Off the Grid: Sally breaks down Paste BN's daily crossword puzzle, Boogie Down
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Boogie Down
Constructor: Lindsay Rosenblum
Editor: Anna Gundlach
Random Thoughts & Interesting Things
- NIA (7A: "Little Woods" director DaCosta) In addition to directing Little Woods, which is her directorial debut, NIA DaCosta also wrote the 2018 movie. Little Woods is set in Little Woods, North Dakota, and tells the story of two estranged sisters after their mother's death. At the Tribeca Film Festival, the movie won the Nora Ephron Prize (awarded to a female filmmaker with a distinctive voice).
- CELL (14A: The mitochondria is its powerhouse) The phrase "the powerhouse of the CELL" as a description of mitochondria was coined by cell biologist Philip Siekevitz in a 1957 article. Mitochondria earned this nickname because they take in glucose and oxygen and generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is a source of chemical energy for CELLs. More recently, the phrase "the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the CELL" has become a meme. The phrase is typically used at the end of a list of things titled something along the lines of "what I learned from school," as a way of poking fun at the sometimes seemingly useless information taught in schools.
- HULA HOOP (17A: Fad toy of the 1950s) Although the modern plastic HULA HOOP was marketed in 1958 by the Wham-O toy company, toy hoops have been around since at least 500 BCE.
- OREOS (26A: Cookies filled with 37-Down) and CREME (37D: Cadbury Egg filling) Did you need to check the cross-reference here to know that the answer to 26-Across was crossword's favorite cookies? Or did you confidently fill in OREOS and then give yourself a pat on the back when you saw that the answer to 37-Down was CREME?
- PONG (31A: Ataris first video game) The classic arcade video game PONG was first released by Atari in 1972. It had a table tennis theme, and featured simple two-dimensional graphics. PONG is notable as the first commercially successful video game.
- ADA (32A: Mathematician Lovelace) It's always a delight to see mathematician and computer programmer ADA Lovelace (1815-1852) in the puzzle. She is considered to be one of the first to recognize the full potential of computers. ADA Lovelace died in 1852 at the age of 36. I wonder what she would think about the fact that many of us now carry a computer in our pocket.
- MAD LIB (33A: Wacky fill-in-the-blank story) To celebrate this answer, I've created a short MAD LIB you can play with your friends. Ask your friends to give you the parts of speech indicated in the parentheses, and then fill in the blanks to create your sentence: The ___ (adjective) solver said, "___ (exclamation)! That ___ (adjective) crossword was so ___ (adjective), I could have used a ___ (noun) to solve it."
- FENCE (36A: Use an epee, saber or foil) If one's only exposure to the sport of fencing was crossword puzzles, you might think the only blade used to FENCE is the épée, as that four-letter word with three E's is quite useful to crossword constructors. There are, however, two other blades used for fencing: the saber and the foil. Most people who FENCE competitively specialize in one of the three disciplines.
- IN HEAT (39A: Ready to mate, like a cat) My cat, Willow, was spayed over 13 years ago, so being IN HEAT is a distant memory for her.
- SCREAM (47A: Ghostface's horror movie franchise) There are six movies in the SCREAM franchise. The films are creatively titled SCREAM (1996), SCREAM 2 (1997), SCREAM 3 (2000), SCREAM 4 (2011), SCREAM (2022), and SCREAM VI (2023). A seventh movie – SCREAM 7 – is scheduled to be released next year. There's also a TV series in the franchise: SCREAM: The TV Series (2015-2019). Ghostface is not one particular character, but rather a series of murderers who use a Ghostface mask (a white mask with an anguished expression) as they stalk their victims.
- PLEASE (52A: Request that might be "pretty") The quotation marks around the word pretty in the clue indicate that the word itself can be paired with the answer. In this case that results in the phrase "pretty PLEASE."
- LARA (61A: Tomb raider Croft) LARA Croft is the protagonist of the video game franchise Tomb Raider.
- RIH (3D: "Disturbia" singer's nickname) "Disturbia" is a 2008 song by Rihanna, whose nicknames include RIH and Riri. The song is included on Rihanna's album, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, a re-release of her album, Good Girl Gone Bad.
- TEEN VOGUE (4D: Fashion/political publication aimed at young women) TEEN VOGUE was first published in 2003 as a spin-off of VOGUE. SINCE 2017, TEEN VOGUE has been an online publication only. In addition to fashion and beauty, TEEN VOGUE also covers politics, social issues, and current affairs.
- ACROSS (5D: Unlike this answer, directionally) I'm a fan of a self-referential answer, and this is a fun one.
- ALABAMA (9D: Laverne Cox's home state) Laverne Cox's filmography includes the TV shows TRANSform Me (2010) and Orange is the New Black (2013-2019) and the movie Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word (for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award). Laverne Cox was born in Mobile, ALABAMA, and is a graduate of the ALABAMA School of Fine Arts in Birmingham.
- DAMES (25D: Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, e.g.) These two DAMES have both had amazing careers on stage and screen. Fun fact: Their birthdays are just 19 days apart. DAME Judi Dench made her first professional stage appearance in 1957 as Ophelia in Hamlet. DAME Maggie Smith (1934-2024) made her stage debut while she was a student at Oxford, as Viola in Twelfth Night.
- ERIE (50D: Indigenous people of western New York) The ERIE people lived in what is now western New York, in the Great Lakes region along the southern shore of Lake ERIE. In the mid-17th century, warfare with the neighboring Iroquois forced most of the tribe to leave the area. Lake ERIE and ERIE, Pennsylvania are named for the ERIE people. Our crossword friend ERIE is making its first appearance of 2025 today.
- ABBA (53D: "Fernando" group) Speaking of crossword friends, ABBA is making its third appearance of the year today. The song "Fernando" was originally released as a solo single by ABBA band member Anni-Frid Lyngstad in 1975. The group recorded their version of "Fernando" a year later. "Fernando" was one of the group's best-selling singles.
- ENG (58D: One of Singapore's official languages (Abbr.)) Singapore is an island country in Southeast Asia. The official languages of Singapore are English (ENG.), Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil.
Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis
- TEEN VOGUE (4D: Fashion/political publication aimed at young women)
- CHIPS AND SALSA (14D: Free appetizer at some taquerias)
- DOUBLE TAP (34D: One way to like an Instagram pic)
BOOGIE DOWN: The last (DOWN-most) word of each vertical theme answer is a type of dance: VOGUE, SALSA, and TAP.
I hope you have your dancing shoes on, because it's time to BOOGIE DOWN. I had a pretty good idea of what the theme would be from reading the puzzle's title. However, I wasn't familiar with VOGUE as a dance, so I needed to uncover the other two theme answers to confirm my guess was correct. I learned that VOGUE is a style of modern house dance that evolved in the late 1980s. VOGUE is inspired by models' poses. You can see examples of VOGUE dancing (aptly) in the music video for Madonna's 1990 song, "VOGUE." Her song is credited with popularizing VOGUE as a dance form, though the style of the dance has continued to evolve since the 1990s. Thank you, Lindsay, for this excellent puzzle.