💎 Bejeweled 💎

I started playing rec league basketball last week for the first time, as someone who historically hasn’t loved basketball. After two games, my review? I still don’t fully understand basketball, but I am enjoying myself. Maybe the true joy of basketball isn’t winning or even doing well, but just getting out there and doing some (surprisingly cardio-heavy) exercise. Maybe no one person is supposed to fully understand the game, but as a collective, we self-govern the sport in a pseudo-meritocracy. Maybe the true basketball is the friends we made along the way.

This week’s crossword is not about basketball, though I’m sure many readers feel the same way about crosswords as I do about basketball. Instead, we’ve got some fun wordplay and classic “way too long” clues for you, and a title that gives one of the best Taylor Swift songs a wink.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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Bejeweled by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

It’s ballroom eleganza this week at YEGwords, the way this puzzle is bedazzled. Nothing too goofy or crazy this week, just classic puzzle fun and a bunch of pop culture references. There’s a lot of videos/songs I want to link to this week, but I’ll start you off with the classic.

Today’s Theme

The theme revealer spans the full middle row of this grid, [Foundational feature, or a way to describe each set of circled letters]. This is a CORNERSTONE, and each set of circled letters (OPAL, RUBY, TOPAZ, DIAMOND) is a gemstone placed in a corner of the grid. That’s wordplay, baby 😎

Behind the Clues

12A. It’s summer - we’ve got to have some warm-weather clues in here. I’m not a big flower guy, so I had my partner help come up with an aptly descriptive clue for PEONY, which we settled on [Fragrant spring bloomer]. Gardeners can let me know if there’s a better one out there for the future.

15A. I love MAC and Me, the […1988 movie featuring heavy McDonald's and Coca-Cola product placement)]. It’s so fun, so ridiculous, and has everything from fully choreographed dance scenes to one of the strongest endings in movie history. Paul Rudd has a great running gag where he plays the same iconic clip from the movie on Late Night whenever he’s there promoting a new movie. I could go on for ages about this movie.

30A. Lots of movie references in this crossword. [Frankie of Agent Cody Banks and Big Fat Liar] was Frankie MUNIZ, also of Malcom in the Middle and one of my favourite actors growing up. And I love that he largely left acting early to pursue a career as a race car driver. A+, Incredible.

8D. Can you tell I play D&D? ["___ initiative" - Dungeon Master's request after the self-proclaimed "party face" with -2 Charisma decided to jump into the negotiations] probably feels slightly triggering to anyone who has played more than a one-shot, and maybe gibberish to anyone who hasn’t. ROLL FOR initiative, go forth, and make up goofy stories with your friends.

19D. This is a contender, no, runaway, for most ridiculous clue to date. ["You're wearing me apart, Lisa!" - Tommy Wiseau, in an alternate universe where he is a rock and Lisa is moving water, undergoing this] skillfully combines The Room and EROSION into a clue you truly won’t see in any newspaper or puzzle book lmao.

29D. A bit of crosswordese for the newbies to end this section off. [Crossword constructors' favourite rock band named after a car, ___ Speedwagon] is REO, one of the essential 3-letter words in every crossword-solvers mental dictionary, and one of those words that comes up waaaaay more in crosswords than in real life.

And what the hell… Here’s Vegeta saying “mondo cool”.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next Friday,

Brandon