Beep Beep!

It’s that time of year again - The Great Canadian Baking Show has hit the CBC airwaves, formally indicating that it’s time to cozy up and settle into fall. In what is possibly the least competitive competition show, getting to watch seasoned home bakers put their all into showstopping cakes, breads, pastries, and more is truly entertaining (and more often than not, mouthwatering). Jennifer is off to a strong start this season, but don’t think for a minute that Jo won’t be a long-term contender… I’ll try not to turn this into a Baking Show blog, but no promises.

This week’s crossword was inspired by another thing that makes me feel cozy. Rush Hour is one of my favourite games, an incredibly satisfying solving experience (I’ve got one expansion - if anyone else has one, hit me up and let’s swap lol). I hope this puzzle brings you the same amount of joy that that game brings me.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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Beep Beep! by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

I love puzzles where the theme clues/answers make you say “I feel like I know what the answer should be, but for some reason it doesn’t work,” and then you get a beautiful moment where things click and it all comes together. That “aha” moment is what keeps me coming back to crosswords (and what prompted me to pick up a book of “the best” NYT Thursday puzzles). This aimed to be one of those puzzles.

In honour of 4-Across (EDM) in this puzzle, I’ll present to you one of my favourite EDM albums, a tight 4-song EP by Koan Sound that includes some liquid DnB moments (though the real EDM-heads might fight me on that lol).

Today’s Theme

The three starred clues have shaded or circled squares in their answers (depending on whether you did the online or print version), so you know something is up. 35-Across is the “revealer,” which hints at what’s going on - [With 37-Across, the inspiration for one of my favourite puzzle games "Rush Hour"... and a hint to the starred answers]. Solving these two gives TRAFFIC JAM - so we need to JAM some TRAFFIC into the starred answers. We thus realize that 11-Across, [* Whichever], should be ANY, but with some traffic jammed in there, it’s A(LIMO)NY. Similarly, we have [* Place frequented by bad bowlers] as GUT(BUS)TER and [* Website credentials, casually] as LOG(CAB)INS.

Behind the Clues

15A. This was a fun little, um, anti-misdirect? I’m not quite sure how to describe [Where what's "left on the cutting room floor" is mostly hair], but it does bring me joy. We’re describing a hair-cutting place, of course, in this case a SALON, by borrowing a phrase from movie/book/media editing but taking it literally.

32A. Is it okay to lie in crosswords? Ah, that’s pretty clickbait-y, but I ask for a reason. [___-law (me, to exactly two people)] is SON-IN-law, which is not legally true, but for ease of conversation, it’s what I am referred to as by my partner’s parents. I think that’s fine in this case, especially since if I were to lie in a crossword, I’d make up something way cooler for myself, like motorcycles or skydiving or whatever.

40A. I’ve never met an air mattress that I’ve liked. The year is 2025 - have we not, as a society, figured out the key to keeping air inside a comfortable resting surface, or am I too cheap to buy a good air mattress? Maybe don’t answer that question… I won’t be able to hear you over the hissing sound of SSS anyway.

2D. [Expensive quintet in Wheel of Fortune] is AEIOU. You'd better have a lot saved up if the word/phrase you’re guessing on Wheel of Fortune is “Euouae,” which holds the record for the longest English word with only vowels and is such a classic Wheel of Fortune phrase. It would cost you $1,000 total ($250 per vowel), and since I know you’re wondering, putting your RRSP into Wheel of Fortune vowels would be a terrible investment - they’ve remained the same price over the show’s 40-year run. Which kind of makes sense, since it’s become wayyyy cheaper to manufacture vowels over the years.

9D. Time to peel back the curtain on this one, because I think it’s an interesting look at the crossword process. [Opposites of antonyms: Abbr.] went through a few iterations before landing on this clue. The answer, SYNS, is short for synonyms, but it’s not a common abbreviation, which makes it harder to assume people will get. My original clue was [Opposites of opposites: Abbr.], which felt more fun, but made it harder to connect SYN to synonym. So I made it less fun, but more solvable, ultimately leaving the fun for other clues in that corner. Constructing is a series of trade-offs to balance fun and solvability.

25D. I’ve gotten a little wordy in this section today, so let’s end on a great music video. [Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er ___"] is BOI, an anthem that in some ways defined my generation. Avril Lavigne was right alongside all the greats, like Simple Plan and Sum 41, and later formed half of the most powerful couple in all of Canadian music with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. That only lasted a short few years (2013-2015), but hey, at least we got some good music out of it.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next Friday,

Brandon