Well, so much for second summer. A front came through on Monday and it went from shorts to wool socks weather overnight. I still like this far more than hot and sticky (but check with me about that in February).
- Name: Pain, Pain, Go Away
- Size: 15×15
- Entries: 74
- Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 5:45)
“Pain, Pain, Go Away” harkens to “rain, rain, go away” but that wasn’t much help at the start of the solve. However, as a couple of themers fell, the gimmick became apparent and it helped get the others. The themers are all phrases that include the letters “OW” which are dropped from the phrase and clued punnily:
- 18A: [Angler’s autobiography?]: ME AND MY SHAD – “Me and My Shad” might be a good alternate title for this book. “Me and My Shadow” was a moderate hit for Harry Nilsson in 1971. I remember it from car ads in the late 1970’s.
- 24A: [Sudden hurricane?]: POP UP WIND – In this day and age it would be very difficult for a hurricane to pop up unexpectedly – hurricane forecasting has improved substantially over the past few decades. A pop up window is an annoyance that can usually be blocked in most browsers.
- 34A: [Alert the crew on spotting a periscope?]: YELL SUBMARINE – As I recall, we were trained to call it a “riser” if we spotted a periscope while on lookout duty, but a hearty shout of “Submarine!” would probably work as well. And we’d all be happy living in a “Yellow Submarine.”
- 49A: [Battle between pharmacists?]: PILL FIGHT – I picture a couple of lab coat-clad professionals hurling tablets at each other, or maybe they’d fashion some sort of pill-shooting gun. In any event, it’d probably be less fun than a pillow fight.
- 54A: [Contraption for making wedding jewellery?]: RING MACHINE – While I prefer the artistry of a hand-made ring, I’m sure many are mass produced by machines. It took me a while to figure out that rowing machine was the OW-less original of this entry.
This solve seemed harder than it was, partially because of trying to figure out the theme on the fly, and partly because there is a lot of long fill in here. Luckily there is also a lot of short crosses to those long entries, so a little bit of chipping away made it all come together pretty smoothly. Biggest problem area for me was SW, where I had incorrect spelling for 42D and 43D and wanted 48A to be “chefs” for some reason.
Canadian content:
- 52D: [Shania’s “___ Feel Like a Woman”.]: MAN I – Shania Twain was born in Windsor, ON. I remember this song well and I love the way it sends up this video.
- 62A: [___ Thomson Hall, home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra]: ROY – Usually we get TSO as the answer and “Grp. whose home is Roy Thomson Hall” as the clue.
Other stuff:
- 20A: [Mixed-race person, in Hawaii]: HAPA – This was new to me, I wanted haole to fit, but it means something kind of related but different.
- 36D: [Elba of film, not palindrome]: IDRIS – In case you don’t get the reference, there is a famous palindrome: “Able was I ere I saw Elba.” And if you don’t know who Idris Elba is, I strongly suggest watching “The Wire.”
- 48A: [Diner whose cooks make stacks]: IHOPS – For some reason I thought this clue was referring to the cooks, not the places where they cooked, so it took me a while to get “chefs” out of my head.
- 59D: [G2G]: CYA – I think, but am not sure, that “CYA” is text-speak for “see ya” and “G2G” means “good to go” so I guess they’re both text sign offs? In any case, get off my lawn.
- 60A: [Xanadu group, for short]: ELO – I one-upped a bunch of musical-theater geeks in a trivia contest knowing this one. Of course I knew nearly nothing about any of the other musicals they asked about, but who can ever forget the combination of ELO and Olivia Newton John (and Gene Kelly!)?
- 63A: [Day of rest: Abbr.]: SAB – OK – raise your hand if you put SUN in here. I thought so.
Quote of the week:
“The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.”
— Henry David Thoreau