Crossword Blog and Answers for January 20, 2025 by Sally Hoelscher

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to fix it today's puzzle before you read on! Boogie down

Constructor: Lindsay Rosenblum

Editor: Anna Gundlach

Random thoughts and interesting things

• NIA (7A: “Little Woods” director DaCosta) In addition to directing Small forestsher directorial debut, NIA DaCosta also wrote the 2018 film. Small forests Set in Little Woods, North Dakota, it tells the story of two estranged sisters after the death of their mother. At the Tribeca Film Festival the film won the Nora Ephron Prize (awarded to a female filmmaker with a distinctive voice).
• CELL (14A: The mitochondria are its powerhouse) The phrase “the powerhouse of the CELL” as a description of the mitochondria was coined by cell biologist Philip Siekevitz in a 1957 article. Mitochondria are given this nickname because they take up glucose and oxygen and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a source of chemical energy for CELLs. More recently, the phrase “the mitochondria the powerhouse of the CELL” has become a meme. The phrase is usually 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.
• HOLA HOOP (17A: 1950s fad toy) Although the modern plastic HOLA HOOP was introduced in 1958 by the toy company Wham-O, 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 have to check the cross-reference here to know that the answer to 26-Across was favorite crossword puzzle cookies? Or did you confidently fill out OREOS and then pat yourself on the back when you saw that the answer to 37-Down was CREME?
• PONG (31A: Atari's 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 is always a pleasure to see mathematician and computer programmer ADA Lovelace (1815-1852) in the puzzle. She is considered 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 have a computer in our pockets.
• MAD LIB (33A: Crazy Fill-In Story) To celebrate this answer, I created a short MAD LIB that you can play with your friends. Ask your friends to give you the parts of speech in parentheses, and then fill in the blanks to make your sentence: The ___ (adjective) solver said, “___ (exclamation point)! That ___ (adjective) crossword was so ___ (adjective), I could have used a ___ (noun) to solve it.”
• FENCE (36A: Use an epee, saber or foil) If your only exposure to fencing is through crossword puzzles, you might think that the only sword used in FENCING is the epee, since that four-letter word with three E's quite useful to crossword constructors. However, there are two other swords used in fencing: the saber and the foil. Most people who FENCE competitively specialize in one of three disciplines.
• 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 films in theSCREAMfranchise. The films have a creative title SCREAM (1996), SCREAM 2 (1997), SHOUT 3 (2000), SCREAM 4 (2011), SCREAM (2022), and SHOUT VI (2023). A seventh film SCREAM 7 is scheduled for next year. There is also a TV series in the franchise: SCREAM: The TV series (2015-2019). Ghostface is not one particular character, but rather a series of killers who use a Ghostface mask (a white mask with a haunted expression) as they stalk their victims.
• PLEASE (52A: Request that “beautiful”) The quotes around the word beautiful in the clue indicate that the word itself can be linked to the answer. In this case, that results in the phrase “pretty PLEASE.”
• LARA (61A: Tomb raider Croft) LARA Croft is the main character of the video game franchiseGrave robber.
• RIH (3D: singer's nickname “Disturbia”) “Disruption” is a 2008 song by Rihanna, whose nicknames are RIH and Riri. The song is on Rihanna's album, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloadeda reissue 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 from FASHION. SINCE 2017, TEEN VOGUE has been an online publication only. Besides fashion and beauty, TEEN VOGUE also covers politics, social issues and current affairs.
• ACROSS (5D: Unlike this answer, directional) I'm a fan of a self-referential answer, and this is a nice 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 film 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.
• LADIES (25D: Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, for example) These two LADIES have both had great careers on stage and screen. Fun fact: their birthdays are only 19 days apart. DAME Judi Dench made her first professional stage appearance in 1957 as Ophelia Hamlet. DAME Maggie Smith (1934-2024) made her stage debut as Viola in Twelfth night.
• ERIE (50D: Native 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, war 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 makes its first appearance today in 2025.
• ABBA (53D: “Fernando” group) Speaking of crossword friends, ABBA appears today for the third time this year. The song “Fernando” was originally released as a solo single in 1975 by ABBA band member Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group recorded their version of “Fernando” a year later. “Fernando” was one of the group's best-selling singles.
• ENG (58D: one of the official languages ​​of Singapore (abbreviated)) Singapore is an island nation in Southeast Asia. The official languages ​​of Singapore are English (ENG.), Malay, Mandarin and Tamil.