Good morning, fellow crossword enthusiasts! It’s time for your dose of wordplay and trivia fun. This week’s puzzle is centred around something I’m usually bad at - knowing the lyrics to songs! I’m more of a how does the song sound guy vs how do the lyrics speak to me guy. Still, I suspect I was at least partially inspired by an upcoming show I’m excited to see - Off Book: The Improvised Musical! Edmonton has its own version of this, but Zach and Jess are truly some of the best to do it (and have 300+ episodes online to listen to). The clip below is actually a full hour-long live show, so maybe open that up in a tab and come back to it later ;)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Sing Along If You Know It! by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Terri R., Simon, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, Eryn C, Suzanne, Ayanna, Noah & Sky Greenwood-Burke, Braden & Aurora, Aurora, Katie V., Steph M, Kai-Lee Worsley, Dan Sato, Asue, Alex H., Carson, Cheryl Corrigan, @604catreviews, Garner Andrews, Gabi Goulart, Tales Carvalho, Katherine & David Middleton, Angie G, Shannon, Alexander, Tom Beck, Grace S., Elisa S, Nathan & Sophie, MyLe, Colette L., Maite, Kiara and Balpreet, Haley Moorhouse, Hendo, Sukh, Allison H, Daisy the Dog YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

Was this a particularly tricky puzzle? No. Was it silly? Yes. And sometimes, that’s enough. Granted, sometimes I don’t know exactly which syllable I’m supposed to be singing (Is this song da-da? Or ba-ba?), but as long as you hit the “ah” you’re close enough, I think.

We have a money-themed pair of artists in today’s puzzle - SLOAN and ABBA. We all know ABBA, so let’s highlight Canadian indie darlings Sloan’s amazing “Money City Maniacs.”

Today’s Theme

The clues for the three full-width-across answers all follow a similar pattern: [Partial lyric from "Song" by Band]. While this is an intimidating clue on its own, you may put together, through considering the three songs or perhaps getting a few letters, that you don’t need to know the songs all that well.

The partial lyric to each is the repeated syllable sing-along parts: The LA LA LAs from the chorus of "Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison, the NA NA NAs from the bridge/outro of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, and the BA BA BAs from the chorus/outro of "Happy Together" by The Turtles.

Behind the Clues

16A. The Nintendo Wii was the only console we were allowed growing up, and of course we had Wii Sports. That was part of the reason we were even allowed a Wii - it was more “active.” [Word following "Wii Sports" in a sequel] is RESORT, as in Wii Sports Resort, which looked awesome, but I never played it. Played a lot of Guitar Hero, though.

19A. It’s always a bit strange explaining cool motions via text. [Modern dance move done by putting the face into the crook of one elbow and extending the other arm out] is DAB, which in real life, I would have described as “Just do this:” then dabbing. I think we’re way past dabbing in the “what’s cool” sphere but imo dabbing will live on forever.

28A. I am certain I’m about to get several “Umm, actually” messages about [Kitten calls (or the genetic ancestors of all Pokémon, canonically)]. Look, I did my research. I remembered that being a thing. I checked and there’s some debate but it’s a pretty commonly accepted thing. But there’s always someone out there who knows better than me. DM me, Pokémon nerds, I dare you…

1D. I will admit, sometimes I get a bit hypothetical with my approach to cluing. [If the lost underwater city had a sports team (The Tridents, maybe?), this would be their shorthand on scoreboards] asks you to take a few mental leaps. The lost underwater city Atlantis, as a three-letter shortened form for scoreboards, could have a few variations, but the one that felt most natural to me was ATL.

6D. I may not so subtly be trying to educate the masses on pinball through this crossword. [Shake a pinball machine too hard] is TILT, which means the machine shuts your flippers off, you lose the ball, and perhaps most importantly, you lose any bonus points you accumulated - which on older machines can be most of your score. Don’t do it!

22D/23D. A nice clue pair here that revealed itself during the grid-filling process. [Complete beginner, slangily] is a NEWBIE, and NEWBIE online is a NOOB (sometimes stylized as n00b).

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

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Welcome to another Friday! I hope you’re closing out the summer in style this long weekend. Or maybe you’re already back to school, in which case, I hope you closed out summer in style last weekend. I know technically summer extends to September 21, but I think we all know that the first day of school is the real beginning of fall.

This week’s puzzle is a fun little romp - I hope you enjoy!

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Far Out, Man by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Terri R., Joe, Simon, Frank Castle, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, Katherine & David Middleton, Dahlia & Ivan, Maïté, Haley Moorhouse, Jack Rasmussen, Erica Alex, Eryn C, Daisy the Dog, Suzanne, Keegan, Ayanna, Noah & Sky Greenwood-Burke, Braden & Aurora, Aurora, Katie V., Steph M, Kai-Lee Worsley, Dan Sato, Asue, Alex H., Carson, Cheryl Corrigan, @604catreviews, Garner Andrews, Gabi Goulart, Tales Carvalho, Angie G, Shannon, Alexander, Tom Beck, Grace S., Elisa S, Nathan & Sophie, MyLe, Colette L., Maite YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

This puzzle is another one that had been sitting in my notes app for a few months now. I liked “That’s deep” and that “deep” could mean different things or feel different based on context - the final part is always figuring out how to turn that into a satisfying theme reveal.

We were light on music references today, but luckily in DUOS we find Simon & Garfunkel, a band I keep saying I should listen to more but haven’t yet. The harmonies!

Today’s Theme

Today we have 5 starred clues, with a revealer in 20-Across:

["Dude, your thought is so, like, highly profound," and an important addition to the answers to the starred clues]

The answer to 20-Across is THAT’S DEEP, which, when applied to the answers to the starred clues, make them make more sense!

[* What women usually put on when imitating a man] is a (DEEP) VOICE

[* Big inhale] is a (DEEP) BREATH

[* Song only familiar to superfans] is a (DEEP) CUT

[* Far away from Earth] is (DEEP) SPACE

and [* Adults need one to two hours of it per night] is (DEEP) SLEEP

Behind the Clues

13A. You may have seen the clue [Lauder of cosmetics] come up in previous YEGwords or in other crosswords in your life. I’m not a cosmetics guy, but I’ve memorized that it’s ESTEE Lauder, a person with a lot of Es in their name, making it a useful word for crossword constructors.

27A. [My response to "How's your self-control around chips?"] is definitely IT’S BAD. There’s a reason we implemented “Chips Friday” in our house - we get one day per week to pig out. Otherwise (with some exceptions, of course), chips are to be locked away, lest I accidentally eat them all.

35A. There was a bit of debate and Google-searching when writing the clue [Seeker's call in a pool game]. The original wording was [Seeker in a pool game], as I believed the person calling MARCO to be Marco himself for some reason - calling his own name out into the void. I couldn’t find a good consensus on which player(s) were Marco, if any, so I changed it to reference the call instead.

2D. Accidental invention stories are plentiful - I’m sure inventing the thing you want to invent is hard enough, so sometimes taking an accidental outcome is the best path forward. [Universal office supply accidentally invented at 3M] is a POST-IT note, which was born during a pursuit for an incredibly strong adhesive. Instead, they got the opposite, and aren’t we glad they didn’t just chuck it in the bin?

16D. I do like to include modern slang in these puzzles from time to time to keep things feeling fresh. [True to your own beliefs, in modern lingo] is BASED, which I had heard people saying for a long time before I actually understood what it meant. The hardest part of new lingo is usually figuring out whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing to be - turns out BASED is good 👍

29D. [Wing___ (bird measurement and chill board game)] is WingSPAN, which is the most important board game to own if you’re a bird person. You can try to collect birds to win, or you can collect ones that you like the best and just vibe.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

Ah, jail - a place frequented by felons and Monopoly players alike. Felons are in for committing a crime, of course, but Monopoly players? Why are they in exactly? Because they just happened to land on “Go To Jail?” What is the charge, officer? I demand to see my Monopoly lawyer. You have 0 Monopoly evidence against me for whatever crime I’ve allegedly committed. We assign the role of Banker at the start of the game; why not Judge as well? I guess it’s time for me to quit making crosswords and design the unofficial Monopoly™ Court Room expansion. Hell, while we’re at it, why not a Free Parking expansion as well? Nobody just builds free parking lots…

Anyway, help! I’ve been framed! Just kidding, I’m not actually in jail as I write this. But perhaps some people in this puzzle aren’t either…

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Falsely Imprisoned by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Terri R., Joe, Simon, Frank Castle, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, Katherine & David Middleton, Dahlia & Ivan, Maïté, Haley Moorhouse, Jack Rasmussen, Erica Alex, Eryn C, Daisy the Dog, Suzanne, Keegan, Ayanna, Noah & Sky Greenwood-Burke, Braden & Aurora, Aurora, Katie V., Steph M, Kai-Lee Worsley, Dan Sato, Asue, Alex H., Carson, Cheryl Corrigan, @604catreviews, Garner Andrews, Gabi Goulart, Tales Carvalho, Angie G, Shannon, Alexander, Tom Beck, Grace S., Elisa S, Nathan & Sophie, MyLe, Colette L., Maite YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

So I’ve just been informed that there is indeed a Monopoly Go To Jail expansion, so that’s some great news for all 3 Monopoly lovers out there. Anyhoo, last week’s puzzle was quite strong so I wanted to make sure I followed it up with a good return to the midi size. There's another puzzle I half-constructed that will probably make an appearance next week, but it decided it wasn’t quite up to snuff yet.

