March 12, 2022

Title: AFTER PARTY

Constructor: Rafael Musa

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers:

DRESS REHEARSAL (19A: Final run-through before opening night)

TRICK QUESTION (34A: Inquiry that's hard to answer correctly)

ANIMAL CROSSING (51A: Video game series in which Bells are used as currency)

Theme synopsis: The first word of each theme answer can be placed AFTER the word PARTY to form a new phrase. Our celebratory collection includes a PARTY DRESS, a PARTY TRICK, and a PARTY ANIMAL.

Things I learned:

• PAUL (14A: Soccer star Pogba) Paul Pogba is a professional soccer player (footballer to those outside of the United States). He plays for Manchester United, although I see that he will leave the team at the end of this season. He also plays for France's National Team.
• CATHY (7D: "Bloody Brilliant Women" author Newman) Journalist and news presenter, CATHY Newman's 2018 book, Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention, highlights 20th and 21st century women in Britain. Her second book, released in 2020, is It Takes Two: A History of the Couples Who Dared to be Different. Both of these books sound intriguing; I might have to check them out.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• HBO (9A: "Succession" network) I usually don't know which TV shows air on what network, but I just recently learned about Succession, which centers on the lives of a family that owns a global media and entertainment conglomerate, from the January 27 puzzle. Although I didn't mention HBO in my previous write-up about Succession, I must have read it as I was researching the show, and the fact lodged itself somewhere in my brain. When I read this clue, I thought, "I don't know that," and just as I moved on to the next clue, "wait...is that HBO?" It is.
• EMERIL (43A: Chef Lagasse) Chef EMERIL Lagasse is a restaurateur, cookbook author, and TV personality. His Food Network shows include EMERIL Live and Essence of EMERIL. In addition to his cooking, he is also known for his catchphrases, such as, "Bam!" and "Kick it up a notch!"
• ANIMAL CROSSING (51A: Video game series in which Bells are used as currency) In case you missed it, I recently reviewed everything crossword puzzles have taught me about the video game ANIMAL CROSSING. Today I add to my knowledge that Bells are used as currency. Appropriately, it took filling in a few letters from CROSSING answers to enable me to arrive at this answer.
• TRAIN (58A: Ticket to Ride vehicle) Ticket to Ride is a railway-themed
  
  board game in which players use TRAINs to claim routes connecting various cities. The original Ticket to Ride game was published in 2004 by Days of Wonder, and there are now multiple versions of the game featuring various maps. Computer versions of the game are also available. We are big fans of board games, card games, and puzzles, and I recently realized our collection had gotten quite large. After undertaking the difficult task of culling our collection and passing along over 30 games to others, we still have plenty left! Happy to report that Ticket to Ride made the cut.
• DAY (60A: It's about 10 hours long on Jupiter) and RINGS (48D: Saturn has seven of them) This is a nice pair of planetary clues. At about 10 hours, Jupiter has the shortest DAY of the eight planets. Venus has the longest DAY at 5,832 hours. Saturn is not the only planet with RINGS, the other three gas giants - Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune - also have RINGS. The RINGS are made of particles of ice and rock orbiting the planet. From far away, Saturn appears to have seven RINGS, as the clue tells us, but since each of the RINGS is composed of smaller RINGS, the exact number of Saturn's RINGS depends on how close you're looking.
• TRES (28D: "Three" in Spanish) and TWO (36D: "Dos" in English) This was a fun pair of number clues.
• PIE (37D: Dessert often eaten on 3/14) PIE! A nice reminder that Pi Day is almost here. Pi Day is an annual celebration of π, the mathematical constant whose first three digits are 3.14. I am a fan of this holiday that celebrates mathematical nerdiness by eating PIE. I have a PIE in the freezer that I have been saving for this occasion.

Geography review:

• IOWAN (13A: Person from Des Moines) Alternate clue: [Crossword blogger Hoelscher, for example] Des Moines is the capital of Iowa, and therefore its residents are IOWANs. Residents of the crossword-friendly city of Ames are also IOWANs. I am also an IOWAN, though the redundancy in Iowa City, Iowa means my city appears in crosswords less often than Ames.
• HABANEROS (9D: Peppers named after a Cuban city) HABANEROS are named after the capital of Cuba, La Habana (Havana in English), because the peppers used to feature heavily in trading there. Similar to Scotch Bonnet peppers, HABANEROS are very hot, rated 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale.
• TASMANIA (34D: Australia's island state) The island state of TASMANIA is located 150 miles south of the Australian mainland. In addition to the main island, TASMANIA, the state of TASMANIA includes 1,000 smaller islands. The state capital of TASMANIA is Hobart. 
• ACCRA (45D: Home to the University of Ghana) The University of Ghana, established in 1948, is Ghana's oldest and largest national public university. It is located in ACCRA, the capital and largest city of Ghana.

 Well, the GOTHAM VILLAINS that wreaked havoc on the symmetry of yesterday's puzzle have been appropriately dispatched, and it's time to celebrate with this symmetrical AFTER PARTY. A great set of theme answers here; my favorite was TRICK QUESTION. I also enjoyed the answer ARCHENEMY, perhaps that answer was leftover from yesterday. Other fun answers: KOALAS and TIARAS...I'm now picturing KOALAS wearing TIARAS...STOP IT! This puzzle did not SHOCK me or give me a feeling of ENNUI. It was a delightful way to begin my Saturday.