Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword, Look Behind You! (Freestyle)

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Look Behind You! (Freestyle)

Constructors: Lydia Roth & Christina Bodensiek

Editor: Jared Goudsmit

Comments from Today’s Crossword Constructor

Lydia & Christina: We are both thrilled to be making our USA Today crossword debut with this themeless! While this puzzle’s title focuses on reflecting on the past, we are very much looking ahead to many more good things to come (and we hope you are too!). Many thanks to Amanda and Jared for making this puzzle better in so many ways, and of course to Sally for being an amazing leader over at Lil AVCX as well as for tirelessly blogging these puzzles every day.

What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle

• EDAM (29A: Cheese in kaasstengels) Kaastengels are essentially cheese cookies, though they are savory instead of sweet like most cookies. Originating in the Netherlands, their name means "cheese sticks" in Dutch. Kasstengels may be made with EDAM, gouda, or cheddar cheese.
• ODE (11D: "___ to the Clothesline" (Kwame Dawes poem)) Kwame Dawes is a Ghanian poet and a professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also the editor-in-chief of the University of Nebraska's literary magazine, Prairie Schooner. You can read his poem, "ODE to the Clothesline," on the Poetry Foundation website.
• ESE (28D: Penguin___ ("Pingu" language)) I learned about the fictional penguin, Pingu, from the February 27, 2024 puzzle. Pingu is an animated children's TV series about a penguin and his family that originally aired in Switzerland in the 1990s. Today I learned about PenguinESE, the invented language used on the show. PenguinESE consists of babbling, muttering and sporadic honking.
• OCT (58D: Bat Appreciation Month (Abbr.)) Mark your calendars now so you don't forget to celebrate Bat Appreciation Month in October (OCT.). Bats are the only flying mammals. They are nocturnal, and they sleep while hanging upside down. I like bats because they eat a lot of bugs. (One bat may eat up to 1,000 bugs in an evening.) I do, however, prefer that bats live outside, and not in my house.

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• MOON (14A: One of 95 orbiting Jupiter) In addition to the 95 MOONs that are orbiting Jupiter, there are also a number of moonlets (small natural satellites) that orbit the planet. Jupiter's four largest MOONs are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These moons were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius. Hooray for science in the crossword!
• READ (15A: Enjoy a zine) A zine (short for magazine) is a small-circulation, self-published work. Zines often serve as a means of communication among subcultures, and their content may include fan fiction, poetry, political ideas, etc. Nowadays, there are fewer printed zines, as much of the content has moved online.
• FAB (25A: ___ Five (alliterative "Queer Eye" group)) The FAB Five is a nickname for the hosts of the reality TV series Queer Eye. The original version of the show, which aired from 2003 to 2007, featured the FAB Five of Ted Allen ("food and wine connoisseur"), Kyan Douglas ("grooming guru"), Thom Filicia ("Design Doctor"), Carson Kressley ("Fashion Savant"), and Jai Rodriguez ("Culture Vulture"). The 2018 revival of Queer Eye features a new FAB Five: Antoni Porowski ("Food and Wine"), Bobby Berk ("Design"), Jonathan Van Ness ("grooming"), Karamo Brown ("Culture and Lifestyle"), and Tan France ("Fashion"). Beginning with the ninth season, Jeremiah Brent will take over "Design" from Bobby Berk.
• ARMY (42A: Word after "BTS" or before "ant") The BTS ARMY is the name of the fan base for the K-pop group BTS. There are over 200 species of ant that are referred to as ARMY ant. These ants forage in groups, "marching" together in raids. ARMY ant colonies do not have a permanent nest, but instead are constantly on the move in search of food. A colony of ARMY ants can consume up to 500,000 prey animals (earthworms, larvae, and arthropods) each day.
• PEI (45A: Shar ___ (wrinkly dog breed)) The Shar PEI dog breed is known for its wrinkly skin and blue-black tongue. The breed originated from southern China, and are one of the oldest dog breeds.
• RHO (49A: Seventeenth Greek letter) Today's Greek alphabet review is brought to you by the letter RHO. The letter RHO follows pi, and comes before sigma. There's actually another Greek letter in today's grid, but it's not clued as the Greek letter. CHI is the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet.
• CDC (53A: Clean Hands Count org.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the national public health agency of the United States. Clean Hands Count is a CDC campaign that encourages people to wash their hands.
• COOKIES AND CREAM (60A: Dessert flavor that often incorporates Oreos) This is a fun clue. Technically, COOKIES AND CREAM could have any COOKIES in it. But from a practical standpoint, if a dessert is labeled COOKIES AND CREAM, it probably has Oreos in it.
• FEES (67A: Renters may be charged these for pets) On behalf of pets everywhere, my cat, Willow, registers a complaint against pet FEES. Speaking of pets, Lydia and Christina were kind enough to send a photo of their adorable cats, Winston and Huxley.

