January 15, 2022

Title: TRAVEL LIGHT

Constructor: Brooke Husic

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme Answers:

RED RIVER VALLEY (19A: Historic home of the Ojibwa and Metis on the U.S./Canada border)

YELLOWSTONE (36A: Old Faithful's park)

GREEN MOUNTAINS (56A: Vermont range)

Theme synopsis: Each theme answer is a colorfully-named place. The TRAVEL destinations begin with the colors of a traffic LIGHT, and the colors are arranged in the order they appear.

And now a word from our constructor: 

Brooke: many thanks to Erik for encouraging me to unify the theme answers beyond traffic light colors alone! my favorite clues are 54a, 20d, 34d, and 53d.

Things I learned:

• SAMBA (17A: Beth Carvalho's genre) SAMBA is a music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the early 20th century. Beth Carvalho was a SAMBA singer, and also played the guitar and the cavaquinho, a small Portuguese string instrument. Beth Carvalho was born in Rio de Janeiro, and earned the nickname "godmother of SAMBA," for her contributions to the traditionally male-dominated genre. She died in 2019 at the age of 72.
• RITA (60A: Singer Marley) Although perhaps best known as the widow of Bob Marley, for whom she sang backup vocals, RITA Marley is also a solo artist.
• HALL (8D: Abolitionist Prince) Prince HALL, who lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s, was an abolitionist and the founder of Prince HALL Freemasonry.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• ATE (49A: Had some bibimbap) Bibimbap is a rice dish in Korean cuisine, consisting of white rice topped with sautéed or fermented vegetables, chili pepper paste, soy sauce, and sometimes an egg and sliced meat.
• RUTH (66A: The "R" of RBG) I am always happy to see RUTH Bader Ginsburg references in puzzles and elsewhere. Here's some advice from RBG: "Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you."
• ESPY (67A: One of six awarded to Maya Moore) I have written about Maya Moore several times previously. She has won three ESPY Awards for Best Female College Athlete (2009, 2010, and 2011), and two ESPY Awards for Best WNBA player (2014 and 2016). Her most recent ESPY Award, presented in 2021, is the Arther Ashe Courage Award, which she won for walking away from basketball to help free a wrongfully convicted man.
• SLAV (5D: Rusyn or Croat, e.g.) The SLAVic people are the largest ethnographic-linguistic group in Europe. The group includes those who speak any of the SLAVic languages. 
• EMO 28D: Music genre related to scramz) Scramz, also referred to as screamo, is a subgenre of EMO that emerged in the early 1990s.
• LONI (30D: Comedian Love) Comedian, actress, and former electrical engineer, LONI Love is one of the co-hosts of the TV talk show, The Real. Fun fact: In 2003, she was the runner-up on the TV show Star Search.
• TWO (34D: "Walk ___ Moons" (Creech novel)) Sharon Creech's novel, Walk Two Moons, won the 1995 Newberry Medal. The book tells the story of 13-year-old Salamanca Tree Middle, who is traveling from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents. 
• ENNINFUL (39D: Edward at the helm of British Vogue) Edward ENNINFUL is a creative director in the fashion industry. He has been the editor of British Vogue since 2017. Edward ENNINFUL was born in Ghana, and emigrated to London with his family. 
• SURYA (53D: Bonaly who's the only Olympic skater to land a backflip on one blade) SURYA Bonaly is a retired competitive figure skater. She performed a backflip and landed on one blade at the 1998 Winter Olympics. The move had been banned by the figure skating federation in 1976, and SURYA Bonaly knew the move would negatively affect her score, but chose to do the move as a way to be remembered. 

Geography review:

• STL (5A: ArchCity Defenders' city, briefly) ArchCity Defenders is a legal advocacy organization in St. Louis, Missouri (STL). The "ArchCity" is a good hint here, as St. Louis is the home of the Gateway Arch.
• RED RIVER VALLEY (19A: Historic home of the Ojibwa and Metis on the U.S./Canada border) The RED RIVER (sometimes referred to as the RED RIVER of the North to distinguish it from another river of the same name in the southern United States) forms most of the border of the U.S. states, Minnesota and North Dakota, and continues into Manitoba, Canada, where it empties into Lake Winnipeg. The RED RIVER VALLEY is the region drained by the RIVER, and as the clue reminds us, is the historic home of the Ojibwa and Métis.
• YELLOWSTONE (36A: Old Faithful's park) YELLOWSTONE National Park may have been the first National Park I ever visited. It was certainly among the first, and I credit it with sparking my love of exploring the National Parks. I was fascinated by the diverse landscape and geological features of the park - the geysers, hot springs, and mud pots - that were unlike anything I had seen before. I was 13-years-old when I first visited, and although that was before the time of smartphones with cameras, I did own a camera. When we returned home and had our pictures developed (some of you will remember what it was like to have to wait for our photos!), I had taken a zillion (that may be a slight exaggeration) photos of Old Faithful, and they all looked pretty much the same. I have since been back to YELLOWSTONE, and now have many more photos of the park, but not all of Old Faithful. Although Old Faithful is the most well-known of the park's hydrothermal features, there are others that, in my opinion, are even more striking and impressive.
• ORE (State west of 46-Across, for short) and IDA (46A: Potato state (Abbr.) OREgon and IDAho are indeed neighboring states. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, IDAho produces one-third of the potatoes grown in the United States. In addition to OREgon, Washington is also west of IDAho.
• GREEN MOUNTAINS (56A: Vermont range) The GREEN MOUNTAINS extend south to north through the state of Vermont. The GREEN MOUNTAINS are so named because, even in the winter, the mountains appear GREEN since the trees hide the snow. The GREEN MOUNTAINS are part of the Appalachian Mountain Range.
• EUROS (61A: Money in Ireland) Ireland is a European country on the island of Ireland. EUROS are the currency in Ireland. Note that in Northern Ireland, a country also on the island of Ireland, the currency is the pound.
• SAN (68A: Word before "Jose" or "Juan") Both SAN Jose and SAN Juan are common place names. One example of each: SAN José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. The SAN Juan islands are an archipelago in the state of Washington.
• SRI (38D: ___ Lanka) SRI Lanka is a South Asian island country in the Indian Ocean, near the southeastern coast of the Indian subcontinent.

I enjoyed this geographical theme tied together by the colors of RED, YELLOW, and GREEN. In addition to the theme, I enjoyed noticing the many related answer pairs that, although not clued in reference to each other, helped the puzzle feel very interconnected, including REDO/RESET, PSI/RHO, GPS/NAVIGATED, AXEL/SURYA, HERS/GALS, and STAR/LIBRA. I also chuckled at the puzzle's message in the upper left corner - BTW, FEAR NOT! I hope you AGREE that this puzzle was fun to solve; it was an enjoyable start to my day.

One more thing: Registration opens today for the next Boswords event, the Winter Wondersolve. This virtual puzzle tournament will be Sunday, February 6. As I have mentioned before, the Boswords events are always a great deal of fun, even if you, like me, are not a competitive solver. One thing I'm especially excited about for the Winter Wondersolve, is that all four of the puzzle constructors are USA Today constructors! I hope you'll consider joining me in the Winter Wondersolve featuring puzzles by Kate Chin Park, Christina Iverson, Adesina O. Koiki, and Matthew Stock.