May 2, 2023

Title: INFO

Constructor: Erik Agard

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

FLYING SOLO (17A: Going it alone)

FALSETTO (21A: High singing voice)

FINE TOO (39A: Often-misheard Lloyd lyric: "She's ___, but I want you")

FILIPINO (52A: Balikbayan box recipient)

FATS DOMINO (60A: "Ain't That a Shame" singer)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer is found IN the letters F and O.

Things I learned:

• FILIPINO (52A: Balikbayan box recipient) A balikbayan box is a cardboard box used to ship items from the U.S. to the Philippines. The word "balikbayan" comes from the tagalog words meaning "to return" and "town," and was coined to refer to FILIPINO Americans who returned to the Philippines to visit. Eventually it became the word used for boxes of gifts shipped to the Philippines. 

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• GODSON (34A: Lenny Kravitz, to Cicely Tyson) Cicely Tyson (1924-2021), whose filmography includes The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Fried Green Tomatoes, was friends with Roxie Roker (1929-1994), who portrayed Helen Willis on the TV sitcom, The Jeffersons. When Roxie Roker's son, Lenny Kravitz was born, Cicely Tyson was asked to be his godmother. Tyler Perry's son, Aman, is also Cicely Tyson's GODSON, and Denzel Washington's daughter, Katia, is her goddaughter.
• SEA (37A: Mariner's location) A mariner is a sailor, or a SEAman. This is a fun clue, because a Mariner is also a baseball player on SEAttle's baseball team. 
• FINE TOO (39A: Often-misheard Lloyd lyric: "She's ___, but I want you") "You" is a 2006 song by Lloyd, featuring Lil Wayne. The song contains the line, "She's FINE TOO, but I want you." This line is often-misheard as "She's 5'2'', but I want you," leaving many people wondering what height has to do with it. 
• PURRS (57A: Audible responses to catnip) and LEOS (63A: Astrological attention-seekers) I hadn't really put this together until these clue/answers appeared in close proximity today,

  

  Willow seeking attention

  but my attention-seeking cat, Willow's birthday is August 11. That makes her a PURRing LEO. Yesterday I shared a picture of Willow lying on my left arm in an attempt to remain close to me. Today she's been seeking attention by lying on my right arm while I blog. (Side note: I am also a LEO. Take that as you will...)
• FATS DOMINO (60A: "Ain't That a Shame" singer) "Ain't That a Shame" is a 1955 song by FATS DOMINO. The song reached number one on Billboard's R&B chart. It was one of the first R&B songs to crossover to the pop charts, where it reached the top 10. Here's a link to some interesting Songfacts about "Ain't That a Shame."
• ANG (5D: "Brokeback Mountain" director Lee) I remember when Brokeback Mountain, the neo-Western romantic movie directed by ANG Lee and based on a short story by Annie Proulx was first in theaters. I knew it was longer ago than I thought it was. The year was 2005.
• BOOTIE (28D: Knitting project) I had a funny interaction with this answer. When I first read the clue, I drew a blank. Later, I had BO_TIE filled in, and my brain helpfully supplied the letter W as I wondered, "People knit BOWTIEs?" (Turns out that is a thing...) Once I figured out the crossing answer was FINE TOO (and not the misheard FIVE TWO...) I finally arrived at the more common knitting project, a BOOTIE.
• FRED (31D: Black Panther Hampton) I have previously written about FRED Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther party. 
• CHAMELEON (33D: Color-changing creature) A CHAMELEON has nanocrystals in its top layer of skin that enables it to change how the color of its skin appears. Science is amazing!
• OTTO (56D: ___ Octavius aka Doctor Octopus) Dr. OTTO Gunther Octavius also known as Doctor Octopus, or Doc Ock, is a Marvel Comics mad scientist character. Doc Ock, who has four mechanical appendages, debuted as an enemy of Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man #3, published in 1963.

Geography review:

• USSR (9A: Space Race country) From 1922 to 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, was a country comprised of 15 national republics. The USSR constructed Sputnik 1, the first satellite, in the 1950s. This began the Space Race, a competition between the USSR and the United States to achieve superior spaceflight capability.
• SOUTH ASIA (10D: Bangladesh's region) Bangladesh is a country in SOUTH ASIA. It borders India and Myanmar, and has coastline along the Bay of Bengal. The capital of Bangladesh is Dhaka.
• RENO (12D: Third-largest city in Nevada) The three largest cities in Nevada are Las Vegas, Henderson, and RENO. Carson City, the capital of Nevada, is the state's sixth largest city.
• DEL (35D: Wilmington's state (Abbr.) Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware (DEL). The state's second largest city is its capital, Dover.
• IRISH (50D: The Taoiseach's nationality) The Taoiseach is the prime minister, or head of government, of Ireland. The Taoiseach is nominated by the Dáil Éireann (the lower house of Ireland's legislature), and then appointed by the president. The current IRISH Taoiseach is Leo Varadkar.

Understanding today's theme requires correct parsing of this puzzle's title. Instead of INFO, the title needs to be parsed as IN F O, which then describes the theme answers. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, because as soon as I read the title, I said to myself, "Maybe it's IN F O." It is rare that I catch these tricky parsings prior to solving, so I'll take this victory! There's an impressive amount of theme packed into this puzzle, with five theme answers. (Is it just me, or does the block of black squares in the top middle of the puzzle resemble a duck?) Thank you, Erik, for this puzzle that was a delightful way to start my Tuesday.

One more thing: If you'd like to solve another puzzle by Erik Agard, he also constructed today's Modern Crossword, a 6x6 midi.