June 11, 2020

Title: INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY

Constructor: Rachel Fabi

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

FLY BY NIGHT (17A: Untrustworthy)
BACK TO WORK (29A: “Break’s over!”)
BREASTBONE (44A: Sternum)
FREE AT LAST (57A: Final words of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech)

Theme synopsis: A medley is a race that combines four different swimming styles. It may be an individual medley or a medley relay. In the INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY, a single swimmer swims equal distances of four different strokes. The strokes are swum in the following order: 

1. butterFLY stroke (familiarly shortened to FLY)
2. BACKstroke
3. BREASTstroke
4.  FREEstyle

Things I learned:

• INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY Sports are not my forte, so it took me a bit to understand the theme. I was happy to learn more about this event. I learned there are specific rules and techniques associated with the turns in this race as the swimmer transitions from one stroke to the next.
• BADU (10A: Singer Erykah) Erykah BADU is a singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her style is characterized as neo soul, a subgenre of music influenced by contemporary R&B and soul.
• ILENE (15A: “The L Word” creator Chaiken) The L Word was a Showtime TV drama that aired from 2004-2009. A sequel series, The L Word: Generation Q, debuted in December 2019. I also learned that the use of the phrase “the L word” is traced back to the 1981 play My Blue Heaven.
• CREE (63A: Bunibonibee ___ Nation) Bunibonibee Cree Nation is a First Nation in Canada. 
• ELENA (65A: “My Brilliant Friend” narrator) My Brilliant Friend is an Italian TV drama based on the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. My Brilliant Friend is the name of the first novel in the coming-of-age series of four books.
• RED ZONE (39D: Scoring range in football) The red zone is the area between the 20-yard line and the goal line. The area is not actually colored red and the term is mostly used for statistical and commercial advertising purposes. I learn so much about sports from crossword puzzles!
• WAT (43D: Doro ___ (Ethiopian stew)) A curry dish made from chicken and sometimes hard-boiled eggs, Doro wat is the most popular traditional food in Ethiopia.
• DOLCE (51D: Partner of Gabbana) Dolce & Gabbana is in luxury fashion house. It was founded by Italian designers Domenica Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in 1985.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

I appreciate when crossword puzzles gently nudge me to brush up on my geography:

• SEOUL (25A: Capital of South Korea) Seoul, Korea is officially known as the Seoul Special City.
• TOGO (36A: Neighbor of Benin) Togo is a country in West Africa officially known as the Togolese Republic. It’s capital is Lomé, just in case that appears in a crossword puzzle sometime!
• BOGOTA (Capital whose first inhabitants were the Muisca) Bogota is the capital and largest city of Columbia. 

Enjoyable puzzle. Even though there were a lot of things I learned from this puzzle, it didn’t interfere with my ability to complete the puzzle. Fair crossings and inferable word patterns are a testament to good crossword construction.