I know this song took over the radio a while ago, which can lead to feeling overplayed, but man… It’s such a good song. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas are an unstoppable force.

Today’s Theme

Today we have three theme clues that relate to the puzzle’s title, “Falsely Imprisoned.” Each italicized clue is a phrase used to describe someone in jail, but the question mark at the end tells us there is wordplay afoot - these aren’t actually criminals. By ascribing certain words in the clue with an alternate meaning, we get what each clue really means:

[Person kept in a cell?] is kept in a cell phone, a PHONE CONTACT

[Person put behind bars?] is put behind alcohol bars, a MIXOLOGIST

[Person serving multiple life sentences?] is serving (giving you) multiple sentences about someone’s life - a MEMOIR WRITER

Behind the Clues

16A. [Like one in a submarine, hopefully] makes me think of submarines which always makes me think of The Hunt for Red October. I admittedly don’t remember much about the movie, but I do have a weirdly strong feeling attached to it. For most of the movie, the crew remains DRY. No spoilers.

28A. Niche clue time. [Video game genre that includes StarCraft and Age of Empires, briefly] is RTS, or Real-Time Strategy. These are games “where players manage resources and command units to achieve objectives continuously in real time, rather than taking turns.” (Thanks Wikipedia). I was big into AoE 2 when I was younger, and several years ago picked up Northgard, which scratched that itch well.

41A. Crossword learning moment! I know I use brackets a little willy-nilly for flavour, but this is a more traditional use. When it’s just one word before or after the clue, it can be inferred as a word that comes both before the clue AND the answer in order to make it feel complete. An example I like is [Goof (around)] where the clue is “Goof around” and the answer is “___ around”. It’s HORSE, which needs (around) in order to be a proper synonym for goof. In this puzzle it’s a bit more obtuse, but [(Got) turned into viral internet content] is (got) MEMED. I felt “Turned into viral internet content” for MEMED didn’t feel natural enough, and adding (Got) to the beginning felt better.

4D. Okay so I felt the need to highlight [Product not to be confused with blue Kool-Aid] not because the answer is WINDEX but because I just realized that the latter part of Kool-Aid is spelled AID not ADE, which is weird. Is it not a cool ade? It’s cool aid? Please help.

26D. [Like a car seat after hastily coming home from the beach, perhaps] emerged from a complete rewrite of the bottom left corner after testing, but turned into one of my favourite clues. Opposite of earlier’s DRY, the seat might be DAMP.

35D. [Tim ___ Slam (Rhyming act of biting an Australian biscuit into a straw and sucking hot beverage through it)] is Tim TAM Slam, which I’ve tried but is a little bit my nightmare. My tongue gets burned with hot bevies so easily, so the idea of not slurping my tea or cocoa is a little terrifying. Tim Tams look so good though.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

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Happy Friday! This will be another shorter newsletter - I’ve had a busy week at the Edmonton Fringe Festival volunteering, seeing shows, and taking it all in. Storytellers, musicals, puppetry… I’ve seen a lot of great shows and should see a few more before it’s all over. Pop by this weekend and take in a show! You might even find an exclusive Fringe-themed crossword in the Beer Tents and nearby cafes… 👀

See you there, maybe?

Somehow I managed to find the time to make a full-size puzzle this week! 77% more puzzle for you to solve. I probably shouldn’t have, given how busy I was, but I fell in love with the theme and couldn’t help myself :)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Bart Simpson: Vegan Icon by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Terri R., Joe, Simon, Frank Castle, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, Katherine & David Middleton, Dahlia & Ivan, Maïté, Haley Moorhouse, Jack Rasmussen, Erica Alex, Eryn C, Daisy the Dog, Suzanne, Keegan, Ayanna, Noah & Sky Greenwood-Burke, Braden & Aurora, Aurora, Katie V., Steph M, Kai-Lee Worsley, Dan Sato, Asue, Alex H., Carson, Cheryl Corrigan, @604catreviews, Garner Andrews, Gabi Goulart, Tales Carvalho, Angie G YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

YEGwords is by and large a midi puzzle publication (11×11ish), so when I publish a 15×15 grid, you know it was for an idea I found so exciting it was worth putting in the effort (and asking the effort from you). The theme answer that spawned the whole puzzle was “For Whom The Cowbell Tolls,” which I found so funny I decided I had to construct an entire puzzle to justify it.

Jump in! I love Scandinavian Ken in Barbie Girl.

Today’s Theme

There are three starred theme answers in this puzzle and a revealer, 58-Across. It reads:

[What Bart Simpson would say to the answers to the starred clues!]

One of Bart Simpson’s catchphrases is DON’T HAVE A COW, MAN! If he’s telling the theme answers to not have a cow, they probably have one in there unnecessarily. Solving the theme answers gives phrases where COW has been inserted to make other real things:

[* Hemmingway's "For Whom ___"] is usually “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” but here it’s “For Whom THE COWBELL TOLLS”

[* "Cat got ___?"] should be “Cat got your tongue?” but here it’s “Cat got YOUR COW TONGUE?”

[* Peter Pan's crew] is typically The Lost Boys, but here it’s THE LOST COWBOYS.

Behind the Clues

1A. We start off with another reference to The Simpsons: ["Call Mr. ___, that's my name, that name again is Mr. ___!" (Jingle from Homer Simpson's snow-clearing business)]. This is Mr. PLOW, a classic episode of the show and honestly very catchy jingle.

25A. [Turn a shade of red, perhaps] is a tricky clue - the “perhaps” helps clue us in that it might not be all that it seems. You might think “embarrassed” or “shy,” but to turn something a shade of red, you might DYE it.

69A. [Device to flatten things or device to curl things] was a fun little discovery - you might use an IRON to flatten your clothes and fabrics, but you might use an entirely different IRON to curl your hair. It does everything!

4D. [Religion that teaches you how to spell?] prompted “I didn’t get this clue” from my test solver, so I thought it was worth a quick explainer. WICCA is the religion of the witchy, which can include rituals and casting spells - here, “spell” isn’t letters spelling, but how to cast spells. Granted, upon writing this, the phrasing could have been stronger. Still, fun.

11D. Okay, I’m guilty of occasionally airing my grievances in puzzles. [What some drivers think a stop sign means] is YIELD, something I see all too often in my neighbourhood. It’s okay if you get where you’re going 1 minute later! Just come to a full stop!

46D. [Half an opinion, according to an idiom] is referencing the phrase “Here’s my two cents,” aka “Here’s my opinion.” Hence, half an opinion is worth ONE CENT. I’m curious where the original phrase came from, but I am going to look that up another time and I encourage you to do the same lol.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

I am a noted musical enjoyer, but typically don’t love jukebox musicals. For those unfamiliar, that’s a musical where the songs are (almost) all popular songs, not originals composed for the show. Think “Mamma Mia!” and “Moulin Rouge,” for two famous examples. However, I saw MJ the Musical near the end of last year, and it was a lot of fun. Much like Mamma Mia!, it reminded me how much fantastic music he made, and unlike Mamma Mia!, I got to learn about the “Man in the Mirror” in an enjoyably engrossing way. It turns out that MJ was not just a guy who made songs for Weird Al to parody, but a great artist in his own right. Who knew?

This week’s puzzle aims to be as fun to solve as “Beat It” is to listen to!

Also, thanks to everyone who attended Crossword Construction 101! I hope to announce the date of the next session in the next few weeks.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Beat It! by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Simon, Katherine & David Middleton, Frank Castle, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, Steph M, Dan Sato, Kristopher & Kim, Alex H., Jonny Brodziak, Carson, Rocco & Alison, @604catreviews, Alexander, Dahlia & Ivan, Maïté, Haley Moorhouse, Jack Rasmussen, Erica Alex, Eryn C, Daisy the Dog, Suzanne, Keegan YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

Okay, so there were no Michael Jackson references in the puzzle (though in hindsight, what a miss). People often ask me how long it takes to make a puzzle, and this was one that took a while. With four long theme answers, it can be hard to wrestle them into a grid that doesn’t suck, but after probably 5-6 iterations of black squares and word positions, we got there.

Speaking of musicals earlier, take a listen to a musical number by the other four-letter “Lion King” lion, Scar!

Today’s Theme

Four of the clues simply read [See title] or [With X-Across, See title]. If we see title, it says “Beat It!,” so that’s our clue for those entries. Each of the four theme answers are things you beat in different ways.

1-Across is HIGH SCORE, and you beat it by getting a higher number
16-Across is ALLEGATION, and you beat it by bringing the truth to light
22-Across is CAKE BATTER, and you beat it by mixing it to add air
34-Across is SNARE DRUM, and you beat it by hitting it with a stick

Behind the Clues

10A. A fun little word observation, [Hairstyle that, when parsed as two words, is the same hairstyle (but slangy)] is AFRO, which you can read as A FRO. It can be a fun challenge coming up with fresh clues for words that appear relatively often in crosswords, like it.

12A. [Sign of gas?] probably reads like it’s looking for “odour” or “colour" maybe, but our friend the question mark tells us to be trickier. Here it should be read as [Sign (made of)/(filled with) gas], which would be a NEON sign.

33A. [Alphabet where "alphabet" is spelled ALPHA LIMA PAPA HOTEL ALPHA BRAVO ECHO TANGO] is the NATO phonetic alphabet. I learned this once when I was communicating a lot of letters over the phone with clients, but most people I talked to seemed to prefer the less official MENS NAMES phonetic alphabet (BOB ALFRED DAVID), where the only crossover word is CHARLIE. And if you just thought “Uh, actually ROMEO would work for both,” yes, it does, but ROGER was the MENS NAMES default.

