Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Turn Up the Heat

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Turn Up the Heat

Constructor: Mike Graczyk

Editor: Anna Gundlach

What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle

• RAIDERS (57A: NFL team that moved from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020) The RAIDERS were founded in Oakland, California in 1960, and joined the NFL in 1970. The team's move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2020 marked the second time the team has moved from Oakland. The RAIDERS played in Los Angeles, California from 1982-1994 before moving back to Oakland in 1995. File this in the (almost) everything I know about sports I learned from crosswords category!

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• ROSS (1A: 1-Down's love interest on "Friends") and RACHEL (1D: 1-Across' love interest, on "Friends") This was a fun 1-Across / 1-Down pairing and an enjoyable way to start off the puzzle. Friends originally aired from 1994-2004, which means that it's been 20 years since the last episode aired! ROSS and RACHEL had an on-again-off-again relationship throughout the show's ten seasons.
• ATTA (14A: Chapati flour) ATTA is a wholemeal wheat flour. ATTA flour is used to make flatbreads such as chapati, roti, and naan. Because of the high gluten content of ATTA flour, dough made with it is strong and elastic, and can be rolled into thin sheets.
• OUR (23A: "___ Town" (Thornton Wilder play)) OUR Town, premiered in 1938. Thornton Wilder won a Pulitzer Prize for the play, the second of three Pulitzers for him. (He also won the Pulitzer Prize for The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942).) The 1988 Broadway revival of Our Town won a Tony Award for Best Revival. OUR Town is set in the theater where it is being performed during the years 1901-1913. The main character is the theater's Stage Manager, who narrates the play as well as playing some of the roles. The story follows the lives of the citizens of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. This clue is timely, as a revival of OUR Town opens on Broadway next month.
• ELI (24A: "One Night in Miami..." actor Goree) One Night in Miami (2020) is a movie about a fictionalized meeting of Malcolm X, Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke in a Miami hotel room in February 1964. The movie is directed by Regina King, and the screenplay was written by Kemp Powers, based on a play he wrote with the same name. ELI Goree plays the role of Muhammad Ali.
• DAE (27A: "Hawaii Five-0" actor Daniel ___ Kim) When I think of Hawaii Five-O, I think of the TV series that aired from 1968-1980. This clue, however, refers to the reboot of the series, Hawaii Five-0 that aired from 2010-2020. Fun fact: The reboot uses a zero at the end of the title, and the original series uses the letter O. Hawaii Five-0 (as Hawaii Five-O did before it) centers on the activities of a fictional state police task force. Daniel DAE Kim portrays Detective Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly, a role portrayed by Kam Fong in Hawaii Five-O.
• NILE (30A: River called "Iteru" in ancient Egypt) "Iteru" is the ancient Egyptian word for "river." The NILE flows north through Africa and into the Mediterranean Sea, passing through 11 countries: Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi.
• HOW'RE (40A: "___ ya doing?") and WHAT'S NEW (6D: "You been up to anything lately?") This puzzle would like to know "HOW'RE ya doing?" and "WHAT'S NEW?" Nice of this puzzle to give us a WARM WELCOME.
• MLK (50A: "Why We Can't Wait" author, for short) Why We Can't Wait is a 1964 book by Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK, for short). It includes MLK's "Letter From Birmingham Jail," and described 1963 as the beginning of "the Negro revolution." The book describes the power of nonviolent resistance.
• ELM (51A: National Mall tree) The National Mall is a landscaped park in Washington, D.C. that extends from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. ELM trees line the walkways of the National Mall. The National Park Service cares for the ELM trees (and other greenery in the park). Some of the ELM trees originally planted along the National Mall in the 1930s have succumbed to Dutch ELM disease, but one particular tree, named the Jefferson ELM, has proven to be resistant to the disease. The tree has been cloned to replace some of the affected ELMs.
• O'TOOLE (2D: "Lawrence of Arabia" actor Peter) Peter O'TOOLE (1932-2013) was a British stage and screen actor. The title role in the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia brought him international recognition and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He didn't win, however. In fact, from 1962 to 2006, Peter O'TOOLE received eight Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, but failed to win. In 2002, he was presented with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work that "provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters."
• ONE ACT (22D: Length of the musical "A Strange Loop") A Strange Loop is a ONE-ACT musical about a Black, queer writer (named Usher) writing a musical about a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer. The musical was written by Michael R. Jackson. A Strange Loop won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and a Tony Award for Best Musical.
• HAN SOLO (40D: "Star Wars" character frozen in carbonite) HAN SOLO and his first mate Chewbacca (a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk), first appear as smugglers in the first Star Wars (1977) movie, which was later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. HAN SOLO eventually joins the Rebel Alliance. Harrison Ford portrays HAN SOLO in the original movie, as well as in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Force Awakens (2015), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) It is in The Empire Strikes Back that Darth Vader freezes HAN SOLO in carbonite and gives him to Boba Fett. Return of the Jedi begins with HAN SOLO still frozen in carbonite a year later.
• PIRATE (47D: Make unauthorized copies of software) Whether it's on the seas or in the realm of software and movies, a PIRATE takes things that don't belong to them.
• LASSO (52D: "Ted ___" (Apple TV+ show)) On the Apple TV+ show Ted LASSO, Jason Sudeikis portrays the title character. Ted LASSO, an American college football coach, is hired to coach the fictional English soccer team AFC Richmond. The first three seasons of Ted LASSO aired from 2020-2023. In the last few days, there has been talk about a possible fourth season of Ted LASSO, although nothing has been confirmed.
• MIT (53D: Sch. with an annual Mystery Hunt) The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Each year, about 120 teams - comprised of 5 to 150 people each - compete in a puzzle hunt. A puzzle hunt is a series of puzzles linked together in some way, that when solved accomplishes an objective. In the case of the MIT puzzle hunt, the ultimate objective is to find a "coin" hidden on the MIT campus. The MIT Mystery Hunt is held in January, with each hunt being designed by the team that won the previous year.
• EMO (60D: Rainer Maria genre) I first learned about the EMO group, Rainer Maria, from the October 21, 2022 puzzle. Rainer Maria released their sixth studio album, S/T, in 2017.
• A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
  • EST (56A: More than just "-er")
  • YO-YOS (66A: Toys that have their ups and downs)
  • BOO (18D: "Look at how frightening I appear!")

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

• COOL BEANS (17A: "Neato!")
• WARM WELCOME (38A: Host's friendly reception)
• HOT STREAK (61A: Amazing string of wins)

TURN UP THE HEAT: The first word of each theme answer begins with a temperature descriptor, going from COOL to WARM to HOT.

I think this theme is clever. When I first read the title, the word "UP" led me to suspect that the theme might be found in the vertical answers. There was a nice, "Aha!" moment when I realized what was happening. I also really like all three of the theme answers. Congratulations to Mike Graczyk making a USA Today debut! Thank you, Mike, for this delightful puzzle.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

• USA TODAY’s Daily Crossword Puzzles
• Sudoku & Crossword Puzzle Answers