January 7, 2023

Title: ALL STAR CAST

Constructor: Enrique Henestroza Anguiano

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

REGINA HALL (19A: "Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul," star)

LUCILLE BALL (34A: "Yours, Mine and Ours" star)

CLEA DUVALL (52A: Jafar Panama's country)

Theme synopsis: The theme answers represent a CAST of STARs whose names end with the letters ALL.

Things I learned:

• ALTO (15A: Sax type played by Paquito D'Rivera) Grammy-Award-winning ALTO saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera was born in Cuba (in 1948), where he began performing with the National Theater Orchestra at the age of 10. In 1980, while touring in Spain, Paquito D'Rivera sought asylum at the American Embassy. He now lives in New Jersey. He is known for combining Latin jazz and classical music.
• RIB (30D: Piece of meat in galbi-jjim) Galbi-jjim, also known as braised short RIBs, is a dish in Korean cuisine.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• WOKS (1A: Pans used to make gong bao ji ding) Gong bao ji ding, a stir-fried dish of chicken, peanuts, vegetables, and chili peppers, is also known as Sichuan Kung Pao Chicken.
• REGINA HALL (19A: "Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul," star) In November of last year I wrote about the 2022 movie, Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul. REGINA HALL co-STARs with Sterling K. Brown as the leaders of a megachurch attempting to recover from a scandal.
• LUCILLE BALL (34A: "Yours, Mine and Ours" star) Yours, Mine and Ours is a 1968 movie STARring LUCILLE BALL and Henry Fonda. The movie, loosely based on real-life couple Frank and Helen Beardsley, tells the story of a widow and widower that begin dating, and eventually marry, blending their family of 18 children. A 2005 remake, Yours, Mine & Ours, starred Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid.
• CLEA DUVALL (52A: "But I'm a Cheerleader" star) In the 1999 movie, But I'm a Cheerleader, Natasha Lyonne plays the role of Megan, a cheerleader whose family sends her to a conversion therapy camp to "cure" her of being a lesbian. CLEA DUVALL STARs as Graham, one of the people Megan meets at camp. We have seen CLEA DUVALL as a theme answer twice before, on February 13, 2021 and April 6, 2022. (Once a year!)
• SEP (65A: Mo. named after the number seven) and NOV (46D: Mo. named after the number nine) Did you fall into the trap of these tricky clues? The oldest known Roman calendar (the calendar of Romulus), dating to approximately 750 B.C.E., had ten months. September (SEP) - whose name comes from the Latin septem meaning "seven" - was the seventh month, and November (NOV) - from the Latin novem meaning "nine" - was the ninth month. Around 450 B.C.E., the months of January and February were added to the beginning of the calendar year. September and November retained their names although their position in the order of months shifted.
• LAUREL (43D: Bay ___, tree that bay leaves come from) The bay LAUREL tree is the source of bay leaves used as seasoning in some sauces and stews. (Remember to remove the leaves before serving!) Ground bay leaves and dried LAUREL berries are also used as spices.

Geography review:

• IRAN (56A: Jafar Panahi's country) and FARSI (47A: Official language of 56-Across) Jafar Panahi is a movie director and screenwriter from IRAN, where FARSI is the official language. His 1995 movie, The White Balloon, won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, Jafar Panahi was arrested by the Iranian government for supporting protests, a charge that led to a six-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban on making movies. In 2011, Jafar Panahi made This is Not a Film, a documentary that was smuggled out of IRAN on a USB drive hidden in a cake, and entered in the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In spite of the ban, Jafar Panahi has continued to make movies. In July of last year, Jafar Panahi was arrested and is currently in prison serving the 2010 sentence.
• AFRICA (42D: Sahara Desert's place) The Sahara Desert, located on the continent of AFRICA, is the world's largest hot desert. The ten countries spanned by the Sahara are: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, and Tunisia.

There was a hint to the theme in the title, but I didn't catch it until after solving. ALL STAR is two words in the title, rather than hyphenated. Therefore, although our theme consists of a CAST of ALL-STARs, it is actually a CAST of STARs whose names contain the word ALL. Tricky, and quite satisfying once I caught on. I appreciated that the movies used for the theme answers represent a diverse time span - 1968, 1999, and 2022. In addition to the theme, I enjoyed the answers, LET SLIDE and ON A ROLL, and I especially liked the clues for KITE TAIL (3D: Airborne attachment that might have rainbow streamers) and REUSES (28D: Cuts up into washrags, for example). Thank you, Enrique, for this puzzle that was a super way to begin my Saturday.