June 24, 2023

Title: MAKING UP

Constructors: Amanda Rafkin & Brooke Husic

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers:

KUNG FU PANDA (15A: Animated martial arts movie featuring Jackie Chan as Monkey)

MACHU PICHU (35A: Ancient Incan site in the Andes)

IF YOU PLEASE (56A: Words accompanying a polite request)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer is MAKING the word UP at the connection of two words.

And now a word from our constructors:

Brooke: a reminder of the episodes in our saga: head start, pillow talk, tie me up, that's quite a schlep, it's going down, watch out for broken glass ... it's been more than a year, but we're finally making up <3

Amanda: I take partial-to-full responsibility for a year going by between puzzles. My spirit was crushed after I initially put MAKEUP TUTORIAL as a long bonus in a puzzle titled ... 

"Making Up"🤡

Things I learned:

• SLAP (4A: Try to win a pile of cards, in Egyptian Rat Screw) Egyptian Rat Screw (sometimes stylized as "ratscrew") is a game that is played with a regular deck of playing cards. Each player places cards in turn onto a central pile. When certain conditions are met, being the first to SLAP the pile will win a player the pile of cards. The goal of the game is to win all of the cards. There are also challenges - the result of playing an ace or a face card - that allow you to win a pile of cards without a SLAP. If the game of Egyptian Rat Screw is new to you, as it was to me, WikiHow has the rules for you.
• TENTH (21D: Like "The Great Longneck Migration," among "The Land Before Time" movies) The Land Before Time franchise currently includes 14 animated movies about the adventures of a group of friends. The group of adventurers includes Littlefoot (Apatosaurus), Cera (Triceratops), Ducky (Saurolophus), Petrie (Pteranodon), and Spike (Stegosaurus). The first movie in the franchise was The Land Before Time, released in 1988. The Great Longneck Migration, released in 2003, was the TENTH in the series.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• PHOBIA (12A: Exposure therapy target) Exposure therapy has been successful in the treatment of some PHOBIAs (fears). I have previously written about the use of an exposure hierarchy for this type of treatment. AgoroPHOBIA (the fear of open or public spaces) and social PHOBIA are two fears that have been successfully treated by exposure therapy.
• HRT (14A: Treatment that often include estrogen (Abbr.)) HRT stands for hormone replacement therapy. When used to treat symptoms associated with menopause, HRT may include estrogens and progestogens.
• KUNG FU PANDA (15A: Animated martial arts movie featuring Jackie Chan as Monkey) Like The Land Before Time, KUNG FU PANDA is a franchise of animated movies about a group of anthropomorphic animals. The character voiced by Jackie Chan is Master Monkey, a golden snub-nosed monkey that is part of "The Furious Five," a group of KUNG FU masters. The first KUNG FU PANDA movie was released in 2008. The fourth movie in the franchise is scheduled to be released in March of next year.
• AUDRE (28A: "Sister Outsider" author Lorde) Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is a collection of essays and speeches by AUDRE Lorde that date from 1976 to 1984. AUDRE Lorde (1934-1992) was a self-described "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet."
• MOTORS (33A: Parts of e-bikes but not bikes) My husband and I have e-bikes, and we are huge fans of them! Our e-bikes are "pedal assist," so the MOTORS only kick in if you are pedaling. (This differentiates e-bikes from scooters.) While riding our e-bikes, we are still getting exercise, but the MOTORS give us the little extra boost we need to easily pedal up hills.
• SORBET (61A: Fruity, icy dessert) SORBET differs from other frozen fruit deserts such as sherbet, ice cream, or gelato, in that they typically do not contain dairy.
• IDA (62A: Journalist Wells-Barnett) IDA Bell Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) is sometimes referred to as IDA B. Wells. She was an investigative journalist and a co-founder of the NAACP. In 2020, IDA Wells-Barnett was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for "her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching."
• SHUI (4D: Feng ___) The practice of feng SHUI involves situating buildings and furniture in specific orientations in an attempt to increase harmony between individuals and their environment. The Chinese term feng SHUI translates to "wind-water" in English.
• GPS (22D: Navigation tech) and STS (26D: 22-Down lines) and REROUTE (39D: Send on a different path) Although REROUTE wasn't clued linked to GPS, I immediately made the connection. I am grateful for the ability of GPS to REROUTE me and send me on different streets (STS.) when necessary.
• ADOPTED (24D: Brought home from the shelter) Every day I'm grateful we ADOPTED Willow from the shelter. Here she is perching on my shoulder as if I were a pirate and she were a parrot. 

  

  Willow

• CANYON (46D: Deep, steep, ginormous valley) Yes, indeed, a CANYON is a deep, steep, ginormous valley! This clue made me smile. This answer has me remembering some trips my husband and I have taken to CANYONs: the Grand CANYON, of course, but also Black CANYON of the Gunnison in Colorado, and Kings CANYON in California.
• GHEE (47D: Butter that often accompanies baati) Baati is a hard, unleavened bread that originates from Rajasthan, a state in northern India. Baati is often served with GHEE (clarified butter). 
• UBE (58D: Ingredient in some purple ice cream) UBE is a species of yam that is a vivid purple color. This answer reminded me of the following tweet I saw a few days ago:
  
  
  
  As the tweet from Matt Forest mentions, UBE appeared in last Saturday's New York Times (NYT) crossword, and, in fact, some solvers complained about it. I replied to Matt's tweet to add the information that the first time we saw UBE in a USA Today puzzle (since I began blogging) was April 8, 2021. In the last couple of years, UBE has been somewhat of a "frequent flier," appearing multiple times as answers and in clues. I got curious about UBE in the NYT, so I looked up the stats, and discovered that Saturday was the first appearance of UBE in the NYT crossword since 1990. Between 1954 and 1990, UBE appeared seven times, but only once was it clued as the yam. UBE was clued five times as the Japanese seaport, and once as [Where: Lat. var.]. I'm always up for learning, but I think cluing UBE as the purple yam is the correct way to go!

Geography review:

• SRI (11A: Colombo, ___ Lanka) SRI Lanka is an island country in South Asia. The Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait separate SRI Lanka from the Indian subcontinent. Colombo is the capital and largest city of SRI Lanka.
• MACHU PICCHU (35A: Ancient Incan site in the Andes) MACHU PICCHU is a 15th-century citadel in the Andes mountains in southern Peru. It was constructed around 1450, most likely as an estate of Pachacuti, an Incan emperor. MACHU PICCHU is one of the most well-known examples of Incan architecture.
• TEL (63A: ___ Aviv, Israel) Tel AVIV is a city on the Mediterranean coast of Israel.
• STL (10D: Home to the NHL's Blues) The St. Louis (STL) Blues are a National Hockey League (NHL) team. Fun fact: I once attended a STL Blues hockey game. I was a child and we were living in St. Louis, Missouri at the time, and that's the extent of my memory of that event!

I've enjoyed the series of puzzles by Brooke and Amanda (mentioned in Brooke's note), and I'm happy to see they're MAKING UP. I completely fell for the misdirect on today's theme! The title of MAKING UP, combined with two lovely grid-spanning vertical answers had me searching LINCOLN MEMORIAL and THERE YOU GO AGAIN for some hidden word. I eventually spotted the UP in KUNG FU PANDA, and that got me on the right track. THERE YOU GO AGAIN being tricky! Thank you Amanda and Brooke, for this delightful Saturday puzzle.