December 23, 2022

Title: SPLIT ENDS

Constructor: Li Ding

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

GINGER SNAP (18A: Spicy cookie)

WEAR AND TEAR (28A: Degradation from regular use)

EXTENDED CUT (50A: Version longer than a theatrical release)

LUCKY BREAK (61A: Bit of good fortune)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer ENDS with a synonym of SPLIT: SNAP, TEAR, CUT, and BREAK.

Things I learned:

• ATE (9D: Had some jianbing) Jianbing, a traditional street food in China, is generally eaten for breakfast. Similar to crepes, jianbing can be topped with various fillings and sauces, and is usually folded before serving.
• RAPS (29D: Performs like Monaleo) Monaleo is a RAP artist from Houston, Texas. Her debut single, "Beating Down Yo Block" went viral on social media in January 2021. The video for her most recent single, "Miss U Already," features nine local singers who responded to a call Monaleo put out on social media.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• NEE (22A: Amal Clooney (___ Alamuddin)) We saw Amal Clooney as a theme answer earlier this year. Amal Clooney NEE Alamuddin has dual LEBANESE and British citizenship.
• BARELY (27A: By a whisker) Willow would like to know if that's a

  

  Willow

  cat's whisker you are BARELY getting by on.
• RYE (32A: "The Catcher in the ___") The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was published in serial form in 1945 and 1946, and then as a novel in 1951. I was interested to discover that there is a Wikipedia page titled "The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture." One of the items of information on this page is that The Catcher in the Rye helped popularize the phrase "screw up." This entry goes out to reader, Matt Medeiros, who commented earlier this month that The Catcher in the Rye is one of his favorite classics. As I told Matt then, it has been many years since I read The Catcher in the Rye, and the main thing I remember about the book is that one of the characters is named Sally Hayes, which was my maiden name (and my name at the time I read it, so it's been at least 33 years...). 
• ESSAYS (33A: Pieces in Joan Didion's "The White Album") Joan Didion's book of ESSAYS titled The White Album was published in 1979. The book was titled for the first of its ESSAYS, which begins with the sentence, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live."
• SHAUN (42A: Stop-motion sheep who lives at Mossy Bottom Farm) The stop-motion TV series, SHAUN the Sheep, is a spin-off of the British franchise, Wallace and Gromit. Each episode of SHAUN the Sheep is seven minutes long, and features sound effects but no dialogue. 
• EON (54A: Long period of time) and ERA (55A: Long period of time) I hope you didn't spend a long period of time coming up with these answers!
• LEBANESE (2D: Cuisine known for baba ghanouj) We saw the LEBANESE eggplant dish, baba ghanouj, as a theme answer on May 10, 2021.
• MSG (5D: NYC arena, for short) MSG stands for Madison Square Garden. The current Madison Square Garden, which opened in 1968, is the fourth New York City arena to use the name.
• CESAR (10D: Labor activist Chavez) CÉSAR Chávez (1927-1993) was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 in recognition of his nonviolent activism and support of working people. 
• TROD (35D: "You may ___ me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise" (Angelou)) "You may TROD me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise," is from Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise." A great use of poetry to add interest to a clue.

Geography review:

• EURO (16A: Currency in Spain) Nineteen of the 27 countries in the European Union use the EURO as their currency, and Spain is one of them.
• OMANI (59A: Resident of the country northeast of Yemen) The neighboring countries of Yemen and Oman are located on the Arabian Peninsula. Both countries share a land border with Saudi Arabia. In addition to Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Oman also borders the United Arab Emirates.
• ELK (31D: State animal of Utah) Specifically, the Rocky Mountain ELK is the state animal of Utah.
• RENO (46D: Nevada Museum of Art city) The Nevada Museum of Art is located in RENO, Nevada. In checking out the museum's website, I was particularly fascinated by photos of an exhibit by Rachel Hayes titled "Someday When We're Dreaming." (Her last name also caught my attention, for the reason noted above.)

I had a nice "Aha!" moment discovering this theme. The word SPLIT in a title often indicates a SPLIT word theme, as we saw with the June 24, 2020 puzzle titled SPLIT ENDS. But today, the indicator in the title is "ENDS," and we have synonyms of SPLIT. Fun fact: We've seen SPLIT ENDS as a title another time, on August 10, 2020. The word nerd in me adores that we've seen one title presented three different ways. In addition to the theme, the columns of 8-letter words in the upper left and lower right of the puzzle were quite nice. Thank you, Li, for this puzzle that was a fabulous way to begin my Friday.