It’s the last day of August, local kids started school on Monday, and Labo(u)r Day is next Monday so I guess summer is nearly over.  There’s the tiniest hint of fall in the air and I look forward to it growing over the next few weeks. I also am looking forward to the cooler weather to kill the mosquitoes so I can truly enjoy sitting outside in my yard. I’d like to say that’s where I was as I solved this week’s puzzle, but instead I’m sneaking it in while I’m on a work break, so let’s jump right in.

• Name: That’s Entertainment!
• Grid size: 15×15
• Number of entries: 74
• Difficulty: Medium Hard (my solve time: 8:59)

I remember the title as a movie from the 1970’s that was basically an excuse for MGM to roll out their greatest hits, but I recall enjoying it – will have to look it up again. The theme is pretty straightforward and in line with the title – the themers are types of entertainment but clued punnily:

• 17A: [Show appealing to geologists?]: ROCK CONCERT – The correct answer popped into my head immediately, but I talked myself out of it when I couldn’t make it work with several (wrong) crosses. Had to circle back later and fix my errors.
• 28A: [Show that satirized rudimentary art?]: SKETCH COMEDY – Saturday Night Live is the archetype of sketch comedies and, as “SNL,” a frequent flyer in crosswords. However, I’m partial to the Kids in the Hall. Shouldn’t KITH appear in more crosswords?
• 45A: [Theatre screenings of “Dune”, “Dumbo”and “Disturbia”?]: THREE D MOVIES – This one totally had me flummoxed as I had THREE and MOVIES but had nothing in 30D so the final letter had to wait a while. Then it was a forehead slapper.
• 58A: [Stage show with deeply emotional scenes?]: PASSION PLAY – I don’t know much about passion plays but I assume some folks find them pretty emotional, so this is nearly a straight clue.

This solve felt hard pretty much the whole way. I got 1A, 1D, and 2A right off, then… nothing for a long time as I flitted about the grid dropping in guesses here and there. The theme helped, as I was able to figure out at least the ending to most of them pretty quickly, but some Canadian content I didn’t know, some odd cluing, and things I just didn’t get slowed me down. The cross of 33A and 34D had me totally stumped – of course I entered the possible vowels in reverse alphabetical order so it took longer than it should have…

Canadian content

• 25A: [Back ____ (The Maritimes, in B.C.)]: EAST – Could easily guess this one, even if I don’t think I’d head it before. I know that the Maine coast is referred to as “Down East.”
• 31A: [Burlington-born singer Harmer]: SARAH – No idea on this one so had to get the crosses before making a guess that Sarah didn’t have a different oddly-spelled name.
• 33A: [Vancouver poet laureate Evelyn ___]: LAU – Smack dab in a couple of blind spots for me: I know nothing of poetry, and even less about B.C.-based poet laureates.

I’m in a bit of a rush, so I may have missed some – feel free to call them out to me in the comments below.

Other stuff:

• 5D: [“Ha, beat that!”]: BOO YAH – I don’t think I’ve heard this term used to mean that, but I guess it works.
• 18D: [Hockey’s Jaromír Jágr and Dominik Haek, for two]: CZECHS – I was certain that these guys played for a Canadian hockey team so just could not see that it was their nationality until I got nearly all the crosses.
• 23D: [Hushed “hey!”]: PSSST – Never seen this spelled with three Ss; sounds more like a tire going flat to me.
• 32A: [Exaggerated pirate cry]: ARRR – Mark your calendars: Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up and will be here before you know it.
• 37D: “I must confess, I was born at a very ________”: Groucho Marx]: EARLY AGE – I still think Groucho and the Marx Brothers are the funniest comedians of all time, and their movies are classics. So I got to have a Groucho quote for this week.
• 47D: [Hitter of 511 home runs]: MEL OTT – You always see either his first or last name in puzzles, so it was refreshing to see his full name for once.

Quote of the week:
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
– Groucho Marx