October 9, 2023

Title: FIRST DOWN

Constructor: Darby Ratliff

Editor: Anna Gundlach

Theme Answers:

COOL PAPA BELL (4D: Baseball Hall of Famer known for his speed)

DOUBLE FEATURE (14D: Back-to-back showing of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," for example)

SETTLE A SCORE (21D: Get revenge)

Theme synopsis: The FIRST word of each theme answer can precede the word DOWN, giving us COOL DOWN, DOUBLE DOWN, and SETTLE DOWN.

Things I learned:

• COOL PAPA BELL (4D: Baseball Hall of Famer known for his speed) James Thomas "COOL PAPA" BELL (1903-1991) is considered to be one of the fastest baseball players ever. COOL PAPA BELL began his baseball career playing for the St. Louis Stars (a Negro league team) and played for several other teams as well. Although statistics weren't recorded to the extent they are today, it's said that COOL PAPA BELL could round the bases in 12 seconds. Pitchers tried to avoid walking him, because of his ability to steal bases. COOL PAPA BELL was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. There are at least two streets named for him: James COOL PAPA BELL Drive in St. Louis, and COOL PAPA BELL Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. There is a statue of COOL PAPA BELL outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis. As I have been to that stadium multiple times, I've probably seen the statue, so I'm a little embarrassed I didn't know about COOL PAPA BELL. Now I do!

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• EDU (6A: OSU's URL ending) This is a fun clue, because OSU here could refer to Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University-Stillwater, or Oregon State University, and all of those educational institutions have EDU as the ending for their URL. 
• PAELLA (19A: Spanish rice dish cooked in a shallow pan) PAELLA is a traditional dish in Spanish cuisine. It originated from Valencia, one of Spain's autonomies (administrative divisions of government). "PAELLA" is the word for "frying pan" in the Valencian/Catalan language, and the wide, shallow pan used to cook the dish gave PAELLA its name. Recipes vary, but PAELLA consists of rice, vegetables, meat, and seasonings. Its yellow color comes from saffron or turmeric.
• KEATS (24A: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" poet John) When John KEATS wrote "Ode on a Grecian Urn" in 1819, it was not well-received. Interestingly, it is now considered to be one of the greatest odes in the English language.
• SUB (40A: Sandwich from Jersey Mike's) Jersey Mike's SUBs was founded and is still headquartered, as one might expect, in New Jersey. The founder of Jersey Mike's, who is still the CEO of the company, is, perhaps surprisingly, named Peter Cancro. He got into the SUB business when the neighborhood sandwich shop he was working at part-time went up for sale in 1975, and he purchased it. Peter Cancro was a high school senior at the time. The name of the sandwich shop was Mike's Submarines. (Ah, there's Mike!) Jersey Mike's began franchising in 1987, and currently has about 2,000 locations.
• AAPI (47A: ___ Heritage Month (May)) May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. If you'd like to learn more about AAPI Heritage, check out the puzzles from May 10, 2021 and May 24, 2021. 
• TAILS (51A: Pugs' curly appendages) Pugs' curly TAILS and squished noses make them easily identifiable. Pugs aren't the only dog breed with curly TAILS. Check out this list of "13 Dogs with Curly TAILS" for canine cuteness. 
• EMMYS (11D: Awards given to "Game of Thrones" 59 times) Game of Thrones is an HBO TV series that originally aired from 2011-2019. During its eight seasons, Game of Thrones won 59 Primetime EMMYS, including four EMMY Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. Primetime EMMYS are awarded annually by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
• TITAN (23D: Tennessee NFL player) The Tennessee TITANs are an NFL team. They play their home games at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. It's a bit of a bonus to have a football team mentioned in a puzzle titled FIRST DOWN.
• TOFU (27D: Protein in some pad see ew) Pad see ew is a Thai stir-fried noodle dish. It consists of rice noodles stir-fried with soy sauce, Chinese broccoli, eggs, and meat or TOFU. The name of the dish translates to "fried with soy sauce."
• MARS BAR (29D: Chocolate candy bar sold as Milky Way in the USA) The MARS BAR - caramel and nougat coated with milk chocolate - was first manufactured in England in 1932 by candy maker Forrest MARS, Sr. The MARS BAR was modeled after a candy bar made by Frank MARS in the United States. Frank was Forrest's father, and his candy bar, which he began making in 1924, was called Milky Way. The two candy bars are similar, but not identical. 
• LIMON (52D: Poet laureate Ada) Ada LIMÓN is the current Poet Laureate of the United States, and the first Latina to hold the position. Ada LIMÓN's signature project as poet laureate is titled You Are Here, and includes a book of poetry to be published next year, and poetry installations in seven national parks. I have previously written about Ada LIMON. 
• HIGH (54D: "___ School" (Tegan and Sara memoir) Tegan and Sara are identical twin sisters, and the members of the indie pop duo, Tegan and Sara. Their memoir, HIGH School, was published in 2019. In 2022, the book was adapted into a TV series of the same name.

Geography review:

• ERIE (42A: Great Lake with the shortest average water residence time) The water residence time is a measure of the average time a drop of water will spend in a lake. The measurement is affected by the lake's inflow (for Lake ERIE that comes primarily from the Detroit River) and outflow (via the Niagara River for Lake Erie), as well as the depth and volume of the lake. The water residence time for Lake ERIE is 2.6 years. Lake Superior is the Great Lake with the longest average water residence time, at 191 years. 

Given the FIRST DOWN theme, I appreciated the choice to orient the theme answers vertically (although the theme would also work with horizontal theme answers). I especially enjoyed some of the clueing today. In particular, the clues for DOUBLE FEATURE, DRAW (7D: Word before 2 or 4, on Uno cards), and NEAT (56D: Unmixed and unchilled, in bartending lingo). Thank you, Darby, for this puzzle that was a delightful way to start my Monday.