April 28, 2023

Title: ELECTRICAL GRID

Constructor: Bruce Haight

Editor: Anna Gundlach

Theme Answers:

CIRCUIT COURT (20A: Regional justice system)

CURRENT EVENTS (37A: Recent news items)

OUTLET STORES (55A: Bargain-hunters' destinations)

Theme synopsis: In this GRID, we find three ELECTRICAL terms: CIRCUIT, CURRENT, and OUTLET.

Things I learned:

• QUE (51A: ___ onda?) "QUE onda?" is Spanish for "What's up?"

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• ALOU (17A: Fraternal outfielders' name hidden in this clue) The ALOU brothers - Felipe ALOU, Matty ALOU, and Jesús ALOU all had Major League Baseball careers. In December of last year, I wrote about the brief time period when they all played for the San Francisco Giants. 
• DOJO (29A: Place to learn kendo) Kendo is a Japanese martial art that uses bamboo swords. As with other martial arts, training for kendo happens in a DOJO.
• EILISH (2D: "Bad Guy" singer Billie) "Bad Guy" is a single from Billie EILISH's 2019 studio album, When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. 
• SAUCE (4D: Tzatziki or toum) Tzatziki is a yogurt and cucumber SAUCE popular in Greek cuisine. Toum is a garlic SAUCE used in Eastern Mediterranean cuisine. 
• JONG (30D: "Fear of Flying" author Erica) Fear of Flying is a 1973 book by Erica JONG. While on a trip to Vienna with her second husband, the novel's protagonist and narrator, Isadora Wing, indulges her sexual fantasies with another man. At the time Fear of Flying was published, it was controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality. 
• SELA (35D: "Sisters" actress Ward) The TV series, Sisters, which originally aired from 1991-1996, focused on the stories of four sisters living in Winnetka, Illinois. SELA Ward received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the role of Teddy Reed in Sisters.
• SPY (41D: "Killing Eve" occupation) I have previously written about the British SPY thriller, Killing Eve. 
• TUT (45D: He became pharaoh at nine years old) The pharaoh Tutankhamun is commonly referred to as King TUT. Ruling in the 1300s B.C.E., King TUT was nine years old when he assumed his reign. The tomb of King TUT was discovered in 1922 near Thebes, Egypt.

Geography review:

• RICA (14A: Costa ___) Costa RICA is a country in Central America. Its capital is San José.
• NAPA (15A: California wine valley) NAPA valley has been a designated American Viticultural Area (AVA) since 1981, but commercial wine production in the area dates back to 1858 when John Patchett established the area's first commercial vineyard.
• TETONS (34A: Grand ___ (Wyoming mountain range) The Grand TETONS, also known as the Teton Range, are the centerpiece of Grand TETON National Park in northwestern Wyoming.
• OSLO (Norway's Nobel Institute city) The Norwegian Nobel Institute was established in 1904. At that time, OSLO was known as Kristianaia (it became OSLO in 1925). The Institute assists the Nobel Committee in selecting the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• SAMOA (8D: American ___ (territory affected by the Insular Cases)) The Insular Cases are a series of Supreme Court decisions from 1901 to 1922 that limit the constitutional rights of certain U.S. territories. Although the Insular Cases were based on expressly racist assumptions, they have continued to stand. American SAMOA, a U.S. territory in the South Pacific Ocean, is the only permanently inhabited U.S. territory in which citizenship is not granted at birth. In October 2022, the Supreme Court refused to reconsider the Insular Cases, as explained in this NPR article. 

Were you "plugged in" to today's theme? Did it "spark" joy? Where you "charged up" after solving? I enjoyed the fact that the ELECTRICAL words have non-ELECTRICAL meanings in the theme answers. Thank you, Bruce, for this puzzle that was an "electric" way to star my Friday.