November 19, 2023

Title: IT'S RAINING MEN

Constructors: Brooke Husic & Matthew Stock

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers:
MAKE MERRY (4D: Have a good time)
GENERATION X (17D: Cohort just older than millennials)
SPLITWISE (34D: App used to manage expenses)

Theme synopsis: The last word of each vertical answer (these words get lower in the grid moving from left to right as if they were RAINING) can precede the word MEN. We have MERRY MEN, X-MEN, and WISEMEN.

Random thoughts and interesting things:
  • GIZMO (1A: Doohickey) Both GIZMO and doohickey are fun words to say.
  • BEAKER (15A: Muppet named for a piece of science glassware) A Muppet reference in the puzzle always makes me happy! BEAKER, who is Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's assistant, made his first appearance on the second episode of The Muppet Show in 1978. BEAKER is a Muppet of few words, and most of them are a high-pitched "Meep!" As Dr. Honeydew's assistant, BEAKER has been involved in many accidents, including getting shrunk, cloned, zapped, and blown up.
  • UTE (19A: Native Numic speakers) The UTE are an indigenous people that lived in the regions that are now Utah and Colorado. The UTE language is a dialect of the Colorado River Numic language, one of the family of Numic languages.
  • WEEMS (21A: Artist Carrie Mae ___) Best known for her photography and videos, Carrie Mae WEEMS was the first Black woman to have a retrospective at the Guggenheim. I learned about Carrie Mae WEEMS from the December 3, 2020 puzzle. 
  • SAC (29A: ___ and Fox Nation) The SAC and Fox Nation, headquartered in Oklahoma, is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki peoples. The other two SAC and Fox tribes are the SAC and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, and the SAC and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska.
  • MEXICANIDAD (43A: Cultural identity for some North Americans) MEXICANIDAD is a Mexican identity that places special importance on the philosophy and traditions of indigenous cultures. 
  • INTERSEX (56A: Identity represented by a gold flag with a purple circle) The I in the acronym LGBTQIA+ stands for INTERSEX. This umbrella term is used for people whose reproductive or sexual anatomy don't fit typical definitions of male or female. Some INTERSEX traits are noticed at birth, while others develop as a person experiences puberty. 
  • OSAGE (62A: Oklahoma people aka the Wazhazhe) The OSAGE are indigenous peoples native to the Midwestern United States. The OSAGE Nation is currently headquartered in Oklahoma. The OSAGE refer to themselves as Wazhazhe, which means "mid-waters" in their language.
  • CAT (64A: Purring animal) My purring CAT, Willow, was sitting on my
    A calico cat sitting on a lap and peering around an iPad that is being used to solve a crossword.
    Willow helping solve

    lap as I filled in this answer.
  • ONE (5D: Minimum number of players needed for a game of Everdell) Seeing Everdell mentioned here made me very happy! My husband and I were introduced to the game Everdell several years ago by our son. It is our favorite game that can be played with two people. It is interesting, every game is different, and it has woodland creatures. Although I've never tried it out, Everdell does have a solo-player option, making the minimum number of players needed for a game of Everdell ONE. I'll put a couple of photos of Everdell at the bottom of this post.
  • GENERATION X (17D: Cohort just older than millennials) Oh, hey, it's me. GENERATION X is generally defined as people born between the years 1965 and 1980. (I just make it by this definition.) Millenials, or GENERATION Y, are the demographic cohort born between the years 1981 and 1996. 
  • SPLITWISE (34D: App used to manage expenses) SPLITWISE is an app that can help friends or roommates track shared expenses.

    Geography review:

    • OCEAN (12A: Atlantic or Indian) The Atlantic OCEAN is the second-largest and the Indian OCEAN is the third-largest of the Earth's five oceans. The Pacific OCEAN is the largest.
    • GOBI (1D: Mongolian desert) If you read the blog two days ago, you might remember that "the GOBI Desert covers parts of northeastern China, and the southern part of Mongolia." The GOBI is a cold desert comprised mostly of exposed bare rock rather than sand.
    • IRAN (53D: Country that anagrams to a weather forecast) That weather-forecast-anagram of IRAN is RAIN. This was a fun way to clue IRAN to make it a bit of a theme bonus.
    I had a nice "Aha!" moment discovering the theme of today's puzzle. I was on the lookout for the word MEN in the vertical theme answers, but that didn't appear. It took me a moment of study before the theme clicked. Thank you, Brooke and Matthew, for this puzzle that was an excellent way to start my Sunday.

    CAT on Everdell


    Everdell


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