• ANYA (8D: "Furiosa" actress Taylor-Joy) The movie Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was released in May of this year. It is the fifth movie in the Mad Max franchise, and is a spin-off prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). The movie provides the origin story for the character Furiosa, portrayed by ANYA Taylor-Joy.
• LARA (10D: Tomb-raiding Croft) LARA Croft is the protagonist of the video game franchise Tomb Raider. We saw her full name in the puzzle three days ago.
• PAWN (24D: Chess piece captured "en passant") En passant, French for "in passing," is a special chess move in which a PAWN captures an enemy pawn that has just made a two-square advance (which a PAWN can do on its first move of the game). The attacking PAWN moves to the square the PAWN moved over, and captures the PAWN en passant. The existence of en passant is to ensure that the initial two-square move of a PAWN cannot be used to sneak past an enemy PAWN. (I am not an expert on chess, though I know how to play. If I've messed up this explanation, I'm sure my husband, who is an accomplished chess player, will let me know.)
• SNAP (34D: "Nice poem!" sound) A SNAP is used as a way to show appreciation at poetry slams, as SNAPs are less likely to distract the performer.
• TONI (46D: "Beloved" novelist Morrison)  Beloved is the 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by TONI Morrison that was adapted into a 1998 movie of the same name. 
• CHI (60D: Life force) CHI (also spelled ch'i or qi), a concept in East Asian culture, is considered to be the vital energy that animates all living beings. The concept of CHI is also important in Chinese martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine.
• SUE (61D: Olympic basketball player Bird) SUE Bird played for WNBA's Seattle Storm from 2002-2022. The Seattle Storm won four WNBA championships during Sue Bird's time on the team. Sue Bird was also a part of the USA Olympic team that won five gold medals. Since the Olympics are happening at the moment in Paris, France, here's an Olympic fun fact: SUE Bird and her partner, Megan Rapinoe, met at the 2016 Olympics in RIO de Janeiro. SUE Bird was on the USA women's basketball team, and Megan Rapinoe was on the USA women's soccer team.
• RIO (62D: Animated film set in Brazil) The 2011 animated movie, RIO, was set in RIO de Janeiro, Brazil. The movie is about a domesticated Spix's macaw (Blu, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) taken to RIO de Janeiro to mate with a female Spix's macaw (Jewel, voiced by Anne Hathaway).

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

• LOOK BEHIND YOU! (Freestyle): This is a freestyle, or themeless puzzle, so there's no theme today. However, the title is nodding at multiple clues in the grid:
  • REARVIEW MIRRORS (3D: They help drivers look back) REARVIEW MIRRORS make it easier to LOOK BEHIND YOU!
  • DOES A DOUBLE TAKE (6D: Reacts in surprise) Something surprising might cause you to do A DOUBLE TAKE and LOOK BEHIND YOU!
  • SEATBACK POCKETS (9D: Places to find flight safety handbooks) SEATBACK POCKETS are BEHIND YOU.
  • NEW FEAR UNLOCKED (39A: "I'm now quite scared of that") Depending on what the NEW FEAR is, it might cause you to LOOK BEHIND YOU!

This is my favorite kind of themeless puzzle. Although there's no specific theme, many of the answers are related, which gives the puzzle a lovely cohesive feel. All six of the grid-spanning answers today are excellent – the five I've already mentioned, and READY WHEN YOU ARE. Today we have a double debut! Congratulations to Lydia Roth and Christina Bodensiek, who are making their USA Today debuts! Thank you, Lydia and Christina, for this delightful puzzle.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

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