Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, It's the Muppet Show!
There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! It's the Muppet Show!
Constructor: Justin Werfel
Editor: Anna Gundlach
ALAN (16A: "Galaxy Quest" actor Rickman) Galaxy Quest is a 1999 movie that parodies and pays homage to sci-fi movies and TV series and their fandoms. In the movie, fans of a fictional cult TV series, Galaxy Quest, become involved in an interstellar conflict with aliens who think the series is a documentary. ALAN Rickman portrays Alexander Dane, the ship's science officer on the fictional series, who is a member of an alien species known for superhuman intelligence, and whose catchphrase is "By Grabthar's Hammer, by the Suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!" Although I know ALAN Rickman, and so was able to figure out the answer here, I was not familiar with this movie. In learning about Galaxy Quest, I discovered that scenes of the alien planet were filmed at Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. My husband and I have been to that park. It's an amazing place, and with its red rock hoodoos (rock formations) it does look a bit alien.
GONZO JOURNALISM (35A: Hunter S. Thompson's reporting style) GONZO JOURNALISM is a non-objective style of reporting that centers personal experience and emotion rather than the detached style of traditional JOURNALISM. Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) was a journalist and author. For his 1967 book, Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, he spent a year living with the Hells Angels motorcycle club in order to write a first-hand account of the experience. In 1970, Hunter S. Thompson wrote an article for Scanlan's Monthly titled "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved." An editor of The Boston Globe commented on the Kentucky Derby article, saying it was "pure GONZO JOURNALISM." This was the first use of the term GONZO JOURNALISM.
TAMPA (8A: Florida city near St. Petersburg) TAMPA is located on the west side of Florida, with coastline on TAMPA Bay and Old TAMPA Bay. The city of St. Petersburg, Florida is also located on TAMPA Bay – it's across the bay from TAMPA. The port of TAMPA BAY is the largest in the state of Florida.
APE (13A: Donkey Kong or King Kong) Donkey Kong is the titular gorilla of the Donkey Kong video game franchise. King Kong is a gorilla-like monster who has appeared in movies, comics, video games, and TV series since 1933. An APE is a tailless primate, and the classification includes gorillas.
HULU (14A: "Shogun" streaming service) Shōgun is a HULU TV series that premiered in 2024. The show is based on James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name. A 1980 miniseries of the same name by Paramount Television was also based on the novel. HULU's Shōgun series features a mostly Japanese cast and much of the dialogue is in Japanese. Shōgun won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. It is the first Japanese-language series to win that award.
WALDORF ASTORIA (19A: Luxury resort brand of Hilton Worldwide) According to their website, WALDORF ASTORIA has resorts in a number of locations worldwide, including Doha, Qatar; Beverly Hills, California; Osaka, Japan; and Beijing, China.
RTS (24A: Some football linemen (Abbr.)) In football, RTS are right tackles. I'm pretty sure I learned that information from a crossword puzzle at some point.
LEG (27A: One of a quadruped's four) In this photo, my cat, Willow is showing all four of her LEGs, helpfully demonstrating that she's a quadruped.
DUSTS (40A: Does a housecleaning task) My husband and I do a fairly good job of working together to keep our house clean. We make a pretty good team, because we are generally bothered by different types of messes, so we each take responsibility for cleaning those that bother us. However, neither my husband nor I DUSTS on a regular basis; apparently DUST doesn't bother either of us as much as it should.
THE (43A: Most common word in English) Just for fun, I counted up the number of times the word THE appears in this article. THE answer is 101 times.
ALEC (55A: Actor and comedian Mapa) The comedy special, ALEC Mapa, Baby Daddy, premiered on Showtime in 2015, and is based on ALEC Mapa's one-man show of the same name. The show tells the story of ALEC Mapa's experience of becoming a father through the process of foster adoption.
INCA (56A: Creator of a 40,000 km-long South American road system) In the late 1400s and early 1500s, the INCA Empire incorporated a large part of western South America, including portions of the modern-day countries of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. The INCA built an extensive and advanced road system that had two main north-south roads. One of the main roads ran along the west coast of South America, while the other main road was further inland and in the mountains. Both roads had numerous branches.
