November 14, 2020

Title: BOOK ENDS

Constructor: Mark McClain

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

BIG PICTURE (18A: Large-scale perspective)

FOOD COLORING (26A: Ingredient in a rainbow grilled cheese)

STAND-UP COMIC (43A: Dulce Sloan, e.g.)

GOLDEN RULE (57A: Principle to live by)

Theme synopsis: The ENDS of the theme answers are types of books. We have a PICTURE BOOK, a COLORING BOOK, a COMIC BOOK, and a RULE BOOK.

Things I learned:

• STAND-UP COMIC (43A: Dulce Sloan, e.g.) Dulcé Sloan is a correspondent for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. In addition to being a STAND-UP COMIC, she voices Honeybee in the animated TV series The Great North. 
• EATING (10D: Doing a mukbang) A mukbang is an online broadcast with a host EATING large quantities of food while interacting with the audience. Since becoming popular in South Korea in 2010, mukbangs have become popular worldwide. The word mukbang is a portmanteau of the Korean words for "eating" and "broadcast." I never knew such a thing existed. As always, crossword puzzles are expanding my horizons!
• STONE (41D: R&B star Angie) Before launching her solo career in 1999, Angie STONE was a member of two trios, The Sequence and Vertical Hold, and also worked with Mantronix and Lenny Kravitz. She has won two Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• ALAN (16A: Name that's a "Lion King" name backward) ALAN is Nala in reverse.
• FOOD COLORING (26A: Ingredient in a rainbow grilled cheese) My first thought upon reading this clue was, "Why haven't I ever had a rainbow grilled cheese?" You can watch one being made in this video. (However, they really needed to do a strip of uncolored cheese so the rainbow includes yellow.) I am a big fan of rainbows and rainbow colored food. When our kids were toddlers, we had a series of family color days. We would designate a day as "red day" or "blue day" and on that day we would all dress in that color, do a scavenger hunt for items in our house of that color followed by a photo session with said items, and only eat foods that matched the color of the day. Although we used as many naturally colored foods as possible, some FOOD COLORING was definitely involved, particularly on blue day and purple day. When we'd worked our way through the rainbow, my husband had the idea of having a rainbow party for our friends. It became an annual event, and for 15 years (until our kids were college age and scheduling was complicated) we hosted an annual "Hoelscher Family Rainbow Party - a celebration of life, laughter, and friendship." There were plenty of rainbow decorations, and we served a buffet of single color foods laid out in rainbow order, followed by rainbow sugar cookies and fruit pizza for dessert. Many fabulous memories were made. All of this digression is to explain that wondering why I haven't had a rainbow grilled cheese is quite in character. I may have to try this. If I do, I will report back.
• LOKI (34D: Asgard's god of mischief) In Norse mythology, Asgard is a fortified home associated with the gods. LOKI is a shape shifter, and sometimes appeared in the form of a mare, a salmon, or a fly. LOKI has appeared in modern popular culture, including Rick Riordan's trilogy, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.
• ALEC (35D: Name that's an anagram of a delicate fabric) ALEC is an anagram of lace.

Geography review:

• RIGA (23A: Capital of Latvia) RIGA is the capital of Latvia, and is home to a third of Latvia's population. Latvia is a country on the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.
• FLA (33A: Ga. neighbor) In addition to Florida (FLA), other neighbors of Georgia (Ga.) are Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama.
• IRAN (3D: Country where Farsi is spoken) Farsi is the official language of IRAN. It is also spoken in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, with each country speaking its own variety of the language.
• TOBAGO (5D: Island northeast of Trinidad) Trinidad and TOBAGO are the two main islands comprising the Caribbean country officially named the Republic of Trinidad and TOBAGO. 
• SRI (9D: ___ Lanka) SRI Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of India. Colombo is the most populous city of SRI Lanka, and its executive and commercial capital. The legislative capital of SRI Lanka is SRI Jayawardenepura Kotte.

All four theme answers are nice entries, and I enjoyed discovering the different types of books. COWARDLY and TWOSOMES were nice long vertical bonuses. I learned a few things, took a trip down memory lane, and noticed a current events sub-theme (CEDE, FACT, and the mention of Ga. in a clue). This puzzle was a delightful start to my Saturday morning.