Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Blanket Term
Constructors: Tom Pepper & Zhouqin Burnikel
Editor: Amanda Rafkin
HISS (1A: Sound from an annoyed cat) The only time my cat, Willow, ever lets out a HISS is when she discovers an unwelcome feline visitor in her house. I don't have any pictures of that, since when that happens I'm usually playing referee between the cats. Instead, here's a picture of Willow trying to convince me to pet her instead of working. (How could I possibly refuse?)
WAS (26A: "It ___ a dark and stormy night") In the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy began using a typewriter on top of his doghouse on July 12, 1965 (nearly 60 years ago!). Many of Snoopy's stories begin, "It WAS a dark and stormy night."
ORCAS (30A: Whales known as "wolves of the sea") ORCAS and wolves are both apex predators, meaning they have no natural predators. ORCAS earned the nickname "wolves of the sea," because they hunt in groups, like wolves do.
PASTA (33A: Fusilli or gemelli) Fusilli is corkscrew-shaped PASTA. Gemelli is a type of PASTA that appears to be two tubes twisted around each other.
AFGHAN HOUND (36A: Silky-haired hunting dog) The AFGHAN HOUND gets its name because the breed originated in the mountain regions of Afghanistan. AFGHAN HOUNDs are characterized by fur that is long, fine, and silky.
FORT (42A: Structure that might be made of pillows and blankets) I am a fan of a blanket FORT; it makes such a cozy hideaway. This is a nice theme bonus – whether you call a BLANKET a THROW, an AFGHAN, or a COVER – it can be used to build a FORT.
COD (48A: Common fish for lutefisk) Lutefisk is made by drying and salting COD (or whitefish), and then rehydrating it in a lye-solution. The result is gelatinous in texture. Lutefisk originated from Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland). It is popular in some parts of the United States, where it is often associated with Christmas celebrations.
ITHACA (2D: Cornell's city) Cornell University was founded in ITHACA, New York in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. Cornell is a land grant university (an institution of higher education given federal land by the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890).
ALF (6D: 1980s sitcom alien from the planet Melmac) ALF is a TV sitcom that ran for four seasons from 1986 to 1990. The title character was an "alien life form" (aka an extraterrestrial, or ET) from the planet Melmac.
OTTAWA (8D: City home to Canada's Parliament Hill) OTTAWA is the capital of Canada. It is located in the southern part of the province of Ontario, and is Canada's fourth-largest city (following Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary). Parliament Hill is an area of land in downtown OTTAWA, located along the OTTAWA River. The Parliament of Canada is housed in three buildings located on Parliament Hill.
TINA (10D: Bette's partner on "The L Word") The L Word was a Showtime TV drama that aired from 2004-2009. One of the show's main characters is Bette Porter, portrayed by Jennifer Beals, considered by some to be one of the most important LGBTQ TV characters of all time. Another main character is TINA Kennard, portrayed by Laurel Holloman. As the clue mentions, TINA and Bette are partners (though their relationship is on again, off again throughout the series).
NAS (22D: Rapper Lil ___ X) Lil NAS X's song "Old Town Road" (2019) is tied (with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" by Shaboozey) for the most weeks (19) at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
AGE (34D: What Adele's album titles represent) To date, Adele has recorded four studio albums: 19 (2008), 21 (2011), 25 (2015), and 30 (2021). The numbers reflect Adele's AGE when she wrote the songs on the album, not necessarily her AGE when the albums were released.
KFC (39D: Colonel Sanders' chain) KFC, formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, was founded in North Corbin, Kentucky in 1930. Founder Harland Sanders (1890-1980) was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel (an honor bestowed by Kentucky's governor) in 1935, and became known as Colonel Sanders, the company's spokesman.
REDDIT (47D: Popular discussion website) REDDIT is an online news aggregation and discussion website. One of the features of REDDIT is multiple discussion boards, or subreddits, focusing on a variety of topics. REDDIT users get to upvote and downvote posts, so the most popular posts appear at the top of a feed.
THROW A FIT (17A: React angrily)
AFGHAN HOUND (36A: Silky-haired hunting dog)
COVER BAND (58A: Tribute group playing familiar songs)
BLANKET TERM: The first word of each theme answer is a TERM that means BLANKET: THROW, AFGHAN, and COVER.
A BLANKET TERM is a generic term used to describe a number of items. For example, "color" is a BLANKET TERM, whereas "red," "yellow," and "blue" are specific terms. In today's theme, however, BLANKET TERM refers to a TERM that literally means BLANKET. That's very fun. Thank you, Tom and Zhouqin, for this enjoyable puzzle.
