“February made me shiver…” The first week of the second month of 2024 is in the books and while it’s seasonably cold, I am not complaining (yet). I’m getting ready to go on a short vacation to the west coast next week – with luck, I’ll get the puzzle solved and blog entered before I head out next Wednesday night. I’m really looking forward to this midwinter break and hope it portends more of the same. But that’s next week – let’s turn to this week and see what we have.

• Name: Hut!
• Size: 15×15
• Entries: 76
• Difficulty: Medium Hard (my solve time: 7:28)

From the title I knew the theme would have something to do with football. I figured it would be phrases incorporating different CFL or NFL team names (maybe both – hmm, that’s an interesting idea…), but instead they are common phrases not usually used with the game, which include a term associated with football and clued punnily:

• 18A: [Plea to a charging football carrier?]: DON’T RUSH ME: “Rushing” in football is to run with the ball (as opposed to passing). I guess it would be a timid defender on the opposing team who would be saying this. “Don’t rush me” is what you would say to someone who was urging you to take action before you were ready.
• 24A: [Impeding move in an Authors’ Football League game?]: WRITER’S BLOCK – To block in football is to make contact with an opposing player to impede their motion, usually to allow an offensive player with the ball to take action (run, pass, or kick). Writer’s block is when a writer is having difficulty getting their words on paper.
• 37A: [Punts while reacting to a silly joke?]: KICKS AND GIGGLES – A punt is a type of kick used in football to return the ball to the opposing team after a team has failed to advance the ball in the alotted number of attempts (downs). To do something for “kicks and giggles” is to do it without any real purpose; i.e.,  to do something solely for the amusement aspect of it.
• 51A: [Evaluation of a Hail Mary move?]: PASSING GRADE – Passing is an action by the offensive team (usually the quarterback) to advance the ball down the field by throwing it to a teammate. A passing grade is an evaluation of an effort that rises above the threshold established to be successful in the effort. A Hail Mary is a desperate long throw down field, usually with little or no time left on the clock. It’s also part of the title of a very good book.
• 61A: [Sport featuring edge defenders?]: THE END GAME – In football, the end game is when a team takes action intended to preserve (if they are leading) or advance (if they are behind) their score. Here’s a journal paper on using timeouts in end-game scenarios. The term end game is also used in other games and sports, notably in chess.

My solve time this week was almost the same as last week, and it felt like nearly the same level of difficulty even before I saw my time. It took a little while to break in even though I had a good idea of the general theme (football). I still didn’t know how it was executed until I got a lot of the themers. So it took a lot of chipping away at the shorter fill to finally get to the point of being able to work more quickly through the grid.

Canadian content:

• 45A: [CBC journalist Diana]: SWAIN – Diana Swain is the Managing Editor of Investigative Journalism for CBC News and has oversight of CBC’s key investigative programs including The Fifth Estate and Marketplace.
• 19D: [CanaDream rentals]: RVS – I don’t recall ever hearing of this Alberta-based recreational vehicle rental company, but for some reason “RVs” was the first thing that popped into my head on reading the clue.
• 21D: [Kamloops, B.C. campus: Abbr.]: TRU – Thompson Rivers University is in Kamloops, and aptly overlooks the confluence of the North Thompson River and the Thompson River.
• 35D: [A&W’s Bacon and ___]: EGGER – Even though it has made at least one previous appearance in the puzzle, I forgot about this breakfast sandwich served only in Canadian A&W shops, and initially entered the oft-seen-in-crosswords EGGO.

Other stuff:

• 20A: [Time-change action]: RESET – While I guess you can be said to be resetting your clock when you change from standard to daylight time (or vice versa), it eluded me for a while. In any event, be sure to test your smoke detector and replace the batteries (if applicable) when you switch time!
• 43A: [Wildlife tracking aids]: EAR TAGS – I had __RTAGS and almost put “AirTags” in before thinking they’re a little too new to be used widely to track wildlife.
• 49D: [“Not now but right now!”]: PDQ – When it’s wanted faster than fast, it’s wanted pretty damn quick. A missed opportunity to honor  Peter Schickele, the “discoverer” of P.D.Q. Bach, so I’ll use him as the source of this week’s quote.

Quote of the week:
“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that certain je ne sais quoi.”
– Peter Schickele