4D. Another question mark clue this puzzle was [Term of endearment that's short and sweet?]. This one is a bit easier to parse - a term of endearment that is reminiscent of sweetness is HONEY, which shortened is HON. Short and sweet!

25D. [Rulers that were at times Terrible and at other times Great] is TSARS. Specifically, this references Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. I have to assume these titles were given after their rule, though now that I think about it, “Terrible” probably meant terrorizing, not bad, which would be something a ruler might want to be. Too bad there’s no way of finding out.

27D. [Bed and bath, but not beyond] is the kind of clue where I want to cheekily reference something like Bed Bath and Beyond, but it’s not actually relevant to parsing the clue. “Beyond” is just for fun, the important things here are bed and bath, which are two ROOMS in a home.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

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I’m back! Though barely. I had a great, restful vacation (ask me how many rounds of disc golf I played 😎), but I came home right in time for Folk Fest weekend to start. I’m managing Stage 5 again this year, so it was a hectic week of getting ready for that, putting together a puzzle, printing, and waking up early this bright Friday morning to crank out a newsletter and run deliveries before heading to set up the stage. All in the name of fun!

Absolutely not me writing this newsletter

P.S. - check out Puzzmo on Monday - you might see a familiar name 👀

This week’s puzzle is weirdly shaped! Why think outside the box when you can just adjust the box to whatever size and shape suits you?

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Time and Space by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Simon, Katherine & David Middleton, Frank Castle, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, Steph M, Dan Sato, Kristopher & Kim, Alex H., Jonny Brodziak, Carson, Rocco & Alison, @604catreviews, Alexander, Dahlia & Ivan, Maïté, Haley Moorhouse, Jack Rasmussen, Erica Alex, Eryn C, Daisy the Dog, Suzanne, Keegan YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

A bit of an easier one this week! Even though it has about the same number of words and felt about the same making it, my test solver and I agree - this grid shape somehow lent itself to being a fast solve. Hooray if you got a new PB and sorry if you were hoping for a big, meandering puzzle!

This song never fails to get my energy through the roof!

Today’s Theme

A series of shaded squares hides this puzzle’s theme, with count ‘em - three revealers! These revealers show a pattern when viewed together

10A. Line, e.g. (or a description of the top part of this puzzle)
21A. Square, e.g. (or a description of the middle part of this puzzle)
35A. Cube, e.g. (or a description of the bottom part of this puzzle)

You might notice we increase the dimensions in the shape, from ONE-D (line) to TWO-D (square) and THREE-D (cube). That also happens to be the number of squares containing a D in each third of the grid, as highlighted by the shaded squares :)

The title Time and Space is a reference to the dimensional nature of the theme.

Behind the Clues

9A. [Sounds heard a lot in the second half of "Jurassic Park"] you may think would be ROARS or, um, DINO NOISES or something, which would be true but not fit. Here it’s SCREAMS, which I can confirm is true because I watched a YouTube supercut of all the screams just to make sure there were a lot of them. There are.

16A. I’ll admit, I’ve seen my fair share of great TED Talks over the years. They are also the [Host of informative presentations like "How to use a Paper Towel"], which is a joke because it sounds like a bad presentation but is not a joke because it’s serious.

How to use a paper towel

You use paper towels to dry your hands every day, but chances are, you're doing it wrong. In this enlightening and funny short talk, Joe Smith reveals the trick to perfect paper towel technique.

Joe Smith

26A. [Wireless audio technology whose plural should include 27-Down: Abbr.] is BT for BLUETOOTH, but I say do away with “bluetooth connections” or “bluetooth-enabled devices” and go with “blueteeth connections” and “blueteeth-enabled devices.” Actually, writing that down, I don’t.

12D. Ah, what could have been. [Modern-day "carpe diem" that narrowly lost to GIF for Oxford Dictionary's "Word of the Year" in 2012] is YOLO. I love seeing what different dictionaries choose for their WOTY. Oxford’s 2025 word was “rage bait.”

19D. You might want to bring a [Helpful bit of rain gear] to Folk Fest this weekend. Coat maybe, poncho sure, but don’t forget a BOOT or two to battle the wet and mud.

27D. Speaking of facts that I don’t know if I love knowing, [Umbrella slugs produce approx. 750,000 of them in their lifetime] is TEETH. They hold the Guinness World Record for “Most Teeth (Lifetime),” which I will not be attempting to challenge.

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

By the time you read this, I’ll already be gone… On vacation! It’s high time I took some “me” time, so I talked to the boss and he decided everyone at YEGwords & Sons LLC deserved a break. Luckily, I squeezed out a crossword a little early this week so I can still give you a little Friday fun. However, this newsletter is going to be a shorter one with higher-than-average typos.

Me writing this newsletter

Thanks to you all, August’s workshop sold out within the week! I’m excited to hang out with those of you who will be there, and for those who couldn’t make it, I’ll aim to run another one in the fall :)

Just because I checked out of work early doesn’t mean I checked out of making a great puzzle for you!`

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Say That Again? by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Jax, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Aadil, Ellen & Zayn, Rebecca, Frank Castle, Haley Moorhouse, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, MyLe, Daisy the Dog, Matt Ross, Rodney, Steph M, Dan Sato, Kristopher&Kim, Alex H., Jonny Brodziak, Carson, Rocco & Alison YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

I’ll be honest, it’s getting harder to judge how difficult my puzzles are as my partner and test solver keeps getting better at crosswords. As her average solve time goes down, I have to ask Is it because the puzzle is too easy or is she just getting good? Maybe a bit of both, but the more important question now is Does this puzzle have good vibes regardless of difficulty? and the answer (in my opinion, at least), is yes.

You’re never too old to rage against the machine, or listen to Rage Against the Machine!

Today’s Theme

The title reveals the theme in a punny way here. Say That Again? belies three italicized theme entries, where the clues and answers are a spoken phrase - but it’s the same word repeated 2 (or 3) times.

["Correct, you'll turn starboard here"] is RIGHT, RIGHT

["Quite the burly sled dog..."] is HUSKY HUSKY

and my favourite,

["Anyway, your water source is looking healthy"] is WELL, WELL WELL!

Behind the Clues

1A. It’s a little mean to start with a misleading clue, but with fair crossings, I thought it would make a good “ahhh” moment. [Spaghetti, e.g.] immediately evokes PASTA, and while that’s not the answer, the correct one here shares 4/5 letters. Spaghetti is also a type of STRAP.

9A. The clues that are trying to be clever sometimes come out fully formed, and sometimes take a few revisions to nail the wording. [Step in preparing a hand-made turkey?] is one of my favourite question mark clues in recent memory, if mostly for the visual. I’ve made quite a few hand turkeys in my time, so I know I have to TRACE my hand!

34A. [It races at night, sometimes] immediately evokes a visual of street racing, of the only Fast & Furious movie I’ve seen, Tokyo Drift (don’t @ me). But in this case, the answer is the much more relatable MIND racing at night. But since you asked, let’s listen to one of the most hype songs to ever be made.

13D. Any Theodore Tugboat fans in the house? What a Canadian classic. [Theodore Tugboat action] is TOW, because as a happy, smiley tugboat, he tows.

Real-life Theodore Tugboat is weirding me out but I can’t put my finger on why

21D. [Power cycles?] is another little clue I was happy to come up with. I had EBIKES in the grid and I sat for a bit, telling myself “This is ripe for wordplay. There’s something here.” And there was. And that’s the story.

28D. [Three for comedy, but thirds for photography] isn’t the toughest clue, but I always like highlighting interesting little language quirks and parallels. Here we’re talking about the “RULE of three” for comedy (Every joke is funnier if you say it three times) and the “RULE of thirds” for photography (Your subject should cover all three thirds of the frame).

Alright, time to dump this laptop into a lake and get off the grid.

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

“A Real Hot Mess” is both the title of this crossword and an accurate description of Edmonton’s summer so far. It’s either been real hot (and smoky) or a mess (rainy). What happened to a nice mid-twenties day? That’s not to say this summer hasn’t had its great moments.

A great moment to look forward to is my next workshop! The great folks over at Bent Stick Brewing are letting me take over their space on Tuesday, August 11 for a night of crosswords & chill. I’ll teach you tips and tricks to make constructing crosswords for your friends and family (and the world?) easier and more approachable.

Based on previous events, it will sell out! Secure your spot here!

And based on previous crosswords, this week’s will be a fun time! And there are unlimited spots for that, so enjoy and share with a friend if you feel so inclined :)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

A Real Hot Mess by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Jax, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Aadil, Ellen & Zayn, Rebecca, Frank Castle, Haley Moorhouse, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, MyLe, Daisy the Dog, Matt Ross, Rodney, Steph M, Dan Sato, Kristopher&Kim, Alex H., Jonny Brodziak, Carson, Rocco & Alison YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

This theme came from a little brainstorm sesh last Friday with YEGwords delivery helper and friend of the crossword Francis. Usually your first idea isn’t your best idea - I had “spill the tea” as a revealer in my notes app, but Francis suggested this fun visual depiction of the phrase, and the rest is (very recent) history.

