November 16, 2023

Title: IN-N-OUT MENU

Constructors: Olivia Mitra Framke & Sally Hoelscher

Editor: Jared Goudsmit

Theme Answers:

RAINBOW TROUT (20A: Multicolored Fish)

GUINNESS STOUT (36A: Popular Irish brew)

MINI CROUTONS (53A: Tiny, toasted soup or salad toppers)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer is a food item that contains the words IN and OUT.

And now a note from our constructors:

Olivia: This is my 6th published collaboration with Sally, and every one has been a complete joy. I love that this yummy puzzle has a bit of a hidden reference to our first ever collab with TEACUP! Thanks Sally for the awesome work and here's to many more collabs in the future!!

Sally: I have a confession: I've never eaten at an IN-N-OUT Burger. Thanks to Olivia for bringing me in on this theme anyway! INTROVERT and GRUMPY CAT are my favorite answers in this grid.

Things I learned:

• DART (7D: Projectile thrown by Deta Hedman) Deta Hedman's nickname is "The Heart of DARTs." She has won 237 DART Titles. Deta Hedman was born in Jamaica, and moved to England when she was 14 years old. She has been playing DARTs competitively since she was 25.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• SUPER (16A: ___ Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo game)) SUPER Smash Bros. Brawl is a 2008 Nintendo video game, and the third installment in the SUPER Smash Bros. series. It's a safe bet that any gaming references in Olivia-Sally collaborations are from Olivia. 
• INTROVERT (17A: Person who recharges by being alone) INTROVERT is a word that Olivia and I both relate to, and we're happy to give our fellow INTROVERTs representation in this puzzle. INTROVERTS unite! (Separately, and in our own homes, of course.)
• ESSAY (19A: Many a June Jordan work) I wrote about ESSAYist, poet, journalist, activist, and teacher June Jordan when we saw her as a theme answer on March 6, 2023. 
• IT'S (23A: "___ Not Me, ___ You" (Lily Allen album)) Lily Allen's music incorporates elements of electro pop, R&B, and reggae. IT'S Not Me, IT'S You is her second studio album, released in 2009.
• ORDER UP (24A: "Food's ready!" at a diner) We were delighted to get this bonus answer into our restaurant-themed puzzle.
• CORONA (29A: Beer often served with a lime wedge) and GIN (35A: ___ and tonic) and GUINNESS STOUT (36A: Popular Irish brew) We promise that we didn't set out to create a grid with three alcoholic drink options! It definitely made us laugh when we noticed it, though. 
• INCA (41A: Worshipper of Pachamama) In INCA mythology, Pachamama is a fertility goddess who oversees planting and harvesting of crops.
• GRUMPY CAT (59A: Unhappy-looking feline in memes) The popular GRUMPY CAT memes are based on photos of a cat named Tardar Sauce (2012-2019), who looks perpetually GRUMPY.

  

  GRUMPY CAT

  Willow has her own GRUMPY CAT expression.  
• UPVOTE (5D: Reddit's equivalent of a "like") Reddit is a social news and discussion website. Users can UPVOTE or downvote posts. A large number of UPVOTEs can affect a post's visibility.
• OBI-WAN (18D: Kenobi who said, "I have the high ground") "I have the high ground," is a line said by OBI-WAN Kenobi to Anakin Skywalker in the 2005 movie, Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith. Olivia tries to get a Star Wars reference in every puzzle she constructs. I'm perfectly fine with that! (After all, she puts up with and even encourages my cat references.)
• UNITS (26D: Parsecs, pints, pounds, etc.) I really like the alliteration of this clue. A parsec is a UNIT of length used in astronomy to measure large distances. Pint is a UNIT of volume, and pound is a UNIT of mass.
• PAN (27D: Bob the Drag Queen's sexual orientation, for short) Bob the Drag Queen was the ***spoiler alert*** winner of the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Since 2020, Bob the Drag Queen has co-hosted the HBO TV series, We're Here with Eureka O'Hara and Shangela. On We're Here, the drag queens travel to small towns across the United States, and recruit residents to participate in one-night-only drag shows. Bob the Drag Queen identifies as PANsexual (attracted to all kinds of people).
• QUILT (31D: Denim ___ (blanket made from old pairs of blue jeans) When Olivia and I collaborate on a puzzle, we usually work together to fill the grid, trading it back and forth until it's completely filled. With this puzzle, Olivia is responsible for putting GRUMPY CAT in the grid, which she knew I would love. She also put QUILT in the grid for me, and said, "that's a thing u do right!!!" I was particularly delighted to clue this in reference to a denim QUILT. I have wanted a denim QUILT for many years, and have been saving worn out jeans in order to make one. In 2020 (when many people were starting new projects...) I started making a denim QUILT. Unfortunately,