SUET (58A: Beef fat in some bird feeders) This clue feels timely for me, as the birds in our neighborhood have been particularly hungry recently. For the last week I have been putting a new SUET block in the bird feeders on a daily basis.
DALAI (1D: ___ Lama) The Dalai LAMA is a spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism. The current and 14th Dalai LAMA is Tenzin Gyatso.
ELSA (6D: "Frozen" princess) In the 2013 Disney animate movie, Frozen, the princess ELSA is voiced by Idina Menzel. Wait, has it really been 12 years since we first heard "Let it Go," ELSA's iconic song?
TAHOE (8D: Lake on the California/Nevada border) Lake TAHOE is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the California/Nevada border, and is the second-deepest lake in the U.S., after Oregon's Crater Lake.
MAUI (10D: Second-largest Hawaiian island) and LEIS (27D: Hawaiian necklaces) As the clue informs us, MAUI is the second-largest Hawaiian island; the largest is Hawai'i. If you visit any of the Hawaiian islands, you're likely to receive LEIS.
PITA (11D: Bread served with hummus) and ATE (12D: Had some hummus) It's fun to see hummus linking these two consecutive clues together. PITA is making back-to-back puzzle appearances, as we saw it yesterday clued as [Pocketed bread for souvlaki].
MONA (33D: "___ Lisa") Leonardo da Vinci's painting MONA Lisa is on display at the Louvre in Paris, France.
BLUE SKIES (34D: Jazz standard that describes sunny weather) The jazz standard "BLUE SKIES" was written by Irving Berlin in 1926. The song was written (as a last-minute addition) for the Rodgers and Hart musical Betsy. Although the musical wasn't much of a success, the song became a hit. It has been sung by numerous artists over the years, including Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye for the 1954 movie White Christmas. "BLUE SKIES, smilin' at me / Nothin' but BLUE SKIES do I see..."
RIVER (44D: Tigris or Euphrates) The Tigris RIVER and the Euphrates RIVER both begin in the Armenian highlands of Turkey and then flow, in a somewhat parallel fashion, down through valleys and gorges in a south-easterly fashion before joining and discharging into the Persian Gulf. The Tigris-Euphrates RIVER system lies in the Fertile Crescent region where Mesopotamian civilization flourished.
HENRY (47D: Shakespeare wrote seven plays about kings with this name) The seven plays William Shakespeare wrote about kings named HENRY are (rather unimaginatively) titled HENRY IV, Part 1, HENRY IV, Part 2, HENRY V, HENRY VI, Part 1, HENRY VI, Part 2, HENRY VI, Part 3, and HENRY VIII.
ORCAS (48D: Whales commonly seen in Haida art) The Haida are indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. They are one of 231 federally recognized tribes in Alaska. ORCAS are prominent and significant symbols in Haida art and stories.
CLUE (53D: You're reading one right now) Self-referential CLUEs always bring a smile to my face.
AOL (54D: "You've got mail" ISP) Who else is old enough that they can still hear AOL's "You've got mail" message in their head? I sometimes wish I had saved all of the CDs AOL sent me in the mail, as they surely would have been useful for making some marvelous, creative artwork. (Actually, I'm extremely glad I did not save all of those CDs...)
WALDORF ASTORIA (19A: Luxury resort brand of Hilton Worldwide)
GONZO JOURNALISM (35A: Hunter S. Thompson's reporting style)
ANIMAL CRACKERS (50A: Zoo-or circus-themed snacks)
IT'S THE MUPPET SHOW: The first words of the theme answers are names of characters on THE MUPPET SHOW: WALDORF, GONZO, and ANIMAL.
Cue The Muppet Show theme song, "It's time to play the music / It's time to light the lights / It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight..." As a tremendous fan of The Muppet Show, I thoroughly enjoyed this theme. The Muppets we're meeting in today's puzzle are: WALDORF - one of the two elderly men (along with Statler) who sit in the balcony of the show and heckle people, GONZO - a Muppet of ambiguous species who is known for his passion for performing stunts, and ANIMAL - the wild and frenetic drummer of the Muppet band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Congratulations to Justin Werfel on a USA Today debut! Thank you, Justin, for this delightful puzzle.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crossword Blog & Answers for June 2, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
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