April 17, 2023

Title: ONLY THE BEST FOR YOU

Constructor: Erik Agard

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

TARGET AREA (35A: The "house" in curling, for example)

REGRET RATE (44A: Stat that's very low for gender-affirming surgeries)

EGG-EATER (16D: Snake that raids birds' nests)

AGGREGATE (21D: Put together)

GREG TATE (36D: Cultural critic who wrote "Flyboy in the Buttermilk")

Revealer:

GREAT (41A: Word whose letters are used to spell this puzzle's five longest answers)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer is spelled using ONLY THE letters in the word GREAT (synonym of BEST).

Things I learned:

• TARGET AREA (35A: The "house" in curling, for example) In the sport of curling, players take turns sliding polished granite stones across ice. The path of the stone is influenced by players sweeping the ice in front of it to reduce friction. The stone is slid toward a TARGET AREA of four concentric circles marked on the ice. This TARGET AREA is referred to as the house. I have seen curling, but was not familiar with the terminology. Here I am learning more about sports from crossword puzzles!
• GREG TATE (36D: Cultural critic who wrote "Flyboy in the Buttermilk") GREG TATE (1957-2021) was a journalist and a cultural critic for The Village Voice and a number of other outlets, focusing mostly on Black music and art. His writings helped bring attention to hip hop and street art. Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America was GREG TATE's first book, published in 1992. The book was a collection of essays he'd written for The Village Voice. GREG TATE was also a musician. He founded the improv ensemble Burnt Sugar, which ranged in size from 13 to 35 musicians and played music that blended a variety of music genres 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• GPS (8A: "Rerouting..." device) Having grown up navigating with paper maps, when missing a turn was a big deal that might entail stopping to get your bearings and figure out how to get back on track, it has taken me a long time to learn not to go into a full-blown panic when my GPS informs me it's "rerouting..." 
• TOAD (38A: Frog's partner in children's books) Frog and TOAD are a series of children's books written by Arnold Lobel. Yesterday, my son asked me for children's book suggestions for a baby shower gift. I gave him a rather long list, and it definitely included Frog and TOAD. Do you have a favorite children's book I should add to the list I've given my son? I'd love to hear about it if you do.
• REGRET RATE (44A: Stat that's very low for gender-affirming surgeries) I had a general sense that REGRET RATE was low for gender-affirming surgeries, but this clue made me wonder just how low is "very low." A study of 1,989 trans patients found a REGRET RATE of 0.3%. I'd say that qualifies as very low!
• GLEE (7D: TV show with a "Grilled Cheesus" episode) "Grilled Cheesus" was the third episode of the second season of GLEE. In the episode, Finn has an existential crisis when he sees the face of Jesus in his grilled cheese sandwich. If you've never seen this episode, or need a refresher, the GLEE wiki has a summary for you. 
• EGG-EATER (16D: Snake that raids birds' nests) There are two groups of snakes that have diets consisting solely of bird EGGs: Dasypeltis (found in Africa) and Elachistodon (found in India). Here's an A-Z Animals article that will fill you in on EGG-EATERs.
• WNBA (58D: League that Cynthia Cooper played in) I learned about Cynthia Cooper from the August 15, 2020 puzzle, when she and Sheryl Swopes were in a clue for TEAMMATE. Cynthia Cooper played for WNBA's Houston Comets, leading the team to four WNBA Championships (1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000).
• OLD (66D: "Out with the ___...") and NEW (57A: "...in with the ___") Fun to see this clue pair.

Geography review:

• AZTEC (19A: Tenochtitlan, ___ Empire) Tenochtitlan was a large city-state that was the capital of the AZTEC Empire in the 15th century. Tenochtitlan was built on an island in Lake Texcoco, a Mexican lake that has since been drained in efforts to control flooding. The ruins of Tenochtitlan are located in the historic center of Mexico City, Mexico.
• BURG (30A: Ending for "Harris" or "Johannes" in city names) HarrisBURG is the capital of Pennsylvania. JohannesBURG is the most populous city in South Africa.
• EAGLE (46A: Bird on the Mexican flag) The Mexican flag has vertical bands of green, white, and red. The Mexican coat of arms, featuring an EAGLE sitting on a cactus and holding a snake in its mouth, appears in the center of the flag.
• ASIA (48A: Location of Laos) Laos is a landlocked country in Southeast ASIA. Its neighbors are Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. The capital of Laos is Vientiane.
• TAHOE (28D: California/Nevada lake) Lake TAHOE is located on the California-Nevada border. 

ONLY THE BEST FOR YOU was such a fine sentiment to be greeted with when I opened the puzzle this morning. (Why, thank you, puzzle!) When I uncovered - or should I say spotted - GOOD EYE (17A: "Well spotted!"), I thought maybe this would turn out to be a synonym theme. But instead we have a GREAT letter bank theme. (It's been only a couple of weeks since we saw a letter bank theme.) Not only is the puzzle GREAT, but GREAT also serves as the letter bank for all of the theme answers, which are nice finds all around. The appearance of NOT GOOD in the lower right corner, rotationally opposite of GOOD EYE, was so interesting. It's a bit like the puzzle has GOOD bookends for the center GREAT. Thank you, Erik, for this puzzle that was certainly a GREAT way to start my Monday.