Illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source images: Getty Images
Spoiler alert! Welcome to Puzzle Pieces, your weekly deep dive into the Globe and Mail’s Weekender crossword and a dissection of a selected clue from our Weekender Cryptic. Be sure to solve the puzzles before reading any further. As before, clues are in [square brackets] and grid entries are in CAPS.
Favourite moments in the Oct. 24 Weekender
The Oct. 24 Weekender is a collaboration between David Karp and Aidan Brand, both of Victoria. It’s Aidan’s first for us, and David’s fourth.
Some thoughts on the lovely clues/entries here:
- 21A [___ 101 (Asian skyscraper summited by Alex Honnold)]. I can’t bring myself to watch extreme free-climbing, so I missed this January, 2026 event. It was broadcast on a 10-second delay (*shudder*), but it wasn’t needed – Honnold successfully scaled all 508 metres of the TAIPEI 101 in just over 90 minutes. Wow.
- 49A [Nanaimo blues guitarist David, or a high-energy style of dancing]: When there’s a great Canadian angle for a clue, it’s hard to resist. But proper nouns can be difficult for solvers. You don’t always have other options, but here David GOGO’s name offers a great opportunity for a secondary clue.
- 10D [Fast-growing squash-tennis hybrid whose name is almost spelled like a piece of its equipment]. Another one? I haven’t even tried pickleball yet! Leave a comment if you have experience with PADEL.
- 26D [Spherical vegetables on top of a Quebec-style hot chicken sandwich]. “Spherical” was my editorial addition, to help solvers like me who weren’t familiar with this PEAS-topped sandwich. Now I need to find a place to try one; look it up if you’re not familiar – doesn’t it look delish?
Breaking down the theme
This puzzle’s theme is simple in concept, but solving it might take a bit of persistence and lateral thinking. The revealer is found at 105A, [Happy hour offering, or a hint to this puzzle’s theme], to which the answer is TWO FOR ONE DRINK SPECIAL.
Sure enough, the six theme entries are invented phrases, each made up of the names of two different cocktails. Much like in last week’s puzzle, Aidan and David have then provided silly clues that suggest what the resulting phrases could mean.
Equipped with enough letters from the crossing entries, knowledge of at least some of the cocktails involved, and the (oblique) hints in the clues, you should have enough information to solve each of these clever, if strange-tasting, pairings … even if you haven’t heard of, say, a TEST PILOT (a tiki concoction involving multiple kinds of rum), a POLAR BEAR (a mint-chocolate shooter made with peppermint schnapps and white crème de cacao) or a CAPE COD (which is just good ol’ vodka cran, I now know).
Uncovering the whole list one by one makes for a delightful journey. My favourites:
- 51A [Spot on a hog for a racing dog?] – GREYHOUND SIDECAR
- 64A [Weapon that stops the undead in their tracks?] – ZOMBIE PARALYZER
- 95A [Worldly Roman ruler?] – COSMOPOLITAN CAESAR
A note from constructors Aidan Brand and David Karp
David: Aidan and I met at the University of Victoria. He was the founding layout editor for On Politics, an academic journal for political science students, and I assumed that role after Aidan graduated. I ended up following him out to Ottawa, where we’d stay up late watching Canucks games together, and later I followed him back to Victoria. This is the first puzzle we’ve worked on together.
Aidan: This puzzle was a lot of fun to create. The biggest challenge was striking the right balance between notable cocktails and fun theme entries. I’m happy with where we ended up, thanks to some Canadian stalwarts like the Caesar and Polar Bear. I particularly enjoyed including other CanCon shoutouts in our clues, to things like the Tragically Hip, Shania TWAIN, K’naan and my beloved BC LIONS.
My excuse for taking over four years to finish this puzzle is being deep in my own DAD ERA. My thanks to my wife, Heather, and kids for abiding my daily crossword solving ritual as well as the many social occasions with David and his family that devolved into constructor talk.
My thanks also to David for doing the heavy lifting on building the grid and providing the momentum to get this across the finish line, and to Jess for getting the puzzle to an appropriately polished state for a Globe and Mail Weekender.
Cryptic clue of the week
You’ll find lots of good stuff in the Oct. 24 Weekender Cryptic. Let’s look at 13A, [Biden unfortunately retired (2,3)].
This is a simple cryptic clue. Remember, one end is a definition and the other is wordplay, both leading to the same answer. With just three words, and “unfortunately” a likely anagram indicator, it’s a safe bet that we’re going to be anagramming “Biden” or “retired.”
Since the answer length is (2,3), “Biden” seems the most likely choice. The only 2-letter word I can see in there is IN, and the rest anagrams nicely, giving an answer that means “retired”: IN BED.
As always, here’s your weekly reminder that How to solve The Globe’s cryptic crossword, by the Globe’s longtime cryptic constructor Fraser Simpson, is a great place to start if you’re new to the cryptic world.