Let’s do the Time Warp again! If you haven’t seen a screening of Rocky Horror at your local indie theatre, find out when they’re next airing it and go have a blast. Fun fact - we dressed as Brad and Janet for a costume contest at a screening and came second 😎

Today’s Theme

A bit of visual wordplay helps us with our theme today. There are a smattering of circled letters roughly going from the top left to bottom right of the grid. Our revealer is 28-Across, [Dish some hot goss... as visualized by the circled letters]. The answer to that is SPILL THE TEA, which is what the circled letters represent - the letters T E A being “spilled” across the puzzle :)

Behind the Clues

11A. [Recover lost hearts] maybe should have had “, in video games” to give it more context. But, I decided to leave it as is, and YEGwords doesn’t have an editor to stop me from doing that. In video games, recovering lost hearts is another way of saying you HEAL your character.

18A. When I did a classic post-uni Europe trip, I visited a smattering of countries with different languages. I made my best attempt, on the train ride between them, to Duolingo my way through a few basics of their language - a phrase or two, numbers, etc. As such, I learned to count to 10 in German, but I figured most people wouldn’t know the German word for ONE. So I ended up reclueing it as [German number that anagrams to SINE], or EINS.

33A. [Movers and sleepers] is meant to be a fun little play on “Movers and shakers.” Both movers and sleepers describe a type of DOZERS - ones that move dirt around, and ones that take naps.

2D. I don’t have kids, but I know that [Peppa Pig and Bluey, for two] are TOONS. And having watched several episodes of Bluey over the years with other people’s children, I can say it lives up to the hype. The writing is fantastic and surprisingly real-feeling. We pass on Peppa Pig, though.

3D. I don’t have TikTok, but I pretend to for the sake of crosswords. I just ingest enough other internet-sphere content that I catch bits and pieces of it. Even if you haven’t heard of this [Painters and drawers' corner of a popular video platform], I hope you were able to put together that it’s ART [Painters and drawers'] TOK [corner of a popular video platform].

24D. I was thinking about statistics recently, which is maybe why [___ dev: Measure of variation, shortly] made it into the crossword. I’m referring to Standard Deviation, or STD DEV for short. I was complaining to myself that my average crossword solve time was wildly inflated because of a few times when I accidentally left one open for 18+ hours before finishing it, so my “average” is like 10 hours but my median is more like 20-30 mins.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

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

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Jax, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Aadil, Ellen & Zayn, Rebecca, Frank Castle, Haley Moorhouse, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, MyLe, Daisy the Dog, Matt Ross, Rodney, Steph M, Dan Sato, Kristopher&Kim, Alex H., Jonny Brodziak, Carson, Rocco & Alison YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

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

I think that microgenres are some of the best (and sometimes funniest) things about music. Longtime solvers will know that I love a pop queen or a 90’s alt rock classic, but have you ever listened to Dungeon Synth? No, this isn’t a Runescape soundtrack - this is people making dark, medieval-flavoured ambient synthy tunes with names like Mushroom Grandpa because that’s just what they like to do. And I like that they like to do that. Shout out to The Yellow Button for introducing me to this very specific genre.

This week’s crossword features another niche (and perhaps less listenable) microgenre, among a smattering of other references I hope you’ll enjoy.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

This is One to Skip by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Imogene, Jax, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Aadil, Ellen & Zayn, Rebecca, Frank Castle, Haley Moorhouse, Adam & Kendra, Em & Lucy, MyLe, Daisy the Dog, Matt Ross, Rodney YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

I was really happy with this puzzle when I finished it! The theme felt strong, and I was energized during the cluing stage. It’s always fun finding pop culture references for clues, but too many has the potential to frustrate solvers in different cultural spheres. So I always try to balance it with classic definition clues and ensure some of the pop culture ones are easier! Lots of thought goes into balancing clue difficulty for the overall puzzle.

This was a relatively music-heavy puzzle, but given the preamble about microgenres, I feel like I need to share the ["Beavis and Butt-Head" spinoff show that inspired a hyperpop/EDM microgenre called ___core] insanity that is DARIAcore. I both weirdly like it and also can’t listen to too much of it or my brain gets overstimulated.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme has a bit of trickery to it, though it’s nothing too weird and wacky. Three long entries each have a set of six circled letters in them. You might be able to solve the clues and see a pattern - the same letters keep appearing, but in a different order each time.

31-Across is the revealer - [One who repeats themselves... and a hint to each set of circles]. The answer here is a BROKEN RECORD, and the circles contain the word RECORD but “broken,” or anagrammed. That’s a little cryptic lingo sneaking its way in again ;)

Behind the Clues

1A. A long clue to start things off, [Charli XCX song with the line "I think the ___'s rotten right to the core / From all the things passed down from all the ___s coming before"] is APPLE. The first line of the song is “I think the apple don’t fall far from the tree” which felt a little too gimme. I also processed what the song was actually about (not apples) and wanted to pick a lyric to highlight that a bit more clearly. A+ song.

11A. [Card-based party game aptly named for the inability to recall the names of everyday things] is ANOMIA, which is one of my favourite party games I’ve ever played. With the right group of people, it gets the energy up without relying on shock/cringe humour (I’m looking at you, Cards Against Humanity et al). Go to your local board game cafe and play it with some friends. A+ game.

38A. [Asks not to be hit, in a casino] is a purposeful misdirect, softened by the casino hint. The original clue was [Asks not to be hit, in a way], which prompted my faithful test solver to say “I don’t get it,” then when explained, “Oh.” We decided that the casino was necessary to give the right brain context for STAYS, or doesn’t ask for another card (hit) in a game of Blackjack.

8D. [Like the Beacons, when Gondor calls for aid] references a famous scene and line from Lord of the Rings. The full quote is:

12D. Oh boy, another TV/movie reference. ["Spider-___," recent black-and-white Spiderverse spin-off starring Nicholas Cage] is Spider-NOIR, which I haven’t watched yet (I’m so slow at watching TV shows) but it looks great. They released it in black and white too, which makes the whole thing even better.

27D. Maybe it’s nostalgia bait for all the years I spent playing street hockey, maybe it’s an excuse to include a clip from one of my favourite movies Wayne’s World. Maybe it’s Maybeline. Maybe it’s all three. [Word occasionally yelled during street hockey] is CAR! And, subsequently, GAME ON.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

I hope you had a good mid-week weekend on Wednesday! If you had the stat off, that is. I can’t remember experiencing a day that felt more like a Saturday, and also a Sunday. It did make me consider for the first time whether the dream four-day work week could centre around having Wednesday off, for a 2-on 1-off 2-on 2-off kind of schedule. Having tried that now, I can definitively say… it doesn’t quite hit. Now there are two days for me to get the Sunday Scaries? Yeah, I don’t think so. Wing Wednesday was invented to solve this exact problem years ago.

I didn’t have a good topical picture to put here. But I spent my Fake Friday taking in some baseball and the best licensed sports merch I’ve ever seen, pictured above.

This week’s crossword is a great way to kick off your real weekend - a nice smooth puzzle that leans on the easier side and has a fun reveal. Enjoy, and have a great weekend :)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Keep Going! by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Imogene, Jax, Katherine & David Middleton, Happy Birthday, Banana!, Brianna Knoop, Terri R., Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews, Alexander, Aadil, Ellen & Zayn, Rebecca, Frank Castle, Haley Moorhouse, Adam & Kendra YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

You Can Do It! ← That’s true, and was the original title of this puzzle. However, an earlier version had CAN DO as an entry (like can-do attitude), so I changed the title to prevent the duplication. A later rewrite caused the entry to be removed, and now there’s no evidence of CAN DO anywhere but in the attitude of you, the solver. Looking at the grid, you may be able to figure out where CAN DO used to live based on the theme answers.

Musical movies make an appearance today with ONCE, a beautifully awkward movie. There’s a good chance that even if you aren’t familiar with the movie, you have heard this song. It’s so simple, but it’s nice. This scene captures how genuine the movie feels.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme is brought to light by the revealer, 32-Across. [Classic motivational poster: A cat dangles from a clothesline. Caption: ___, or a punny description of the answers to the starred clues]. It’s referencing posters like this:

This poster style has been riffed on so often, there’s a Wikipedia article about it! The answer is HANG IN THERE, and it’s a punny description of the answers to our three italicized clues because they all have HANG in there!

[* Fried burrito that Deadpool likes the sound of, but doesn't actually enjoy eating] is CHIMIC[HANG]A.

[* Annie who has a "Hard Knock Life," for one] is ORP[HAN G]IRL

and [* High-ranking heavenly beings] are ARC[HANG]ELS

It was an intentional choice to not use any words or phrases that started/ended with HANG or where it was too phonetically obvious (like HANG GLIDE or even UNCHANGED) - the reveal is more satisfying when it’s nicely hidden.

Behind the Clues

10A. [Country whose flag is verde, bianco e rosso] is a great example of a foreign language clue. When you see a foreign language in a clue, it’s a safe bet the answer should also be in that language. That’s why the answer is ITALIA, not ITALY. However, the previous clue, [Siesta before a fiesta] is answered in English - so it’s more of a feel thing than a hard and fast rule.

29A. I haven’t thought of it like this before, but HEYO is a [Slangy portmanteau greeting] of HEY and YO. I say it pretty often but never thought about why it felt right. Nice.

36A. [Let's just call it a wrap on babies] is a fun clue hidden in a phrase. You might initially read this as “Let’s just stop this whole babies thing,” but you can also read it as “I’d describe this thing as a wrap on babies,” which could be a blanket maybe, but a DIAPER feels more appropriate.