  

  Denim QUILT

  the project stalled out after a couple of months, and sat unfinished until earlier this year. At the beginning of this year, I decided I was going to work on my denim QUILT for 15 minutes a day until it was done. This method worked great, and in June of this year I finally finished it. The denim QUILT is pictured here with a bonus picture of Willow. 
• BIOMES (46D: Taigas and deserts) BIOMES are ecosystems classified according to the species that live in the area. A taiga, also referred to as a boreal forest, is a BIOME characterized by forests of pines, spruces, and larches. A desert is a BIOME characterized by little precipitation. Both hot and cold deserts exist.
• BRUNO (49D: "We Don't Talk About ___" ("Encanto" song)) Encanto is a 2021 animated Disney musical movie. The movie's songs were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I was happy to clue BRUNO to the Encanto song so I could link the the catchy, earworm-worthy song, "We Don't Talk About BRUNO." ("No, no, no!")
• ORA (57D: "Poison" singer Rita) "Poison" is the name of a 2015 song by Rita ORA. A number of other artists have recorded songs titled "Poison," including Beyoncé (2008) and Aaliyah (2021). 

Geography review:

• FRANC (60A: Guinean currency) Guinea is a West African country with coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Guinea is Conakry, and the country's currency is the Guinean FRANC.
• CAIRO (1D: Capital on the Nile) CAIRO is the Capital of Egypt. The NILE River flows through Cairo.
• SOCAL (L.A.'s region) The region of Southern California, or SOCAL, is generally defined as encompassing the state's ten southernmost counties. SOCAL includes Los Angeles (L.A.), as well as San Diego.

It would be a strange MENU indeed that consisted only of RAINBOW TROUT, GUINNESS STOUT, and MINI CROUTONS! Also, I'm not sure any of those items are actually on the MENU at IN-N-OUT Burger, a fast food chain that began in Los Angeles, California. However, as a crossword theme, this works! This puzzle has quite the origin story. Olivia and I encountered a reference to IN-N-OUT as part of our work as Lil AVC X editors. This gave Olivia the idea to use it as a theme, and she sent me some possible theme answers. One of those answers was RAINBOW TROUT. When we began looking for other options, we came upon GUINNESS STOUT, which led me to suggest we look for all food items, and Olivia came up with the idea of using IN-N-OUT MENU as a title. We are thankful MINI CROUTONS exist to round out our theme set (also because they're cute, crunchy, and tasty). Once we had our theme set together, we slept on it before sending it in to Amanda. (Note to selves: What did we wait for?!) Amanda replied that "great minds think alike," because another constructor had submitted an "In and Out" theme set just the day before. This definitely happens, and as a constructor, it's always a bummer to get scooped by someone else. Fortunately, Amanda liked our "MENU" twist, and inquired whether we'd be okay with the puzzles running back to back if the other constructor agreed. So, here we are! Thank you, Amanda, for the suggestion, and thank you, Will Nediger, for agreeing to have our puzzle follow yours. Thank you, Jared, for the great editing. Olivia and I hope you enjoyed our puzzle.