August 22, 2022

Title: CREATURE CHORUS

Constructors: Rena Cohen & Kate Chin Park

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

TWEET STORM (17A: Lengthy online rant)

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR (35A: He goes "to infinity and beyond")

MOO SHU PORK (57A: Dish whose name comes from the eggs' resemblance to osmanthus flowers)

Theme synopsis: The first word of each theme answer describes an animal sound. Today we have a CREATURE CHORUS of TWEET, BUZZ, MOO!

And now a word from our constructors:

Rena: I’m so excited to have my first crossword published in USAT! I was especially happy to get FRENEMY and RIHANNA in there. Thanks to Kate and Erik for all your help/guidance on this puzzle.

Kate: It's my honor and pleasure to be part of Rena's crossword publication debut! Rena is a junior in high school that I've been lucky enough to work with a bit this year, and I suspect you'll see her name again before long! This theme was all Rena, as were many of the best clues - I particularly love [Often-misplaced pocket jinglers]. This was such a fun puzzle to work on, and I hope you enjoy solving!

Things I learned:

• AROD (7D: Nickname for Amy Rodriguez) Amy Rodriguez, aka AROD, is a retired professional soccer player. She was part of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team that won gold medals at the Olympics in 2008 and 2012, and won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015. In January of this year, Amy Rodriguez announced she was retiring from professional soccer. She is now an assistant women's soccer coach at the University of Southern California, her alma mater.
• LAMB (50D: Mariah Carey fan) Mariah Carey's most devoted fans are known collectively as the "Lambily" - a combination of LAMB and family. Mariah Carey has referred to her fans as LAMBs since the 1990s. Here's a fun thing: A couple of years ago, one of the LAMBs translated Mariah Carey song titles into emoji.
• SOIL (54D: Slapping the bags of ___ at Home Depot) Somehow I have managed to miss the "slapping the bags of SOIL at Home Depot" memes. The answer was fairly inferable, however, and now I know... The world of memes is both hilarious and weird .

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• FRENEMY (27A: Person you have a love-hate relationship with) This is a fun answer! FRENEMY is, of course, a portmanteau of the words "friend" and "enemy." Wikipedia has a description of various FRENEMY categories, in case you want to over-analyze your frenemies. (These include the "competitive work FRENEMY" and the "passive-aggressive FRENEMY, among others.)
• RIHANNA (51A: "Diamonds" singer) "Diamonds" is a song from RIHANNA's 2012 album, Unapologetic.
• ARIA (56A: "Pretty Little Liars" character) I have written about the show Pretty Little Liars and the character of ARIA the last two times we saw this cluing angle for ARIA. 
• MOO SHU PORK (57A: Dish whose name comes from the eggs' resemblance to osmanthus flowers) The traditional Chinese dish of MOO SHU PORK is made of PORK tenderloin, cucumber, and scrambled eggs. An American Chinese version adds cabbage, carrots, and mushroom, and wraps the mixture in a thin pancake. The yellow color of the scrambled eggs in MOO SHU PORK resembles the blooms of the osmanthus tree, a variety of flowering plants native to eastern Asia.
• OLIVER (10D: Broadway show based on a Charles Dickens novel) The musical OLIVER! is based on Charles Dickens's 1838 novel, OLIVER Twist. OLIVER! originally appeared on Broadway in 1963, after premiering in London in 1960. Two fun facts: 1) Davy Jones, who went on to be a member of the band, The Monkees, played the role of The Artful Dodger in the original Broadway production of OLIVER! 2) Members of the Broadway cast of OLIVER! performed two musical numbers on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. That was the same night the Beatles made their appearance on the show.
• OMAR (15D: U.S. representative Ilhan) Ilhan OMAR is a self-described "Mom, Refugee, and Congresswoman." She is the U.S. representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district, and the author of a 2020 memoir titled, This is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman. 
• SKYMALL (18D: Online catalog formerly found on flights) Ah, the SKYMALL. If you miss browsing the SKYMALL catalog in search of a Garden Yeti Statue, or a Zen Kitty Meditating Cat Statue, you're in luck. Although SKYMALL hasn't had their catalog in the pockets of airplane seatbacks since the company went bankrupt in 2015 and was purchased by C&A Marketing, SKYMALL still exists with an online presence.

  

  Willow in Zen Kitty mode

  Meanwhile, please enjoy this photo of my own Zen Kitty.
• ALAN (39D: Mathematician Turing) I have previously written about ALAN Turing.
• HOURS (52D: There are 8,760 in a year) I definitely did not* do the math to double check this - that would be ridiculous. (* I definitely did...) Someone should write a song to help us remember this fact. After all, it worked for minutes in a year.

Geography review:

• BRIT (63A: Resident of Bristol or Bath) Bristol and Bath are cities in England, and therefore their residents are BRITs. Bristol and Bath are located along the Avon River in the southwest part of England, and are about 11 miles apart. 
• ARAB (24D: The A in UAE) The United ARAB Emirates (UAE) is a country on the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. Its capital is Abu Dhabi.

In today's CREATURE CHORUS, the birds, bees, and cows are uniting to bring us a medley of TWEET, BUZZ, and MOO. Singing backup we have an ELK, EAGLE, LAMB, and LAB (also a tarantula with HAIR!). This is a delightful theme and it was a lot of fun to uncover the answers. Other enjoyable fill: ZOOM DATE, CHEEKY, and HARD PASS. A couple of notable clues (among many): (23A: Often-misplaced pocket jinglers) for CAR KEYS, and (49D: What to do to chocolate to get little curls) for SHAVE. Please TAKE NOTE, this is Rena Cohen's debut puzzle. Congratulations! Thank you, Rena and Kate, for this puzzle that was a fabulous way to begin my Monday.