OK – I’m a cool-weather person but if it’s not going to snow just bring on the warm weather already. I’ve got my garden to get started and lots of yard work to do, and it’s a lot more appealing to do that when it’s warming up. In the meantime, let’s take a look at this week’s puzzle.
- Name: The Play’s the Thing
- Grid size: 15×15
- Number of entries: 80
- Difficulty: Very Easy (my solve time: 4:54)
I thought the title was a Shakespeare reference (isn’t “The Play’s the Thing” similar to a title of one of his plays, or a famous line from one?) and figured I was in for trouble, as I am not very familiar with the Bard. However, it turned out it was a different meaning of “play” and I sped through the solve with little trouble and got the theme after the solve. The themers are common 2-word phrases, clued straight, with the second word being the name of a popular game:
- 17A: [Inventor’s eternal quest]: BETTER MOUSETRAP – “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Or just get a cat. I haven’t played Mousetrap since I was a kid but I remember the classic TV ad. “Roll the dice, move your mice!”
- 32A: [Whom a selfish Italian looks out for?]: NUMERO UNO – It’s also been a while since I’ve played Uno – I’ve played other card games like Skip-Bo and Cribbage a lot more recently. (Psst – here’s a secret: Uno is essentially just Crazy Eights)
- 51A: [Filmed “Jeopardy!” bit featuring a celebrity]: VIDEO CLUE – Not a big “Jeopardy!” watcher but I guess I’ve seen enough that I was able to figure this one out. Clue was one of my favorite games as a kid, though as with the other games in this puzzle I haven’t played it in decades. I have mentioned previously my crush on Miss Scarlett. 😊
- 64A: [Secret spy mission]: COVERT OPERATION – I probably had the most trouble getting this themer, but the crosses all came quickly so no real problem. I was never a big fan of Operation – I’m kind of a purist when it comes to games and definitely prefer cards or simple board games to anything that required batteries.
- 74A: [Late stage of a chess match, and a hint to the puzzle theme]: ENDGAME – The revealer. I got a chess board for Christmas and we’ve tried playing a few times. I can’t say I have an endgame yet; I can barely say I know how to set up the board and move the pieces.
I got 1A right off the bat and it was off the to races after that, with only a few pauses for some mildly obscure (to me) entries. I solved pretty much N to S and then went back and mopped up a few scattered blanks, ending up with my 3rd fastest solve time. Not much else to say about a smooth solve.
Canadian content:
- 1D: [Justin Trudeau’s party: Abbr.]: LIB – One of the few entries that I didn’t know right away. I mean, I knew he was a member of the Liberal Party, I just couldn’t remember how it was abbreviated.
- 13D: [Jagmeet Singh’s party: Abbr.]: NDP – Jagmeet Singh has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party since 2017.
- 19A: [PetroCan rival]: ESSO – With those tasty vowels and 2 Ss this Canadian business shows up quite often in American crosswords. It has appeared in the New York Times crossword 299 times since 1959. However, it wasn’t until 1989 that it was clued as the gasoline company and not the Italian pronoun (stats from XWord Info.
- 40D: [Van. campus]: UBC – The University of British Columbia has a beautiful campus and one of my favorite museums in the world.
- 50D: [Thanksgiving mo., in Canada]: OCT – I’m assuming Barb added “in Canada” to this clue for benefit of solvers who resemble me. 😉
Other stuff:
- 15A: [Licorice-tasting herb]: ANISEED – I knew “anise” but it took the last two crosses to fully get this.
- 16D: [User of a 22-key typewriter]: STENO – While I seriously doubt there are many stenos left in the workforce, and think it’s kind of archaic to see it in a puzzle, this is a fresh clue for it so 👍
- 25A: [“…borrower nor a ______ be” (Polonius line)]: LENDER – Speaking of Shakespeare… That Polonius had a bunch of good lines, so I’ve chosen one of them to be this week’s quote.
- 44D: [Suffix with an- or cath-]: ODE – Well, I guess at least it’s a new clue for “ode” rather than the usual “laudatory poem.”
- 48D: [Retired female professor’s title]: EMERITA – I knew this right off as I used it recently to refer to a retired colleague.
- 55A: [______ fly]: TSE TSE – This used to appear in crosswords all the time, though usually just as “TSE” clued “when doubled, an African fly” I don’t recall seeing it much recently, not sure why.
Quote of the week:
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
-William Shakespeare (“Hamlet,” Act 1, Scene 3)