Saturday, May 18 2024, Adrian Johnson

Okay - right off the bat, let me tell you how much I enjoy crosswords with full-width triple-stacks, and admire the setters who create them.  Chapeau for that, Mr. Johnson!  It's a cool grid today, roughly S-shaped, with the aforementioned triple-stacks at top and bottom and most of the black squares in two contiguous triangles to the left and right.  It looked at first like a worthy challenge for a Saturday.  But alas, it was not.  I don't generally put my solve times in these reviews (my crossword-solving mum chided me for it one time), but I gotta say, 4:56 for a Saturday puzzle is a little anomalous - my fastest time ever, by quite a margin.

Maybe it was because the six long answers were fairly easy.  I thought CALLONTHECARPET ("Reprimand") was CALLTOTHECARPET, but that was only a tiny hiccup.  There were a few unknowns in the grid; e.g. URIE ("Singer Brendon who fronted Panic! at the Disco") and 2004-05 NBA Rookie of the Year EMEKA Okafor, but they emerged easily from the crossers.  

Having said that, it's the QMCs that keep me coming back, as it were, and there were a couple of real crackers today:

• "Make toast?" = RUIN
• "Nun's habit?" = CELIBACY
• "Cross state lines?" = TIRADE <-- this has to be one of my all time favourites!!

I didn't know there was a name for a "crowd energizer at a hip-hop concert" (HYPEMAN).  As an aside, the atmosphere inside the local hockey arena when the Maple Leafs are playing is so lifeless and library-like at times, that they've taken to utilizing cheerleaders, or, I guess, HYPEMEN and HYPEWOMEN, to try to extract some life out of the "fans".  Heresy!!

As a lifelong tennis fan, I knew Andre Agassi was an IRANIANAMERICAN.  I really disliked him as a player; but I have great respect for him now, having read his autobiography.

So.  Too easy for a Saturday, I thought.  But maybe it was just me, in the zone or something.  I'd love to hear your thoughts, dear readers, before I sign off and pass the baton to my esteemed colleague Colum.  Have a nice weekend everybody - a long one if you're a Canuck!

-philbo