Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key. So, of course, I sent Jim a 120-word skeleton that was impossible to fill without using ancient Estonian monetary lingo, dropping a casual note that this should be easy for most anyone to fill.Ĭurious that even after 10 years, he’s not TIRING OF me yet. I’ve found that the best approach to guiding along a newer constructor is to create a grid skeleton that chunks the canvas into smaller sections, so that each region can be tackled one by one, while heavily testing each and every area until you have 95 percent confidence that the entire grid can be filled with quality. It’s daunting to fill a grid that’s nearly as wide open as a themeless - while having to work around a full set of seven themers. Jeff: Jim and I have had many fun collaborations before, but Sunday 140-word puzzles are a major-league step up from Triple-A 15x15s. Horton was previously a star defenceman (spelled with a c) for the Toronto Maple Leafs (spelled with an f.)įinally, apologies to the “West Side Story” collaborator who didn’t make the clue at 37D: Jerome Robbins. It’s about torturing a lark.Ĭanada leads the world in donut shops per capita, and no chain is more Canadian than TIM Horton’s (81A). That song is repetitive, cruel and disgusting in a way that appeals to children everywhere. Jim: Here’s an explanation of today’s Canadian Content.Įvery Canadian child learns the song “Alouette” (6D). Those circled letters, though, found me in a spot of trouble.įiguring this out also made me notice the mirrored entry at 24A, “Sight at a checkout counter,” or CASH REGISTER. Those extra letters represent CAPITAL GAINS, i.e., increases to each capital city. That revealer, at 119-Across, “What this puzzle’s circled letters are with respect to the surrounding shaded squares?” makes a great punchline. I especially loved 114-Across, “One who walks to work? (Qatar),” in which one’s vocation involves motion, as a DOG HANDLER: DOHA is shaded, and G is in the circle. It also helped me wise up to the two puns. That helped me greatly with trivia that I didn’t remotely know, although I still screwed up that “Golfer who won the 1998 Masters (Italy)” at 26-Across (as I’ll explain in a minute).
In each of the theme entries, the shaded letters spell the mentioned country’s capital. This is one of those themes that goes from zero to 60 when you get it, I think. Those shaded letters, K-I-G-A-L-I, spell the capital of Rwanda returning to 49-Across, Q-U-I-T-O now jumps out in a way that makes me wonder how I missed it. “Activity for Santa (Rwanda)” solves to MAKING A LIST the shaded squares start at K and end at I, and the circle surrounds the N in MAKING. Next, I got 100-Across, and it was there that the shaded letters made sense. (What do Turkey and Ecuador have in common? Not money - Turkey has a lira, and Ecuador uses the U.S. The shaded squares occur at the very beginning of the clue, and the circle is at its fifth position - the C in COLD. The first couple of theme clues did nothing to assuage my fears, but I lucked out with 49-Across, “Give up all at once (Ecuador).” I had a few crossing letters and enough of a notion here to figure out the answer, QUIT COLD TURKEY. Having read the puzzle’s title, “In the Money,” and then noticing some of these countries - Qatar, Rwanda - my heart sank a little. The theme clues range from straightforward trivia to some really sweet puns, and each one is assigned a different country, which appears at the end of the clue in parentheses. There’s also a revealer at 119-Across and a cute hint at its mirrored entry, 24-Across. Within those squares sits a single circled letter. There are seven entries - 26-, 41-, 49-, 71-, 91-, 100- and 114-Across - that contain a series of shaded squares. Med.As a treat, we get nicely labeled theme entries today and not a rebus in sight.Disapproving sound LA Times Crossword Clue.Crushes it on the runway LA Times Crossword Clue.
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