Wow! It’s Thursday already?! Seems like I just finished last week’s blog – and now I’m a day late for this week. Oh well, I hope I haven’t left you hanging too much – feel free to express your displeasure in the comments below. I hope everyone is staying cool – it seems like it is hot hot hot pretty much everywhere. Kind of scary, but grab a cool drink, find a place to sit in the shade, hopefully with a cool breeze (either natural or man-made), and let’s solve this week’s puzzle.
- Title: She’s Ahead of the Rest
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 78
- Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 5:40)
Even with an easy solve the theme jumped out at me almost at once – the title helped quite a bit as well. The themers are all famous women who are known by a name that has a woman’s title as the first word:
- 17A: [Etiquette columnist of the ’60s]: MISS MANNERS – Well, the Miss Manners I’m familiar with apparently started writing her column in the 1970’s but I would not be surprised at all if there was another etiquette column with the same name in the 1960’s or even earlier.
- 25A: [Canonized nun of Calcutta]: MOTHER TERESA – She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Uskup, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, North Macedonia) and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979.
- 38A: [Megan Markle’s regal title]: DUCHESS OF SUSSEX – I always want to spell that first word with a “T.” And for some reason I initially entered “Sessex.”
- 48A: [Nickname of a painter who described her work as “old-timey”]: GRANDMA MOSES – Her actual name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses. She began painting in earnest at the age of 78 and is a prominent example of a newly successful art career at an advanced age. So maybe we all have more time than we think to take up that new vocation…
- 61A: [Gentleman door holder’s words to a woman, or an alternate title for this puzzle]: LADIES FIRST – The revealer aptly describing the make up of the themers.
A very smooth solve the entire way, helped by getting the theme right off and being able to enter most of the themers with minimal crosses. Except for the revealer, which for some reason took me most of the crosses. But they all came easily, so my solve time wasn’t really affected.
Canadian content:
- 2D: [Joined, in Jonquière]: UNIE – I was pretty sure “joined” was “unie” in French, but had to look up Jonquière to confirm it was a place in Quebec.
- 5D: [Oilers, on a scoreboard]: EDM – The Edmonton Oilers are an NHL team and appear as EDM on scoreboards.
- 11D: [Quebec peninsula and city]: GASPE – I have fond memories of the Gaspé peninsula, though I’ve never set foot there. A ship I was on sailed near the peninsula and a guest on board hailed a local lobster fisherman and bought fresh lobsters for the whole crew.
- 26D: [Where to “roll up the rim”, for short]: TIMS – I was completely baffled when I first encountered this phrase in a puzzle a few months ago. I now know that this is a promotion run by Tim Horton’s, apparently for over 35 years.
- 64A: [Prov. known for its red sand]: PEI – I know Prince Edward Island for several things, but was unaware of its red sand until now..
Other stuff:
- Running a little late so I may come back and add some other stuff later – stay tuned! Or drop your own in the comments below.
Quote of the week:
“The important thing about “brave” is, it doesn’t mean you’re not terrified.”
– Sinead O’Connor