8D/14D. We have some nice clue symmetry here with [Language spoken in "Slumdog Millionaire"] and [Language "spoken" in "A Quiet Place," briefly]. Lots of language in this puzzle, it seems. The answers are HINDI for Slumdog Millionaire, and the “spoken” language is ASL, a movie I have yet to see but understand that being quiet is a good thing to do, hence their use of ASL.

25D. When you see a weirdly specific clue like [Soup and ___'s 16th Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest (2024 Edmonton Fringe festival show featuring a Hulk-y wrestler)], don’t get scared! Remember that the crossword constructor (usually) wants you to get the answer, so they give you the information you need. In this case, most people won’t have seen that niche play - so it’s just for fun. All the information you need is in the last three words - “…a Hulk-y wrestler.” Certainly you know someone who would fit the bill - Hulk HOGAN. Remember, sometimes clues have fluff, you just have to sort through them.

33D. This is a Canadian crossword, damn it, so we have to Canadianize the classics! Usually clued as [Debut on the NSYE], here we do [Debut on the TSX] or Toronto Stock Exchange. That’s an Initial Public Offering, or IPO. Jot that one down in your “words to know for crosswords” list.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

Gooo Canada! I’m not usually a big watching-sports guy, even for things like the Olympics. But for some reason this year, I decided to tune into Canada’s FIFA World Cup games, and it’s been a lot of fun. I think it feels more approachable because I’m only committing to watching, like, one game a week. And as a former U-6 to U-18 community league soccer player, let’s just say I know a thing or two about the pitch. Let’s just say that I liked playing soccer but I wasn’t that competitive and didn’t like the culture around try-out teams so I spent a lot of time playing on teams where the coach’s son was also on the team and that was a whole part of the soccer experience that professional soccer is missing out on. Anyway…

Uh, yeah I played soccer. Ever heard of The Scorpions? 🦂 They retired #2 after I left.

I made you a crossword this week so while you’re “watching” the soccer game with friends, you have something to look up from whenever the announcer’s voice gets more excited.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Five for the Price of One by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Imogene, Jax, Brianna Knoop, Haley Moorhouse, Terri R., Daisy the Dog, Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Aadil, Ellen & Zayn YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

I honestly have no idea where this will end up on the scale of “doable” or “impossible.” The first draft of this was solved almost twice as quickly as a typical puzzle, which made me think it was too easy. So I went back and made more clues tricky/fun… and then didn’t retest it. Being themeless, I leaned more into pop culture references and interesting fill, which is for better or worse, more variable based on the solver. I don’t think themeless will be something I do often (the last one was No. 015: COOL S) but I think it adds a little freshness here and there.

I snuck in several great musical references today, but here I’ll highlight one of my favourite songs from Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat. Top comment: “Dua Lipa speaking in French and Spanish is such iconic, she really is Dualingo”.

Today’s Theme

Today’s puzzle is… themeless! Rather than a unifying series of clues to tie the puzzle together, I wanted to experiment with a strange grid shape. That led to this circular, divided puzzle where five separate mini crosswords make up the grid. Hence, Five for the Price of One!

The benefit of a themeless puzzle is that you are much freer during grid construction, so the constructor gets to try putting more fun, niche words into as seed words. And hopefully you enjoyed some of the words I snuck in ;)

Behind the Clues

10A. [Drag mother Athena or "My Heart Will Go On" singer] is a double reference clue, which I sometimes use when I want to make a niche reference. I’m currently watching the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, in which Athena DION competes. But, since that’s not an overly accessible clue, I added in a more universal clue as a life raft for those not deep in the drag culture.

19A. [One who avoids some screwdrivers: Abbr.] is a tricky clue! In this case, they don’t have toolphobia (?). This refers to the alcoholic drink made of vodka and orange juice, and one who would avoid those could be a DD or Designated Driver.

27A. My childhood was largely spent watching Arthur. ["Arthur" character who, after getting a library card, said "Now I know what true power feels like" 😈] is one of the many DW quotes I considered for this clue. She has so many memorable ones! But I love the library so I had to use this one. Here’s one that almost made the cut.

6D/7D. I’m sorry if you feel cheated by this one! But since this is my own publication, I have to break crossword rules when I think it’s funny. I’ve had [Black gold] as OIL and [Gold gold] as GOLD written in my notes app for a long time now; I figured a themeless puzzle was a good time to unleash it onto the world.

8D. The top right corner has high potential to be tricky. [How I listened to the "World Cup Of Hockey 2004" compilation album] hopefully has enough context clues (2004, compilation album) that you guessed it was distributed via CD. So how I listened to it was ON CD. I’ll admit, I don’t love the phrase in a crossword, but it helped make some other fun clues possible.

25D. ["Why do they call it the ___ 360?" "Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away."] is a troll-ish joke from the internet (A joke from the internet? In YEGwords? Wild). It came out when the XBOX 360 was released, and the questioning of why the follow-up to the Xbox was not Xbox 2. I’m not going to say it’s a good joke, but it did make me chuckle. If you want to know more about it, here’s the Know Your Meme page, courtesy of the good internet historians over there.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

I love switching it up. While I am a lover of comfort and routine first and foremost, I have a strong history of getting really into a hobby, sport, or other interest for a short period of time before deciding to move on. Perhaps it’s some combination of boredom, not wanting to do the hard stuff it takes to get truly good at things, or enjoying the process of learning a new thing. At least part of it is fuelled by my love of creating things - how can I be constrained to just one medium? Sure, I could get really good at playing piano, but then when will I find time to sew my own shirt? Or become a bicycle mechanic? Or get just good enough to beat my friends at disc golf?

Why can’t I hold all these hobbies?

Lucky for you, dear crossword solver, creating crosswords has continued to hold my interest. This week’s puzzle is a remake of an old puzzle I constructed before starting YEGwords. The concept was fun but the puzzle left much to be desired… So I spent entirely too long reworking it into something I felt good about publishing!

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Switching It Up by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Sheila, Imogene, Jax, Katherine & David Middleton, Happy Birthday, Banana!, Brianna Knoop, Bingus and Lingus, Sam, Haley Moorhouse, Terri R., Daisy the Dog, Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

What a doozy of a theme! The theme clues were probably confusing, but hopefully it all clicked when you got the revealer, 2-Down. The original version of the puzzle didn’t highlight where the ITs were, bringing the difficulty up a notch - but given that much of the YEGwords audience is more casual solvers, I felt highlighting them would be a more comfortable touch.

And surprisingly, there were no musical references this week! Sometimes when I feel the grid is harder, I cut back on nicher references. We do get mention of sine waves, so I think it’s fitting that I put one here, covering the full range of human hearing.

Today’s Theme

We have six sets of shaded squares in this puzzle, which is always a good indicator that something is going on. Some clues have a double clue, separated by a slash.

Our revealer is 2-Down - [About to be punished... or what to swap in 6 places in this puzzle to get the secondary clues / A completely useless replacement]. The answer to “About to be punished” is IN FOR IT, which is also what to swap in our shaded squares. When each set of shaded squares is filled with IT, the first clues are answered; when we swap IN for IT, the second clues are answered.

[___ ain't broke... / ___ doubt...] IF IT / IF IN

[Innate abilities / Learns abilities] TRAITS / TRAINS

["Yo, this party is ___!" / "___-Manuel Miranda is here!"] LIT / LIN

And so on. I tried to make the clues tie together in some way, where possible :)

Behind the Clues

26A. [The C of SOHCAHTOA] is our first of two trigonometry references today. And you thought you’d never think about it after high school! SOHCAHTOA is of course, the mnemonic for remembering trig ratios. Sin is Opposite over Adjacent, and the C is Cos, which is Opposite over Hypotenuse. What do you mean you aren’t calculating trig ratios regularly? Wild.

27A. ["They don't think it be like it is but ___" / ___-Chinese (Asian fusion cuisine)]. This double clue has one of my favourite quotes as the first part. The second is INDO-Chinese cuisine (yum yum!), but the first is a quote that’s been around the internet since around 2010. “They don’t think it be like it is but IT DO” is up there with "Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?"

40A. In a bit of modern internet trivia, a [Type of "wife" who makes elaborate meals from scratch] is a TRADwife, short for traditional wife. Sure, you can have Cheerios for breakfast - let me harvest the oats from our garden and make you some (not kidding). Speaking of tradwives, I’ve got “Yesteryear” on my summer to-read list - if I like it, you might hear about it here.

4D. I have to talk about [Some surfers' destinations / Some waves]. It’s my favourite pairing of clues, something of a double misdirect. In this case, nothing is related to water - some (internet) surfers visit SITES, as in websites, and some waves are SINES, or sine waves. What fun wordplay! And our second trigonometry reference lol

18D. [Org. that investigated the famously unsolved D.B. Cooper skyjacking] is the FBI, and they have a great official FBI page on that exciting mystery. The answer to “What happened to D.B. Cooper?” is unfortunately probably "He died in the woods because he parachuted into the middle of nowhere in the dead of night,” but I hope he’s out there somewhere, reading this newsletter.

32D. I do put a little (or a lot) of myself into these crosswords, and this one is quite overt. [What I say when someone says "Brandon?" during attendance] is HERE, but the funnier and true clue I thought of later is [What I say when someone says "Brandon… uh, Cat-heart?" during attendance]. Because I don’t want to make them feel weird about it.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

I recently had the opportunity to try making hot sauce. Of course, I could have done that at any previous point in my life - but when your hot sauce aficionado friend, who is growing 3 (4?) types of hot peppers on his balcony, asks you to come over and make hot sauce, you have to say yes. And say yes I did.

