Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We have had a run of beautiful weather for the past week, after nearly two weeks of (badly needed) rain. Thoughts go out to those in the southeastern US who are bearing the brunt of a record hurricane season, which I fear still has trouble in store for us. As we count our blessings and hope for the safety of those in peril, let’s turn to this week’s puzzle.

  • Name: Swap Meet
  • Size: 15×15
  • Entries: 74
  • Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 5:55)

Filled in crossword grid for ClassiCanadian Crosswords 09 October 2024

I didn’t spend much thought on the title of this week’s puzzle, but jumped right in and found it a breezy and amusing solve. The themers are common 3- or 4-word phrases where the first and last words have been swapped, then clued punnily to match the new meaning:

  • 17A: [Recess, for school children?]: TIME FOR PLAY – Recess is indeed time for play, but to play for time is to delay action in order to forestall something from happening, make a decision, or gain an advantage.
  • 23A: [Schedules for a catering job?]: BOOKS THE COOK – If you want an event catered you’d have to book the cook’s time. Hopefully, the caterer you are using doesn’t cook the books.
  • 36A: [Marathon entry fee?]: MONEY FOR ONES RUN – In order to enter most running races you need to pay money to run the race. To give a run for one’s money you make it difficult for them to win by playing hard and/or performing well. Or you could just take the money and run.
  • 47A: [“Mislaid,” failed to win,” baffled,” in a thesaurus?]: WORDS FOR LOST – Mislaid, failed to win, and baffled are indeed all synonyms for “lost.” I am lost for words to come up with a follow on to that. But Pink Floyd isn’t.
  • 56A: [Demand that one be reached by phone?]: ORDER TO CALL – I imagine that is pretty rare these days as I and most folks I know much prefer text or email to voice calls. However, I definitely appreciate a timely call to order for any meetings I attend.

Smooth solve, no real problem areas. I got the theme pretty early on, but it didn’t help much with the solve, as my mind has a hard time working backwards. I could get one of the end words, but mentally repositioning them to the other end was too much work for my poor brain. So I had to work the crosses, which luckily were not too difficult.

Canadian content:

Other stuff:

  • 4A: [Angora goat fleece]: MOHAIR – I got the first letter and confidently entered MERINO, missing that goats and sheep are different animals.
  • 30A: [’03 Mazda sports car]: MIATA – While I know they made them in 2003, the first models came out in 1989 (1990 model year) and I got mine in 1991and still have it.

Quote of the week:
“Imagine there’s no countries / It isn’t hard to do. / Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion, too. / Imagine all the people / Living life in peace. -John Lennon (b. 9 Oct 1940)