Mid September already… I knew it was going to be a quick month as I have something to keep me busy or traveling every week. I was in Maryland’s state capital, Annapolis, most of this past week, so that entailed long days and events in the evening. That’s my excuse for the lateness of this blog post – weak, I know. Next week is a big meeting in Washington, DC and then a personal trip to Connecticut and a work trip to Maine. I will do my best to plan time to solve the puzzle and blog about it in a more timely manner. Enough about me – let’s get to the puzzle.
- Name: This One’s for Us
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 76
- Difficulty: Medium (my solve time: 7:11)
“This One’s for Us” made me think the themers would be 2-word phrases where the first word starts with “U” and the second with “S,” or maybe phrases where “US” was added to change the meaning. I was closer on the second guess, but this one has double meaning: the themers are phrases where “OUR” is added to the end, then clued punnily. I say this has double meaning as “our” implies it’s for us, but it’s also the Canadian spelling so I guess an alternate title would be “This One’s Not for U.S.:”
- 18A: [Gossip at an exorcism?]: DEMON RUMOUR – If you want me to come to an exorcism, you may be able to entice me with some demon rum..
- 27A: [Knight’s protection made of bicycle tires?]: RUBBER ARMOUR – Holding a lance all day after a hard day of jousting, the knight may well have a rubber arm. Or they may have been pressured into the joust.
- 45A: [Drum made from a Coke container?]: POP CAN TABOUR – I guess if you made a drum with a Coke can, you’d cut off the end that holds the pop can tab. Where I grew up we called it “soda” and they were pull tabs, which are apparently officially called “ring pulls” – and were invented in Canada! – as a pull tab is something completely different.
- 58A: [Illegal work?]: CRIME LABOUR – If you’re gonna do a crime, you better be aware that any evidence you leave will be analyzed at the crime lab.
While my solve time is much better than last week, it took me a long time to figure out the theme, so I had large holes all over the place that I had to go back and fill. There were also several entries I did not know at all, and wasn’t sure I had correct until I finished the solve. Otherwise a smooth solve and I’m pleased with my solve time – expected it to be about a minute slower.
Canadian content:
Note: I’m counting all the themers as Canadian content, but only expanding on 45A below.
- 24A: [Ontario’s cap. city region]: GTA – The greater Toronto area includes six local boroughs: Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York, East York and Toronto, plus the cities of Mississauga and Brampton.
- 33A: [Oilers Albertan rivals]: FLAMES – The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers have a legendary rivalry known as the Battle of Alberta.
- 45A: [Drum made from a Coke container?]: POP CAN TABOUR – Mikolaj Kondakow and James Wong of Port Arthur, Ontario, invented the pull tab version for bottles in or before 1951.
- 63A: [Former RCMP commissioner ___ Lucki]: BRENDA – Brenda Lucki was born in Edmonton and served as RCMP Commissioner from April 2018 until March 2023.
Other stuff:
- 4D:”Move it, Manuel!”]: ANDALE – All I could think of was the Italian “andiamo!” which my late father-in-law would say whenever we we going somewhere.
- 14A: [Springfield’s Nahasapeemapetilon]: APU – I may have mentioned before that this Simpson’s character is problematic.
- 17A: [Lead-in to X, Y and Z]: GEN – I should have known it was the shortened form of generation, rather than VEE, which is wrong anyway (DOUBLEYOU doesn’t fit).
- 21D: [Novel’s unique digits]: ISBN – All I could think of was page numbers, or chapters, or fingers – not the International Standard Book Number.
- 24D: [“Mr. Mom” actress Teri]: GARR – I have loved Teri Garr since I first saw her, probably in one of my favorite movies of all time “Young Frankenstein, though it could have been “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” “Mr. Mom” was a family favorite when I was growing up, and it’s one of the movies I tell people to see if they want to get to know me. Ms. Garr gets this week’s quote.
- 38A: [Kitten pickup spots]: SCRUFFS – A recent puzzle I solved had a similar clue but the answer was NAPE, so that distracted me for a while.
- 55A: [“Buon ___!” (Italian Christmas greeting)]: NATALE – Unlike 4D my familiarity with Italian helped me with this entry. It’s also a lyric used in this beautiful song.
Quote of the week:
“You know I was originally going to call that book “Does This Wheelchair Make Me Look Fat?” And they wouldn’t let me, because it might offend someone. And now I know – live and learn – that I don’t care. I should have done it.”
– Teri Garr (on choosing a title for her autobiography)