November 4, 2023

Title: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (Freestyle)

Constructor: Alina Abidi

Editor: Anna Gundlach

Freestyle: This is a themeless puzzle. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is a nod to STORY OF YOUR LIFE (37A: Ted Chiang novella that was adapted into the film "Arrival").

Things I learned:

• BSS (1A: _oard of _ehavioral _cience) A Board of Behavioral Science is responsible for the licensing and enforcement of professional standards for certain professionals such as Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers.
• TASHA (27A: "Empire" actress Smith) Empire is a musical TV series that originally aired from 2015-2020. The show is set in New York, and centers on Empire Entertainment, a fictional hip hop and entertainment company. TASHA Smith had a recurring role on Empire as Carol Holloway.
• LOLA (4D: "The Summer I Turned Pretty" actress Tung) The Summer I Turned Pretty is an Amazon Prime TV series based on Jenny Han's novel of the same name. The TV show, which premiered in 2022, is about a 16-year-old Isabel "Belly" Conklin's summer at a beach with her family. LOLA Tung stars as Belly.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• SUMO ORANGE (19A: Japanese citrus named for its topknot-like bump) A SUMO ORANGE is sweet, seedless, and easy to peel. It also has a characteristic protrusion on one end that looks like a topknot, reminiscent of the signature hairstyle of SUMO wrestlers.
• DEARS (24A: Sweeties) and BABE (52A: Sweetie) Quite a sweet puzzle today!
• SEAT FILLER (34A: Volunteer in an awards show audience) Have you ever watched an awards show on TV and wondered why the shots of the audience always show a full house, even when some of the attendees are on stage? Many awards shows utilize volunteers known as SEAT FILLERs to make sure that audience shots don't show empty seats.
• STORY OF YOUR LIFE (37A: Ted Chiang novella that was adapted into the film "Arrival") I learned about Ted Chiang and his novella, "STORY OF YOUR LIFE" from the May 2, 2021 puzzle.  In "STORY OF YOUR LIFE," aliens arrive and enter Earth's orbit, and large semi-circular mirrors dubbed "LOOKING GLASSes" appear. These LOOKING GLASSes are audiovisual links to the orbiting aliens. The 2016 movie Aliens, which starred Amy Adams as linguist Louise Banks, was (as the clue informs us) based on "STORY OF YOUR LIFE."
• THEFT (42A: Wage ___ (employer violation)) I wrote about this topic when we saw WAGE THEFT as a theme answer.
• KEKE (61A: "Nope" actress Palmer) In the 2022 movie, Nope, KEKE Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya costar as siblings trying to capture evidence of a UFO nicknamed "Jean Jacket." Nope was directed by Jordan Peele. This answer pairs well with "STORY OF YOUR LIFE," since Nope also features aliens.
• CAT (63A: Pet whose whiskers are about as wide as its body) Isn't this a fun fact? A CAT uses its whiskers as a sensory tool. The whiskers are used to gather information about a cat's surroundings. Here's another fun fact: Most CATs have 12 whiskers on each upper lip,

  

  Willow

  three over each eye, and a few on their chin. I tried to get a picture of Willow that shows the length of her whiskers relative to the width of her body.
• SELMA (3D: Ava Duvernay film about the 1965 voting rights marches) SELMA, Alabama is located about 50 miles west of Montgomery on the banks of the Alabama River. The Edmund Pettus Bridge that crosses the Alabama River in SELMA was the site of events on March 7, 1965, that came to be known as Bloody Sunday. Civil rights demonstrators were attempting to march from SELMA to Montgomery to advocate for voting rights, when they were attacked by police as they were attempting to cross the bridge. The 2014 movie, SELMA, directed by Ava Duvernay, is a historical drama about the 1965 voting rights marches.
• TOON (35D: Fry, Leela or Bender, for short) and FUTURAMA (36D: Fry, Leela and Bender's TV show) Futurama is an animated sci-fi sitcom (again fitting in well with "STORY OF YOUR LIFE") that premiered in 1999, and has had eight seasons spread out from that time until this year. Fry is a pizza delivery boy that was inadvertently cryogenically frozen for 1,000 years. When he wakes up in the year 2999, he gets a job as a delivery boy at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company. Leela is a purple-haired cyclops that is the captain of the Planet Express Ship. Bender is a robot, and Fry's best friend and roommate.
• ERICA (50D: "Fear of Flying" author Jong) Fear of Flying is a 1973 book by ERICA Jong. While on a trip to Vienna with her second husband, the novel's protagonist and narrator, Isadora Wing, indulges her sexual fantasies with another man. At the time Fear of Flying was published, it was controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality.
• Here are a few additional clues I especially liked:
• AQUAMARINE (60A: Gemstone thought to protect sailors)
• REPLY ALL (8D: Email option that might lead to a faux pas)
• LEGS (11D: What Ariel traded her voice for in " The Little Mermaid")
• LUNA (56D: Moth named for a moon goddess)

Geography review:

• LIMA (4A: Bean variety named for a world capital) LIMA beans were discovered in Peru, a South American country whose capital is LIMA. During the 1500s, LIMA beans were exported to the Americas and Europe, and the boxes containing the beans were labeled "LIMA, Peru" to indicate their place of origin. This led to the beans becoming known as LIMA beans. Although the beans are named for the capital, their names are usually pronounced differently.

Although this is a freestyle, or themeless puzzle, I enjoyed the connections between the various clues about sci-fi stories. Thank you, Alina, for this delightful Saturday puzzle.