I guess today is the Ides of February – I vaguely recall that there are terms for various parts of the month, but the only one I recall is “ides” which I think refers to the middle of the month. I do know that it’s the middle of freaking February and it’s 19℃/66℉ outside. I’m about to go for a walk wearing shorts. Nothing to see here, everything is fine… Let’s get busy with this week’s puzzle before we “enjoy” the weather.

  • Name: Wishing You All the Est
  • Grid size: 15×15
  • Number of entries: 72
  • Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 6:06)

I thought the theme would have something to do with superlative words, maybe with “est” dropped off of them and clued punnily to their new meaning, or less likely the est training/self-help/cult movement of the 1970s. I was close to the former; the themers are all common phrases (one a title of a TV show) with “EST” added in somewhere to make a different phrase which is clued punnily:

  • 20A: [TV show about a humble police team?]: THE MODEST SQUAD – “The Mod Squad” was a popular show in the 1960s, trying to hop on the “new generation” bandwagon. I guess rather than being super-mod, the Modest Squad is more retiring.
  • 30A: [“Climb the world’s highest peak? When pigs fly!”]: NEVER EVEREST – I could say I’d never ever climb (well, hike actually) the highest peak in the lower 48 US States, but I’d be lying.
  • 38A: [Fictional woodland?]: MADE UP FOREST – There are many made up forests in fairy tales, and that’s something they’ve never made up for.
  • 49A: [Hired windstorm chasers?]: TEMPEST WORKERS – While I can kind of see the thrill and appeal of being a tornado chaser, I still think they’re crazy. I bet very few of them are temp workers.

Quick solve, except I had a fat-fingered typo that cost me about 20 seconds to find. There’s lots of not-that-easy fill in here (18A, 27A) and  some obscure crosswordese (7D) but they are clued and crossed fairly for all solvers.

Canadian content:

  • 9D: [The “I” of NAIT or SAIT: Abbr]: INST – Both Northern and Southern Alberta have Institutes of Technology.
  • 10D: [Vodka and clamato cocktails]: CAESARS – This is a classic Canadian cocktail and maybe I’ll stock up on some Clamato to have one or two this weekend. I will definitely coat the rim of the glass with Old Bay, however.
  • 15A: [Saskatchewan’s capital]: REGINA – I can spell Regina a lot more easily than I can spell Saskatchewan.
  • 25D: [Three east of Alta]: ONT – Ontario is three provinces east of Alberta. I’m always surprised by how big Ontario is, especially in comparison to the eastern US states it borders.
  • 46A: [Prepare for a Musclemag photo]: OIL UP – According to Wikipedia, Musclemag was a Canadian bodybuilding magazine established in Canada in 1974 by Robert Kennedy, an immigrant to Canada and leading expert in fitness and bodybuilding.

Other stuff:

  • 5A: [______ number (element’s I.D.)]: ATOMIC – This is usually seen in crosswords clued as “Periodic table fig.” or something like that and the answer is ATNO, which I guess is crosswordese for At. No. (Atomic Number). Nice to see the whole word spelled out for a change.
  • 7D: [Wavy molding]: OGEE – If you do crosswords frequently, you knew this one right off. If you don’t, well, you probably didn’t. Pro tip: memorize it.
  • 8D: [Muffet’s address]: MISS – I wanted this to be “tuffet” – I mean, that’s where she sits, so that’s her address, right?
  • 18A: [Latin for “actually existing”]: IN ESSE – I have solved at least three puzzles in the last week where ESSE was an entry, so that made this pretty easy for me.
  • 43D: [Easy to handle]: WIELDY – Unusual to see this without “un” in front, but a perfectly cromulent word. I just can never remember whether it’s “i before e” or one of the many exceptions to that “rule.”
  • 47A: [Stash, as cargo]: STOWS – I’m still on the fence if the tense is correct with this one – seems the clue could rightly be “Stashes, as cargo” because I kept thinking “stow” was the word we were looking for.

Quote of the week:

“Time moves in one direction, memory in another.”
– William Gibson