Elizabeth of the "Avengers" series / MON 7-6-2020 / Illinois city on the Illinois river / Rafael on the tennis court / Daly with a Tony for "Gypsy"

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: The Name Game — Theme answers are composed of a celeb's first name combined with a verb.

Theme answers:

• VANGUARDS (18A: Pianist Cliburn plays basketball defense?)
• JOYRIDES (24A: TV host Behar takes mass transit?)
• GINGERSNAPS (35A: Actress Rogers flips out?)
• BOBSLEDS (51A: Singer Dylan has fun in the snow?)
• BILLFOLDS (57A: Businessman Gates gets out of the poker game?)

Word of the Day: DAN (46A: Martial arts level) —

The dan (段) ranking system is used by many Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean martial art organizations to indicate the level of a person's ability within a given system that could be generally described as a finite set that once achieved becomes an art that can be defined by some formalized system of patternism. Used as a ranking system to quantify skill level within a given set of specific patterns, it was originally used at a go school during the Edo period.^[1] It is now also used in most modern Japanese fine and martial art.

(Wikipedia)

It's lovely to see Lynn Lempel to kick off July! She's done a pretty average puzzle, no complaints here. I got stuck in the middle for awhile, which is probably my still-amateur status showing, but at any rate it's nice to get stuck, that hasn't happened to me for awhile. I wouldn't mind taking some BOBSLEDS on their MAIDEN voyages, it's been soooooooo hot lately and that would be a nice way to cool off. Interesting that we had both EDEN and UTOPIA.

I would've enjoyed the theme more if I'd gotten the first parts of all the clues--didn't know Joy Behar or Van Cliburn. But it was fun putting the words together! And I liked imagining a disgruntled Bill Gates at the poker table.

Bullets:

• MICA (6A: Mineral easily split into layers) — I remembered this one from my geology class in college. They may have called it "Rocks for Jocks," and I may have been on the rugby team, but I still enjoyed it and learned a lot! Go on, ask me anything about volcanoes or glaciers. 
• URN (29A: Large coffee vessel) — This one really threw me. I've only really thought of URNS as pots or vessels containing ashes (that sometimes get knocked over in sitcoms for comedic[?] effect). Has everyone been calling coffee containers urns without my knowledge? 
• IN DRAG (12D: Dressed like RuPaul) — Leaving this bit from "La Cage" as your Monday earworm! Also yes this scene makes me cry. 

Signed, Annabel Thompson of CrossWorld

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