September 14, 2020

Title: DOUBLE UP

Constructor: Amanda Rafkin

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

CHUPA CHUPS (17A: Spanish lollipop brand)

SUPPORT GROUPS (36A: They meet for comfort and advice)

SUPER DUPER (56A: Really Awesome)

Theme synopsis: Each word in the theme answers contains the letter string U-P. Since the answers are all two-word phrases, each theme answer contains DOUBLE UP.

Things I learned:

• AGATHA (27A: Girl genius protagonist) Girl Genius is a webcomic written and drawn by Phil and Kaja Foglio. The comic's tagline is "Adventure, Romance, MAD SCIENCE!" (Why am I just now learning about this?!) AGATHA lives in an alternate-universe Europe called "Europa." In this universe there are mad scientists, called Sparks, with incredible powers of invention. Girl Genius has won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story three times.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• AFRO (10A: Hairstyle for Esperanza Spalding) Esperanza Spalding is a singer, songwriter, and composer who has won four Grammy Awards. Her debut album, Junjo, was released in 2006. In 2017, Spalding was appointed a Professor of the Practice of Music at Harvard.
• CHUPA CHUPS (17A: Spanish lollipop brand) Founded in 1958, the CHUPA CHUPS name comes from the Spanish verb chupar, meaning "to suck." In the 1980's CHUPA CHUPS began using anti-smoking marketing to promote their products with slogans such as, "Stop smoking, start sucking," and "Sucking does not kill." The CHUPA CHUPS logo was designed by Salvador Dali.
• TEN (22A: Number of "Things I Hate About You") Referencing the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You was a fun way to clue the number TEN. The movie starred Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger and was a modern telling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
• GOTYA (32A: Exclamation from a prankster) and I SURE AM (33A: Affirmative response to "You Are?") This entire row proved tricky for me. I wanted to spell GOTYA as "gotcha," which didn't fit. Then I wanted to respond, "Yes, I am!" Crossing answers sorted things out eventually.
• GURU (52D: Title for Nanak) GURU Nanak was the founder of Sikhism. In July I learned about the ten GURUs, of which GURU Nanak was the first.
• IAN (44A: Singer Janis) You may remember Janis IAN's hits, "Society's Child," and "At Seventeen." Did you know Janis IAN also writes science fiction? Some of her short stories have been published in anthologies. She also co-edited the anthology Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian. 
• SIA (50A: Singer who keeps her face covered while performing) I once watched SIA explain in an interview that one advantage of this practice is making it easier for her to appear in public without being recognized. (Also, this is SIA's fourth appearance in my imaginary concert of "Crossword-Friendly-One-Named Singers.")
• DRAMA (62A: Genre for "Roma" or "Moonlight") and RAP (59D: Genre for Eve) This was a nice cross-over of genres. 
• SYRUP (65A: Pancake topping) Only a single UP in SYRUP. I did look for another UP to pair with this one for a bonus theme answer, but there isn't one. (Unless you count the UP going UP in PURR, but I digress...) However, the UP in SYRUP combined with the theme answers means there are 7-UPs in the puzzle. Intended or not, that's delightful.
• FLU (3D: Target of an annual vaccine) PSA courtesy of your daily crossword: Get your FLU shot! I got my FLU shot last week. It seems especially important this year in a "control what you can" approach to the craziness in our world.
• SOAP (5D: Hand-washing stuff) and RINSED (12D: Got the 5-Down off) Second puzzle PSA: Wash your hands! Hand-washing has always been important, not just since it received increased awareness because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• ODOR (45A: That stinks!) Clever clue. I initially missed the lack of quotation marks and wanted it to be OH, NO!

Geography review:

• IRAN (33D: Tehran's country) Tehran is the capital of IRAN. It is the third-largest city in the Middle East, behind Cairo and Istanbul.

I was SUPER DUPER delighted to open up today's puzzle and see Amanda's name as constructor! This is Amanda's first puzzle for USA Today (at least since I have been blogging), but I am familiar with her work from other venues and from her puzzle site, Brain Candy. I enjoy Amanda's puzzles and was not disappointed today. A straightforward theme type elevated by the delightful theme answers CHUPA CHUPS and SUPER DUPER. As you may have noticed, there were a lot of entries I wanted to highlight today. In addition to those, I liked FREE SAMPLES and GO POOF. I also appreciated learning about the webcomic Girl Genius. I will HAPPILY solve a puzzle such as this any day. A truly enjoyable start to my Monday morning.