It’s the last week of March and I forget if it’s supposed to be lion-like or lamb-like, but whatever – I like it well enough. It’s warming up, but not too much, and most importantly baseball season starts this week. Opening Day is arguably the best day of the season – everyone’s in first place! Well, except for the Chicago Cubs. The Orioles are opening away in Toronto, and before the game starts I will be yelling “O!” at the appropriate place in the US national anthem; Blue Jays fans do what you need to do. On to this week’s puzzle.

• Name: Where the Action is
• Grid size: 15×15
• Entries: 74
• Difficulty: Easy (my solve time: 6:09)

Speaking of baseball, “Where the Action is” brings to mind sports or gambling, and that’s kind of what we get in the theme, but from a slightly twisted perspective. The themers are common two-word phrases where the second word doubles as a venue for certain sports, then clued punnily to make the phrase apply to that sport:

• 17A: [Swimming venue in need of cleaning?]: DIRTY POOL – Dirty pool is an idiom used to imply that someone is cheating or not playing by the rules. It’s unclear whether the meaning comes from the billiards game or directly from politics (as in politics being a dirty pool of water). Pools aren’t the only venue that need to be cleaned up for swimming events.
• 24A: [Tennis venue of the highest quality?]: SUPREME COURT – A supreme court is the highest judicial body in a particular jurisdiction. Tennis courts can be made of a surprisingly wide range of surfaces, and I assume there are various ways you can judge (ha!) the quality of them.
• 39A: [Golf venue where players meet by accident?]: COLLISION COURSE – Two vessels are said to be on a collision course when the bearing between them doesn’t change and the distance between them is getting less; or, constant bearing/decreasing range. I might actually start watching golf if they throw in a bumper car aspect to it.
• 49A: [Bowling venue susceptible to dangerous winds?]: TORNADO ALLEY – “Tornado alley” refers to an area of the U.S. where there is a high potential for tornado development. The area stretches from northern Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and parts of Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska and eastern Colorado. In Canada, southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan have traditionally been at highest risk for tornadoes, but apparently that area is shifting east. Bowling balls are pretty heavy and roll low to the ground, so probably not that affected by high winds, though I wouldn’t want to be bowling in a tornado.
• 62A: [Boxing venue at the Vatican?]: PAPAL RING – The “papal ring” or Ring of the Fisherman is a symbol of the papacy dating back to 1100 or earlier. The current Pope has something of a relationship with the sport of boxing. Boxing “rings” are actually square but with no set dimensions.

Even though several times I felt stumped, for the most part I breezed through this solve, and picked up the theme about halfway through. As usual, there were a few entries that gave me trouble, and for the most part I was able to get them from the crosses. The toughest spot was around 32A/33D where I had ABAB in for 32A and no immediate idea what 33D was. Taking a step back and confirming several of the crossing entries nearby showed what needed to change, and I had a clean solve.

Canadian content:

• 2D: [Gatineau girlfriend]: AMIE – Gatineau is in southwest Quebec, across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Ontario.
• 37D: [Canco competitor]: ESSO – Esso appears often in crosswords on both sides of the border, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Canco before, much lass seen it in a crossword.
• 57D: [His statue stands at Manitoba’s Legislative Building]: RIEL – Louis Riel was a Métis leader who sought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. His statue stands on the Assiniboine River frontage of Manitoba’s Legislative grounds. This week’s quote is attributed to him.
• 64A: [Drummondville darling]: CHERI – Drummondville is roughly halfway between Montreal and Quebec City and is surrounded by villages named after saints.
• 66A: [“Maybe Sparrow” singer Case]: NEKO – Neko Case is one of my favorite artists of all time. “Maybe Sparrow” is just one of her amazing songs. Although she was born near where I grew up in suburban Washington, DC, she has close Canadian ties to Vancouver and often collaborates with Canadian musicians.
• 68A: [B.C. town or C.T. university]: YALE – Yale, BC is located at the southern entrance to the Fraser Canyon and is generally considered to be on the dividing line between the British Columbia Coast and the Interior regions of the British Columbia Mainland. Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut, is where a lot of overprivileged jerks went to school.

Other stuff:

• 13D: [“Have ___ at the table]: A SEAT – “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
• 19A: [“M*A*S*H” chaplain]: PADRE – Officially Father John Mulcahy, he was often referred to by Colonel Potter as “Padre.” There’s a new documentary about “M*A*S*H” that came out last year.
• 33D: [Like a high range]: ALPEN – I had ABAB in for 32A and was pretty sure about themer 39A so was racking my brain trying to figure out a mountain adjective starting with BL. Changing the rhyme scheme help figure it out.
• 44A: [Lima beans exporter]: PERU – While I knew that Lima was the capital of Peru, I didn’t think that’s what the beans were named for. I knew they weren’t named for Lima, Ohio, however.

Quote of the week:
“My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”
– By Oral Tradition Attributed to Louis Riel