August 18, 2023

Title: COUNTDOWNS

Constructors: Brooke Husic & Kenneth Cortes

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers:

MRS. POTATO HEAD (16D: "Toy Story 2" character voiced by Estelle Harris)

TWITTER THREAD (17D: Chain of posts on "the bird app")

SAFE WORD (23D: "Pineapple is a common one")

Theme synopsis: The last word of each vertical (DOWN) theme answer can precede the word COUNT. We have HEAD COUNT, WORD COUNT, and THREAD COUNT.

And now a word from our constructors:

Kenny: I'm so thrilled this puzzle is out in the world! Brooke and I started with SAFEWORD and developed the theme from there. It was also fun including TAMALE and DEJA VU in the grid. Thank you for playing my USAT debut! You'll hear more from me in the future, stay tuned!
Brooke: This was such a fun collaboration and I'm so happy it's out in the world today! I love the grid shape Kenny chose, and my favorite clues of theirs are for STARS, TETRIS, DO IT, and ATOM. I'm so excited to see their upcoming work based on how thoughtful and creative they've been in the puzzles we've worked on together!

Things I learned:

• TETRIS (29A: Arcade game with T-spins) I have played a bit of TETRIS, but I was unfamiliar with the "T-spin" technology. A T-spin in TETRIS refers to when the T-shaped block is placed, and then rotated at the last moment to fit into a tight space. 
• DO IT (13D: Command on an Emperor Palpatine meme) Sheev Palpatine, portrayed by Ian McDiarmid, is a Star Wars character who becomes Emperor of the Galactic Empire. In one survey of Star Wars fans, the most popular Palpatine quote is "DO IT," a line he says to Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith. That line has been used many times as a meme. Turns out the line, "DO IT" is also Ian McDiarmid's favorite.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• SEA MONSTER (15A: Kraken, e.g.) Tales of the legendary SEA MONSTER known as the kraken have been around for hundreds of years, and may have originated from sailors' sightings of giant squid. 
• STARS (21A: The Milky Way has around 100 billion of them) When I see a statistic such as this, I wonder who counted all those STARS. And how long did it take them? In all seriousness, I do know this number is an estimate. Here's an article that talks about how scientists arrived at an estimate of 100 billion to 400 billion STARS in the Milky Way. That's a lot of STARS...
• ALFA (34A: A, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is a widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet. Like the Greek Alphabet, the NATO phonetic alphabet is something I occasional think about studying in order to become better at solving crosswords. (Insert the "DO IT" meme here...) I did manage to come up with ALFA today without any crossing answers, but don't ask me what B is in the NATO phonetic alphabet. (Just kidding. I looked it up: B is Bravo.)
• WAITRESS (44A: Musical in which Sara Bareilles made her Broadway debut) WAITRESS is a 2015 musical written by Sara Bareilles. It is based on a 2007 movie of the same name. Sara Bareilles played the role of Jenna in the Broadway production of the musical. WAITRESS was notable for having an all-women production team.
• BOTH (58A: "I've looked at life from ___ sides now...") "I've looked at life from BOTH sides now... is a lyric from the 1968 song, "BOTH Sides, Now," sung by Joni Mitchell.
• TRANS (67A: ___ rights are human rights) As with yesterday's message that "trans women ARE women," I'm highlighting this answer to reinforce the message: TRANS rights are human rights. 
• ODD (68A: Like 5, but not 4) and EVEN (7D: Like 4, but not 5) This is a fun clue pair. As a constructor, if you end up with both EVEN and ODD in your puzzle, it's tempting to want to link the clues together. I appreciate when constructors give in to that temptation.
• ZENDAYA (4D: "K.C. Undercover" star) K.C. Undercover is a TV series that aired on the Disney Channel from 2015-2018. The show centers on K.C. Cooper (portrayed by ZENDAYA), a high school student and math genius who is recruited by her parents to be a spy for The Organization.
• MRS. POTATO HEAD (16D: "Toy Story 2" character voiced by Estelle Harris) In addition to voicing the role of MRS. POTATO HEAD in Toy Story 2 (1999), Estelle Harris also provided the character's voice in Toy Story 3 (2010) and Toy Story 4 (2019). Voicing MRS. POTATO HEAD in Toy Story 4 was Estelle Harris's final film role. She died in 2022 at the age of 93. 
• SAFE WORD (23D: "Pineapple" is a common one) In 2018, Lovehoney (an adult sex toy brand) surveyed 1,300 adults and asked about their use of a SAFE WORD. The survey found that the most common SAFE WORD was "red," followed by "pineapple." 

Geography review:

• SRI (24A: ___ Lanka) SRI Lanka is an island country in South Asia. The documented history of SRI Lanka goes back 3,000 years, but evidence of prehistoric settlements indicate that humans have lived on the island for over 125,000 years.
• ERIE (41D: Buffalo's Great Lake) Buffalo, New York is located on the eastern end of Lake ERIE. This is the third appearance our crossword-friend ERIE has made this month.
• ALA (35D: Birmingham's state (Abbr.)) Birmingham is located in north-central Alabama (ALA). Although Birmingham is the third-most populous city in Alabama, behind Huntsville and Montgomery, the Birmingham metropolitan area is the Alabama's largest metropolitan area.

The first thing I noticed about this puzzle was the interesting grid. I like the pyramid of black squares at the bottom of the puzzle, and the L-shaped black squares in the bottom corners remind me of the corner stickers that used to be used to mount photos in albums (long before digital photos were a thing). Congratulation to Kenneth Cortes on the USA Today debut! It's been a big week for debuts - we saw a debut on Monday and Wednesday as well. Thank you, Brooke and Kenny, for this puzzle that was a fantastic way to start my Friday.