November 12, 2022

Title: THREE-PEAT

Constructor: Rafael Musa

Editor: Anna Gundlach

Theme Answers:

BOGGLES THE MIND (16A: Totally astounds)

BOGUS CLAIMS (34A: Unfounded assertions)

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (54A: Capital city that hosts the Ibero-American Theater Festival)

Theme synopsis: The word BOG - a wetland that accumulates PEAT - is found at the beginning of each of the THREE theme answers. 

Things I learned:

• ELVIS (32D: Singer/surgeon Dr. ___ Francois) Dr. ELVIS Francois, also known as Dr. ELVIS, was named after ELVIS Presley; his mother was a fan. He's an orthopedic surgeon, and outside of the operating room has gained recognition for his singing. A video of him singing "Imagine" (while he was a resident at the Mayo Clinic) went viral in April 2020. In November of 2020, Dr. ELVIS was a contestant on Season 4 of The Masked Singer. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• HISS (1A: Sound from a threatened cat) I was happy to see a cat clue today, because

  

  Toby

  I have a fabulous cat photo to share with you. It does not feature a HISS, but the opposite, an extremely relaxed cat. My husband and I are in Chicago this weekend visiting our daughter, and this is our daughter's cat, Toby, who has made previous blog appearances. Last night, Toby sat like this on our daughter's lap for quite a long time. We had a good laugh at his goofiness!
• MAE (25A: Astronaut Jemison) I have previously written about MAE Jemison. It's always a delight to see her in the puzzle. 
• SNL (26A: Molly Kearney's show, for short) Molly Kearney joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL) this year. They are the first out non-binary SNL cast member. 
• ETHAN (8D: "Training Day" star Hawke) Training Day is a 2001 movie in which ETHAN Hawke plays LAPD narcotics officer, Jake Hoyt. A TV series of the same name premiered in 2017. The TV series (in which ETHAN Hawke does not star) is set 15 years after the movie. 
• GENOMICS (11D: Field that studies DNA structure) An organism's genome is its complete set of DNA. GENOMICS is the field of biology studying the structure and function of genomes. GENOMICS also includes mapping and editing of genomes. The related field of genetics focuses on individual genes, while GENOMICS looks at all of an organism's genes collectively. Hooray for science in the puzzle!
• EMU (28D: Large Australian bird that lays large green eggs) EMU eggs are a dark green color, and are an average of 5 inches by 3.5 inches, weighing over a pound.
• NAME (29D: "Call Me By Your ___") "Montero: Call Me By Your NAME" is a 2021 song by Lil Nas X. We saw "Call Me By Your NAME" as the title of a puzzle on July 20, 2021.
• RISOTTO (33D: Dish made with arborio rice) Arborio rice has a higher starch content than other varieties of rice, making it ideal for the preparation of RISOTTO, as it lends a creamy consistency to the dish.
• HOT (46D: Like Carolina Reaper peppers) Carolina Reaper peppers have high capsaicin levels, making them HOT. Carolina Reaper peppers currently hold the Guinness World Record for being the hottest pepper.

Geography review:

• CAIRO (36A: Egypt's largest city) Not only is CAIRO the largest city in Egypt, it is also the country's capital. That means we have three capitals featured in today's geography review. 
• BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (54A: Capital city that hosts the Ibero-American Theater Festival) The Ibero-American Theater Festival happens every other year in BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. The festival lasts seventeen days and is one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world. The Ibero-American Theater Festival was started in 1988 by actress Fanny Mickey and playwright Ramiro Osorio with the purpose of displaying the diversity of scenic arts in the world. The theme helped me out here. Knowing the answer would begin with BOG-, I typed those letters in, and realized that the capital city here must be BOGOTA, COLOMBIA.
• LHASA (24D: Capital of Tibet) Rounding out our capital trio today is LHASA, the capital of Tibet. LHASA translates to "Place of Gods" in the Tibetan language. 

From the constructor that brought us the puzzle titled GETTING REEDY, we now have THREE-PEAT. Rafa is setting himself up as a marsh specialist - it simply BOGGLES THE MIND. I enjoyed all of the theme answers today. In response to the clue for FEMALE (30A: "The future is ___" (T-shirt slogan)), I do not say, "MEH" (27A: "It's just all right"), but "NICE!" (29A: "Good one!"). Thank you, Rafa, for this puzzle that was a wonderful way to begin my Saturday.