August 26, 2023

Title: JUST KEEP SWIMMING (FREESTYLE)

Constructor: Claire Rimkus

Editor: Kelsey Dixon

Freestyle: This is a themeless puzzle. JUST KEEP SWIMMING is a nod to POOL NOODLES (25D: Pasta-shaped water toys).

Things I learned:

• ASH (36A: Malinda Lo novel described as a "lesbian retelling of Cinderella") Malinda Lo's young adult novel, ASH, was first published in 2009. This retelling of Cinderella reimagines the main character - Aisling, known as ASH to her friends - as a lesbian teenager who falls in love with the King's huntress.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• TITAN (17A: Saturn's largest moon) Unlike the Earth, which has one moon orbiting it, Saturn has many moons. Scientists know of at least 146 moons orbiting Saturn, of which TITAN is the largest. TITAN is actually larger than the planet Mercury, and is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere. TITAN is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter.
• RINK (43A: Venue for Connecticut Whale hockey games) This clue could have just said [Venue for hockey games] and still pointed to RINK, but I am a fan of adding extra personality and flavor to clues. Also, Whale is an interesting name for a hockey team! The Connecticut Whale are a professional ice hockey team playing in the Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the National Women's Hockey League). Their home RINK is the International Skating Center of Connecticut. The team's name pays homage to the Hartford Whalers, a former National Hockey League franchise based in Connecticut.
• PEACH (47A: Fruit in some cobblers) This answer is timely, as it is currently prime PEACH season. I recently bought a 10-pound box of PEACHes from our local orchard. We have been eating a lot of PEACH cobbler, and are not unhappy about that at all.
• TRAVELS (5D: Takes an extra step, in basketball) For someone that doesn't regularly follow sports, I know a bit of basics about many of them. And some of that information I actually didn't learn from crosswords. I guess I can credit P.E. classes for teaching me the basics of basketball. One of the rules of basketball is that in order to take steps while having the ball, one is required to dribble the ball continuously with one hand. If one TRAVELS, that means they've taken too many steps without dribbling. 
• POOL NOODLES (25D: Pasta-shaped water toys) POOL NOODLES! I wish these buoyant spaghetti-like pieces of polyethylene foam had been around when I was a kid. The first POOL NOODLES on the market were the Water Woggles in the mid-1980s. Although the name Water Woggles was trademarked, POOL NOODLES were not patented, and other products soon appeared on the market. Although definitely used for swimming, people have found a variety of other uses for POOL NOODLES, such as protecting sharp edges and corners, as emergency pipe insulation, and  as a safety hack for bicycling. 
• LAP (42D: Prime seating for a snuggly cat) My LAP is definitely

  

  Willow

  
  Willow's preferred place to snuggle. She has been known to meow at me to try and get me to sit down so she can jump up on my lap. 
• SHE (45D: "Murder, ___ Wrote") Murder, SHE Wrote, starring the fabulous Angela Lansbury (1925-2022) as mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher, ran for 12 seasons, from 1984-1996. 
• ROMA (57D: 2018 film starring Yalitza Aparicio) I learned about the movie, ROMA, from the July 19, 2021 puzzle, and about Yalitza Aparicio just a few days later on July 23, 2021. ROMA tells the story of Cleo, portrayed by Yalitza Aparicio, an indigenous live-in maid working for a middle-class family in the Colonia ROMA neighborhood of Mexico City.

Geography review:

• IDAHO (13D: Boise's state) Boise is the capital of IDAHO, and its most populous city.
• ASIA (18A: Continent home to the Maldives) Maldives is an island country in South ASIA. Located in the Indian Ocean southwest of India and Sri Lanka, Maldives is an archipelagic country of 1,192 coral islands, about 200 of which are populated. Maldives is the lowest country in the world - its highest point is only 7 feet above sea level - making the country at high risk of disappearing as a result of climate-change-induced rising sea levels. The capital of Maldives is Malé.
• ERIE (32D: Pennsylvania's Great Lake) Well, hello again, ERIE! Pennsylvania is one of four U.S. states bordering Lake ERIE. The other three ERIE-adjacent states are Michigan, Ohio, and New York. The Canadian province of Ontario also borders Lake ERIE. The last time we saw ERIE in the puzzle was yesterday, and this is the sixth appearance of ERIE this month. August 2023 is now tied with June 2021 for second place for most ERIE appearances in a month (since I have been blogging). November 2021 - with seven ERIE appearances - is still in first place, but there are a few days left in this month. This is also the first time we've seen our crossword friends ASIA and ERIE together in a grid since December 11, 2022. (Just a reminder that this means absolutely nothing except that I like data.)
• MALI (59D: Country east of Senegal) MALI is a landlocked country in West Africa. In addition to Senegal, MALI shares borders with Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Mauritania. MALI is a multi-lingual country, with 13 official languages. The working language is French, which is used in government and formal education. The capital of MALI is Bamako. 

I enjoyed the fact that in this JUST KEEP SWIMMING puzzle, we not only had POOL NOODLES, we also had a number of other water-related answers: OCEAN (21D: Mermaid's home), ORCA (11D: Dolphin relative), POD (49A: Group of whales), and SWAN (45A: Shape of some paddleboats). This was an all-around delightful solve. Thank you, Claire, for this puzzle that was a great way to start my Saturday.