Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2022 – I personally hope it’s better than 2021, which shouldn’t be too much to ask, but it seems the years have taken that as a challenge recently. In any event, it’s starting out well with a fun solve from Barb so let’s dive in.
- Title: Tender Hues
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 74
- Difficulty: Medium hard (my solve time 8:21)
“Tender Hues” uses a common theme, but with a subtle added meaning that it took this non-Canadian a little nudge from Barb’s alternate title (“The Colour of Money”) to fully get. The themers are common things or phrases that include a color in them – and (correct me if I’m wrong) the colors are all seen on Canadian money:
17A: [2021 Grey Cup winners]: BLUE BOMBERS – At least I knew the Grey Cup was the championship for the Canadian Football League. Blue is the color of the $5 bill.- 24A: [Overly ornate writing]: PURPLE PROSE – Not sure the origin of this phrase but this is where I knew the themers all had colors in them. $10 bills are purple.
- 36A: [Blended veggie beverage]: GREEN SMOOTHIE – Not personally a fan of veggie smoothies, I prefer fruits and berries, but to each their own. $20 bills are green.
- 48A: [Distraction ploys]: RED HERRINGS – This one took me a while to see, as I didn’t think of a 3-letter color right off the bat. $50 bills are red.
- 59A: [Lunchroom eater, say]: BROWN BAGGER – Once I had the B, O, and N I knew the color was BROWN and immediately put in the rest of the letters. $100 bills are brown.
This was a more deliberate solve for me, essentially starting from NW gradually spreading out toward SE as I hit snags (a lot) and found pockets I could fill in easily. Several things I was unfamiliar with, but overall a satisfying challenge. I like the way the themers are in order of increasing face value of the bills they are associated with. And I have to say, while I have been to Canada many times, and have a wad of Canadian cash on hand for my next trip, I never really made the connection that each denomination has a predominate colour.
Canadian content
- 5A: [Explorers John and son Sebastian]: CABOTS – As a youngster I was very interested in explorers, so I had heard of and read about the Cabot’s voyages. But I was today years old when I learned they were Italian.
- 10D: [CARP mems.]: SRS – Only on review did I realize CARP must be the Canadian Association for Retired Persons.
- 17A: [2021 Grey Cup winners]: BLUE BOMBERS – Also a themer, I had to search to find out that the Blue Bombers are from Winnipeg.
- 21A: [Yvette’s yeses]: OUIS – One of the few words I can say and understand when I visit Quebec.
- 25D: [Quebec singer Michael Pagliaro’s “Give _____ More Chance”]: US ONE – Easy enough to guess, though if I saw the answer and not the clue I would think of a a main non-highway route along the US east coast that I live less than a mile from.
- 41A: [Actress Stone or Hunter]: EMMA – I guess this is half Canadian, as Emma Stone is American, but Emma Hunter is Canadian.
- 62A: [Suffix with Québéc]: OIS – Being of Québécois heritage, I got this one right off.
- 64A: [Hockey players Bobby and Colton]: ORR – Another one that was pretty easy to get.
- 65A: [Born, in “la belle province”]: NEE – This is commonly used in English (and appears often in crosswords) so again, fairly easy to get.
Other stuff:
- 5D: [Corp. tech expert]: CIO – I put CTO for Chief Technology Officer in here so it made getting 15A very difficult.
- 38D: [Complaint quelled by a snack]: I’M HUNGRY – I had “I’m hangry” in here initially.
- 43A: [2250 in Roman numerals]: MMCCL – I pride myself on knowing my Roman numerals but kept wanting to put a D in there for some reason.
- 53A: [Bad turn, often?]: UIE – Those who follow me on Twitter know of my white hot dislike of this entry in all its forms (e.g., UIE, UEY) but I actually chuckled at this clue.
Quote of the week: “As the man said, for every complex problem there’s a simple solution, and it’s wrong.”
― Foucault’s Pendulum