There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solvetoday's puzzlebefore reading further!Warming Up Constructor:Olivia Mitra Framke Editor:Amanda Rafkin Olivia:This is my first puzzle since theUSA TodayCrossword began running question mark (word play) clues! Hope you enjoyed the fun punny vibes of ALE and ACHE. I also enjoyed giving shoutouts to Blue Prince - a fantastic puzzle video game that made a big splash this spring, STUR - a water flavorer brand I use every day (in particular the cranberry-pomegranate flavor), and Finch - my favorite self-care APP (in fact - today marks a full year streak!!). As for the theme, this one came to me while stuck in traffic on the way to a friend's housewarming party. My original set had GLOBAL SEARCH ... big shoutout to Amanda for suggesting the great GLOBAL OREO VAULT entry! RED (12D: Color of detrimental rooms in the 2025 puzzle game "Blue Prince")Blue Princeis a video game released in April of this year. In this puzzle-adventure game, players take on the role of Simon P. Jones whose deceased great uncle has left him a mansion ... if he can locate the mansion's hidden 46th room. Players explore the mansion's 45 rooms as they attempt to find the hidden room. One catch is that the rooms are rearranged every day. RED rooms (rooms represented in the game with a RED border) are usually detrimental, being either dead ends, or having some detrimental effect on the player. I do not play a lot of video games. In fact, much of my video game knowledge has come from Olivia as we have collaborated on puzzles!Blue Princeis new to me, but it sounds like I would enjoy it. STUR (36D: Water flavorer that sounds like a verb meaning "mix")STURis a brand of water flavorers made with natural fruit as flavoring and containing zero added sugar. I was not familiar with STUR, so was happy for the "mix" hint in the clue. ALE (14A: Drink from the tap?) A question mark at the end of a clue indicates there's a bit of trickiness and wordplay going on. The wordplay in this case is that a "drink from the tap" would normally be water (as in tap water), but in this case it's a drink from tapping a keg, or ALE. FLAMENCO (17A: Dance style with long skirts and castanets) FLAMENCO is a style of dance based on the music traditions of southern Spain. FLAMENCO music is characterized by the use of guitar, clapping and castanets. FLAMENCO dancers wear long, ruffled, flowy, full skirts. ETTA (23A: "At Last" singer James)"At Last"is the title track of ETTA James's debut album, which was released in 1960. It became her signature song, and her version of it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. ARE (24A: "___ you for real?") and ONTO (29A: "I think you're ___ something!") Sometimes I amuse myself by imagining the puzzle is having a conversation with itself: "ARE you for real?" ... "I think you're ONTO something!" LOLA (33A: ___ Bunny (Bugs' love interest))LOLA Bunnyis a Looney Tunes cartoon character who made her debut in the 1996 movieSpace Jam. Her catchphrase is"Don't ever call me 'Doll.'" APP (37A: Finch or Fandango, e.g.) Finch is a self-care APP that encourages you to take care of a virtual pet by taking care of yourself. Fandango is a mobile ticketing APP. CRAFT (41A: Make a greeting card or quilt, say) I have a dedicated CRAFT room in my house, so of course I enjoyed this clue! I have made greeting cards and quilts in my CRAFT room. AMO (46A: "Te ___" (Rihanna hit))"Te AMO"is a song from Rihanna's 2009 album,Rated R. CRAB (47A: Disney's Sebastian, for example) and URSULA (22D: Disney villain inspired by the drag queen Divine) This puzzle gifts us with not just oneThe Little Mermaidreference, but two. Sebastian the CRAB, voiced by Samual E. Wright in the 1989 animated version ofThe Little Mermaid, is an advisor to King Triton. The sea witch URSULA, voiced by Pat Carroll in the animated version, was indeedinspired by Divine(1945-1988), a drag queen who starred in the 1972 movie,Pink Flamingos ELMO (48A: Muppet with a puppy named Tango)ELMO's puppy, Tangodebuted in a 2021 animated Sesame Street special titledFurry Friends Forever: ELMO Gets a Puppy. ELMO and Tango appear together onSesame Streetin a series of animated segments titled "ELMO & Tango's Mysterious Mysteries." As the title suggests, in each 5-minute segment, ELMO and Tango solve a mystery. REV (MLK's title) The REV. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) had a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and a PhD from Boston University. The abbreviation of his name in the clue – MLK – lets us know the answer will be an abbreviation. REV. is an abbreviation for the title Reverend. OPERA (53A: Space ___ (("Star Wars" or "Dune," e.g.)) A Space OPERA emphasizes melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, and romance. The term has no relation to music, but is a play on the term "soap OPERA." I would have been disappointed if Olivia's puzzle didn't include at least oneStar Wars reference. CHEETO (55A: Orange puff) At least a CHEETO in the crossword doesn't result in orange fingers like a CHEETO in the hand does. UNEARNED (60A: Like points from unforced errors) I'm familiar with the idea of UNEARNED points from baseball, though I imagine they exist in other sports as well. An UNEARNED run in baseball is a run that is the result of an error committed by the opposite team. The thing about UNEARNED points is that they are still points. AFRICA (62A: Continent with the Zambezi River) The Zambezi River flows across southern AFRICA. It flows east into the Indian Ocean, crossing through parts of Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River. ROUTES (65A: Waze suggestions) Waze is a navigation app that utilizes GPS (Global Positioning System) and also incorporates user-submitted travel information to determine the ROUTES it suggests. SPY (67A: "Harriet the ___")Harriet the SPYis a 1964 children's book by Louise Fitzhugh. The title character is an 11-year-old girl who is encouraged by her nanny to write down her observations of others in a notebook. Trouble ensues when her classmates discover the notebook and learn what Harriet thinks about them. The book was adapted into a 1996 movie of the same name. An Apple TV+ animated series,Harriet the SPY, which premiered in 2021, is loosely based on the book. HEART OF PALM (3D: Vegetable harvested from a tropical tree) HEART OF PALM is harvested from the inner core of certain PALM trees. It may be eaten on its own and is also added to salads. GLOBAL OREO VAULT (7D: Remote location of a popular cookie recipe in a 2020 publicity stunt) In 2020, scientists noted that a particular asteroid (2018 VP₁) had a 0.41% chance of hitting Earth on November 2, 2020. A tweet wondering what would happen to OREOs if the asteroid hit EARTH inspired a massive publicity stunt by OREO. Nabisco subsequently announced on social media that they had built aGLOBAL OREO VAULTin Norway near theSvalbard GLOBAL Seed VAULT(which does in fact exist). Videos and photos posted by OREO showed a concrete bunker and packages of OREOs wrapped in Mylar. The marketing campaign was nominated for several marketing awards. ELLIS (27D: ___ Island)ELLIS Islandis located in New York Harbor. It is north of Liberty Island (home of the Statue of Liberty). Between 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants came to the United States by way of the immigration processing centers on ELLIS Island. Since 1965, ELLIS Island has been part of the Statue of Liberty National monument. The main buildings on the island were renovated into an immigration museum in 1990. ACHE (37D: Pain in the neck?) The phrase "pain in the neck" is commonly used to refer to something that is annoying or pesky. The question mark in this clue indicates that the phrase is instead being taken literally – a "pain" in the neck would be an ACHE. ESC (39D: Computer key that might skip a cutscene) A cutscene is a noninteractive sequence in a video game. Such scenes might feature conversation between characters and provide background information or foreshadowing. Some games allow a player to skip a cutscene (which interrupts gameplay) by pressing the ESC key. ARENAS (46D: "Hunger Games" battle settings) InThe Hunger Gamesseries of books – and the movies based on the books – the titular games are set in ARENAS. OAR (57D: Cousin of a paddle) I just wrote about the difference between an OAR and a paddle afew weeks ago. A few other clues I especially enjoyed: BRAG (4A: Humble ___ (bit of false modesty)) AFTER YOU (34A: "Go ahead!") PEP TALK (10D: Locker room speech) HEART OF PALM (3D: Vegetable harvested from a tropical tree) GLOBAL OREO VAULT (7D: Remote location of a popular cookie recipe in a 2020 publicity stunt) HOUSE BLENDS (26D: Signature coffee flavors) WARMING UP: The UPmost word of each vertical theme answer can be paired with the word WARMING: HEARTWARMING, GLOBAL WARMING, and HOUSEWARMING. The title of today's puzzle allowed me to guess that the theme would be found in the Down answers, and it would involve the first words of the theme answers, that is, the words that are UP in the grid. I initially wondered if the theme answers might begin with words that are synonyms for WARMING. Uncovering HEART OF PALM let me know I wasn't quite on the right track. It didn't take me long to catch on to the correct theme. Discovering GLOBAL OREO VAULT assured me I had it right this time. Thank you, Olivia, for this wonderful puzzle. USA TODAY's Daily Crossword Puzzles Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Crossword Blog & Answers for July 13, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