USA TODAY's Daily Crossword Puzzles
Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crossword Blog & Answers for May 20, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
‘Pips' Joins Wordle And Connections At The New York Times Games — Here's How It Works
There's a new game over at The New York Times. You can find it in the NYT Games App or at the newspaper's website, sitting next to Wordle and Letter Boxed and Strands and Connections. It's a bit different from the rest of the NYT game offerings. It's not quite as visually-forward as a game like Tiles. But it's not a word game at all, so really nothing like Wordle or Connections or Strands or the Crossword. In a way, it's a bit more like Sudoku, a game that requires you to place numbers in rows and boxes without repeating numbers in either space. There are Easy, Medium and Difficult tiers to solve each day. In Pips, you have a grid of multicolored boxes. Each colored area represents a different 'condition' that you have to achieve. You have a number of dominoes that you have to spend filling in the grid. You must use every domino and achieve every condition properly to win. There are Easy, Medium and Difficult tiers. Here's an example (the Difficult-tier Tuesday, August 19th puzzle): As you can see, the grid has a bunch of symbols and numbers with each color. On the far left, the three purple squares must not equal one another (hence the equal sign crossed out). The two pink squares next to that must equal a total of 0. The zig-zagging blue squares all must equal one another. You can click on dominoes to rotate them, and will need to since they have to be rotated to fit where they belong. Not shown on this grid are other conditions, such as 'less than' or 'more than.' It varies by grid. Blank spaces can have anything. How I tackled this Pips was pretty straightforward. First, I looked for the blank dominoes. I knew that the pink squares equalling 0 had to use these. Since there were only two, I knew those dominoes had to be in those squares, though I wasn't sure how to fit them just yet. Next, I looked for the most common 'pip' count. I knew I had to have 6 of the same count for the blue boxes. Only the dominoes with 1 pip had enough to fulfill that condition. There was a domino with a 1 and a blank, so I put that in at the top left (the 1 in blue, the blank in pink). Then I put the domino with the blank and the 4 pips above it. Then I just filled in every blue square. The 1 and 3 clearly had to go where the green box was (3) and the 1 and 2 where the orange 2 was etc. The dominoes fell like, well, dominoes after that. Here's the filled-in grid: It's pretty fun! I like that it requires you to think logically and creatively at the same time. It's not just a visual puzzle or just a math puzzle, but a bit of both. It's a nice change from my usual word puzzles also. You can play Pips right here.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Wordle hints today for #1,521: Clues and answer for Monday, August 18
Hey, there! Welcome to the start of a new week. Here's hoping it's a terrific one for you. As ever, there's a new Wordle to solve today. For those looking for some help to figure out the mystery word, here's our daily Wordle guide with some hints and the answer for Monday's puzzle (#1,521). It may be that you're a Wordle newcomer and you're not completely sure how to play the game. We're here to help with that too. What is Wordle? Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. There is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone. Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats. The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 5.3 billion times in 2024. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily. How to play Wordle To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard. However, you can still use those letters in subsequent guesses. You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once. Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets and Discord. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. How to play Wordle more than once a day If you have a NYT subscription that includes full access to the publication's games, you don't have to stop after a single round of Wordle. You'll have access to an archive of more than 1,500 previous Wordle games. So if you're a relative newcomer, you'll be able to go back and catch up on previous editions. In addition, paid NYT Games members have access to a tool called the Wordle Bot. This can tell you how well you performed at each day's game. Previous Wordle answers Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed: Yesterday's Wordle answer for Sunday, August 17 — LOUSY Saturday, August 16 — MATTE Friday, August 15 — LEVEL Thursday, August 14 — KNELL Wednesday, August 13 — KEFIR Today's Wordle hints explained Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word. In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle. This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead. Today's Wordle help Here is a hint for today's Wordle answer: A topic of debate or an edition of a magazine or newspaper. Are there any double letters in today's Wordle? There is a pair of repeated letters in today's Wordle answer. What's the first letter of today's Wordle? The first letter of today's Wordle answer is I. The Wordle answer today This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No take-backs. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself. What is today's Wordle? Today's Wordle answer is... ISSUE Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Wordle hints today for #1,522: Clues and answer for Tuesday, August 19
Hey, there! We hope your week is off to a terrific start. One thing that can help with that is to extend your Wordle streak. Here's our daily Wordle guide with some hints and the answer for Tuesday's puzzle (#1,522). It may be that you're a Wordle newcomer and you're not completely sure how to play the game. We're here to help with that too. What is Wordle? Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. There is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone. Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats. The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 5.3 billion times in 2024. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily. How to play Wordle To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard. However, you can still use those letters in subsequent guesses. You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once. Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets and Discord. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. How to play Wordle more than once a day If you have a NYT subscription that includes full access to the publication's games, you don't have to stop after a single round of Wordle. You'll have access to an archive of more than 1,500 previous Wordle games. So if you're a relative newcomer, you'll be able to go back and catch up on previous editions. In addition, paid NYT Games members have access to a tool called the Wordle Bot. This can tell you how well you performed at each day's game. Previous Wordle answers Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed: Yesterday's Wordle answer for Monday, August 18 — ISSUE Sunday, August 17 — LOUSY Saturday, August 16 — MATTE Friday, August 15 — LEVEL Thursday, August 14 — KNELL Today's Wordle hints explained Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word. In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle. This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead. Today's Wordle help Here is a hint for today's Wordle answer: Like a wild party or Roddy Piper's nickname. Are there any double letters in today's Wordle? There are no repeated letters in today's Wordle answer. What's the first letter of today's Wordle? The first letter of today's Wordle answer is R. The Wordle answer today This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No take-backs. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself. What is today's Wordle? Today's Wordle answer is... ROWDY Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.
