December 28, 2020

Title: SPLIT THE CHECK

Constructor: Mollie Cowger

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

CHEAP TRICK (17A: "I Want You to Want Me" band with an underhanded-sounding name)

CHESS CLOCK (28A: Timekeeper for Hou Yifan or Magnus Carlsen)

CHEVY TRUCK (44A: Silverado or Colorado)

CHERRY PICK (57A: Choose only the evidence that fits a predetermined argument)

Theme synopsis: All of the theme answers begin with the letters CHE- and end with -CK. Therefore, each theme answer SPLITS the word CHECK.

And now a word from our constructor:

Mollie: This is my first USA Today puzzle, so hello!! I hope it's a fun one. After thinking of this theme idea, I was delighted to discover this neat little set of 10-letter answers-- it gave me a lot of flexibility in laying out the grid. I'm quite happy with how the fill turned out, which I owe in part to Erik's thoughtful editing. My favorite non-theme answers are TWIN BED, WHISPER, and MARATHON. (Under two hours-- can you believe!! In contrast, I will be resting on my laurels from my ~2.5 hour *half* marathon probably forever.) I'm also stoked to have been able to include references to Watchmen, which is one of my favorite shows of the last couple years, and ANNE Helen Petersen, a writer whose work I really admire. For more puzzle stuff, you can find me on Twitter at @molliecowger.

Things I learned:

• LAO (Nam khao cuisine) Nam khao is a dish in LAO cuisine made with deep-fried rice balls, chunks of pork sausage, peanuts, coconut, scallions, mint, cilantro, lime juice, fish sauce, and other ingredients. It is traditionally eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf. Nam khao originated in The Deua, a small village in Laos. 
• IN FULL (10D: "Paid ___" (2002 film)) The title of the 2002 movie Paid IN FULL is taken from a 1987 album and song by Eric B. & Rakim. Although I was unfamiliar with the movie (or song), "paid IN FULL" is a common enough expression that the answer was intuitive.
• POE (18D: Roots band Larkin ___) Roots is a genre of rock music based in the folk, blues, and country music origins of rock. The band Larkin POE is fronted by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell. Their album, Self Made Man, released earlier this year, reached the top of Billboard's blues album chart. 
• ANNE (38D: Writer ___ Helen Petersen) ANNE Helen Petersen is a former writer for Buzzfeed, and now writes a newsletter for subscribers at Substack. Her books include Scandals of Classic Hollywood, and Can't Even: How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• BABE (1A: Sweetie) Yesterday I read an entire book - the latest Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich, Fortune and Glory (Tantalizing Twenty-Seven). Ranger is one of the characters in this series of books, and Ranger frequently says, "Babe." This is all to say that this answer made me think of Ranger, which made me smile. (Also, if you read this series, my opinion is Fortune and Glory is not that great of a book, but still fun.)
• COSINE (20A: Adjacent over hypotenuse) I like math, but it's been a long time since I've taken trigonometry. Thank goodness for crossing answers.
• OLDER (26A: Like millennials vis-a-vis Gen Z) The term millennials is used to refer to those born between 1981 and 1996, while Gen Z refers to those born between 1997 to 2012. (Realizing that these definitions are human-defined and not set in stone.)
• CHESS CLOCK (28A: Timekeeper for Hou Yifan or Magnus Carlsen) Hou Yifan is a chess grandmaster and four-time Women's World Chess Champion. In 2006, at age 12, she competed in the Women's World Chess Championship, becoming the youngest person to do so. Magnus Carlsen is a chess grandmaster, and the current World Chess Champion.
• CHERRY PICK (57A: Choose only the evidence that fits a predetermined argument) This is such a great phrase, and immediately evokes a visual of someone picking through a bowl of cherries to select the best ones. This is my favorite of today's theme answers.
• IDK (9D: "No clue," for short) I don't know what IDK stands for. Just kidding, but simply couldn't resist! IDK = I don't know.
• CHART (28D: Data viz image) I was not familiar with the term "data viz," but it was easy enough to figure out that "viz" = "visualization."
• MARATHON (35A: Race run by Kipchoge in under two hours) Eliud Kipchoge holds the world record for the MARATHON with a time of 2:01:39, set in September 2018. He has also run a MARATHON in 1:59:40, at a special event in Vienna, Austria in October 2019, though this didn't count as a new record because it wasn't an open event. Both of these times are unbelievably fast, and completely unfathomable to me!
• LION (37D: Feline portrayed in a Chinese New Year Dance) The LION dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year. Performers wear a LION costume and mimic a LION's movements to bring good luck and fortune in the upcoming year.
• KEN (60D: Barbie's boo) It made me smile that the first clue in the puzzle was [Sweetie], and the last clue was [Barbie's boo]. An endearing puzzle.

Geography review:

• TULSA (21A: Oklahoma setting for "Watchmen") The TV series, Watchmen, is based on the DC Comics series of the same name. The series is set in TULSA, the second largest city in Oklahoma. 
• NEWARK (13D: New Jersey's largest city) NEWARK, New Jersey is nicknamed "Brick City," "The Gateway City," and "City By the River."
• HAVANA (45D: Celia Cruz's hometown) Two-time Grammy Award winner, Celia Cruz, was known as the "Queen of Salsa," or "The Queen of Latin Music." She was born in HAVANA, Cuba. 

A straightforward theme today with four solid and enjoyable theme answers. As I mentioned above, CHERRY PICK was my favorite theme answer, but truly they were all fun to see. I enjoyed the placement of WILL DO (11D: "I'm on it") and ONE SEC (12D: "Hold that thought) right next to each other, forming a bit of a mini-story in the upper right corner. (The story is set in NEWARK.) I also enjoyed the answers EXACTLY, ARGYLE, and WHISPER. Welcome to Mollie Cowger with her first USA Today crossword! It was delightful, and a lovely way to begin my Monday morning. (Today is the last Monday of 2020!)