I’m making a special effort this week to get the puzzle done earlier than I have these past few weeks and get the blog post ready to go Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for bearing with me as my work has intruded on my weekly pastime (how dare it!).
- Title: One for Two
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 78
- Difficulty: Medium Hard (my solve time: 7:43)
I had no idea what the theme was until on review well after the solve, and at first I only got half of it. Each themer is a two word phrase (or one word that can be easily parsed into two), clued (mostly) straight and annotated with an asterisk; when you get to 71A you see that the answer “white” can be paired with each parsed word in the themers to create another word or phrase:
- 18A: [*Metaphor for tight abs]: WASHBOARD – I’ve never been accused of having washboard abs, but I have painted with whitewash and often use a whiteboard at work.
- 23A: [*Bakery item topped with a bride and groom]: WEDDING CAKE – With a sister-in-law who’s a pastry chef I’ve had some good wedding cake in my day. All that comes to mind with white wedding is this song. White cake isn’t something I’m familiar with, but here’s a recipe.
- 35A: [*Nip before tucking?]: NIGHTCAP – A clever punny clue for a nightcap which is a drink (“nip”) before going to bed (“tucking” (in)). At first I thought the first added white phrase was supposed to be “white knight,” but now I see that white night is correct and may even be considered Canadian content as it is a term for “a night when it is never properly dark, as in high latitudes in summer.” A whitecap is a small wind-driven wave on a body of water; while “Whitecaps” is possibly the best “Sopranos” episode ever.
- 41A: [*Tuxedo back flap]: COAT TAIL – The clue immediately brought the answer to mind without crosses, so that was nice; I didn’t have to ride in on other entries coat tails. A whitecoat is often worn by scientists or doctors. A whitetail is what a white-tailed deer is commonly called, except in my yard where they have decimated a lot of my greenery and vegetables and they are called by many different names. 🤬
- 55A: [*Complete dolt]: KNUCKLEHEAD – Better a knucklehead than a knuckle-dragger, I guess. Been a while since I’ve been on a white-knuckle ride at an amusement park. And I like to think I’m past the stage of my life where I get whiteheads, but I’m not sure you are ever past that stage.
A nice, somewhat challenging, theme-filled grid with a few minor head scratchers. I found it a bit more difficult solve than I’ve experienced lately; a couple entries had me perplexed until I took a break and looked at them and their crosses again: 17A (that does not mean “overly sentimental” where I come from…) and 54A, where the crossing 43D got me for a while. I had AD_OU_N and was sure it was some obscure legal Latin term like ad bourn or something like that.
Canadian content:
- 16D: [___ Canals, U.S./Can. waterway]: SOO – I knew this right away as the Soo Locks camera is one of the more popular on the StreamTime LIVE YouTube channel.
- 32A: [Cdn. worker’s 9-digit IDs]: SINS – Since Canadian was specified, I was pretty sure this wasn’t “SSNs”, but needed to get 11D to find out it was Social Insurance Number.
- 48D: [Lover’s gift, or a Canadian tea brand]: RED ROSE – Pretty sure I’ve seen this one in here before, as I got it right off.
- 51D: [Onetime brewer Carling ___]: OKEEFE – I vaguely remember Carling O’Keefe beers, which of course were imports to the US. But I swear I remember a Carling brewery just outside of Baltimore that we’d pass on our way downtown or to go through the Harbor Tunnel. Maybe it was unrelated to Carling O’Keefe.
- 58D: [Classical grp. that performs at the Orpheum]: VSO – Was pretty sure this was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, but wasn’t familiar with the Orpheum.
- 61D: [“Rocket Richard” was one, for short]: HAB – Sadly, I am unfamiliar with “Rocket Richard” but was able to get the 1st and last letters of the answer so HAB came pretty easily.
Other stuff:
- 1A: [Mama’s mates]: PAPAS – I initially put DADAS in here.
- 5D: [James Bond genre]: SPY FI – I honestly have never heard this used before and I’m amazed – it makes perfect sense.
- 10D: [Reading material in hotel rooms, once]: BIBLE – I still find them now and again. I’ve also found a Book of Mormon, a Quran, and a Buddhist book of meditations in various hotels I’ve stayed at around the world.
- 17A: [Overly sentimental]: SUCKY – Uh, that definitely doesn’t mean sentimental in any usage I’ve heard.
- 25D: [Preserve in a jar, oddly]: CAN – I’ve always wondered about that as well.
- 45A: [U.S. mail?]: ARMOR – It took me re-reading this at least three times to figure it out: Mail (like chain mail) is a type of armour, spelled “armor” in the US.
- 54A: [Muslim’s conical hat]: TAJ – I’m pretty familiar with various headgear, but don’t think I’d ever heard of a taj other than paired with Mahal, so it’s nice to see a new clue for it.
Quote of the week:
“There is no fairer duty than that of helping others in distress.”
– From “Oedipus Rex”