondike prospector’s tool]: PAN – As we learned a couple of weeks ago, the Klondike Gold Rush occurred in the Yukon Territory.
- 35D: [System Canada adopted in 1970]: METRIC – I didn’t realize it was as late as 1970 when Canada shifted to metric. I remember the US making a half-hearted attempt in the mid 1970’s but it never took, though every now and then you’ll come across a road sign with metric units.
- 57D: [“___! I Feel Like a Woman” (Twain hit)]: MAN – Shania Twain was born in Windsor, Ontario and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” was a hit song in 1999.
- 60A: [Mine, in Matane]: A MOI – Matane is located on the Gaspé Peninsula at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.
Other stuff:
- 20A: [Soap opera creator Phillips]: IRNA – This is a very obscure piece of information that I’m glad I’ve learned, but even when I had the name correctly entered it still looked wrong to me.
- 24D: [Mil. uniforms]: ODS – While I got it from the crosses, I had no idea what it meant. A little searching indicates it’s probably short for “olive drab” – the color of many military uniforms.
- 39D: [Capek play about robots]: RUR – To new crossword solvers this 1920 Czech play written by Karel Čapek, likely seems incredibly obscure, but if you’ve solved for a while you are very familiar with this play that is said to be the origin of the word “robot.”
- 44DA: [Certain ointments]: OLEATES – Whew, needed all the crosses for this one. “Oleate is a C18, long straight-chain monounsaturated fatty acid anion; and the conjugate base of oleic acid, arising from deprotonation of the carboxylic acid group. It has a role as an Escherichia coli metabolite, a plant metabolite and a Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolite.” Sure, if you say so.
Quote of the week:
“Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”
– Mark Twain
I’m a few weeks behind in my puzzle-solving – I came here expecting to find a note about a typo in the clue for 3D: Elvis’s It’s Now *or* Never (rather than ‘of’??) Am I missing something?