Like Fine Wine

Wow, we made it to issue #10! (#2 for those following along in binary!) What an exciting milestone. They say that most small businesses don’t make it to ten issues (or something like that), but look ma, we made it!

Honestly, I’ve had a great time making these and it’s warmed my heart to hear stories of this project bringing a bit of fun into people’s lives. Yelling answers across coffee shops, printing out a stack and putting them by the company water cooler (highly encouraged, by the way), and the… well… divisive nature of the emoji crossword. It’s been fun, and I’m looking forward to continued fun together :)

To celebrate, YEGwords is the good house on Halloween - we’re delivering a full-size treat today! 🍫🍫🍫 

^ Me (yelling guy) and you (small children), except without the part where you have to haul a 2-litre of pop home.

That’s right, this week I’ve crafted a puzzle so fun that it could not fit into our usual 11×11 crosswords - it’s a standard 15×15, baby. You weren’t planning on getting any work done this afternoon anyway, right? Rope a friend or colleague into helping you out if you get stuck!

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Discussion

Double the clues means double the fun! Well, 85% more fun anyway. Are you a full-size crossword enjoyer, or do you like the quicker midi (11×11) crosswords? I like both, but some great themes just don’t work in the smaller grids - and this one was too fun to pass up.

Today’s Theme

Today’s themed entries are all foods with a twist. The “revealer”, [Brussel sprouts, caviar... or a way to describe the answers to the starred clues] is GROWNUPFOOD, with each themed entry being a “grown up” version of the original - Junior Mints become SENIORMINTS, tater tots become TATERTEENS, Sour Patch Kids become SOURPATCHADULTS, and Babybels (cheese) become BOOMERBELS.

Tricky Clues

33A. This one was tricky, so if you got it, good job! [Negating response to a straight-forward question?], or a way to shut down a question that feels very heteronormative, might be I’M GAY. (Also, go follow Gender? I Hardly Know Them for some great queer comedy!)

35A. [Brief ending?] is channelling some of that cryptic crossword energy. An ending to the word “brief” that makes sense would be CASE, as in a briefcase.

71A. This one tripped up my faithful test solver, so I thought it worth a mention. While most of Mr. Potato Head’s parts fit into holes on his spud body, his moustache doesn’t - it has a hole that you put his NOSE through, which holds it above his mouth.

25D. And the winner of this year’s “Word That Always Looks Like It’s Spelled Wrong” goes to… that [Smooth transition in conversation], SEGUE.

31D. This [Acronym for the top 3 U.S. schools] is referring to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton - or HYP. Not my favourite clue, but I had to make some compromises in the middle-left section of the grid!

57D. YYC? In my YEG? Y-E-S, my friend, our southers from other mothers have the Calgary Police Service, or CPS. (For any non-Canadians solving this, sorry eh, it’s cool of you to come hang out)

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next Friday,

Brandon