Title: STEP BACK INSIDE
Constructor: Evan Kalish
Editor: Erik Agard
Theme Answers:
PUPPET SHOW (17A: Production with hand-worn "performers")
CARPET STORE (28A: Place to buy floor coverings)
TRUMPET SOLO (44A: Louis Armstrong highlight)
PET SITTING (59A: Looking after a vacationer's fish, say)
Theme synopsis: Each theme answer contains the letter string P-E-T-S spanning the two words of the entry. PETS is STEP spelled backwards. Therefore, each theme answer contains the word STEP reading BACKwards, INSIDE the answer.
Things I learned:
- ANISE (23A: Mukhwas spice) Mukhwas is an Indian after-meal snack sometimes used as a mouth freshener. The colorful snack is a combination of seeds and nuts, such as ANISE, fennel, coconut, coriander, and sesame. Sugar and essential oils, including peppermint oil, are added to the seeds.
- SAX (34A: YolanDa Brown's instrument) YolanDa Brown's sound has been described as a fusion of reggae, jazz, and soul. YolanDa won a Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Award for Best Jazz Act in 2008 and 2009, becoming the first musician to win the award two years in a row.
- PAINTED (56A: Like many Tiffany Alfonseca works) Tiffany Alfonseca's vibrant and colorful artwork celebrates Black and Afro-Latinx diasporic culture.
Random thoughts and interesting things:
- PUPPET SHOW (17A: Production with hand-worn "performers") I enjoyed this clever clue!
- CABARET (20A: Entertainment that's an anagram of "bearcat") From a solving standpoint, anagram clues are helpful because they provide you with all the letters you need for the answer. Also, anagrams are fun to play around with. My name anagrams to "scholarly heels." What's an anagram of your name?
- ARIE (51A: "Video" singer India.___) "Video" was the lead single on India.ARIE's debut album, Acoustic Soul, released in 2001.
- HARPO (52A: Oprah's production company) HARPO is Oprah spelled backwards. (It's an anagram!)
- EDNA (58A: Southern chef Lewis) If you are a regular USA Today crossword solver and/or a regular reader of this blog, you might remember EDNA Lewis from the August 9 puzzle and write-up. Before she became a chef and cookbook author, EDNA Lewis had a variety of interesting jobs, including working for Franklin D. Roosevelt's second presidential campaign, working as a seamstress, and working for the communist newspaper, The Daily Worker. In 1948, EDNA Lewis teamed up with antique dealer, John Nicholson, to open a restaurant called Café Nicholson. The restaurant served simple, delicious Southern food.
- IGUANA (2D: Lizard with a Taino-derived name) Taíno is a language spoken by the Taíno people of the Caribbean. Here's some trivia for you about IGUANA mating. A female IGUANA can store sperm from mates for several years. If there are no males around when she is ready to lay eggs, she can use the stored sperm to fertilize her eggs. Isn't science fascinating?
- LYONNE (7D: "Russian Doll" star Natasha) In addition to playing the role of Nadia Vulvokov on the show, "Russian Doll," Natasha LYONNE also helps produce, write, and direct the TV show. LYONNE's character on the show is a game developer who is stuck in an ongoing time loop and repeatedly dies and relives the same night. Natasha LYONNE co-constructed a crossword puzzle with Deb Amlen, as part of the New York Times series of celebrity-constructed crossword puzzles.
- ARTIST (47D: Part of MUA) Here MUA stands for makeup ARTIST.
Geography review:
- ATL (40D: Georgia's capital, on scoreboards) Atlanta, Georgia is home to the Atlanta Braves (Major League Baseball), Atlanta Hawks (National Basketball Association), Atlanta Falcons (National Football League), and Atlanta United FC (Major League Soccer).
This puzzle is a nice example of using the title to not only hint at, but also elevate, the theme. This is a common theme type - an inverted word hidden in the theme answers. The cleverness of the title, STEP BACK INSIDE, added to the "aha moment" of discovering the theme. Smooth fill all around. I enjoyed seeing UP CLOSE in the center of the puzzle. I'm partial to the answer LAP CAT, although my own LAP CAT is not at all company-loving! I appreciated learning about YoLanda Brown and Tiffany Alfonseca today. Definitely an enjoyable way to start my Thursday morning.
Sally - Thank you for this great resource! I love to read your review everyday. Quick question for you - do you solve on the USA Today app? If so, how do you get the screenshot of the completed puzzle? Once I finish and my time comes up, it takes me back to the home screen. If I want to reference the puzzle again, my only option is to “restart” and it erases my work. Sometimes I don’t get the theme while solving and am not able to go back to the completed grid to look through it. Just wondering if you had any insight. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi, Ashey - I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! I do solve the puzzle using the USA Today app. The inability to look at the finished puzzle after solving has long been a frustration! When I began writing the blog, I figured out a workaround. Just before I fill in the last square of the puzzle, I tap on the "MORE" icon in the upper right corner. I then select "Print Puzzle" under additional options and then choose "Filled/Solved Puzzle." (Note: You can choose this option even if you don't have a printer.) This will open an image of the puzzle in your browser window with a pop-up printer window. Of course, you can print the puzzle, but another option is to hit "Cancel" in the pop-up window and then take a screenshot of the puzzle image in your browser. I then return to the puzzle and fill in the last square to finish the puzzle. Note that you can also do this process after you finish the puzzle, but then it will erase the time of your solved puzzle in the archive and show the puzzle as unsolved. (I don't worry about this, but I know some people like to keep track of solving streaks.) I hope that helps!
DeleteThanks so much for your reply, Sally! I have been doing a similar hack - if I haven’t figured out the theme or forgot what I was looking for, I will leave one square empty and go back to the home screen. I thought I’d ask you since I couldn’t even figure out how you got the finished grid! Thanks for your reply!
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