Sunday, October 9, 2022, Jessie Trudeau and Ross Trudeau

RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

Happy Sunday, O our many readers! We are enjoying a relaxing couple of days with Cecelia, who is on Fall Break from college. In a little while, we'll be taking the dogs to walk around Olana, the estate of the Hudson Valley school of painting pioneer Frederick Church. But first, a little downtime, plenty to complete the puzzle and post a review!

A photo not taken by me, of Olana

Today's puzzle is a husband and wife extravaganza! It's a super fun theme, with the insane answer at 8D: Visual depiction of the apparatus used by the starred professionals (HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)... which doesn't come across nearly as interestingly when typed out this way. In the grid, it nicely represents a ladder from the bottom to the top. And, as suggested, there are five types of individuals who use ladders in their work, each one starting at one level and then ascending for the second word in their title.

Thus, 25A: Worker with a brush [three rungs] is CHIMNEY / SWEEP, where you have to move up three Hs in 8D to get to the second word. The others are SUBMARINE / COMMANDER, CHERRY / PICKER, TELEPHONE / REPAIRMAN, and HOUSE / PAINTER. I love the clue for the last one: One putting a coat on outside. Excellent!

I also love that the ladder is to be interpreted that way only on the rows where the workers are. In all other situations, they're just Hs, fitting into the across clues. Finally, there's the extra theme answer CLIMBSTHELADDER.

RUDY Gobert (and coach)

Otherwise, this is a great grid, smooth and well-clued as we've come to expect from Mr. Trudeau. I like 73D: Activity one tries to get out of? (ESCAPEROOM). Other answers that were appreciated included SHARONA, ELBOWED, and ULTRAHOT, although that last one could have been clued a little more blue, as our old friend Huygens used to note.

Fun puzzle, which I hope bodes well for this week's reviews.

- Colum