November 10, 2020

Title: WORK FROM HOME

Constructor: Gail Grabowski

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

GAME WARDEN (20A: Wildlife officer)

PAGE TURNER (56A: Compelling read)

FRONT MONEY (10D: Funds paid in advance)

BASE SALARY (29D: Figure that doesn't include bonuses)

Theme synopsis: The first word of each theme answer can follow the word HOME to create a new phrase. We have HOME GAME, HOME PAGE, HOME FRONT, and HOME BASE.

Things I learned:

• TAYLOR (49A: Sports journalist Rooks) TAYLOR Rooks hosts "Take It There With TAYLOR Rooks" on Bleacher Report. She has gained a reputation for asking candid questions, and many of her interviews have gone viral on social media. Earlier this year, Rooks spent two months reporting from inside the NBA bubble. Fun trivia fact: TAYLOR Rooks is the niece of baseball Hall of Fame, Lou Brock. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• SNARE (42A: It's a trap) and SARAN (47A: It's a wrap) I enjoyed this pair of clues. This type of clue can be misleading, because the clue looks like something that might be said, but the absence of quotation marks makes the clues descriptive. Whereas the answer to ["Its a trap"] might be LOOK OUT, the answer to [It's a trap] is SNARE. Likewise, ["It's a wrap"] might clue WE'RE DONE HERE, but the answer to [It's a wrap] is SARAN. Nicely tricky.
• NAME (4D: "You Don't Know My ___" (Alicia Keys hit)) "You Don't Know My NAME" is a song from the album, The Diary of Alicia Keys. Released in 2003, it was the third top ten hit for Keys.
• LINUS (11D: "Peanuts" boy with a blanket) Ah, LINUS, such a great mix of wisdom and insecurity, often acting as the Peanuts philosopher, while at the same time carrying his blanket and often shown sucking his thumb. Created by Charles M. Schulz, LINUS first appeared in the Peanuts comic strip on September 19, 1952, but was not referred to by name until three days later. Interestingly, he did not speak or appear with his security blanket until 1954. LINUS is Charlie Brown's best friend, and the younger brother of Lucy. Charlie Brown's younger sister, Sally (who I am partial to for obvious reasons), has a crush on LINUS and calls him her "Sweet Babboo," much to LINUS's chagrin.
• RAVEN (53D: Author Leilani) RAVEN Leilani's debut novel, Luster, was published earlier this year. Edie, the protagonist of Luster, was an answer in the October 7 puzzle. Luster tells the story of twenty-something, Edie, a Black woman who begins a relationship with a forty-something white man in an open marriage. Luster won the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Fiction.

Geography review:

• IKEA (32A: Chain with a museum in Almhult) Almhult is a locality in Sweden. It was in Almhult that the first IKEA store was built. The IKEA Museum opened in 2016. 

First, my sincere apologies to everyone who was confused by yesterday's blog which was initially posted with the grid of Sunday's puzzle. (Thank you to David for letting me know!) Also, this weekend I accidentally posted Saturday's blog with Sunday's date, so sorry to anyone who was confused by that before I noticed. Apparently I'm attempting to make every possible blogging mistake at least once! Please don't hesitate to let me know if you notice a mistake. It is extremely difficult to edit yourself. I appreciate your gracious acceptance of my fallibility.

Now on to today's puzzle. It's a nice set of theme answers. I particularly like PAGE TURNER. For a bit I tried to figure out if the word WORK from the title was also involved in the theme somehow. I don't think it is, but if I'm missing something that you see, let me know. This grid pattern results in many sections with only a single square of entry, making the puzzle almost like nine mini-puzzles combined. I appreciated learning about TAYLOR Rook today; continually expanding my sports knowledge through crossword puzzles. This puzzle was an enjoyable way to begin my Tuesday morning.

One additional thing. We are definitely living in a time when many great crossword puzzles are available. Today I am recommending "puzzle #38: Jumpin' Jehosaphat!," a themeless puzzle constructed by Sid Sivakumar, and hosted on Adam Nicolle's website, Luckystreak Xwords. You may find it a little trickier than USA Today puzzles, but as a reader of this blog, you'll know the answer to 14 Down.