August 16, 2020

Title: FUNNY PEOPLE

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

HARRY HAMLIN (17A: He played Perseus in "Clash of the Titans")

ANNE HATHAWAY (23A: "The Princess Diaries" star)

MICHAEL CHANG (47A: Tennis player who won the French Open at 17)

HASAN MINHAJ (57A: "Patriot Act" host)

Theme synopsis: The theme answers are all names of people who have the letters HA-HA in their name, making them FUNNY PEOPLE.

Things I learned:

• EGG (11A: Tamagoyaki ingredient) Made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg, tamagoyaki is a type of Japanese omelet.
• MICHAEL CHANG (Tennis player who won the French Open at 17) MICHAEL CHANG won the 1989 French Open. In 2008, CHANG was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• HASAN MINHAJ (57A: "Patriot Act" host) Patriot Act with HASAN MINHAJ is a comedy talk show on Netflix. In 2019, HASAN MINHAJ was listed among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.
• NED (24D: ___ Leeds (Jacob Batalon role) NED Leeds is a Marvel comics character. NED was a reporter for the Daily Bugle and a supporting character in the Spider-Man comic series. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, NED (played by Jacob Batalon) appears in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• LOU (16A: Mary ___ Retton) I know so few things about sports that it makes me happy when I can fill a sports-related clue in immediately and confidently. Mary LOU Retton was the first American women to win the Olympics all-around gold medal for gymnastics.
• HARRY HAMLIN (17A: He played Perseus in "Clash of the Titans") The name was familiar to me, but I needed some helpful crossing answers to fill it in. HARRY HAMLIN also played the role of Michael Kuzak in L.A. Law.
• ANNE HATHAWAY (23A: "The Princess Diaries" star) Of the four theme answers, this was the only one I was able to fill in without the help of any crossing answers. I like most of ANNE HATHAWAY's work, but Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries is my favorite of her roles.
• TAP (34A: Touch lightly) I had PAT at first, until I reached 36-Down and realized a [stack of raked leaves] was not a TILE.
• RARE (3D: Like "Amazing Spider-Man" No. 1) The first issue of the Amazing Spider-Man was published in March 1963. 
• RON (33D: Fictional government worker Swanson) RON Swanson is a character played by Nick Offerman on Parks and Recreation. Although I haven't watched this show, my daughter used to watch it on her laptop while sitting in our dining room or kitchen, so I absorbed this knowledge peripherally.
• UPLOADING (8D: Sending to the cloud) and ELBOW STAND (11D: Balancing pose in which the legs are held in the air) and CHEAT CODES (29D: They might help gamers enter god mode) and DEADLY SIN (32D: Envy or greed, it's said) This was a nice set of non-theme, long, bonus down entries. 

I guessed the puzzle's theme as soon as I filled in the HA- of HARRY HAMLIN from 1- and 2-Down. I might have said, "HA-HA, clever!" Even though only one of the theme answers was readily known to me, the crossing answers were helpful and I only encountered slight resistance in the lower right corner. Lots of lively fill here. In addition to the long downs noted above, I also enjoyed OOMPH (7D: Energetic quality) and GUTSY (13D: Bold). An enjoyable solve to begin my Sunday morning.

Another enjoyable aspect of my Sunday morning is that I am back at my desktop computer to write this. Last night after 125 hours of being without power following Monday's derecho, our power was restored! We are extremely grateful to have power again. Today's task is to retrieve our freezer contents from storage at a friend's house and to begin restocking our refrigerator. I am looking forward to drinking cold milk and eating ice cream! Many people in the county to the north of us are still without power, so I am thinking of them and sending energetic vibes to the crews working around the clock to reconnect everyone.