August 26, 2022

Title: GETTING READY / GETTING REEDY

Constructor: Rafael Masa

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers:

MARSHALL ISLANDS (20A: Country where Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner was born)

MARSHMALLOW (39A: S'mores ingredient)

MARSHA P. JOHNSON (58A: Founding member of the Gay Liberation Front)

Theme synopsis: We are GETTING READY to get REEDY today with a collection of MARSHes. See below for more information on the theme.

Things I learned:

• ISLAM (55D: Religion with the Asr prayer) The Asr prayer is one of the five mandatory daily prayers (salah) in ISLAM. The Asr prayer is said in the afternoon when the sun is halfway down from noon to sunset. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• O'NEAL (18A: Shaquille seen shimmying in a popular GIF) Shaquille O'NEAL is, of course, a former professional basketball player and a current sports analyst. He's also the subject of multiple GIFs and memes, including the Shaq shimmy. The GIF is a clip from a Gold Bond commercial. 
• STAT (23A: "ASAP!") Both STAT and ASAP are common crossword answers. As they are both 4-letters, it's always a guess which one is needed when we see clues such as ["Right now!"] or ["Immediately!"] Nice to have that guesswork eliminated today.
• PET (38A: Furry friend) Oh, hey, did you know that I have a PET? On two different occasions

  

  My PET, Willow

  yesterday, my furry friend, Willow, jumped up on my desk and stuck her tongue out at me. I don't know why! But I did happen to get a picture of her the second time she did it. 
• TALL (46A: Like most WNBA players) This is a fun clue. The average height of a WNBA player is 5' 9" or 6 feet, depending on the source. The tallest player in the WNBA currently is Brittney Griner, who is 6' 9" (and currently imprisoned in Russia).
• MARSHA P. JOHNSON (58A: Founding member of the Gay Liberation Front) I have previously written about MARSHA P. JOHNSON, a self-identified drag queen, performer, and activist. The "P" stands for "Pay It No Mind." You can read more about MARSHA P. JOHNSON here. 
• TERRACOTTA (3D: ___ Army (collection of clay sculptures)) The TERRACOTTA Army is a collection of sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Chi Huang, the first emperor of China. The TERRACOTTA Army is located in the city of Xi'an, in northwest China. 
• ADAM (28D: Queen frontman Lambert) ADAM Lambert competed on the eighth season of American Idol. (Spoiler alert...he was the runner-up.) During that season of the show, the rock band Queen appeared on the show and sang with the finalists. Since 2011, alongside his solo career, ADAM Lambert has collaborated with Queen, performing as Queen + ADAM Lambert. The have toured together and produced a couple of albums.
• IHOP (52D: Breakfast chain with a 2022 "Minions Menu") If you order from IHOP's "Minions Menu," you might be eating Cinnamon-minions, Ba-Ba-Banana Pudding Pancakes, or Gru's Evil Steakburger.

Geography review:

• MARSHALL ISLANDS (20A: Country where Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner was born) The MARSHALL ISLANDS are in the Pacific OCEAN near the Equator and slightly west of the International Date Line. Although geographically part of Micronesia (a subregion of Oceania comprised of over 2,000 islands), the MARSHALL ISLANDS are an independent country comprised of five islands and 29 coral atolls. The indigenous inhabitants of the MARSHALL ISLANDS are known as the Marshallese people. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner is a poet and climate change activist. In 2017 she became the first Marshallese author to publish a book with her collection of poetry: Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.
• MAUI (44A: Hawaiian island named for a demigod) MAUI is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. The demigod Māui, for which the island is named, is a trickster in Polynesian mythology. His storied exploits include stealing fire from the underworld for humans, and fishing up islands with a magical hook.
• OCEAN (63A: Atlantic or Pacific, e.g.) The Pacific OCEAN is about twice as large as the Atlantic OCEAN. This statistic got me thinking about how the borders of OCEANs are decided, since essentially there is one global OCEAN. It turns out there are five distinct basins, for which the OCEANs are named: the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern (also known as the Antarctic), and the Arctic.
• LAS (47A: ___ Vegas) Hello, LAS Vegas, Nevada. Didn't we just see you yesterday?
• JAVA (61D: Island of Indonesia) Indonesia is an island country in Southeast Asia. One of Indonesia's islands, JAVA, is the most populous island in the world. Over 148,000 people live on JAVA. Indonesia's current capital, Jakarta, is located on JAVA. However, a new Indonesian capital, Nusantara, is being constructed on the island of Borneo. The inauguration of Nusantara as the country's capital is set for August 2024. 

I admit I was quite confused when I finished this puzzle. It was obvious that all three theme answers begin with the word MARSH, but what did that have to do with GETTING READY? I spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure this out. (Did you know that if you google "MARSHALL MARSH MARSHA," you get a link to The Brady Bunch?) I decided I was stumped, and headed to Twitter, ready to tweet a plea for assistance. Thankfully, I saw a tweet from today's constructor saying, "seems like a copy editor "corrected" this puzzle's title before publication - can you guess what it was supposed to be?" Aha! That makes much more sense. We're not GETTING READY...we're GETTING REEDY! Even with the confusion, I enjoyed the puzzle. (I was even looking for a META solution at one point...) CHEAT SHEET, TUNA ROLLS, and DRAG RACE are great bonus answers. And suddenly I'm hungry for fettuccini ALFREDO. Thank you, Rafa, for this puzzle - and for the theme assistance via Twitter! - that was a delightful way to begin my Friday.