December 22, 2022

Title: ABOVE BOARD

Constructor: Wendy L. Brandes

Editor: Erik Agard

Theme Answers:

RUN UP THE SCORE (4D: Add to a huge lead)

RANDOM DRAWING (14D: Selection process that might involve a bag)

FEEL GOOD STORY (18D: Heartwarming news item)

Theme synopsis: The last word of each vertical theme answer is a type of BOARD. We have a SCOREBOARD, a DRAWING BOARD, and a STORYBOARD. 

And now a word from our constructor:

Wendy: I loved the different boards that I was able to include in this puzzle. In my mind, they are all linked -- Winning a RANDOM DRAWING is actually a FEEL GOOD STORY. While having your opponent RUN UP THE SCORE definitely is not! I love the clue for HOMETOWN -- which Erik came up with. Many thanks to Erik, Amanda, Anna and the entire USA Today team for all of the support, encouragement and joy they bring to puzzling. And many thanks to you, Sally, for such a wonderful blog. Happy holidays and happy 2023 to all!

Things I learned:

• GIN (15A: Liquor in Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool") Gwendolyn Brooks, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950, wrote "We Real Cool," in 1959. She was inspired to write the poem after seeing a group of young boys in a pool hall rather than in school. Gwendolyn Brooks said, "...instead of asking myself, why aren't they in school, I asked myself, I wonder how they feel about themselves." I enjoyed learning more about Gwendolyn Brooks (who I wrote about January 11, 2021), and the poem, "We Real Cool," which you can read here. In addition to reading "We Real Cool," I encourage you to listen to Gwendolyn Brooks read the poem in 1961 at the Library of Congress (at 22:48 on the recording). I also encourage you to listen to her read the poem again in 1985, once again recorded for the Library of Congress. In this reading she adds some commentary, which I quite enjoyed (starting at 20:14 on the recording).
• STEP (36D: "___ Up to the Plate, Maria Singh" (2017 novel)) STEP Up to the Plate, Maria Singh is a middle-grade novel by Uma Krishnaswami. The historical fiction book tells the story of Maria Singh, a young girl who is the daughter of a Mexican American woman and a man that has immigrated to America from India. In the spring of 1945, Maria's teacher forms a softball team. While telling Maria's story, the book also deals with topics of racism, sexism, and politics. STEP Up to the Plate, Maria Singh takes place in Yuba City, a town in north-central California. (Hold on to the name of that town; I'm going to mention it again in a bit.)

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• LAS (7A: "___ Mananitas") "LAS Mañanitas" is a traditional Mexican birthday song.
• ALLUDE (13A: Make a reference) The title of today's puzzle ALLUDEs to most of each theme answer being ABOVE the BOARD.
• EYES (42A: Heterochromia means having different-colored ones) Heterochromia may be genetic or a result of disease or injury. Although having EYES of different colors is a rare condition in humans, it is seen more commonly in domesticated animals. 
• WINDS (53A: Some mahjong tiles) Mahjong is a game developed in China in the 19th century. The game is played with tiles, and typical set of mahjong tiles has 16 WINDS, four each of the north, south, east, and west wind.
• HOMETOWN (61A: Setting for the early chapters of a biography) Wendy mentioned this note in her clue, and I also enjoyed this clue. I don't anticipate anyone writing a biography of me, but if they did, there would not be an obvious choice of HOMETOWN, as my family moved around a lot as I was growing up. One definition of HOMETOWN, however, is a person's place of birth. For me, that would be Yuba City, California. (I told you I would mention Yuba City again!) My family moved from Yuba City, California to St. Louis, Missouri when I was eight months old, so I don't remember much about this particular HOMETOWN. 
• ALOU (2D: Name shared by MLB's first all-brother outfield) The ALOU brothers mentioned here are Felipe ALOU, Matty ALOU, and Jesus ALOU. All three brothers had Major League Baseball careers, and in September of 1963, they all played for the San Francisco Giants. Although they never started a game as outfielders together, they ended up all playing together in the outfield in several games. 
• RANDOM DRAWING (14D: Selection process that might involve a bag) I happen to have a FEEL GOOD STORY about winning a RANDOM DRAWING. Twenty-one years ago this month (yes, I looked it up), I got a phone call from a hobby store near us. They had recently moved to a new location, and as part of their grand opening they held a RANDOM DRAWING. My name was selected. I won an electric train set. Our kids were at the perfect age (five and seven) to think I was really cool for winning a train set!
• LEE (24D: Gold medal gymnast Sunisa) We saw Sunisa LEE as a theme answer October 6, 2021.
• POST (37D: Blogger's contribution) Thanks for reading my POST!
• HAD (45D: "Best Thing I Never ___" (Beyonce song)) "Best Thing I Never HAD" is a 2011 song from Beyoncé's album, 4. The original music video featured Beyoncé in a wedding ceremony.  An alternative video for "Best Thing I Never HAD" featured videos and pictures that fans sent Beyoncé of their wedding and prom day experiences. 

Geography review:

• TAMPA (52D: City northwest of Miami) TAMPA is on the west coast of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. It is, as the clue informs us, northwest of Miami, which is on east coast of Florida.

This puzzle is certainly ABOVE BOARD! A fun theme and some great theme answers. I also want to give a shout out to several clues I particularly enjoyed (in addition to the aforementioned HOMETOWN): ARCHES (31A: Skeptical brow shapes), MOO (33A: Bovine bellow), OLEG (66A: Name that's a letter plus a body part), and SEA (68A: Place for Aquaman and SpongeBob). Thank you, Wendy, for this puzzle that was a delightful way to begin my Thursday.