February 10, 2023

Title: BLOW YA MIND

Constructor: Kelsey Dixon

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

MIDDLE GROUND (19A: Place reached when compromising)

MISTY COPELAND (33A: Author of "Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy")

MIC STAND (54A: Onstage object)

Theme synopsis: In each theme answer, the word MIND had been "blown" to the outer edges of the answer.

Things I learned:

• KELSEY (64A: WNBA All-Star Plum) KELSEY Plum is a basketball player for the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces. She was a selected as a WNBA All-Star in 2022, and was named the WNBA All-Star Game MVP. KELSEY Plum represented Team USA and won a gold medal in Women's 3x3 basketball at the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021). It's not particularly surprising that I did not know this sports thing. Today I learned about KELSEY Plum, while being impressed that KELSEY Dixon succeeded in getting her name into her puzzle. Well done, KELSEY!
• ENID (25D: Emma Myers' "Wednesday" character) Wednesday Addams is the daughter of the Addams Family franchise, which is based on characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams. Wednesday is a TV series based on the character that premiered on Netflix in November 2022. Jenna Ortega plays the title character. All of this I knew. I learned today that on the TV show Wednesday, Emma Myers portrays ENID Sinclair. ENID is a werewolf, and is Wednesday's roommate at Nevermore Academy. Here's a recent interview with Emma Myers. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• YURT (17A: Circular home for some nomadic peoples) A YURT is a portable round tent used as housing by several nomadic groups in Central Asia. The word YURT is from Turkic languages, and means "dwelling place." 
• DIA (30A: ___ de los Muertos) DIA de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1 and 2. It is a time to pray for and remember family and friends who have died.
• MISTY COPELAND (33A: Author of "Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy") MISTY COPELAND is a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. The 2015 documentary, A Ballerina's Tale, tells her story, and discusses the challenges she's faced as a Black woman in the ballet world. MISTY COPELAND's book, Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy, was published in 2021. The book is an illustrated celebration of dancers of color that have inspired its author. In this short video clip, MISTY COPELAND talks about her reasons for writing this book.
• SODA CAN (47A: Coca-Cola container) I admit that my first thought here was "pop" CAN, proving once again that I have thoroughly abandoned the use of the word SODA, which is the term I  used while growing up in Missouri.
• EGOT (59A: Award feat achieved by Jennifer Hudson in 2022) EGOT is an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards, and is used as a designation for those who have won all four of these awards. Only 18 people have achieved the status of EGOT. (That number just changed five days ago when Viola Davis became the most recent EGOT winner!) As the clue tells us, Jennifer Hudson achieved EGOT status in 2022. Jennifer Hudson won an Emmy Award in 2021 (Outstanding Interactive Media for a Daytime Program - Baby Yaga), Grammy Awards in 2009 (Best R&B Album - Jennifer Hudson) and 2017 (Best Musical Theater Album - The Color Purple), an Oscar/Academy Award in 2006 (Best Supporting Actress - Dreamgirls), and a Tony Award in 2022 (Best Musical - A Strange Loop). Jennifer Hudson was one of multiple people who served as producers for A Strange Loop.
• NEO (60A: Main character in "The Matrix") The Matrix is a 1999 movie that is the first installment of the Matrix series. Keanu Reeves plays the role of the main character, a hacker named NEO. This is an answer I know exclusively from solving crosswords!
• STIM (1D: Use a fidget spinner, for example) STIM, short for stimming, refers to a self-stimulatory behavior characterized by repetitive action, such as tapping a pencil, drumming fingers on a table, twirling hair, or playing with a fidget spinner. Although often associated with people on the autism spectrum, stimming behaviors are practiced to some extent by everyone. 
• GRINER (8D: WNBA All-Star Brittney) Ah, a sports clue I knew! Brittney GRINER is a six-time WNBA All-Star. She has also won two Olympic gold medals with the USA Women's basketball team, in 2016 and 2020. I first learned about Brittney GRINER when Matthew Stock, one of my guest bloggers, wrote about her. The last time I wrote about Brittney GRINER, she was imprisoned in Russia. Thankfully, that is no longer the case.
• TONI (31D: ___ Morrison Day (Feb. 18)) Author TONI Morrison (1931-2019) has too many accomplishments to her name for me to list here! Among them are a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize in Literature. February 18, TONI Morrison's birthday is celebrated as TONI Morrison Day in her home state of Ohio. 

Geography review:

• RIO (43A: Brazilian city, for short) RIO de Janeiro is the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Brazil's capital, Brasília, is the country's third-most populous city.
• SAO (45A: ___ Tome and Principe) SÃO Tomé and Príncipe is an island country consisting of island groups around the two main islands of SÃO Tomé and Príncipe. The islands are in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Central Africa (about 160 and 190 miles off the coast of Gabon). The capital of SÃO Tomé and Príncipe is SÃO Tomé.
• TEL (53A: ___ Aviv) It's only been four days since we saw TEL Aviv, Israel in the puzzle. 
• GMT (63A: London time zone, for short) Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is (one of the names for) the time zone for the United Kingdom, including London. GMT is also sometimes used as a synonym for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Greenwich Mean Time takes its name from Greenwich, London, the location of the Royal Observatory situated on the Prime Meridian that has played a significant role in the history of astronomy and navigation. My husband and I visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 2014. The museum there is quite interesting. And yes, we did kiss each other while standing on opposite sides of the Prime Meridian!
• TAMIL (2D: Language spoken in Sri Lanka) TAMIL is the language spoken by the TAMIL people, an ethnographic-linguistic group in South Asia. TAMIL and Sinhala are the two official languages of Sri Lanka. TAMIL is also the official language of the Indian state of TAMIL Nadu, and one of four official languages in Singapore (along with English, Malay, and Mandarin).

Did this puzzle BLOW YA MIND? Let's talk solving music first. If you enjoy listening to music while you solve crosswords, you certainly have a variety of options today. I found at least four songs titled, "BLOW YA MIND." Lock n' Load (1999), T-Pain (2005), Style P (2007), and Nicki Minaj (2010) have all released songs with this title. And then there's "Let Me BLOW YA MIND," a 2001 song by Eve, featuring Gwen Stefani. Take your pick! This is a fun puzzle. I especially enjoyed seeing MISTY COPELAND in the center of it. Thank you, KELSEY, for this puzzle that was a great way to start my Friday.