April 20, 2021

Title: OPEN INVITATIONS

Constructors: Brooke Husic & Matthew Stock

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

UP TO SOMETHING (20A: Scheming, perhaps)

SESAME SEED BAGEL (33A: Crunchy breakfast roll)

WIDE RECEIVERS (49A: Targets for quarterbacks)

Theme synopsis: The first word of each theme answer can follow the word OPEN to form an INVITATIONAL phrase (command). We have OPEN UP, OPEN SESAME, and OPEN WIDE.

And now a word from our constructors:

Brooke & Matthew: It should come as no surprise that, after our previous USAT puzzles, we had initially pitched “It’s Open!” as the title for this one. But there are a ton of phrases that start with “open,” so it was nice (if a bit bittersweet) to find a better title that reflected the fact that the “open …” phrases we use are all imperatives. UP TO SOMETHING is our favorite themer, but SESAME SEED BAGEL also makes for a delicious 15.
Gridwise, we’re at a lower-than-usual word count today (72) but in a very forgiving (and aesthetically pleasing, if we do say so) black square layout! We enjoyed getting CROSSPOST, GAME SHOW, YAQUI and KEYTAR into the fill, and we’re particularly fond of the editing team’s clues for LET, TRANS and DAVE. Hope you enjoy!
You can find another collab of ours, a fun/challenging 11x, on Matthew’s site, Happy Little Puzzles. We’ll put some more info there about other stuff we have coming out in the world soon :) (psst - the themeless Brooke mentions is coming out tonight in the American Values Club!). Thanks so much for reading and solving!

Things I learned:

• IMS (9A: Pings on Telegram, e.g.) Telegram is a freeware instant messaging (IM) app that was initially launched in 2013. There are a lot of instant messaging apps, and Telegram just happens to be one I hadn't heard of before. The answer was inferable, however.
• YAQUI (17A: Pascua ___ Tribe) The Pascua YAQUI Tribe is a tribe descended from the YAQUI, indigenous people whose homeland was in what is now the southwestern part of the United States, and the northern part of Mexico. The Pascua Pueblo YAQUI Reservation is located in Pima County, Arizona.
• DULE (27A: Actor and tap dancer Hill) DULÉ Hill played Charlie Young (personal presidential aide and Deputy Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff) on the TV series The West Wing. He also played Burton "Gus" Guster (pharmaceutical salesman/private detective) on the TV show Psych. For your enjoyment today, here's a clip of DULÉ Hill tap dancing on the set of Psych. 
• DAVE (40A: Signature on many inscribed jugs from the 19th century) David Drake, also known as "DAVE the Potter," was an enslaved black potter who lived and worked in Edgefield, South Carolina in the 1800s. He signed his work "DAVE" and inscribed rhyming couplets of poetry on some of his pots. A 2010 children's book, DAVE the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill and illustrated by Bryan Collier, tells DAVE's story, as does a 2013 biography by Andrea Cheng, Etched in Clay: The Life of DAVE, Enslaved Potter and Poet. 
• IDLI (58A: Fluffy rice cakes often served with sambar) IDLI are savory rice cakes that originated in South India. Sambar is a lentil-based vegetable curry.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• KEYTAR (39A: Hybrid instrument for Prince) A KEYTAR is pretty much what it sounds like - a hybrid of a keyboard and a guitar. The KEYTAR has a musical keyboard, with controls placed on the neck of the instrument. It can be held like a guitar, supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, thus allowing the musician to move around the stage instead of standing or sitting in place to play a keyboard. Prince designed a custom KEYTAR which was named the "PurpleAxxe." He filed a patent application for his customized KEYTAR invention, and was granted a patent in 1994. Prince's patent rights expired in 2008, so feel free to use Prince's design to make your own customized KEYTAR. 
• NENE (8D: Leakes who played Madame in Broadway's "Cinderella") Playing the role of Madame in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella in 2014 was the Broadway debut for NENE Leakes. She also played the role of Matron "Mama" Morton in the 2015 Broadway production of Chicago. Her television credits include the recurring character of Roz Washington on the TV show, Glee, and appearing on the reality TV show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
• MARINE (10D: ___ biology (study of sea creatures)) MARINE biology is a fascinating area of study. There are so many creatures that live in the sea, and we're continuing to learn how little we know about some of these creatures. I recently read an excellent article from The Atlantic about the hagfish, which led me to tell everyone I talked to about it because it was so interesting to me. (Yes, I'm that friend...at least you have the option of deciding whether you want to click on the link!)
• DATE (23D: Iftar fruit) Iftar is the evening meal which breaks the Ramadan fast. As I mentioned in last Wednesday's blog, Muslims are currently observing Ramadan.
• LET (38D: The l in lmk) lmk = LET me know
• TRANS (48D: Black ___ Travel Fund) The Black TRANS Travel Fund is a grassroots collective launched in New York City in 2019. The Black TRANS-led organization works to provide Black transgender women with financial and material assistance and support to access travel alternatives where they are less likely to experience verbal harassment or physical harm. 

Geography review:

• OMAN (18A: Country on the Arabian Sea) OMAN is on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The country is located in a strategically important position on the Arabian Sea, just at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. OMAN shares land borders with United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The capital of OMAN is Muscat. 

You don't even need to say OPEN SESAME in order to solve this treasure of a puzzle. I liked that the theme answers were connected by the additional constraint of having the resulting new phrases be imperatives. That logical approach might MAKE SENSE, say, and makes for a nicely connected theme set. Other answers I enjoyed were IN THE LEAD and CROSS POST. I especially appreciated learning about DAVE the Potter today. This Brooke and Matthew collaboration was a delightful way to begin my Tuesday.