December 1, 2022

Title: ONE AND...

Constructor: Erik Agard

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

ONLY GIRL (17A: Lead single from Rihanna's "Loud")

THE SAME FOR ME (28A: "I'll have what she's having")

ALL ABOUT LOVE (47A: bell hooks book published in 2000)

DONE DEAL (64A: It's been agreed to)

Theme synopsis: The first part of each theme answer can complete the saying, "ONE AND..." We have ONE AND ONLY, ONE AND THE SAME, ONE AND ALL, and ONE AND DONE.

Things I learned:

• MOON (32D: Celestial object that Khonsu is god of) In ancient Egypt, Khonsu, whose name means "traveller," was the god of the MOON. The Marvel Comics character, Khonshu, is based on Khonsu.
• ROMANCE (45D: Genre of Christina C. Jones novels) In addition to being a best-selling ROMANCE novelist, Christina C. Jones is the co-founder of Girl, Have You Read, a digital platform that amplifies Black ROMANCE authors. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• ONLY GIRL (17A: Lead single from Rihanna's "Loud") Rihanna's song, "ONLY GIRL (In the World)" was released in 2010. The song won a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording. 
• SLIMED (19A: Doused with green Nickelodeon goo) "You've been SLIMED!" Nickelodeon's iconic green slime made its first appearance in 1979 on the Canadian sketch comedy show, You Can't Do That on Television. If you'd like to learn more, take a minute and a half to watch, "A Brief History of Nickelodeon Slime."
• IMAMS (23A: Masjid leaders) A masjid is a Muslim place of worship. IMAMS are Muslim worship leaders.
• ON TASK (24A: Undistracted from the work at hand) Amusingly, I was so (not) ON TASK, that I first read this clue as [Distracted from the work at hand]. Oh, look ... a squirrel!
• POV (41A: Abbreviation in many TikToks) POV stands for Point of View. As you might expect, POV videos on TikTok show situations from a certain viewer's perspective. POV videos are extremely popular on TikTok (or so I'm told...). Here's a YouTube video with a compilation of POV clips.
• ALL ABOUT LOVE (47A: bell hooks book published in 2000) Each chapter in the 2000 book, ALL ABOUT LOVE: New Visions, by bell hooks discusses a different aspect of LOVE. In March of this year, we saw bell hooks as a theme answer. 
• SEE (70A: "Come ___ About Me" (Supremes hit)) "Come SEE About Me" is a 1964 song by the Supremes. The song topped the Billboard pop singles chart twice, as it was toppled by "I Feel Fine," by the Beatles, and then once again rose to the top.
• CRIMSON (10D: One of Delta Sigma Theta's colors) Delta Sigma Theta was founded at Howard University in 1913. The sorority's colors are CRIMSON and cream. 
• FATIGUE (43D: ME/CFS symptom) Myalgic encephalitis (ME), also known as Chronic FATIGUE syndrome (CFS), or ME/CFS is a complex long-term medical condition. As the CFS part of its name indicates, one of the symptoms of this often debilitating condition is chronic, and often incapacitating, FATIGUE. Since there is currently no diagnostic test for ME/CFS, a diagnosis is based on symptoms. The exact cause of ME/CFS is currently unknown, and treatments are aimed at relief of symptoms.
• ANNA (56D: "Nanny" star Diop) I learned about ANNA Diop from the September 21, 2022 puzzle. In the 2022 horror movie, Nanny, ANNA Diop plays the role of Aisha, a Senegalese woman working as a nanny in New York City. Nanny won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Geography review:

• RIO (15A: ___ de Janeiro) RIO de Janeiro is a city on the western edge of Brazil, along the Atlantic Ocean. One of its nicknames is "Cidade Maravilhosa" (Marvelous City).
• BERLIN (16A: Germany's capital) BERLIN is the capital and most populous city of Germany. From 1948 to 1990, following World War II, BERLIN was divided into West BERLIN (which was surrounded by the BERLIN Wall built in 1961) and East BERLIN. During that time, East BERLIN was declared the capital of East Germany, and the capital of West Germany was moved to Bonn. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, BERLIN was once again the capital of the entire country. For the first 25 years of my life, the country of Germany and the city of BERLIN were divided. I remember the day I realized that Germany has been reunited, and the Berlin Wall has been down for my children's entire lives. Perspective...
• RED (40A: Leftmost color on the flag of Palestine) Palestine is located in Western Asia. Its flag has three horizontal stripes of black, white, and green (from top to bottom). On the left side of the flag, the stripes are overlaid by a RED triangle. 

ONE (but not the ONLY) thing that's striking about this puzzle is the grid art. A nice pair of plus signs in the middle of the grid, appropriate for a theme of adding words to a phrase that could itself indicate addition, "ONE AND..." (Here's a funny digression I made. In the center row of the puzzle we have APE + RED + POV ... if you add those letters and anagram them, one result is PAPER DOVE. This has no meaning except that my mind is a strange place.) I really enjoyed this theme. All of the theme answers were great. The clue for THE SAME FOR ME made me wonder if the iconic scene from When Harry Met Sally would be as iconic if those words had replaced, "I'll have what she's having." Thank you, Erik, for this puzzle that was a delightful way to start my Thursday.