August 11, 2022

Title: SPLIT THE COST

Constructor: Erik Agard

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

CASE OF THE EX (17A: Mya's breakout hit) 

DIGITAL PEN (28A: "Smart" drawing tool)

PRINCESS DI (42A: Lead role in "Spencer")

KWAME TURE (54A: Who said "In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience")

Theme synopsis: The last words of the theme answers combine to form a synonym for COST. EX + PEN + DI + TURE = EXPENDITURE

Things I learned:

• CASE OF THE EX (17A: Mya's breakout hit) "CASE OF THE EX" is a 2000 song by Mýa off of her second album, Fear of Flying. As the clue indicates, it is considered to be Mýa's breakout hit. Two years later Mýa won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Lady Marmalade," which she performed with Christine Aguilera, Lil' Kim, and Pink for the soundtrack of the 2001 jukebox musical film, Moulin Rouge!.
• ADD OIL (33A: Recipe instruction that's a phrase of encouragement in Hong Kong) The Hong Kong English phrase "ADD OIL" is used to express support and encouragement, perhaps to let your friends know you're rooting for them. The phrase was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018. Recently there have been some attempts to censor the phrase in Hong Kong. Isn't this interesting?! This was fun to learn about.
• CLINTON (47A: Funk musician George) George CLINTON is the leader of Parliament-Funkadelic (P-Funk), a collective of musicians whose style draws on psychedelic culture, outlandish fashion, science fiction, and surreal humor. He was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
• KWAME TURE (54A: Who said "In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience") KWAME TURE (1941-1998) was a civil rights activist and a leader in the global pan-African movement. He is credited with originating the slogan, "Black Power." Known as Stokely Carmichael until 1968, he changed his name to honor his friends and political allies, Sékou Touré (the president of Guinea) and Kwame Nkrumah (the first president of independent Ghana). As the clue informs us, KWAME TURE said, "In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience." He went on to add, "The United States has no conscience."
• TACO (36D: Philly ___ (cheesesteak wrapped in a pizza slice)) The Philly TACO was created by friends, Jeff Barg and Adam Gordon in 2003. It's an amusing story. Jeff Barg wrote about the challenge - which involves getting a slice from Lorenzo's Pizza, and then proceeding down South Street in Philadelphia to Jim's Steaks to get a cheesesteak - as if it were a thing...and then it became a thing.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• UFO (24A: Vehicle that, per ScienceNews, "would stress out a bear") In spite of the fun, attention-getting title, the ScienceNews article, "A UFO would stress out a bear," is not about UFOs. Rather the article is about a study that took a look at the effect of drones on bears. Drones have been used to study and monitor wildlife, and scientists wanted to study how bears reacted to them. It turns out that bears have a stress response to drones. 
• MIT (34A: Tony Stark's alma mater) In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr., is an industrialist, genius inventor, playboy, MIT grad (he graduated at age 17), and the CEO of Stark Industries. He is commonly known by his alias, Iron Man.
• KIRK (41A: Original "Star Trek" captain) The fictional James Tiberius KIRK was born in Riverside, Iowa, just 13 miles south of where I live. Or rather, he will be...his birthday is March 22, 2233.
• PRINCESS DI (42A: Lead role in "Spencer") Spencer is a 2021 historical drama film about PRINCESS DI. The movie is a fictional take on events during Christmas of 1991. Kristen Stewart plays the role of PRINCESS DI.
• I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO (2D: ABBA song with a repetitive title) "I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO," is a 1975 song by ABBA. The song was used in the musical, Mamma Mia!, and in the 2008 movie of the same name (though it's not included on the soundtrack). As a follow-up to yesterday's post, my daughter let me know that this was her favorite clue today. (She's a Mamma Mia! fan.) This is also my favorite answer in today's puzzle. The repetitiveness is just so funny and delightful.
• OCHO (8D: This clue's number in Spanish) A nice self-referential clue. 
• UTEP (52D: School on the Rio Grande) The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is located in El Paso, Texas, where it overlooks the Rio Grande River.

Geography review:

• YEN (48A: Kyoto cash) Kyoto is a city in Japan. The currency used in Japan is the Japanese YEN.
• MANHATTAN, KANSAS (1D: Sunflower State city known as the Little Apple) Since 1903, the official nickname of KANSAS has been "The Sunflower State." The state's flower is the Wild Sunflower, which can be found in every one of the state's counties. MANHATTAN, KANSAS is located in the northeastern part of the state. As you might guess, the city's nickname of "The Little Apple" is a play on New York City's nickname, "The Big Apple."

  

  apples and sunflowers

  This has nothing to do with MANHATTAN, KANSAS, but yesterday I went apple picking and stood among sunflowers that were over my head.
• DEL (28D: Wilmington's state (Abbr.)) Wilmington is a city in northern DELaware, and is the largest city in the state. Since 2007, the city's motto has been "In the middle of it all."

When I opened today's puzzle I was immediately struck by the three grid-spanning Down entries on the left side of the puzzle. Once I completed the puzzle, I was impressed by this delightful and impressive set of answers. Perhaps it was this stack on the left side of the puzzle that distracted me from seeing the theme on the right side of the puzzle. (That's my story...) Anyway, many thanks to Will Nediger who assisted me in seeing today's theme. It's a fun theme, and an interesting play on the word SPLIT in the title. (Yes, I might have been looking for the word COST to be SPLIT by each theme answer.) All in all, the stack of answers on the left and the theme on the right combine for a quite enjoyable (and slightly more challenging than usual but still attainable) solve. Thank you, Erik, for this puzzle that was a terrific way to begin my Thursday.