September 27, 2020

Title: PEOPLE WITH CONNECTIONS

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

JOAN DIDION (17A: "The Year of Magical Thinking" author)

CHRISTIAN DIOR (36A: New Look fashion designer)

KIRAN DESAI (60A: "The Inheritance of Loss" author)

Theme synopsis: The theme answers are all names of PEOPLE. The conjunction AND is contained in each answer, split between the first and last name. Therefore, the names are connected by the conjunction, AND we have PEOPLE WITH CONNECTIONS.

Things I learned:

• LAW (31A: Fred Gray's expertise) Fred Gray is a civil rights attorney who practices LAW in Alabama, and was President of the National Bar Association in 1985. Gray is also a preacher and activist. You might recognize his name from the movie, Selma, in which he was portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Fred Gray was the lawyer who presented the argument before Judge Frank Johnson that the Selma to Montgomery marches should be allowed to continue. Fred Gray has also been portrayed by Shawn Michael Howard in the film, Boycott. In that film, Gray had a cameo role as a supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• SAN (42A: Three, in Chinese and Japanese) I did not know this and relied on crossing answers to fill it in. I am happy to learn it. 
• KIRAN DESAI (60A: "The Inheritance of Loss" author) The Inheritance of Loss was KIRAN DESAI's second novel. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2006 and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award in 2007. The Inheritance of Loss explores themes of colonialism, post-colonialism, and the loss of identity as it tells the stories of Biju and Sai. The narration of the novel alternates between their two points of view. Biju is an Indian living in the United States illegally. Sai is an orphan living with her maternal grandfather in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• JOAN DIDION (17A: "The Year of Magical Thinking" author) The Year of Magical Thinking recounts JOAN DIDION's experiences with grief in the year following the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The book won the 2005 National Book Award for Nonfiction. I have read The Year of Magical Thinking, but it was many years ago, so when I read this clue my reaction was, "I know this. What is her name?!" Fortunately, it only took getting the J and O from crossings to jog that memory.
• CHRISTIAN DIOR (36A: New Look fashion designer) When CHRISTIAN DIOR launched his first collection in 1947, the actual name of the line was Corolle, from the botanical term "corolla," meaning "circlet of flower petals." Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar coined the term New Look to describe the line.
• WOOD (40A: Catan resource) Like the clue for WHEAT in the puzzle on July 4, and the clue for ORE in the July 18 puzzle, this is a reference to the board game Settlers of Catan. There are five types of resources in Catan, and this is the third one we've seen referenced since I began blogging. We're over halfway to collecting a complete set!
• DEREK (44A: Zoolander's first name) This clue is a reference to the movie Zoolander, in which Ben Stiller plays the role of male model, DEREK Zoolander.
• EDIT (62A: Blog post modification) Well, this is timely! I did EDIT yesterday's blog post to reflect the entire theme of the puzzle, after a reader alerted me I had missed half of the theme. If you read yesterday's blog post early in the day, my apologies! Many thanks to the reader who kindly enlightened me, and to all of you for accepting my occasional fallibility.

Geography review:

• ERIE (7D: New York canal) The ERIE canal is part of the New York State Canal System. In case you were wondering, we did just see ERIE yesterday. This is the fourth appearance for ERIE this month. We also saw ERIE four times in August. Will we see it again in the next three days? Stay tuned and keep solving.
• AMARILLO (11D: Texas Panhandle city whose name means "yellow" in Spanish) In addition to being known as "The Yellow Rose of Texas," AMARILLO was also once the self-proclaimed "Helium Capital of the World."
• COLORADO (36D: Greeley's state) Greeley, COLORADO was named after Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, who went to Colorado in the 1859 Pike's Peak Gold Rush. The University of Northern COLORADO is located in Greeley.

A nicely connected theme today that has me singing "Conjunction Junction" from Schoolhouse Rock. A fun find that these names are all connected by AND. It's interesting that Zhouqin Burnikel's puzzle last Sunday also had a theme in which the theme answers were all people's names. Some nice long bonuses today in HOT TOPIC, TIRAMISU, DINOSAUR, AMARILLO, COLORADO, and EGOMANIA. Nice use of those long, down slots. I also enjoyed the quote clues sprinkled throughout the puzzle whose answers can almost have a conversation. "ANY NEWS?" "TA DA!" "PLUS..." "FALSE!" "IS IT?" This was an enjoyable solve to begin my Sunday morning.