Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Walk the Plank

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Walk the Plank

Constructors: Sally Hoelscher & Olivia Mitra Framke

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Comments from Today’s Crossword Constructor

Sally: This puzzle came about because I wanted us to design a theme around the entry BOARDGAMEGEEK. Our first attempt at doing so resulted in us coming up with a puzzle (still in the publication process) that ended up not including our seed entry at all! I'm delighted we finally managed to include BOARDGAMEGEEK in a puzzle. Olivia and I always have a great deal of fun when we work together, and this puzzle was no exception. The content of this puzzle is a nice blend of our (occasionally overlapping) interests.

Olivia: It's always great to work with Sally! I love how our theme brainstorming sessions can sometimes start with a single seed entry that then blossoms into multiple puzzles ideas. I'm thrilled with the theme entries here, and just love this puzzle's whole vibe. Hope you enjoyed!

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• BOARDGAMEGEEK (19A: Site that reviews Everdell, Terra Mystica, Isle of Cats, etc.) Launched in January 2000 by Scott Alden and Derk Solko, BOARDGAMEGEEK has been an online forum for BOARD GAME GEEKs for nearly 25 years. The site maintains a database and provides reviews of BOARD GAMEs. Since 2006, they have awarded the best new BOARD GAMEs of the year with the Golden GEEK Award. As both Olivia and I are, in fact, BOARD GAME GEEKs, it was a challenge to decide which examples to include in this clue. We ended up each picking one of our favorite games – Everdell for me and TerraMystica for Olivia. Then we included Isle of Cats because we both like it. (Also, cats...)
• DOG (27A: Snoopy, for one) My sister is a huge Peanuts fan, so any mention of Snoopy reminds me of her. If Olivia's DOG were famous, we could have clued this as [Charlie, for one].

• CARDBOARD CUTOUT (37A: Lifesize standee of a beloved figure) I do not have a CARDBOARD CUTOUT of a beloved figure. My mom, however, has a CARDBOARD CUTOUT of Albert Pujols. She and my dad got it when Albert Pujols played for the St. Louis Cardinals. There have been multiple times when I have walked into the room and jumped a little bit thinking there was someone in the room! Olivia currently has a CARDBOARD CUTOUT of Anakin Skywalker, and when she was a teenager she had one of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• APE (41A: Mojo Jojo, e.g.) The Powerpuff Girls is an animated TV series and media franchise about Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, who are genetically engineered little girls with superpowers. Professor Utonium is a scientist, and the girls' father. An anthropomorphic chimpanzee named Jojo was Professor Utonium's lab assistant, but the same accident that gave the Powerpuff Girls their superpowers gave the APE super-intelligence. He is now Mojo Jojo, a mad scientist and the main antagonist of the Powerpuff Girls. 
• ODE (49A: "An ___ We Owe" (Amanda Gorman poem)) Amanda Gorman was the National Youth Poet Laureate from 2017-2018. In 2022, she read her poem, "An ODE We Owe," to the UN General Assembly. The poem is a call to action on the climate crisis, hunger and poverty, and gender and racial equity. You can read "An ODE We Owe" here, and listen to Amanda Gorman read it here.
• OBOE (51A: Instrument related to the cor anglais) The cor anglais (also known as the English horn) and the OBOE are both double-reed woodwind instruments. The cor anglais is about one and a half times the length of an OBOE.
• SONG (8D: "Jolene," for example) Dolly Parton released her classic country SONG, "Jolene," in 1973. "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / I'm begging of you, please / don't take my man..." The SONG has been covered by a number of artists, including Beyoncé in 2024. Beyoncé's version of "Jolene" changed the narrative a bit. ""Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / I'm warning you, don't come for my man..." About Beyoncé's version of the SONG, Dolly Parton said, "Beyoncé is giving that girl some trouble and she deserves it!"
• EAR (21D: Part of a cat that listens for prey (and can openers!)) Surprise, we managed to work in a cat reference! Willow's EARs are especially attuned to tuna packages opening (tuna!) and the recliner tilting back (a lap has been formed!).

• ORB (28D: Poke Ball, shape wise) In the Pokémon franchise, a Poké Ball is a spherical ORB with a red top half and a white lower half. The Poké Ball (as I understand it...) can be used to catch certain Pokémon. Poké Balls are used in the video games, and Nintendo also makes a Poké Ball you can hold in your hand and use to capture virtual Pokémon.
• ORC (30D: Playable race in "World of Warcraft") World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). When creating a new character in the game, the player selects the character's race – ORC, for example. Olivia adds: It's notable that ORCs are playable in this game rather than being grouped together with races that are only ever enemies in video games. In many franchises, ORCs are never playable, and just mindless enemies to be defeated. In Warcraft lore, ORCs have a rich backstory. If you're interested in the history of ORCs in video games, check out this great Eurogamer article.
• HRT (35D: Gender-affirming tx) HRT stands for hormone replacement therapy. The abbreviation of treatment (tx) in the clue alerts solvers that the answer will be an abbreviation.
• UWU (39D: Kawaii emoticon) "Kawaii" is a word borrowed from Japanese culture that is used to refer to something that is cute or adorable. UWU (sometimes stylized as UwU) is an emoticon used to convey cuteness. The U's represent closed eyes and the W represents a cat-like smile.
• TATOOINE (40D: Planet with pod racing) Oh, look a Star Wars reference! In the Star Wars franchise, the desert planet TATOOINE is the home planet of Luke Skywalker and his father, Anakin Skywalker. In the prequel trilogy, Anakin Skywalker takes part in pod races on TATOOINE. Scenes that took place on TATOOINE were filmed in Tunisia, Death Valley, California, and Yuma, Arizona.
• OREOS (53D: Cookies whose "Star Wars" edition has either red or blue creme) Oh, look, another Star Wars reference! Star Wars OREOS were released in June of this year. Each package of cookies either contains cookies imprinted with dark side characters (Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Jabba the Hut, Kylo Ren, etc.) and filled with red creme, or cookies imprinted with light side characters (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Yoda, R2-D2, etc.) and filled with blue creme. You don't know which version of the OREOS you're getting until you open the package.
• EDS (54D: Crossword VIPs) Crossword editors (EDS.) are the VIPs (very important persons) who put the finishing touches on a puzzle and get it ready for publication. Shoutout to Amanda, the VIP of this puzzle!
• OHIO (57D: State home to Cuyahoga Valley National Park) Cuyahoga Valley National Park is getting back-to-back shoutouts, as we also saw OHIO in yesterday's puzzle, clued as [Cuyahoga Valley's state].

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

• BOARDGAMEGEEK (19A: Site that reviews Everdell, Terra Mystic, Isle of Cats, etc.)
• CARDBOARD CUTOUT (37A: Lifesize standee of a beloved figure)
• GOES OVERBOARD (55A: Does way more than is necessary)

WALK THE PLANK: The word BOARD (a PLANK!) moves (WALKS, in a way) from left to right as the puzzle progresses.

There are a couple of things I especially enjoy about this puzzle. The first is the repetition of BOARD in each theme answer. Usually constructors work hard to avoid these kinds of dupes in a grid. In this puzzle, however, the duplication is part of the theme. The other thing that tickles me is the play between the title, WALK THE PLANK, and the last theme answer, GOES OVERBOARD. I hope you enjoyed solving this puzzle as much as Olivia and I enjoyed making it.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

• USA TODAY’s Daily Crossword Puzzles
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