I Need Direction!

Happy Friday! As the Oilers continue their playoff run, my interest in hockey has been upgraded from “I wonder if I’m still last in my hockey pool” to “I could be convinced to eat chips and be stressed in front of my TV”, and, to pretend I’m Gen Z for a moment, I’m here for it.

@boogabooga.billy

Round 2 begins TONIGHT! He’s ready 🎉 #edmontonoilers #oilers

The Oilers make an honourable appearance in this week’s crossword, and hey, Crosshare’s site is orange - a coincidence? Yes, absolutely.

Discussion, survey results, (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Sidebar: Wednesday’s survey results

Thank you to everyone who responded! I had 3 valuable takeaways:

1. Bring back the Taproot Mini! I agree - we both want it to happen, my people (me) are talking to their people (them).

2. A monthly bonus crossword was the most popular perk choice, and a small local ad in the newsletter/print would be reasonable.

3. Many people aren’t able/interested in financially supporting YEGwords and that’s okay! I’m just glad you’re here solving my puzzles :)

What does it all mean? YEGwords will continue to be self- and community-funded. If you’d like to donate a few bucks, there’s a link below - I’ll send donors some bonus content that doesn’t fit into the YEGwords mould. It also means you’ll be seeing this in the newsletter going forward:

Sidebar over. Thanks again for your support, however you show it! Now, back to why we’re all here…

Discussion

Welcome to the opening song on my Summer Vibes 2025 playlist.

This crossword featured four (!) vertical full-length entries, which is super fun. I love putting phrases like ROCK HARD ABS and SECRET ROOMS in a puzzle when I can lmao. But, it also makes it potentially more difficult - so hopefully I made the crosses doable enough for you!

Today’s Theme

It’s a tricky one today, but hopefully a good lesson in parsing wordplay answers! WHATS is in each set of circled letters, though sometimes spelled backwards, or more correctly, spelled to the right, to the left, upwards, and downwards. So, you could read them as WHAT’S UP, WHAT’S DOWN, WHAT’S LEFT, and WHAT’S RIGHT, which makes each of the starred clues make sense.

Tricky Clues

15A. I like the juxtaposition of the clue [Laugh that sounds like you're grossed out], which in this case is a bit of an Archie comic laugh - YUK.

18A. Don’t be that person on your team! If you’re causing your team to [Lose on purpose, casually], you’re “throwing” the game - and no one likes a thrower.

26A. This might have been a bit obscure, but I decided to keep it. [Gun beginning in ancient Japan?] should be read as “A beginning to ‘gun’ in ancient Japan”, which points us to a SHOGUN (or SHO, the beginning, as the answer).

1D. This song doesn’t quite have the lightheartedness needed for the Summer Vibes 2025 playlist, but it’s still a great radio hit from 2015 - Tove Lo’s “Talking Body”. Actually, I kind of like the idea of a playlist of all my crossword references. Look for the official YEGwords playlist coming to a streaming platform near you.

3D. If you’re absolutely shredded, you might wonder - could I shred cheese on me? On my ROCK HARD ABS? The answer? Not really. [Link note: I don’t like this video, but it’s relevant. Sorry.]

9D. God, I love the idea of SECRET ROOMS hidden behind bookshelves. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have a good place to build one in my house (yet). But man, this is the dream.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next Friday,

Brandon