December 29, 2020

Title: EAST SIDE

Constructor: Matthew Stock

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

BELLY OF THE BEAST (17A: Dangerous place)

BAKER'S YEAST (40A: Breadmaking ingredient)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST (62A: Words before a grand finale)

Theme synopsis: The word EAST is found at the end of each theme answer. The theme answers are positioned so in each case EAST abuts the right SIDE of the puzzle. 

And now a few words from our constructor:

Matthew: This puzzle is special to me for a couple reasons. The most important is that I teach at East St. Louis Senior High School, affectionately known as “East Side.” I loved the idea of doing a sort of tribute to the Flyer Family that I’m so thankful to be a part of, and I can’t wait to share this puzzle with my students and fellow teachers.
The second special thing: tomorrow marks exactly one year since my first very crossword was published! It’s amazing to look back and see how much I’ve grown as a constructor since this time last year. 2019 me would probably never have thought to do top-bottom symmetry with a triple stack of 11s in the middle of a puzzle like this (and if I had thought of doing it, it would’ve been really bad.) I’m grateful to so many people in the crossword community (many of whom are also on the USA Today team) for teaching me how to make puzzles with so much thoughtfulness and inclusivity.
If you want to solve more of my stuff, I recently released a pay-as-you-want suite with eight puzzles of all difficulty levels, which you can find here. Hope you’ll check it out! Happy solving all around — see everyone in 2021 ☺️

Things I learned:

• MAIA (20A: "In the House" actress Campbell) MAIA Campbell played the role of Tiffany Warren in the 1990s sitcom, In the House. 
• BAH (29A: "___ gawd!") "BAH gawd!" is a favored exclamation of Jim Ross, who is also known as "Good ol' JR." Ross has been a commentator for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was  inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. (He is also known for his barbecue sauce and beef jerky, branded as J.R.'s Family BBQ.) This was a completely new expression to me, and I was thankful for the crosses. I've said before that everything I know about sports I learned from crossword puzzles, and this includes the WWE. Now I know the expression, "BAH gawd!"
• NAM (35D: "Westworld" actor Leonardo) Leonardo NAM plays the role of Felix Lutz in the TV series, Westworld. He also played the role of Brian McBrian in the movies, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. 
• SON (50D: ___ cubano (music genre)) The music genre SON cubano blends elements of Spanish and African music. It originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba. One of the most popular SON cubano groups was Trio Matamoros, who toured Latin American and Europe from 1925-1961.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• HOFSTRA (7A: University on Long Island) HOFSTRA University began as an extension of New York University in 1935, and became independent four years later. HOFSTRA hosted presidential debates during the 2008, 2012, and 2016 U.S. presidential election cycles. Notable alumni of HOFSTRA include James Caan, Francis Ford Coppola, and Christopher Walken.
• CAR (30A: Prius or Leaf, e.g.) That's a Toyota Prius or a Nissan Leaf.
• ABBA (1D: Band whose name is a palindrome) This is the second day in a row for ABBA to appear in the puzzle (and in yesterday's puzzle it was also going down the left side). I wonder if Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Agnetha Fältskog appreciate how grateful crossword constructors are for their choice of band name?
• T. REX (2D: Tiny-armed dinosaur) This reminded me of the scene from Meet the Robinsons where T-REX says, "I have a big head...and little arms... I'm just not sure...how well this plan was thought through."
• FEY (4D: "Mean Girls" screenwriter Tina) Tina FEY wrote the screenplay for the 2004 movie, Mean Girls, in which she co-starred. The movie was adapted from a 2002 book by Rosalind Wiseman titled Queen Bees & Wannabes. FEY adapted Mean Girls into a musical which premiered on Broadway in 2018. 
• THAI (11D: Like panang curry) Panang curry is a type of red THAI curry usually eaten with rice.
• THE YETI (25D: Bigfoot) THE YETI and AKA (36D: Letters between aliases) Bigfoot AKA the Abominable Snowman, is a creature in Himalayan folklore. The inclusion of the word "THE" slowed me down a bit in filling in this answer, as THE YETI is frequently referred to simply as YETI. 
• RARE (59D: Like white peacocks) Peacocks with white plumage have a genetic condition called leucism. These peacocks can produce pigment, but it cannot be deposited in their feathers. There's also a species of butterfly known as white peacock (Anartia jatrophae), so named because of the large "eye spot" on each of its four wings. The white peacock butterfly is not RARE.
• BOY (63D: 2010 New Zealand film with an 11-year-old protagonist) The 11-year-old protagonist of BOY is a Māori BOY who is a huge Michael Jackson fan that dreams of getting rich and going to the city with his father, brother, and his pet goat.

Geography review:

• USA (39A: Neighbor of Can.) and LAOS (56A: Neighbor of Vietnam) The puzzle is being quite neighborly today.
• SAO (46A: ___ Paulo) SAO Paulo is the most populous city in Brazil.
• BAY AREA (67A: San Francisco's region) California's BAY AREA is home to over 7 million people. (That's over twice as many as the number of people in the entire state of Iowa.)
• IDAHO (28D: Fort Hall Reservation state) Fort Hall Reservation is a reservation of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in southeastern IDAHO. 

Today's puzzle has top-bottom mirror symmetry, and is symmetrical along an axis running across the center row of the puzzle. I appreciated this choice of symmetry so that the EAST at the end of BAKER'S YEAST is on the far right side of the grid. It's also a nice touch that all of the EAST appearances are actually on the EAST side of the puzzle. There are many words ending in EAST, and I liked the choices here. This puzzle started out with a money mini-theme of ATM, BRIBERY, and "ANOTHER day, ANOTHER dollar." And then we landed in the BELLY OF THE BEAST! ON A SIDE NOTE, congratulations to Matthew for a year of published crossword puzzles! LAST BUT NOT LEAST, this was an enjoyable puzzle and a delightful way to begin my Tuesday.