It's really quite unusual (#032) - Ottawa

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Finding the right clue for 13D - TWO SPIRIT - was the hardest part of preparing this puzzle, and my research - starting from my limited French-Canadian knowledge base - was definitely illuminating. I found particularly illustrative the way in which Canadian government sources frame their use of the '2SLGBTQI+' acronym (Two Spirit; Lesbian; Gay; Bisexual; Transgender; Queer; Intersex; +) as a blanket statement of inclusivity, positioning Two Spirit individuals as "the first 2SLGBTQI+ communities", while some Indigenous sources - First Nations Health Authority and the Chiefs of Ontario, particularly in their recent Trans Day of Remembrance statement - will purposefully separate the 2S from the rest of the acronym with a slash to underline the distinct nature of such identities outside and pre-dating Western views on gender and sexuality. Recognizing the sensitivity of the topic, and the way in which other Indigenous voices use the 2SLGBTQI+ acronym without a slash, I opted to use the slash in the clue.

"Missed your chance!" (#031)

Canadian Wordsearch (#030)

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This puzzle offered some nice long entries - GOOD CHOICE, COLD-CALLED - but at the cost of numerous three-letter entries. I tried to keep them interesting, but will try and steer future puzzles away from these extremes!

A Rose, by Another Name (#029)

Street Smarts (#028)

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I was so tempted to clue 24-Down (VIDEO) as [It killed the radio star?]... but Google tells me the song came out in 1979, just about twenty years before I was born... and the corner was already heavy on pop references, between 23-Across AVRIL Lavigne and 23-Down mermaid ARIEL, so I refrained... but I will get another chance to use that clue, and when you see it then, you'll immediately know what to put!

The inspiration for this location, and why I'm justifying heading way out into Manotick, is the One World Bazaar, hosted not too far away! (The actual closest intersection is MITCH OWENS Road crossing Manotick Station Road, with 'Manotick Station' being, frankly, longer and less inspiring than STAGECOACH as an answer.) The Bazaar is stocked with artisanal crafts from around the world, with each weekend usually dedicated to a culture - and while I can't quite tell you my favourite creation, there being so many unorthodox choices, I can tell you these have a special place in my heart:

Mini (#027)

Canadian Wordsearch (#026)

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Honestly, my favourite clue here is 29A. I feel like I got introduced to the Internet during the 'golden age' of memes, with rage-comic stick figures and goofy templates multiplying innocently - including one picture of a MORAY eel that looked like it was grinning. That picture then got set to the tune of Dean Martin's classic *That's Amore*. We'll treat this clue as an homage to those early days of ebullient humour, then (before memes began tearing at our social fabric).

Mini (#025)

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As the Centre continues to get off the ground, we figured consistency is key! The goal will now be to have a puzzle out every Saturday, alternating between 11x11s and 7x7s!

Street Smarts - Ottawa (#024)

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The hockey cup mentionned in 22-Down was actually first conceived of by a Governor-General, who would've lived not too far from the New Edinburgh intersection recreated in this puzzle! That little tidbit was always a big hit with visitors, when I worked at Rideau Hall (workplace and residence of Canada's Governors-General) as a tour guide, as was the Governor-General Grey (football, not tea - that would be his grandfather).

…that’s about the extent of my sports knowledge, sorry.

I’m also quite limited in what I can say about actors. I first watched the Lion King in my last year of high school; and only saw the Lord of the Ring movies earlier this year. I did, yes, grow up under a rock.

The list of movies to watch has grown long, and continues to grow. The other thing keeping it in check is free movie screenings throughout the city, put on by groups like the public library or Pop-Up Cinema. If you’re looking for quality, low-cost entertainment and/or movie education, those are great places to start. That’s how I saw Fantastic Mr. Fox!

Canadian Wordsearch (#023)

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Tragically, I have not yet had the good fortune of visiting the city tucked into today's crossword, despite the charming alignment with my own name! One day, one day - when my wife and I can scrounge up the time (and the money) to make a trip that's not dedicated to visiting family!

A Farewell to Summer (Puzzle #022)

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For everybody going back to school, or sending kids to school - have a great school year! I personally am not in either situation, but join you in mourning the approaching demise of summer...

What better way to maintain a good mood, then, than crosswords? More specifically, to make silly wink-wink-nudge-nudge jokes *inside* crosswords, carefully lining up specific words across a single row...?

My actual favourite joke here, though, is simply including the word (16-Across) TUNA. My dear wife's nickname since childhood has been Tuna and, as you can imagine, every attempt she makes to shed that moniker means that it only clings harder to her. I'd like to think it's not all bad, though: please find below another joke I'm quite proud of, immortalized on a fridge magnet:

Personally, I think I'm quite funny. I'm lucky that, most of the time, she agrees with me!

