April 8, 2021

Title: FALLING ROCK ZONE

Constructor: Sara Cantor

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

BOULDER COLORADO (3D: City in the Rockies)

A STONE'S THROW (5D: Not far at all)

COCOA PEBBLES (23D: Cereal with the Flintstones as spokestoons)

CIRCLE IN THE SAND (11D: Belinda Carlisle hit of 1988)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer contains a type of ROCK. The theme answers are vertical, and are arranged so the ROCKS are visually FALLING in the puzzle ZONE, from the upper left corner to the lower left corner, decreasing in size as they do so.

Things I learned:

• UBE (46A: Purple yam) I've heard of UBE before, (UBE ice cream, I believe) but wasn't sure what it was. I've also eaten purple yams before, but did not know UBE was another name for them! UBE is a species of yam that is a vivid purple color. The taste of UBE is similar to sweet potato or taro. UBE is used in Filipino cuisine, particularly in desserts such as UBE cake or UBE crinkles (a type of cookie).
• CHAU (47A: "American Woman" star Hong) American Woman is a 2019 movie based on Susan Choi's 2003 novel of the same name. It is based on the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Hong CHAU played the role of Jenny Shimada, a character based on Wendy Yoshimura, an artist that became involved with the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s.
• NADJA (62A: Natasia Demetriou's "What We Do in the Shadows" role) What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary TV series (based on a 2014 movie of the same name) that follows four vampire roommates living in Staten Island. Natasia Demetriou plays the role of Romani vampire, NADJA. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• PLATO (20A: Athenian philosopher) How many Greek philosophers' names do I know? There's PLATO, his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle. PLATO is the only one that fits...PLATO it is! The site of PLATO's Academy, founded in 387 B.C. was rediscovered and excavated in the 20th century. 
• CHEESE (31A: Macaroni's partner) and TUBES (63A: Macaroni and rigatoni, shapewise) and PASTA (50D: Macaroni or rigatoni, for example) This puzzle is all about the macaroni, and I for one, am thrilled about that! A fun trio of clues united by macaroni.
• SOHLA (58A: Chef El-Waylly) Chef SOHLA El-Waylly (who I wrote about last November) is the creator of Food52's "Off-Script with SOHLA." She also collaborates with Andrew Rea to create weekly Stump SOHLA videos for the Babish Culinary Universe YouTube channel.
• FRY (1D: Tostones recipe verb) Tostones are twice-fried plantain slices. The dish is common in Latin American and Caribbean cuisine.
• A STONE'S THROW (5D: Not far at all) The earliest use of the phrase "A STONE'S THROW," is thought to be in 1712 by John Arbuthnot in The History of John Bull, which contains the sentence, "She stank so, that nobody durst come within A STONE'S THROW of her."  
• BALD CAP (7D: Blue Man Group costume piece) Blue Man Group is a performance art company known for stage productions incorporating many kinds of art and music. All of the performers wear BALD CAPs and have their skin painted blue for the performances. 
• CIRCLE IN THE SAND (11D: Belinda Carlisle hit of 1988) "CIRCLE IN THE SAND" was from Belinda Carlisle's album, Heaven on Earth. 
• RAGE (34D: Get angry) and HULK (37D: Marvel character who gets angry) This side-by-side pair of clues did not make me angry. I quite enjoyed them.
• HBO (59D: "I May Destroy You" network) I learned about I May Destroy You from the September 18, 2020 puzzle. The TV series was inspired by creator Michaela Coel's experience of sexual assault. 

Geography review:

• ASIAN (15A: From Mongolia, say) Mongolia is a landlocked country in East ASIA. It borders Russia, to its north, and China, to its south. The capital of Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar. (Crossword constructors, look at the 5 As in Ulaanbaatar!)
• CHI (24A: Ho ___ Minh City, Vietnam) Just yesterday I mentioned that Ho CHI Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. 
• BOULDER COLORADO (3D: City in the Rockies) BOULDER, COLORADO is located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, about 25 miles northwest of Denver. It is the home of the University of Colorado's main campus.
• RIO (6D: ___ de Janeiro, Brazil) RIO de Janeiro, Brazil is the second-most populous city in Brazil, behind Sāo Paulo.

This puzzle is delightful! At one point while solving, I actually said, "Oh, that's nice," aloud to myself. It was at the point I realized that, not only were the ROCKs in the puzzle visually cascading down the puzzle, but they were also decreasing in size, from BOULDER to SAND. That's lovely. All of the theme answers were solid (I couldn't resist...) - I especially liked COCOA PEBBLES. The rest of the grid was enjoyable as well. I enjoyed the repetitive macaroni references, and the non-theme answers I HOPE SO and EASY WIN. This is Sara Cantor's first USA Today puzzle. Welcome, Sara! This puzzle was a wonderful way to begin my Thursday.