January 9, 2023

Title: MIXING BOWLS 

Constructor: Erik Agard

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

I'M SHIFTING INTO (43A: With 58-Across, "Seinfeld quote that hints at what each starred clue's answer can be rearranged to spell)

SOUP MODE (58-A: See 43-Across)

SHOTAROUND (29A: *Warmed up before a basketball game) HOT AND SOUR

MAREN (36A: *"Lunatic country music person" Morris) RAMEN

COWHERD (8D: *Weaver girl's love in Chinese myth) CHOWDER

SENT IN MORE (29D: *Donated again) MINESTRONE

SLIP TAPE (38D: *It's added to race cars to minimize bumper locking) SPLIT PEA

HOP (61D: *Move like a bunny) PHO

Theme synopsis: The answer to each of the starred clues anagrams to the name of a SOUP.

Things I learned:

• LOLO (18D: Grandfather, in Tagalog) Tagalog is a language of the Tagalog people, the second largest ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines. Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, is a variety of the Tagalog language. As the clue tells us, LOLO means grandfather in Tagalog. The Tagalog word for grandmother is "lola."
• STARFIRE (28D: Solar-powered member of the Teen Titans) The Teen Titans are DC Comics superheroes. STARFIRE has the ability to harness solar power in order to fly. Anna Diop plays the role of STARFIRE on the TV series, Titans.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• STIR (1A: Mix with a spoon) and STU (39A: Name that sounds like a food) A couple of nice theme-related bonuses.
• SHOTAROUND (29A: *Warmed up before a basketball game) SHOTAROUND is the past tense of the informal basketball warmup known as shoot around.
• MCU (35A: Marvel movies, collectively) MCU = Marvel Cinematic Universe
• MAREN (36A: *"Lunatic country music person" Morris) MAREN Morris is a Grammy-award-winning country music singer-songwriter whose hits include "I Could Use a Love Song," "Girl," and "The Bones." In September of last year, a Fox News host referred to MAREN Morris as a "lunatic" and a "fake country music singer." These comments were in reference to MAREN Morris's  social media posts calling out transphobic comments - you can read the back story here. MAREN Morris decided to flip the script, and began selling t-shirts with the slogan "lunatic country music person" to raise money for Trans Lifeline and Glaad Transgender Media Program. 
• I'M SHIFTING INTO SOUP MODE (43A: With 58-Across, "Seinfeld quote that hints at what each starred clue's answer can be rearranged to spell) and (58-A: See 43-Across) This quote is from a 1996 episode of the TV series, Seinfeld, titled, "The Soup Nazi." On the episode, George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) says, "I gotta focus. I'M SHIFTING INTO SOUP MODE." This quote has inspired many memes. 
• COWHERD (8D: *Weaver girl's love in Chinese myth) I have previously written about the Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day. The Festival celebrates the love between two characters in a Chinese folk tale, The COWHERD and the Weaver Girl. 
• TOURISM (13D: Industry critiqued by many Native Hawaiians) This article, written by Native Hawaiian, Savannah Dagupion, discusses TOURISM and Hawai'i.

Geography review:

• SRI (37A: ___ Lanka) SRI Lanka is an island country in South Asia. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and is separated from India by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Colombo is the most populous city of SRI Lanka, and its executive and commercial capital. The legislative capital of SRI Lanka is SRI Jayawardenepura Kotte.
• ALA (62A: Birmingham's state (Abbr.)) Birmingham is a city in north central Alabama (ALA). One of Birmingham's nicknames is "Pittsburgh of the South," a reference to the fact that, like Pittsburgh, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the major industries of Birmingham were iron and steel production.
• RENO (4D: Nevada city) RENO, Nevada is located on the Nevada-California border, north of Lake Tahoe.

Well, I have to admit that figuring out all the elements of today's theme was a bit of a challenge for my Monday morning brain! Although the Seinfeld quote that is included here is "I'M SHIFTING INTO SOUP MODE," I also needed the words said just before this, "I gotta focus!" Once I'd completed the puzzle, the challenge remained to unscramble the theme answers and reveal the types of soup. This is a clever and fun theme, with some impressive anagrams. (I was thankful for HOP which so quickly revealed itself to me as PHO!) Thank you, Erik, for this puzzle that was a delightful way to start my Monday.