After some scheming, I decided on some untraditional flavours for my concoction. Inspired by a recent Chick’n and Waffles breakfast my partner and I made, I yearned for a hot sauce with a breakfast-first attitude. Fresno peppers made the base, but the main flavours/sweeteners I opted for were blueberries and maple syrup. After tear-gassing ourselves by sauteing the hot peppers and fighting our way back into the kitchen, the final result was a surprisingly delicious, sweet hot sauce concoction (yet unnamed, let me know if you have any fun ideas!).

My 3 beautiful hot sauce children

This week’s puzzle is, like my adventures with hot sauce, me taking an idea and putting a unique twist on it. Look at that, the story became relevant! Hopefully the crossword turned out as good as the hot sauce…

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Defenders of the Bi-niverse by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Gary the Pug, Jaz, Sheila, Imogene, Jax, Kylee-Dawn, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Happy Birthday Banana!, Brianna Knoop, Bingus and Lingus, Sam, Haley Moorhouse, Terri R., Daisy the Dog, Joe, Brad Hazekamp, Simon, Steph M, Dan Sato YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

Boy, was it hard to follow up Chris’ stellar puzzle last week! However, I had to take a stab at doing a pride-adjacent puzzle in June, so here we are. Unfortunately, I realized as I was preparing this post that the main revealer, THEYROS, should have been THEYROES for “correct” pluralization, so we have a big glaring error for any astute spellers out there. I think there are two reasons this mistake made it past two test solvers and me:

1. I had the word THEYROS in my notes app for so long that it became correct to me

2. THEYROES looks really dumb for some reason. My brain slows down trying to parse it.

Hopefully, everyone agrees to overlook this mistake in favour of an otherwise fun rhomp. Musically this week, we only had one reference! Are we sure it was me who made this puzzle? It must have been, given that the reference was to S Club 7 (Millennials, this one was for you!).

Today’s Theme

Today’s puzzle has three italicized clues and a revealer clue, the last of the acrosses. Each italicized clue describes a fictional character - She-Ra, Hercules, and Black Panther. However, our revealer, 41-Across, reads:

[People with extraordinary, superhuman abilities... and now gender-neutral pronouns, like the answers to the italicized clues]

Usually this would be HEROES, but replacing gendered pronouns with non-gendered ones, we get THEYROS. We can do this across all the theme answers to get THEY-RA, THEIRCURLES, and BLACK PANTHEIR.

Behind the Clues

14A. I’m still very new to the Ghibli-verse, having only watched a few. “Princess Mononoke” was my first, I believe, and what a first it was! But [Titular wood spirit of a Studio Ghibli movie] is TOTORO, of “My Neighbour Totoro,” my second Ghibli film and one I truly enjoyed for kind of being about nothing - just a whimsical snapshot into some kids living their lives. 10/10.

20A. [What one might buy with a shoestring budget?] was a self-chuckler for sure. I may just be an uncle, but I have been known to make a dad joke or two. Obviously, with a budget for shoestrings, you would buy a LACE. Get it? Get it??

27A. There’s nothing tricky to explain about [Extra hockey periods, briefly]. Those are overtimes, or OTS. The reason I mentioned it here is that I wanted to gloat that after coming in last in my regular-season hockey pool, I’m currently first in my playoff hockey pool. So I’m kind of a big deal now. Anyway…

2D. You might think I was goofing with [”I have ___ it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane!”: Samuel L. Jackson] but Sammy J really did say this line in the PG-13 edit of “Snakes on a Plane.” So don’t you question whether I fact-check this monkey-fighting crossword ever again.

17D. IOU is one of those crossword words that comes up relatively often, so it’s a fun challenge to try to use original wording or a new cluing angle for it. I can confidently say I have never seen anyone clue it as ["u r o'd by me"], so chalk one up for the good guys (me).

32D/34D. Part of the fun of constructing crosswords is moments of serendipity like this. I had filled out the grid, but hadn’t realized AHOY and AFT were right next to each other until I started cluing them. What a fun opportunity the crossword/sea gods have given us! Of course I had to clue them [Sailor’s greeting] and [Sailor’s rear].

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

“If you did drag, what would your drag name be?”

This question has bridged millennia, perplexing philosophers and moderately high partygoers alike. Like the great Romeo Montague once said,

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Even Shakespeare understood this. He had his characters debate the weightiness of a good name; a great name gives life and personality to its owner; a middling name only gives us something to call them by. Also, in Romeo+Juliet, Mercutio is a drag queen, so that slaps.

This week’s puzzle is a guest feature by friend of YEGwords, Chris Parsonage! Chris, whose drag persona has been described as "the unholy lovechild of Ginger Spice and Miss Piggy," is back again to show us that he is maybe a little too qualified to help name your drag persona.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Amateur Drag Night by Chris Parsonage

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Kerrie Long, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Gary the Pug, Jaz, Sheila, Imogene, Katherine & David Middleton, Jax, Emma, Kylee-Dawn, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews, Alexander, Happy Birthday, Banana!, Brianna Knoop, Bingus and Lingus, Sam, Terri R., Haley Moorhouse, Daisy the Dog YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

I love this puzzle! Chris graciously spent a lot of time completely remaking the grid after we decided the first iteration was good in concept, but could hit harder. Well, he knocked it out of the park with the rewrite, and now we get to enjoy the fruits of his labour. This ranks among my favourite YEGwords puzzles to date.

We get mention of Cher, Madonna, and Rhianna today, so let’s take a moment to appreciate a Madonna song that came out… (checks notes)… yesterday?? She’s still got it!

Today’s Theme

Today, Chris’ puzzle features five italicized clues, all INTROS for performers in an Amateur Drag Night. Each is a great punny name hinted at by the clue.

"This drag king may put up a wall between you, but he doesn't mean to hurt your feelings! Here's Noah FENCE!" (No offense)

Does this drag queen have any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, here's Barbara BLACK SHEEP!" (Baa baa black sheep)

"This drag queen made a deal with the devil to get here! From South Korea, it's Selma SEOUL!" (Seoul, South Korea)

"Sweet, creamy, and freshly torched - put your hands together for your non-binary drag artist, Them BRÛLÉE!" (Crème brûlée)

"Don't let her allergies fool you, this drag queen is truly the best! Introducing, Bea SNEEZE!" (Bee’s knees)

Behind the Clues

13A. In what might be the most relatable clue of all time, Chris shares a personal truth most of us are too scared to admit. [What some veggies in the fridge are left to do (in spite of my best efforts)] is ROT, and while I fight the good fight of food waste prevention, cucumbers can be fickle, slimy beasts sometimes.

30A. Both claims that [The smallest bovine species (look 'em up, they're cute)] make are factual. The ANOA is the smallest bovine species, and they are cute. This is one of the few clues you should actually fact-check, and not just assume it’s right because a crossword said it.

42A. Here’s an interesting fact about [Total clowns], or BOZOS, I learned while editing this puzzle. While I had always assumed “Bozo” was just a generic clown name, it became synonymous with clowns because of perhaps the most famous clown ever, Bozo the Clown, who looks absolutely terrifying. I’m sorry I’m showing you this. This is from his actual Wikipedia page.

Why does Bozo look absolutely mentally unstable

5D. We love a Monty Python reference, and while I’m more of a Holy Grail kind of guy, Chris referenced a classic sketch with ["My hovercraft is full of ___" (line from Monty Python's Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook)]. It’s EELS, from this very Monty Python sketch.

9D. The answer to [Patronized, as a restaurant] is written as ATEAT, which you might naturally parse as AT EAT, leading you to say “WTF.” However, in a simple move of the E produces ATE AT, which makes more sense. I love discovering funny little language quirks.

39D. [Three letters that get you baked] is THC, as opposed to CBD, and whenever someone uses more than two 3-letter acronyms in the same sentence, I immediately start parodying them in my head. It always reminds me of one of my favourite sketches of all time. Watching it again, it’s a shame it’s at the bottom of the newsletter. I’ll have to find an excuse to post it at the top in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

It’s thunderstorms, by the look of it! With rain and thunderstorms in the forecast, I can only hope I get to experience it with the three “S” senses - sights (lightning), sounds (thunder), and smells (rain). I’d prefer to leave the “T” senses of taste and touch out, but then again, sometimes a walk in the rain hits the spot (though the taste of rain water never does). The taste of the rainbow, on the other hand…

You’re looking a little ROY G. V there, Skittles

This week’s puzzle has a different kind of brewing going on, but to know which one, you’re going to have to give it a solve ;)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Something's Brewing... by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Kerrie Long, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Gary the Pug, Jaz, Sheila, Imogene, Mariam, Katherine and David Middleton, Jax, Emma, Zoe, andy mikula, Haley Moorhouse, Daisy the Dog, Kylee-Dawn, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews, Alexander, Happy Birthday Banana!, Brianna Knoop, Bingus and Lingus, Sam YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

Lots of fun references for me today - Bart Simpson, a new way to clue the classic crossword word OREO, and one of my favourite movies, Arrival. I can’t explain what itch it scratches, but it does it for me.

Amazing movie. 10/10.

And of course, pop icon Chappell Roan makes it into today’s crossword with “Red Wine Supernova?” Fun, playful, an absolute banger - it’s everything we here at YEGwords Industries™ strive to be.

Today’s Theme

Today’s you’ll see three starred clues, and a “revealer” that references them. Each of the starred clues has circled squares, which can be scary, but today they really aren’t.

The revealer, ["I'm about to do something stupid" ... and what I asked the answers of the starred clues to do!] helps us figure out what the circles are for. A popular phrase that might mean "I'm about to do something stupid" is HOLD MY BEER, which is what each of the answers to the starred clues are doing - holding a type of beer!

[* Barely beyond the great indoors] is JU(ST OUT)SIDE

[* Vikings, at times] are PIL(LAGER)S

and [* Sci-fi modes of transportation] are TELE(PORTER)S

Behind the Clues

11A. I was alive during the great disc wars of 2006-2008, and let me tell you, it was bloody. [___-ray Disc (HD DVD defeater)] is BLU-ray, and though I’m slightly ashamed to say I was initially on team HD DVD, I’ve since come to terms with the Blu-ray format. I remember watching “300” on Blu-ray on an HD TV and being able to see people’s pores, and that was not enjoyable. At least we’ve moved the needle back a bit.

36A. [Month home to National Apple Day and National Caramel Apple Day] on first read might have you thinking “That could be any month!” But the key detail here is “National Caramel Apple Day,” which if you’re going to have that on any month, should be on the candy-est month, OCTOBER. Mediumly-fun fact: an earlier draft of this puzzle had OKTOBER, but the K had to be changed to make the downs a bit easier.

41A. I think it’s worth explaining [Explosive that's one "M" away from Donatello, Raphael, and gang] since my faithful test solver didn’t understand it on first pass. The explosive we’re looking for is TNT, which is one “M” away from TMNT, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are all named after Italian Renaissance painters.

Now this is a spin-off I can get behind

18D. [One bookend of a moustache] is a highly relatable clue for me, as someone with a moustache. My moustache, like all others, is primarily defined by being located between my nose and my upper LIP.

23D. [Reference date and time (Thursday, 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC for computing)] is not the easiest clue for software programmers, let alone laypeople. The answer is EPOCH, and though it’s used all the time in software, rarely do we call it by its name. Anyway, the more you know, I guess.

38D. As mentioned above, I loved “Arrival,” so it was a joy to reference it today. [Creature communicated with in "Arrival" (2016), for short] is an alien, or ET. Mild spoiler alert. Ah, too late. Well, it’s still worth watching, so add it to the list!

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

I feel like I should take a cue from this week’s title. There are two wolves inside me - one that is bursting with ideas, projects, and a desire to live life maximally; and a second that wants to just chill, play video games, and gaze upon a calendar that is blissfully sparse. YEGwords is a product of Wolf #1, which, for better or worse, is the dominant one these days. Which means:

1. I get to have fun sharing crosswords with people who enjoy them

2. It’s taking me literal months to get through just the first 2 seasons of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” a show with 23-minute episodes

My main takeaway from the show so far - be more like Uncle Iroh.

Let this week’s crossword be a reminder to slow down, spend time with friends, and try not to work too hard. And what better place to start than with a crossword puzzle :)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Let’s Chillax by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  cowboymillipede, Kerrie Long, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Gary the Pug, Jaz, Sheila, Caley C, Imogene, Mariam, Jax, Emma, Zoe, andy mikula, Haley Moorhouse, Daisy the Dog, Kylee-Dawn, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, @604catreviews, Katherine & David Middleton, Alexander, Happy Birthday Banana!, Brianna Knoop YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

Today’s puzzle might’ve leaned on the harder side, so if it gave you some difficulty, you certainly aren’t alone! With longer theme answers, it can be more difficult to get clean, simple “fill” (or non-theme entries), often leading to a tougher solve. You don’t get better at puzzles without a tougher one here or there, so consider it my service to you ;)

I got to sneak in one of my favourite songs of all time this week, “Soul Meets Body” by Death Cab for Cutie. It gets stuck in my head every time.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme clues are in italics, and all are split across two entries (for no reason but that some were too long otherwise lol). Each is a phrase relating to a place for relaxing, chilling out… but with a question mark at the end, meaning a bit of lateral thinking might help us. The clues and answers:

1A. With 5-Across, a place to hang? is a place to hang (up jackets) - a COAT RACK

14A. With 17-Across, a place to catch "Up"? is where you can watch a certain Pixar film - a MOVIE THEATRE

26A. With 33-Across, a place to kick back? is where you can return a pass - SOCCER PRACTICE

Behind the Clues

12A. I found out when making this puzzle that [The Government of Canada has a whole page online about making a "citizen's" one (that starts with "maybe don't" lol)]. This refers to a Citizen’s ARREST, which you can learn about at the link. I hope I never have to, and the government hopes I don’t either lol.

19A. [1/1000 of 1/60 of 1/60 of an hr] is a bit of math to work through, with the answer being 1/60 hr = min, 1/60 min = sec, 1/1000 sec = MSEC. Someone smarter than me probably knows why hours and seconds don’t follow our metric world, but that’s above my pay grade.

38A. A fun little question mark clue, [Ones that have fiery moments?] alludes to someone who has outbursts or angry tendencies - however, we mean literal fire in this case, as would be the case for PYROS.

7D. Few drinks are as versatile and customizable as the noble Caesar. [Garnish that makes a Caesar cocktail feel healthier (it's mostly tomatoes anyway, right?)] is CELERY, though it ranks relatively tame on the garnish potential. Most pictures of Caesars make me wonder - does anyone actually want this? lol

10D. Sometimes you watch an animal complete a task or reason their way through the world in a way that feels too human. I had this moment with octopuses a while ago that made it a lot harder to eat my beloved takoyaki balls… another is the [Bird considered to be among the most intelligent animals on the planet], the CROW. Watch a video of a crow crafting and using tools and tell me they’re just instinct-driven animals, I dare you.

34D/36D. A fun double clue to end our puzzle, we have two procedural TV shows:

[Long-running TV show whose Miami version opens with The Who's iconic "YEAHHH!"]
[Long-running TV show whose cast wear a lot of lab coats and scrubs]

Both are acronyms too, making them even more tied. The first, the iconic CSI, and the second, the iconic ER. Neither of which I’ve watched, and if I’m being honest, never will.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

Donation icon by smalllikeart on Flaticon

Well, it’s that time of year again - YEGPIN is upon us, and hundreds of pinball machines and arcade games have taken over two arenas in Sherwood Park’s Millennium Place. This year I’m volunteering as a tech, wandering around the arena, trying to fix these ever-breaking electromechanical beasts. It’s a job filled with lots of small wins and big annoying losses, but it’s been a satisfying experience so far - I love fixing things, and seeing someone playing a game I just fixed gives me enough dopamine to get excited about the next machine. If you decide to pop by and see me wandering around in an incredibly yellow t-shirt, feel free to say hi!

Real image captured of me seeing someone playing the machine I just fixed.

This week’s post will be a hastier one - it’s been a busy week because of that (amongst other things) so I’m slamming this newsletter together Friday morning. Your crossword this week was not so hastily made, however! It was forged with loving construction, testing, and reviewing, and somehow probably still has a spelling or factual error lol.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

There And Back Again by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  Grant Morgenstein, cowboymillipede, Kerrie Long, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Gary the Pug, Jaz, Sheila, Caley C, Imogene, Mariam, Katherine and David Middleton, Chris Buyze, Jax, Denise Lavallee, Alexander, Emma, Zoe, andy mikula, Haley Moorhouse, Daisy the Dog, @604catreviews, Kylee-Dawn, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

Not much to discuss today, I have to get this email done before 9:00am and pretend I didn’t shoot out of bed this morning and think “Oh god, is it Friday already? I didn’t write my newsletter!!!!!!” But we’re making good time tbh.

In lieu of a musical moment, I’d like to highlight the “Penn and Teller: Fool Us” show. As someone who was into magic for several of my junior high years (is anyone surprised?), this show has a great premise and it consistently delivered. A+. Plus this guy looks like Charles from Brooklyn Nine-Nine if he was a spiritual leader lol.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme gives you only the title as a hint - “There And Back Again.” The three italicized clues are our theme clues/answers. They are all odd phrases with a question mark at the end.

After either getting some other letters or scrutinizing the clues, you may put together that each clue describes a phrase that has two parts: a first, two-word phrase (or compound word), and a second phrase that is a reversal of the first. so,

[A certain insect whizzing across your ear?] is a FLYBY BY FLY.

["Your email client's days are numbered, Microsoft!"?] is LOOK OUT, OUTLOOK!

[Wood scrap limit?] is OFFCUT CUT-OFF.

Behind the Clues

15A. [Singer Grande who did "The Way" with Mac Miller] is ARIANA, which should be a pretty gimme clue. The fun story here is that I’ve danced to this song a lot in the Just Dance video game lol.

19A. I guess you can control any game with your feet, technically. But [Game you control with your feet, briefly] refers to DDR, or Dance Dance Revolution, a game you are meant to use your feet to play. I guess we’re kind of on a dancing theme here, huh.

49A. I like to make these puzzles feel more Canadian (there are enough American puzzles out there). So I love getting to flex that [Trebek who began his career working at CBC (and later hosted a show called "Jeopardy" or something)] is the lovable ALEX Trebek, born and presumably raised in Ontario.

