Yet the genius of Penner’s shows – much like, say, Pixar’s animated blockbusters – is that they’re not only for the tykes in the house. The highlights, perhaps predictably, were Sandwiches – “the second-most-requested song in the Fred Penner repertoire,” according to the man himself – and the indestructible The Cat Came Back, which he introduced as “my all-time favourite cat song.” (His agent’s too, I imagine.) No harm, no foul.Īside from that little hitch, it was classic Penner, all warmth, grace and humour – and, of course, the classic kids’ songbook that those of us who have long since ceased being kids still know by heart. Penner was mortified of course, but O’Neill laughed it off with a perfect line – “Eighteen years and he finally draws blood!” – and a quickly placed Band-Aid on his nose later, it was all forgotten. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.can be harder to overcome, since there's not a ton of snazzy fill. Overall, this type of construction is still not my favorite, as its level of difficulty can be tough for non-constructors to appreciate, and the gluey bits like DIA, TRA, KEL, E DATES, etc.

I did like entries like PENTANE (I love me some chemistry), RATED PG, SKI BIB, SWEE PEA in the full, and STAN LEE though. The corners have fewer constraints, but they're still hard - when you have to run mid-length answers through the start of POTATO PEELERS and BACK IN THE SADDLE, you tend to need things like the old-timey ONE O CAT.

Each intersection reduces your flexibility, and when you have a section like the south where POTATO PEELERS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, and GLUTEN-FREE PASTA constrain it, you're bound to need some glue like E-DATES (does anyone really use this?) to hold it together. I tend to stay away from themelesses with crisscrossing skeletons, because they are so difficult to make sparkly and cleanly. So I might add a point or two for the difficulty factor. It's fun to see the fresh GLUTEN-FREE PASTA, and the rest of them are absolutely assets in my eyes. It's tough to do this and still make all six answers sparkly, and Paula has excelled here.

However, there is something pretty impressive about six long answers interlocking - I've highlighted them below to better illustrate the effect. I've found that the if the result is less than 10, I feel like there's not enough great stuff packed in.Īt first glance, this puzzle didn't have a huge visual impact - sure, a wide-open, innovative-looking grid, but nothing that wowed me. Usually I count any long(ish), colorful entry as an asset, tally them up, and add a point or two (or even three) if there's some cool visual impact or level of construction difficulty. My engineer's brain loves quantification, and that extends to my evaluation of themeless puzzles.

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