August 23, 2020

 Title: ROCK BOTTOM

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Editor: Erik Agard

Guest Blogger: Matthew Stock

Theme Answers:
FATTY ACID (3D: Omega-3 or omega-6, e.g.)
LIVE A LITTLE (25D: "C'mon, indulge yourself!")
STUDIES HARD (7D: Crams for an exam)
PAPER MOON (36D: 1973 Tatum O'Neal movie)

Theme synopsis: The end (or "bottom") of each vertical theme entry can precede the word ROCK in a two-word phrase. We've got ACID ROCK, LITTLE ROCK, HARD ROCK and MOON ROCK.

Things I learned:

• ODE (50D: "___ to hozier putting his emptiness into melody" (Adedayo Agarau poem)) Wow, what a fantastic new cluing angle on a one of the most common crossword words! I love Hozier's music and can't wait to add this author (new to me) to my reading list. Can't seem to find the poem on Google yet ... blog faithful, help me out if you know where I can read it!

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• PHO (4A: Soup flavored with Saigon cinnamon) and SLURPS (7A: Audibly enjoys 4-Across) A great and tasty one-two punch to start this puzzle! Generally, my two favorite categories of crossword fill are food and animals, and we've got a bunch today. Hooray!
• MAC (32A: ___-and-cheese pizza) Okay. I love food entries. I love mac and cheese. I love pizza. I've never heard of mac-and-cheese pizza. And, after a quick image search, I'm not sure it's for me. Still fun though.
• ON TOP (6D: "Finally you put my love ___" (Beyonce lyric)) A while ago, I made a Spotify playlist called "epic key changes only" (you can listen to it here). As the title suggest, there are a lot of epic songs on here, and yet somehow "Love On Top" blows them all away (four key changes? five?? I lose count.)
• RENT ME (70A: Sign on a moving van) I just love how evocative this entry is. Great six-letter stuff.
• SVEN (33A: Name in "business venture") I like to imagine Kristoff's reindeer pal SVEN from "Frozen" finally claiming his rightful share of ice-harvesting profits. Neat find, with SVEN spanning the two words in "business venture."

Geography review:

• JIG (68A: Irish folk dance) I grew up watching "Riverdance" on VHS, and I remember being pretty spellbound by Irish dancing as a small child. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please enjoy a few minutes of it here. 
• RUPEE (10D: Coin in Kolkata) Kolkata (renamed from Calcutta in 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. The Kolkata metro area is home to over 14 million people, which would make Kolkata the fifth most-populous U.S. state if it were a state instead of a city. It's also home to the largest hospital in West Bengal and the oldest underground metro rail system in all of India.
• DAILY (47D: Like the Star Tribune) No direct reference to geography here, but this is a reference, I'm pretty sure, to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the largest newspaper in Minnesota. (For what it's worth, you'd need about two and a half Minnesotas to match the population of Kolkata!)

Happy Sunday, everyone! It's Matthew again, happily subbing in for Sally to round out the week.
If you couldn't tell by now, I loved this puzzle, as I do so many by Zhouqin. Such a fun use of vertical themers to play on rock "bottom," and the amount of exciting fill entries is astounding. UTOPIA! I MADE IT! OKEY DOKE! RENT ME! LETS NOT! EMOJI! What a treat. Shout me out on Twitter and tell me what all you liked that I didn't highlight.
Any ODE I would write to Zhouqin's puzzles would be far, far longer, so I'll go ahead and sign off here. Have a great rest of your day! (I'll catch you all back on the constructing side in early September, with a collab puzzle that is truly 🔥🔥🔥)