Sorry for the belated blog – I had a work trip to Savannah, Georgia this week and thought I’d have time on Thursday to get the puzzle solved and the blog posted. But I forgot I had to do some additional post-trip work, and had a dental appointment so my time was more limited than expected. So let’s hop into it.
- Name: What’s Up
- Grid size: 15×15
- Entries: 70
- Difficulty: Very Hard (my solve time: 11:01)
I looked at the title “What’s Up” and briefly wondered why it didn’t have a question mark, then promptly forgot it as I started the solve. This came to bite me later. The theme is pretty straightforward – the themers are all things that are “like a bird” as shown in the musical revealer:
- 18A: [*Extinct flying reptile]: PTERODACTYL – I got this pretty quickly, though I had a few iterations of crosses to get the spelling right. I immediately thought the theme would have something to do with silent letters, two consonants in a row, words with Ys in them, or something like that. Pterodactyls lived 150 million years ago and had wingspans up to 5 feet/1.5 meters that allowed them to go up in the air.
- 23A: [*Bygone super-speedy jet]: CONCORDE – You often see SST as an entry (198 appearances in the NYT puzzle since 1994), but seeing the full name of the airplane is far rarer (only 2x). The Concorde flew as fast as Mach 2.04 (approximately 1,354 mph or 2,180 km/h) up in the air.
- 33A: [*Winged “B”, for the royal limo]: BENTLEY LOGO – Since it has wings – and a tail – if the logo were a real thing it might be able to go up in the air.
- 49A: [*Duck-billed mammal]: PLATYPUS – While it has a bill like a bird, unless a pterodactyl grabbed it, I don’t think it would go up in the air.
- 54A: [Nelly Furtado hit … or what the answers to the starred clues might say (if they could talk!)]: I’M LIKE A BIRD – The revealer. I think this is the only Nelly Furtado song I know, thanks to Nick Hornby’s “Songbook”. In any event, it was one of the entries that helped me break into the SW once I figured it out. Strangely, I had “like a bird” and struggled to remember “I’m” for way too long.
This one started out feeling like it would be a medium difficulty solve, but then I found myself with the entire SW corner blank and just could not break in. A few wild guesses, a couple of which turned out to be correct, helped me get most of 54A. I had a strong hunch 51A ended in FEE, but it took a while to get the drinking meaning of “round” out of my head and think golf instead. Then it came together rather quickly, though there are some real headscratchers in there (see “Other stuff” below) I wasn’t sure I had right until I got the happy pop-up.
Canadian content:
- 1A: [Classical grp. at Roy Thomson Hall]: TSO – The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and their main venue have appeared here enough times that I entered this one confidently.
- 2D: [Ontario’s fourth largest lake]: SIMCOE – Lake Simcoe appeared here recently where I noted it was the “fourth largest lake located entirely within the borders of Ontario, after (large to small) Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul and Lake Nipissing.”
- 28A: [Hosp. affiliated with the University of Toronto]: MT SINAI – Mount Sinai Hospital is located Downtown, close to the University.
- 34D: [___ Raitt, Transport Minister in Harper’s cabinet]: LISA – Lisa Raitt was born in Sydney, NS and served as Transport Minister from 2013 to 2015.
- 54A: [Nelly Furtado hit … or what the answers to the starred clues might say (if they could talk!)]: I’M LIKE A BIRD – I almost missed that Nelly Furtado is Canadian – she was born in Victoria. Since she’s Canadian, and provided the revealer for the puzzle, she gets this week’s quote.
- 58A: [Namesake of a Nunavut strait]: RAE – Rae Strait is named after John Rae, who was the first European to visit the area.
- 62A: [Tradesperson’s certification in Canada]: RED SEAL – The Red Seal endorsement is placed “on your provincial or territorial trade certificate. It shows that you have the knowledge and skills necessary to practice your trade across Canada.”
Other stuff:
- 7D: [Greek goddess trio]: HORAE – I must have got all the crosses because I don’t even remember seeing this during the solve; if I had it would have stopped me cold. The Horae (or Horai) were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time.
- 43D: [Ancient Jewish ascetic]: ESSENE – I know Essene has appeared in quite a few crosswords I’ve solved, but I totally blanked on it here.
- 48A: [“Pacem in ___” (“Peace on Earth,” per John XXIII]: TERRIS – I knew terra as Latin for earth, but I was pretty sure of the I from 42D, so it took a while to get Terris, which is a proper name and used for Earth.
- 49D: [Small armadillos]: PEBAS – I had absolutely no idea on this and wasn’t sure I had it right until I had the entire grid filled.
- 50D: [Hanover, Germany’s river]: LEINE – I know a lot about rivers, even European ones, but I had no idea this one existed or where it was located. In my defense, I’ve never traveled in this part of Germany, and the river doesn’t appear to be used much for transport.
- 59A: [Give a little zing, perhaps]: ENHANCE – Enhance was the first thing that came to mind, but it seemed too obvious, so I tried enspice, but was pretty sure of 52D, and had no idea on 49D so it took a while.
Quote of the week:
“This idea that artists are always going to make the right choices and do the right thing is kind of a falsehood. That’s what my songs are about. Falling down and getting back up again.”
– Nelly Furtado