Neighbourhood Puzzle - Ottawa (Puzzle #021)

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As the Centre finds its feet, we're trying something new: the version attached is a more softly Canadian puzzle, with a more clearly Ottawa-clued puzzle linked behind it! The idea is to have the front-page puzzles be accessible to all, while still offering a hyper-local puzzle for those who want to click through. This frees us up to reference an amusingly-named local hedge-trimming company (I've never used their services, so cannot vouch at all for them, but I've seen their signs scattered across towns) in 18-Across - or two events happening this weekend (a hot air balloon at 11-Down, or a car show at 14-Across), for anybody looking for plans!

Otherwise, my fun fact of this puzzle is about the mushroom family - the fact that portobello mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, and button mushrooms are the same species across different stages of maturity blows my mind!

Canadian Wordsearch (Puzzle #020)

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One highlight for me in making this puzzle was noticing that 17D (Picasso) and 20D (Neruda) were both artists with the first name Pablo. Another, looking now closer to home, was placing 25D (Pines) in the puzzle, because I immediately knew I wanted to make it a reference to Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series. As someone from Quebec, I do love her books - there's something about recognizing the homeland in the way she writes of Quebec. (There is a nine-episode TV series that was made of it, but I can't say it captured the same feeling... of course, the magic of writing is that it allows the reader to imagine into the abstract, to dream between the lines, while video has to get all of the details right on its own.)

Neighbourhood Puzzle - Ottawa (Puzzle #019)

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A coworker has described her hobby as being, itself, 'hobbies' - that her hobby is trying out new things, giving different crafts a shot, seeing if she's any good at this or that activity. Honestly, props to her, that seems like a great outlook on things. This summer, then, I tried to follow that approach - and it just so turns out that, a few streets from the Corso Italia LRT station, is the Ottawa Glassblowing Co-op!

My father and I ended up being the only ones there (possibly because, with summers already getting hotter, a 1200-degree glass oven pushes past the reasonable), so we had a super cool experience getting to pepper our 'guide' with questions! (Our actual involvement in the glass 'blowing' (now done through a foot pedal) was pretty minimal, given we had zero safety training, but still, it was fascinating to see.)

Canadian Wordsearch (Puzzle #018)

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One of the defining moments of my 'courtship' of my wife was when I convinced myself that it was time that I give blood - but that, a bit reticent to have a needle jabbed up my elbow, figured I wanted to get reassurance from someone who had gone through it. Of all my friends, she was the one I was most confident had given blood. My confidence was well grounded: her visit count was already into double-digits. It's become something of a date... albeit one that I'll attend with more than a bit of reluctance, and one that she'll anticipate, chirping that 'It's in you to give!'.

Neighbourhood Puzzle - Ottawa (Puzzle #017)

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Sometime over the last year, something clicked in my brain, and I've become quite enamored with birds. There'd always been something there, some joy sparked whenever I saw a woodpecker or a cardinal land in the tree by my apartment window, but my knowledge of birds was pretty limited to the everyday ones. Now, though, I've gotten hooked onto the Merlin app, and have found so much joy in spotting birds that had been existing just outside my field of awareness: northern flickers (a chubby little woodpecker that eats on the ground) and eastern kingbirds (white-bellied chirpers, who have made a nest right on my path to work!). It makes games of Wingspan that much more exciting!

I fully recognize that Canada geese remain a menace, though.

The Big 158 (Puzzle #016)

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Happy Canada Day!

Canadian Wordsearch (Puzzle #015)

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One clue that unfortunately didn't make it through was for 23-Across, ORC, where I'd hoped to have something along the lines of 'Horde member, perhaps, in World of Warcraft': for the uninitiated, players in World of Warcraft are divided between the Alliance, led by humans, and the Horde, led by orcs. An ORC, therefore, would be a member of the Horde. As much as it would have amused me to pay tribute to my teenage years, I didn't think it would be fair to both pin the answer to a video game (as popular as WoW has been) while also hiding the capital letter of H by making Horde the first word.

That said, the Lord of the Rings - even if I only saw the movies well into my twenties - are another very solid franchise, and so I don't regret the final clue.

This puzzle is also the base of the Centre's guide for making a crossword puzzle - if you've ever been curious about trying your hand at constructing crosswords, you now have a step-by-step guide! (Of course, we recommend completing this puzzle first - the guide is nothing but spoilers!)

Neighbourhood Puzzle - Ottawa (Puzzle #014)

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My now-wife used to live in this part of town, and I had to the traditional IKEA pilgrimmage more than a few times to furnish my first student apartment, so I've been through the IRIS/GREENBANK intersection quite a few times over the years! Even though we now live more in the east, we're back in the area frequently enough, be it for IKEA suppers or for Lee Valley workshops!

On the puzzle itself, the fact that GREENBANK is just such a long word - and not one easily described on its own - meant that I had to break it up into GREEN and BANK. This led to an unusual three-block line at the bottom-left and top-right corners, but I think the lengthy answers at 3-Down and 10-Down make up for it! I especially enjoyed cluing 30-Across FUR baby (not that that's slang I would actually use, even if I weren't hoping to build up an aquarium); and the two [Place for a pupil] clues.

Canadian Wordsearch (Puzzle #013)