What’s Your Angle?

Well they’re making progress in removing the bridge wreckage and reopening the port, which is a huge relief. It’s really been an amazing effort and fascinating to watch. Now we have many years of work to rebuild a new bridge, and lot of work to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Spring showers are here, which is great for my garden and lawn, except if I want to do some gardening or mow the lawn. I was able to get most of my garden in between rain showers last weekend – we’ll see what comes in and doesn’t get eaten bu the deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds, bugs, … On to this weeks puzzle.

• Name: What’s Your Angle?
• Size: 15×15
• Entries: 72
• Difficulty: Very Hard (my solve time: 10:22)

Oof – that was a tough one, but the difficulty had nothing to do with the theme. The themers were all common phrases unrelated to fishing, where the first word is a term used in fishing, then clued punnily to relate the phrase to fishing:

• 18A: [Fisher’s “Heads up, I’m hurling my hook!, e.g.?]: CASTING CALL – A casting call (I love the picture Wikipedia uses to illustrate this entry) is what theaters and studios hold to audition actors for shows or movies. Shouting out a warning to bystanders when you cast your line may be a good idea.
• 28A: [What a careless shore fisher might leave behind?]: LINE IN THE SAND – A line in the sand is what you draw when you are setting boundaries, especially if you are implying there are consequences for crossing the line (though the alleged origin of the idiom has a different meaning). A careless fisher might leave a fishing line on the beach when they leave – hopefully not with a hook attached (and hopefully not commercial fishing gear).
• 48A: [Star in a fishing show?]: CATCH ON CAMERA – I’ve yet to catch on camera a burglar on my security system, but I have caught many rabbits, cats, foxes, and deer. I guess the catch are the stars of the show on a TV fishing program.
• 58A: [Fisher’s haul?]: NET EARNINGS – You need to know your net earnings in order to complete your taxes. I guess a trawler’s haul contributes a substantial amount to their net earnings – if they’re successful. That’s why they call it “fishing” not “catching.

Started out as a relatively smooth solve; I had a snag at 18A/9D where for some reason I had entered an “O” at 18A/8D so had no idea what 18A was, and no clue as to a 3-letter interest. Figuring I’d fill in the rest of the grid and be able to run the alphabet, I solved on. Until I got to SW – I was drawing blanks on 51A, 54A, 62A, and 65A, and while I was pretty sure about 34D, I was less sure of 51D. So a big area where I had a less-than-confident toehold. I solved the rest of the grid (and corrected my error in 18A/8D) and then tried multiple combinations of letters and even whole new words (65A: SETTE, SIETE, SIETA, etc.) with no luck. Determined to get a clean solve I broke down and Googled 48D and 62A. I rarely resort to this, and I’m of two minds about it: (1) The whole point of the puzzle is to solve it using your brains, so using a helper like Google is cheating. (2) Well, if it’s something that ain’t in your brain crossing something else that ain’t in your brain, you’ll never solve it, so might as well make it a learning experience. In this puzzle I knew I had seen 59D before, but couldn’t recall it so I felt it would be “cheating” to search for something I should know. But having never watched “90210” and knowing maybe two places in Alberta (Edmonton and Jasper, I think, and I guess Banff is in Alberta, so three) I feel a little better looking those up. You may have different thoughts – feel free to share them in the comments, I’d love to hear what other solvers think.

Canadian content:

• 6D: [CFL ball carriers]: RBS – Running backs carry the ball in the Canadian Football League.
• 22A: [TSX debut]: IPO – An initial public offering on the TSX (formerly the Toronto Stock Exchange) is where a company goes public.
• 48D: [Alberta site of a trucker blockade, 2022]: COUTTS – I remember the 2022 trucker blockades – we even had some here in the US – but all I could remember were the ones around Ottawa so Alberta did not ring a bell at all. Hello Google…
• 53A: [University in Halifax or Calgary]: ST MARYS – I initially thought it was St. Marks but soon was corrected by the crosses.
• 64A: [SportsCentre channel]: TSN – If you spell SportsCenter like that, it’s definitely not ESPN.

Other stuff:

• 2D: [Peloton kin]: SPIN BIKE – I kept trying to remember the name for a stationary exercise bike that I believe was a brand name but became generic, though I haven’t heard it recently. Ah, yes: Exercycle.
• 24A: [“Breaker 1/9” device]: CB RADIO – If you’re on the CB radio and want to announce yourself on the channel you say “breaker” and the channel number. Channel 19 is the common ‘hailing” channel – once you connect with someone you usually shift to another channel.
• 39D: [Trial dozen roster]: JURY LIST – I initially read the clue as “Tribal…” so was trying to think what a list of elders would be called, or maybe some other grouping.
• 44A: [Lahr’s Oz role]: LION – There was a time when LAHR would show up frequently as an entry in crosswords. This may be the first time I’ve seen him as part of the clue.
• 45D: [Stop sign shape]: OCTAGON – Canadian content missed opportunity – “Arrȇte sign shape, in Quebec.”
• 51A: [Honey-bun]: POOPSIE – Whaaaaat? I knew it wasn’t an actual honey bun, and was likely something like “hon” or “sweetie,” but I have never heard “poopsie” used as a term of endearment.
• 54A: [“Hallelujah, I’m ___” (Al Jolson film)]: A BUM – Yeah, I’m not really up on Depression-era semi-musicals.

Quote of the week:
“People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive”
-Haruki Murakami