Hybrid Animals

Okay, everyone who has told me to read “Across the Universe” by Natan Last. I’m finally doing it. After having it literally handed to me earlier this week, I figured I should at least give this book made for modern crossword lovers a gander. As a staunch fiction reader, I was very brave for doing this. Just a few pages, I told myself, then I can go back to my cozy world of make-believe stories.

Well, Mr. Last is a good storyteller, I’ll admit. He’s hooked me in the first 40 pages, so I’ll stick around to see what he’s cooking up for the rest.

If you love hearing people talk about crosswords, I’ve got news for you! My next workshop, “Crossword Construction 101,” will be on Tuesday, August 11 from 7-9 pm! Using only a pencil, paper, and your noggin’, I’ll teach you how to build mini crosswords from scratch. Bent Stick will be hosting, so rest assured you will have fantastic beer nearby for m(oral) support. It’s going to be a fun night! A link to purchase tickets will be included in next Friday’s newsletter. Hope to see you there!

This week, though, we’ve got another silly puzzle that my sick, twisted mind stumbled into one day. Enjoy!

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Hybrid Animals by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

I try to keep themes quite varied here at YEGwords, to keep things fresh and exciting for both you and me. No one wants to solve a cheeky anagram theme every week (well, I guess I shouldn’t speak for everyone). This more “relaxed” theme felt like a good one to slot in after a few hidden word/tricky wordplay ones.

What a BOP! Today we have been gifted with a reason to listen to Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album from 2020. It’s hard for me to choose favourite tracks, but this one buried in the second half has that funky bassline that’ll make you desk-dance.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme is more straight forward than many I publish here. A set of 6 italicized clues all follow the same structure - [Animal species]. Not very fun on the surface if I’m being honest lol.

The fun comes from figuring out why I thought this set of answers was worth your time. After solving a few, a pattern emerges - each species name is another animal, hence the title “Hybrid Animals”. The full set is:

[Frog species] is BULL as in bullfrog
[Monkey species] is SPIDER as in spider monkey
[Shark species] is WHALE as in whale shark
[Shrimp species] is TIGER as in tiger shrimp
[Dove species] is TURTLE as in turtle dove
and [Mouse species] is DEER as in deer mouse!

Behind the Clues

17A. [Try to reach China through the centre of the Earth, say] is a classic. You could try to DIG your way there, but unfortunately, a host of issues stand between you and your goal. One of which is that going through the centre of the Earth from Edmonton would put you somewhere in the ocean southeast of Africa. Not ideal.

19A. I never had the honour of playing ["Tree #2" in the school play, for one], unfortunately (I was never much of a drama kid). I think I could have handled a ROLE like that, but Tree #1? I’ll save that for the future Broadway icons.

32A. [Star Wars Episode ___: Revenge of the Sith] is Episode III, which I have a distinct memory of being excited for when it came out. The final piece! The missing link between prequels and the original trilogy! It turns out the missing link is a very angsty Anakin Skywalker, but a little bit of thinking could have probably told me that. Some iconic scenes, though.

5D. [Tippy-tops] is ACMES, which I realized after is a bit of crosswordese. I try to avoid more than 1-2 of those pesky “frequently in crosswords, infrequently in life” words, but I liked having CODED and MATATA in there so it stuck. An ACME is the highest point, the apex, the summit, the top.

11D. Did you know OKEYDOKEY is a legal Scrabble word? Can’t wait to play that one next time. [You only need one to spell OKEYDOKEY in Scrabble] is the only letter not repeated in that phrase, which is a D TILE. (And accidentally, the second “D/Dee” clue in this puzzle).

25D. I sat on the word BUSTS for quite a while with this puzzle, convinced there was some fun wordplay in there. After running through 2-3 mediocre/bad clues, I found [Heads & shoulders on which Head & Shoulders would be useless], and it clicked into place.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon