Crosscan Blogs the Vancouver Province Crossword

The Province newspaper in Vancouver has replaced the LA Times puzzle with one that they claim is "a brilliant crossword that is at once Canadian and modestly difficult". I can't find it online or print a solution, but let's take a look at the Friday puzzle.

The Province DAILY CROSSWORD
Friday, April 24, 2009 – by unknown.
Number of words – 86
Number of black squares – 38.
Number of 3-letter words - 20
Theme - Laundry detergent
Theme answers – Wave rider (SURFBOARDER)
Academic settings – (IVORY TOWERS)
CFL entertainer – (CHEERLEADER)
Cause a reversal – (TURN THE TIDE). We use Tide.

Ho-hum theme, inconsistent use in the last answer with TIDE at the end instead of the beginning. Unless TURN is a laundry detergent. I don't think so.

Canadian content:
CFL entertainer (CHEERLEADER). CFL is Canadian Football League. NFL would have been too hard I guess, even though the Buffalo Bills now play some home games in Toronto.

Henley participant(ROWER). Reference is to the Royal Canadian Henley regatta. Never heard of it. This August will be the 127th version, so I guess it may be famous to Canadian rowers. Why not reference one of our gold-medal Olympic rowers, who are quite famous.

Canadian skating champ Jelinek (OTTO). 1962 gold-medalist in pairs. Became a politician and was Minister of National Revenue when I worked at Revenue Canada, so he was technically my boss for a couple of years in the early 1990s. Not sure how many people remember him now.

Bit of curling (END). As in bit of baseball (INNING). Canadian gimme.

I'm still bored.

Other answers over 5 letters:
Gambolled and frolicked (PLAYED)
Clunky shoes (SABOTS)
Send flying (SCATTER)
Good luck charm (AMULET)
Go over again (REHASH)
Earthy tones (OCHRES)
A couple of fins (TENNER)
City north of Lisbon (OPORTO). Perhaps I'll visit on my way to ESPOO,
Highland boy (LADDIE)
Dumbfounded (AT A LOSS). My reaction to this puzzle.

Pop Culture:
“The _____ Ranger” (LONE)
Lennon’s Plastic _____ Band (ONO)
Gable or Garbo (STAR)
Charlie Parker’s sax (ALTO)
References to anything current: none

This puzzle is so boring I'm embarrassed to be Canadian. Where's my link to the LA TIMES?

CROSSCAN DOES KENKEN

Welcome to CROSSCAN DOES KENKEN

I don’t have access to the New York Times paper so we’ll start with the online easy 4x4.
Solving time: 29 seconds.

I started with placing a 2 in the 1x1 box that has a 2 in it. Nice job! I then filled in the other numbers. The puzzle has 4 1’s, 4 2’s, 4 3’s and 4 4’s in it. Just like last week.

Answer of the day: 3x2x3 = 18.

KenKenese alert: 2/1 = 1. Again!

What I liked: Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all used.

What I hated: The four corners only used 1 and 2. What’s wrong with 3 and 4?