4D. I love finding interesting little connections. [First name shared by one who walked on the moon and one who talks about the moon] was one of those, when I was scheming up how to clue NEIL. Do I go with Neil Armstrong or Neil deGrasse Tyson… Why not both?

34D. Uh oh, my millennial is showing. ["___ rizz" (socially awkward, according to Gen Alpha slang that's probably outdated now)] is OHIO, which seemed to have 0% of the staying power of “rizz.” I don’t know why, maybe calling something ohio was kind of ohio?

39D. I couldn’t resist a dumb dad joke as I neared the end of the puzzle. [What golfers yell, even if they're on hole 1, 2, or 3] is FORE, which is an applicable warning no matter what number it sounds like.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

One thing about me is that I’m often late to trends. I picked up Animal Crossing: New Horizons in September of 2021, long after everyone had completed their islands and moved on. I got into pinball at a time when it was growing in popularity, but I missed the window when machines were sold at reasonable prices. I was using a Zune MP3 player, the iPod killer, when Microsoft announced they were discontinuing it (RIP). The latest trend for me, at least in the puzzle world, is Minute Cryptic, which got popular in late 2024 and luckily is not being discontinued by Microsoft (yet).

I still miss my Zune every day 😭

This week’s puzzle is by no means a cryptic crossword - but you may see hints that it’s something I’ve been getting into (actual cryptic puzzles are still way too hard though).

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

One Clue Into Another by Brandon Cathcart

Thanks to our generous patrons!

Thanks to this month’s donors, who help cover YEGwords costs like printing and web hosting.  Grant Morgenstein, cowboymillipede, Noah K, Kerrie Long, Ken and Ana (patrons of the crossword arts), Gary the Pug, Katherine and David Middleton, ThomE, Jaz, Sheila, Caley C, Steph M, Dan Sato, Carson, Julia & Lee, Luke & Amber, Imogene, @604catreviews, Mariam, Chris Buyze, Jax, Denise Lavallee, Alexander, Emma, Zoe, andy mikula, Haley Moorhouse, Daisy the Dog  YEGwords is free for everyone! However, if you’d like to support us with a tip, you can give a one-time donation or a monthly donation. Donors get a bonus full-size puzzle as a thank you. Thanks for your support!

Discussion

I’ve come to enjoy solving simple cryptic crossword clues, as I find the wordplay of a good clue extremely satisfying. It’s unfortunate that most published cryptics are wildly more difficult than my drip-fed Minute Cryptic clues, but maybe I’ll be ready to tackle one someday. A man can dream. Anyway, the idea for this puzzle’s theme came from the question “how can I introduce that feeling of cryptic cleverness without making the solver learn how to solve cryptic clues?” The answer was a simple: a repetitive clue format that didn’t require any crazy cryptic vocab.

A strangely music-light puzzle today; I could put Lil Wayne here, but let’s do Mr. Stephen Aoki instead. Any music video featuring BTS and Ken Jeong is a good video in my books.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme is all about the wordplay. You should get suspicious when there are circles or shaded squares in the grid!

If you look at each of the italicized clues, they read like normal sentences that don’t quite make sense in the crossword. Closer inspection may reveal they follow a similar format: [Something in something?]. It’s tough to crack it without mostly solving one through other words in the grid - but they are all written as "[Clue 1 in Clue 2], where Clue 1 is for the word in the circled squares, and Clue 2 is for the word across the entire entry.

Place to sleep in an eastern province? is NOVA S[COT]IA
(Place to sleep = COT, an eastern province = NOVA SCOTA)

Website ending in failure? is SHORT[COM]ING
(Website ending = COM, failure = SHORTCOMING)

Placed first in South Korea’s national sport? is TAE K[WON] DO
(Placed first = WON, South Korea’s national sport = TAE KWON DO

Answer 1 is in Answer 2! Tricky! These types of themes are best ignored until you have at least a few, if not many, letters in one of the theme answers to help you find the gimmick.

Behind the Clues

15A. I didn’t take French as an option in grades 7 through 12 to not include it in just about every crossword. ["___ s'apelle..." (rhyming french introduction)] is ELLE. The phrase as a whole means “Her name is…”

25A. Uh oh, my age is showing. I come from the age of school computer labs where The Oregon Trail, Sim City 2000, and Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor were installed. Besides griefing other students’ cities saved in common areas, I logged a good many hours in The Oregon Trail. ["1. attempt to ___ the river" (Oregon Trail option I always chose that too-often led to everyone dying)] is FORD. And yes, I did revisit The Oregon Trail in university and finally beat it.

Don’t waste time caulking! Ford the river! It’s not that deep!

Come on… don’t sink… 😬😬😬

36A. [Mega Millions? How about this, mega- times a million!] might read a little confusing. We’re not talking Mega Millions, the lottery. We’re talking units, one of our favourite pastimes. In metric, our prefixes go as such:

As you can see, if you multiply a mega-something (1,000,000) by a million, you get tera-something (1,000,000,000,000). Apparently we didn’t have a need to think about numbers that big until 1960. Thanks, Wikipedia.

5D. [Delicious steamed bun (and the third food clue in a row... am I hungry?)] is BAO. I love bao. Yes, I was hungry.

16D. [Brain scan, for short] is EEG, and maybe you know this from medical things, but I primarily know it from doing crossword puzzles. But what does it stand for, you ask? Electroencephalogram, which I pronounced fluently and flawlessly the first time I said it, unlike you. Thanks, Wikipedia.

23D. This is a true clue! [I'd love to visit Ontario's ___ Canal skateway someday] is RIDEAU (settle down, truckers), and the thought of skating through over 8km of skating path sounds just lovely. Maybe pick up a hot beverage along the way… That’s the winter dream ❄️

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

I told myself I should watch more movies this year, and so far I’m achieving that goal. I’ve caught a few big release movies like "Project Hail Mary" that I would have normally glossed over, but I’ve been especially enjoying seeing more niche movies. Cult classics, so-bad-they’re-good, and ones that I just happened to miss during their initial run. Luckily, my local indie cinema, Metro Cinema (not a paid ad, though they do sponsor the print version), plays all those for me. The next one on my docket is Annihilation, a 2018 movie that I missed when it came out, but is based on a trilogy of cosmic horror books I greatly enjoyed, so I’m willing to roll the dice. Maybe I’ll see you there on May 6th!

If this still from the movie doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what will.

This week’s puzzle is movie-related, but in that beautiful way where you need zero movie knowledge to enjoy it.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

Play

Quiet on Set! by Brandon Cathcart

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Discussion

This puzzle had been cooking for a few weeks in my half-finished ideas folder, as I was having a lot of trouble finding clean fill for the grid. This theme constrained the grid more than most others by the fact that all theme answers are full- (or almost full-) width, and they need to be in a specific order. The final product is not my cleanest by any means; however, after coming back to it a few times, I got it to a point that felt challenging in places, but not unfair, for casual solvers.

This puzzle features a funny little music block I’ll talk about below, but here I have to highlight a song I didn’t realize was by Elton John for a long time. Truly an incredible song.

Today’s Theme

Today’s theme is a “three phrases described by another phrase” sort of theme. The revealer is 34-Across [Film set phrase - or the starts and ends of 12-, 16- and 29-Across]. Solving this gives PLACES, PEOPLE, so we know that this somehow describes our theme entries in italics.

The pattern that emerges is that each theme answer is a compound title for a person, where the first part is a "place" (first, second, third), and the second part makes the phrase a person (or people). The answers are, in order,

FIRST GRADER
SECOND COUSIN
THIRD BASEMAN

PLACES, PEOPLE :)

Behind the Clues

1A. I was very happy to start the puzzle off with [One in a black suit], a clever little misdirect that reads like you’re looking for a person who wears a black suit. However, it’s referring to a card in a black suit - a SPADE. ;)

23A. ["Moving right along..." (and yes, this is the accepted spelling)] is ANYHOO, which I felt the need to call out, since most people (myself included, until I started doing crosswords) thought it was ANYWHO, which is also accepted but as a variant spelling. I recently learned it’s actually a casualization of "anyhow," which makes more sense in the context it’s used.

Thanks, Cambridge Dictionary™

40A. The clue for [Terra ___] was, in the first pass, "Banana banana banana terra ___ / banana terra ___ terra ___ pie" (lyric from "Vicinity of Obscenity" by System of a Down). However, though a banger, the rest of that song is very, uh, not appropriate for children, and I know young people see this crossword. So I played it safe 😅

3D-7D. This section of clues was affectionately and succinctly named the "Music sandwich on Pirate bread" during construction, for reasons which will hopefully become obvious as I list them out:

• 3D: Common interjection of one sailin' and plunderin' the salty seas

• 4D: Genre of "Le Freak" by Chic

• 5D: John who wrote, but I would not describe as, "Tiny Dancer"

• 6D: 🎵 "I'm the ___... (duh)"

• 7D: Common affirmation of one sailin' and plunderin' the salty seas

13D. I was having trouble cluing GOD, because it has both SO much potential for interesting angles, but I also wanted to make sure I didn’t give anyone the ick with a goofy clue that came off wrong. So I kept it simple with [What's "up dog"? This answer!], playing off the old joke "Man, it really smells like updog in here" / "What’s updog?" / "Not much, how about you?" which always hits.

21D. This was another clue I knew I wanted to nail, but couldn’t quite find the right phrasing for it. [Time when the club is empty but hands are still up?] is NOON, and I knew I wanted a “hands up” pun. It went through 3-4 clunky iterations before my partner suggested this club angle - and I immediately loved it.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon