There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! Base Coat
Constructor: Anna Gundlach
Editor: Anna Gundlach
What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle
- EATER (26A: Food and dining culture website) When the website EATER first launched in 2005, it focused on restaurants in New York City. The website expanded to become a national site in 2009, and in 2013 EATER was acquired by Vox Media. EATER provides reviews of restaurants and is known for their maps showing recommendations of where to eat in certain cities.
- PERU (64A: Nazca Lines country) The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs (a type of land art) in the Nazca Desert in southern PERU. The Nazca Lines that have been discovered consist of over 700 geoglyphs covering an area of about 170 square miles. These lines were made between 500 BCE and 500 CE by people removing pebbles and making incisions in the desert floor. Some of the shapes are straight lines or geometric designs, while others are in the shapes of plants and animals. The original purpose of the Nazca Lines is unknown. The Nazca Lines have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I did not know about the Nazca Lines, and I found it fascinating to learn about them.
Random Thoughts & Interesting Things
- ALABAMA (4A: State “To Kill a Mocking bird” is set in) Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, ALABAMA between the years 1933 to 1935.
- LEBANON (15A: Beirut’s country) Beirut is the capital and largest city of LEBANON, a country in West Asia. Almost half of LEBANON’s population lives in Beirut.
- NIN (17A: Author Anais) Anais NIN (1903-1977) began journalling at the age of eleven and continued the practice until she died. Many of her journals have been published. In addition to her journals, she also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and erotic literature.
- DAD JOKE (20A: “I used to hate my beard, but then it grew on me,” e.g.) Ha! I am here for all the DAD JOKEs.
- SPLAT (34A: Sound of pudding falling on the floor) If it were my pudding, that SPLAT would be following by the sound of sobbing.
- EPIC (38A: Heroic saga such as 2-Down) and ILIAD (2D: Trojan War chronicle) Attributed to Homer, the ILIAD is an ancient Greek EPIC poem set during the 10-year siege of Troy known as the Trojan War. It depicts a fierce quarrel between a warrior named Achilles and King Agamemnon.
- EURO (44A: Italian currency) Italy is one of the 20 member countries of the European Union that uses the EURO as its currency.
- PANDA (61A: Black-and-white land mammal) and ORCA (63A: Black-and-white sea mammal) Lovely clue echo in these consecutive clues.
- SANDO (3D: Katsu-___ (lunch item on Japanese milk bread)) Katsu-SANDO is a sandwich that originated in Japan. Although variations exist, the sandwich often consists of cutlets (katsu) between slices of Japanese milk bread.
- ANCHO (8D: Dried poblano chili) Put another way, an ANCHO is to a poblano as a raisin is to a grape.
- ANSWERS (10D: What solvers put in crosswords) Well, it’s always the goal to fill in the ANSWERS, anyway.
- MEWED (13D: Sounded like a kitten) It’s been quite a few years since my cat, Willow, has MEWED like a kitten. Nowadays her meows are quite forceful, and she has a lot to say. I dug up a photo of Willow as a kitten. She has enjoyed sleeping on my lap since we first brought her home.
- JOEY CHESTNUT (21D: Hot-dog eating world champion) JOEY CHESTNUT is a competitive eater. He has won the Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, which is held in New York City, sixteen times. He holds the current record for most hot dogs and buns eaten at the contest, with 76 in 10 minutes (set in 2021). JOEY CHESTNUT also holds world records in other competitive eating categories, including apple pie 4.375 pies in eight minutes), Twinkies (121 in six minutes), chicken wings (182 wings in 30 minutes), and hard boiled eggs (141 in eight minutes).
- CHAPPELL ROAN (23D: “Hot To Go!” singer-songwriter) “Hot to Go!” is a song from CHAPPELL ROAN’s 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. To promote the song, CHAPPELL ROAN created a dance for the song’s chorus that spells out the song’s title with a person’s arms (reminiscent of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”).
- FREIDA PINTO (25D: “Slumdog Millionaire” actress) The 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire is loosely based on Vikas Swarup’s 2005 book Q & A. The movie follows the story of Jamal Malik (played by Dev Patel), an 18-year-old boy from the slums of Mumbai, who does surprisingly well on a TV quiz show. FREIDA PINTO portrays Latika, a girl who is also from the slums of Mumbai.
- TRON (37D: 1982 sci-fi Disney film with a 2025 sequel) The 1982 movie TRON stars Jeff Bridges as a video game developer who is transported inside a mainframe computer and must interact with programs to escape. A sequel to the movie, TRON: Legacy, was released in 2010, and – as the clue informs us – another sequel, TRON: Ares is scheduled to be released in October of this year.
- ACES (58D: High cards in Balatro) I wrote about the poker-themed video game Balatro last month. As in poker, ACES are the high cards in Balatro.
- DOC (62D: The only “Snow White” dwarf whose name isn’t an adjective) The dwarfs of Snow White are making back-to-back puzzle appearances. Yesterday we saw SLEEPY clued as [Yawning friend of Happy and Sneezy].
- A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
- SANDAL TAN (47A: Evidence of wearing flip-flops on a sunny day)
- DEEP (30D: “Whoa, that’s kinda mind-blowing”)
- DIDN’T ASK (40D: “Your reply was unwanted and unneeded”)
Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis
- JOEY CHESTNUT (21D: Hot-dog eating world champion)
- CHAPPELL ROAN (23D: “Hot To Go!” singer-songwriter)
- FREIDA PINTO (25D: “Slumdog Millionaire” actress)
BASE COAT: The BASE word of each vertical theme answer is a word used to describe a horse’s COAT: CHESTNUT, ROAN, and PINTO.
It’s a nice extra constraint that each of today’s theme answers is the name of a person. JOEY CHESTNUT was the first theme answer I filled in, but the theme didn’t click until I filled in CHAPPELL ROAN. Then I had a nice “Aha!” moment. Thank you, Anna, for this enjoyable puzzle.
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