June 8, 2022

Title: WELCOME TO MIAMI

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

STRIPED MARLINS (16A: Fish also known as nairagi)

PINK DOLPHINS (28A: Amazon mammals)

SCORCHING HEAT (56A: Cause of withering crops)

Theme synopsis: The last word of each theme answer is the name of a MIAMI sports team. Today's lineup: MIAMI MARLINS (MLB), MIAMI DOLPHINS (NFL), MIAMI HEAT (NBA).

Things I learned:

• STRIPED MARLINS (16A: Fish also known as nairagi) STRIPED MARLINS, also known as nairagi, are appropriately named, as they have the most visible stripes of all the marlin species. Nairagi is frequently used in raw fish dishes, such as sashimi.
• TODD (6D: Figure skating champ Eldredge) TODD Eldredge is a former competitive figure skater. He was the gold medal winner at the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships, and won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship six times.
• SHOWN (52D: Poet and activist Suzan ___ Harjo) Suzan SHOWN Harjo is the founder and president of Morning Star Institute, an organization that advocates for sacred land claims and cultural rights of indigenous people. Since the 1960s, Suzan SHOWN Harjo has worked to get sports teams to drop names and mascots that promote negative stereotypes of Native Americans. Suzan SHOWN Harjo's poetry has appeared in various publications. In 2014, Suzan SHOWN Harjo was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• ALTO (21A: Tracy Chapman's voice type) In 1989, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and an American Music Award for Favorite Pop Rock New Artist. She has won three additional Grammy Awards since then, the latest for her song, "Give Me One Reason," which was awarded Best Rock Song in 1997.
• PINK DOLPHINS (28A: Amazon mammals) PINK DOLPHINS are also known as Amazon river dolphins, or boto. They live in the Amazon river basin in South America. PINK DOLPHINS are grey when they are born, but acquire their characteristic coloring as they age.
• ARTS (36A: Kabuki and ikebana, for two) Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese theater which I have previously written about. Ikebana is the Japanese ART of flower arrangement. 
• LEA (49A: "No Time to Die" actress Seydoux) The 2021 film, No Time to Die, is the 25th James Bond movie. LÉA Seydoux plays the role of Dr. Madeleine Swann, who is Bond's love interest in this movie. LÉA Seydoux first played this role in the 2015 movie (the 24th Bond film), Spectre. I learned about LÉA Seydoux from the March 28, 2021 puzzle.
• TEAS (50A: Genmaicha, etc.) Genmaicha is a Japanese beverage made of green tea mixed with roasted brown rice.
• SRI (4D: Tan ___ (Malay honorific) The Malay language, officially spoken in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore, has a complex system of titles and honorifics. Tan SRI is an honorific used to denote recipients of specific honors, and is the second-most senior federal title.
• ZEN MASTER (34D: Title for Thich Nhat Hanh) Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Thien Buddhist monk who is recognized as the inspiration for engaged Buddhism. Referred to by the title ZEN MASTER, Thich Nhat Hanh is known as the "father of mindfulness.

Geography review:

• SWEDEN (5D: Most populous Nordic country) The geographical and cultural region known as the Nordic countries includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and SWEDEN, as well as the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland, and the autonomous region of Åland. As the clue informs us, SWEDEN is the most populous of the Nordic countries. SWEDEN has about twice as many inhabitants as Denmark, Finland, or Norway.
• PARIS (17D: Capital of France) The name of France's capital is derived from the Parisii, a Gallic tribe that inhabited the city from around the middle of the third century BCE. PARIS was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a large scale. Gas lights were installed on several boulevards as early as 1829, earning PARIS the nickname, "City of Light."
• KENYA (54D: Country in the book "Imperial Reckoning") Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in KENYA was written by Caroline Elkins and published in 2005. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. The book describes the British government's use of mass detention to suppress the Mau Mau rebellion in KENYA. If you'd like to learn more about this topic, this article from The Guardian discusses Caroline Elkins's book and the use of her research to help Mau Mau detainees sue the British government for violent crimes committed in the KENYA internment camps in the 1950s.

If I were more tuned in to sports, I might have recognized this puzzle's theme after uncovering STRIPED MARLINS. However, although I do know of MLB's MIAMI MARLINS, it took discovering PINK DOLPHINS for the theme to click. It's a fun theme. Thank you, Zhouqin, for this puzzle that was an enjoyable way to begin my Wednesday.