October 18, 2022

Title: REAR SEATS

Constructors: Enrique Henestroza Anguiano & Nate Cardin

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

JOEL KIM BOOSTER (19A: "Fire Island" actor/screenwriter)

OUTSIDE THE BOX (34A: Beyond conventional thinking)

WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE (50A: Isn't it perfect?")

Theme synopsis: The REAR word of each theme answer is a type of SEAT. Today's REAR SEATS are a BOOSTER SEAT, a BOX SEAT, and a LOVE SEAT.

Things I learned:

• MEI (41A: Celebrity chef Lin) Spoiler Alert! In 2014, MEI Lin won the reality cooking competition Top Chef. More recently, she competed as a challenger on the 2022 cooking show, Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. (She competed with Gregory Gourdet, who she beat in the Top Chef final.) MEI Lin owns a couple of restaurants in Los Angeles: Nightshade (which was temporarily closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic) and Daybird. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• OREO (14A: Food item that starts and ends with the same letter) This clue amused me for some reason. OREO appears in many crosswords, and therefore, has had many clues written to describe it. I imagined Enrique and Nate saying, "You know what, let's just talk about the word OREO (which does indeed start and end with the same letter), and call it a 'food item' rather than a cookie." (Note: I have no inside information on the cluing conversation. This is simply my overactive imagination at work.)
• JOEL KIM BOOSTER (19A: "Fire Island" actor/screenwriter) Fire Island is a 2022 movie about a group of gay friends on vacation. In writing the screenplay for the queer, Asian rom-com, JOEL KIM BOOSTER took inspiration from Jane Austen's 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice. He describes the movie as being "about the experience of vacationing with a chosen family and what it's like to fall in love in a very short amount of time on vacation - and class and race and body politics." JOEL KIM BOOSTER's character, Noah, is based on Austen's character, Elizabeth Bennet. Bowen Yang plays Noah's friend, Howie, a character based on a combination of Jane Bennet and Charlotte Lucas. Of course, no Pride and Prejudice tale would be complete without a Darcy character. In Fire Island, that character is Will, played by Conrad Ricamora.
• DIAZ (55A: Charlie's Angels" actress Cameron) In the 2000 movie, Charlie's Angels, which is based on the TV series of the same name, Cameron DIAZ, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu are private detectives in Los Angeles. 
• DEJA (13D: It's ___ vu all over again" (Yogi Berra quote)) Baseball catcher, manager and coach, Yogi Berra (1925-2015), was known for his pithy comments and witticisms that are sometimes referred to as "Yogi-isms." This particular saying, "It's DEJA vu all over again," originated when he watched Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hit back-to-back home runs for the Yankees in the early 1960s.
• DEJA (13D: It's ___ vu all over again" (Yogi Berra quote)) Just checking to see if you're paying attention!
• BRENE (27D: "Daring Greatly" author Brown) BRENÉ Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she studies courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She's also an author, podcaster, and lecturer. Her 2012 book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead is one of her six books that have been New York Times bestsellers. A group of friends and I are currently reading BRENÉ Brown's newest book, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience. Just last night we described her writing as "accessible." If you aren't familiar with BRENÉ Brown's work, I highly recommend checking out any of her books or podcasts.
• HALL (31A: Radio City, for example) Radio City Music HALL is located in New York City, and is part of the Rockefeller Center. The Music HALL has a four-tiered auditorium that seats almost 6,000 people. It is the home of the Rockettes, and has hosted many award ceremonies, including the Tony Awards and the Grammy Awards. 
• NORA (52D: Author Roberts) NORA Roberts has written over 225 romance novels. She also writes under the pseudonyms J.D. Robb, Jill March, and Sarah Hardesty.

Geography review:

• STAN (18A: End of seven country names) The suffix "STAN" comes from the Persian word for "land." It's been a while since we've had a Geography Quiz, and this clue/answer begs for one. Can you name the seven countries whose names ends with "STAN?" See if you can beat my score...I was only able to name four! The answer to the Geography Quiz will be at the end of this blog post.
• ARAB (6D: United ___ Emirates) The United ARAB Emirates (UAE) is located on the Arabian Peninsula. It borders Saudi Arabia and Oman and has coastline along the Persian Gulf. The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi, and its most populous city is Dubai.

WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE about this crossword? Three stellar theme answers anchor this puzzle that uses a classic theme type. The fill contains delights such as ALTER EGOS, BEARD WAX, OPEN WIDE, WEEKENDS, and (my personal favorite) EARWORMS. I enjoyed the clue for SASS (63A: Drag queen's trait). Thank you, Enrique and Nate, for this puzzle that was a terrific way to begin my Tuesday.

Answer to Geography Quiz: The seven "STAN" countries are: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.