There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! Under the Weather
Constructors: Olivia Mitra Framke & Sally Hoelscher
Editor: Amanda Rafkin
Comments from Today’s Crossword Constructor
Olivia: I’m always on the lookout for good crossword titles/revealers, and when a friend said they were feeling “Under the Weather” I quickly whipped together a theme based on it! What a great opportunity to represent one of my favorite gaming genres, with the farming sim SUN HAVEN. Also, I think RAIN CHECK is especially fun for this, since you might need to take one if you’re feeling “Under the Weather”! Happy to have Sally on board for this collab, as always. 💖
Sally: Olivia sent me this theme almost fully-formed. I’m grateful to her for looping me in, as it’s always a joy to collaborate with her.
Random Thoughts & Interesting Things
- ADHD (1A: “___ Is Awesome” (Penn and Kim Holderness book)) Penn and Kim Holderness are internet personalities known for their family-centered parodies and skits. They were also competitors on the 33rd season of The Amazing Race. (Spoiler alert: They won.) Penn Holderness has been open about having ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), often mentioning it in their videos. In 2024 Penn and Kim Holderness published the book ADHD Is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD.
- INNING (18A: Seventh-___ stretch) This clue feels timely for baseball season. Anybody stop and sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” when you came to this clue?
- AKA (29A: Kamala Khan ___ Ms. Marvel) In the Marvel Universe, Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel, is a Pakistani American teenager from New Jersey with shapeshifting abilities. She took over as Ms. Marvel when Carol Danvers became Captain Marvel. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kamala Khan is portrayed by Iman Vellani.
- GIRLS (33A: “This One’s for the ___” (Martina McBride hit)) This One’s for the GIRLS” is a 2003 song by Martina McBride. The song’s lyrics salute women of various ages, with the overarching message, “You’re beautiful the way you are.”
- ENYA (40A: Singer for whom an Orinoco River fish was named) The fish named after ENYA is Leporinus enyae, which was discovered in the Orinoco River drainage area in 2017. One of ENYA’s hits is “Orinoco Flow” (1988).
- SPORCLE (54A: Trivia quiz website) SPORCLE is a trivia website on which users can take quizzes on a range of subjects.
- PAW (57A: Feline foot) My cat, Willow, is showing off both of her front PAWs in this photo.
- PADDLE (67A: Dog ___ (simple swimming style)) I am not a strong swimmer, but I can dog PADDLE. Happy to get some dog representation in the puzzle for Olivia’s dog, Charlie.
- ECHO (68A: Marvel character portrayed by Alaqua Cox) The Marvel character ECHO, AKA Maya Lopez, has the ability to perfectly copy other people’s movements. Alaqua Cox portrays ECHO in the Disney+ miniseries Hawkeye (2021) and in the spin-off miniseries ECHO (2024).
- SKIP (71A: Bypass, like a speedrunner to a cutscene) A speedrunner is one who plays a video game with the goal of completing it as quickly as possible. To help achieve this goal, a speedrunner will SKIP a cutscene (a non-interactive sequence in a video game).
- AGO (1D: “A long time ___ in a galaxy far, far away…”) It’s an official Olivia and Sally collaboration: we worked in a Star Wars clue and a cat clue. Fun fact: In all but one of the Star Wars movies (Return of the Jedi), the opening crawl of the movie ends with a four-dot ellipsis (technically an ellipsis plus a period): “A long time AGO in a galaxy far, far away….”
- SPIDER (5D: Shelob or Charlotte) Shelob is the fictional giant SPIDER in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Shelob appears in The Two Towers (1954). Charlotte is the title SPIDER in E. B. White’s book, Charlotte’s Web (1952).
- IDIOM (8D: It’s raining cats and dogs,” e.g.) We thought this IDIOM paired nicely with the “Under the Weather” theme.
- SUN HAVEN (9D: Video game where players grow shimmeroot) SUN HAVEN is a farm sim video game. Players arrive in the town of SUN HAVEN, where they can farm, fish, and mine. Shimmeroot is a SUN HAVEN crop that players can plant. Shimmeroot can be harvested 14 days after planting, and the crop may be sold.
- MPG (10D: Irrelevant stat for EVs)The abbreviation EVs, standing for electric vehicles, alerts solvers that the answer will be an abbreviation, MPG for miles per gallon. Since EVs don’t use gas, MPG is an irrelevant stat.
- HEALS (11D: Drinks a red potion, in a Zelda game) This is a reference to The Legend of Zelda video game franchise. The original Legend of Zelda was released by Nintendo in 1986. In the games, a red potion HEALS and replenishes the Life Gauge.
- POLISH (47D: Language spoken by Iga Swiatek) IGA Świątek is a professional tennis player from Poland (where POLISH is the official language). She won the French Open in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and the U.S. Open in 2022.
- ROSES (55D: Flowers used in some parade floats) The ROSE Parade is held annually in Pasadena, California in conjunction with the ROSE Bowl college football game. Fun fact: The parade came first! The ROSE Parade began in 1890, and the football game was added in 1902 to help fund the parade. All of the floats in the parade are covered in natural materials; in addition to ROSES, seaweed, seeds, bark, vegetables, and nuts are used.
Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis
- HAIL MARY (3D: Desperation-mode football pass)
- SUN HAVEN (9D: Video game where players grow shimmeroot)
- RAIN CHECK (37D: “May I take a ___?” (“Another time?”))
- SNOW PEAS (41D: Veggies with edible pods)
UNDER THE WEATHER: The top word of each vertical theme answer is a WEATHER-related term. Therefore, the rest of each theme answer is UNDER THE WEATHER.
I hope you are not feeling UNDER THE WEATHER today! Because all four theme answers are relatively short (8 or 9 letters long), we took care while building this grid to make sure that the rest of the Down answers were shorter than 8 letters. We wanted to make sure it would (hopefully) be obvious which answers were theme answers. Thank you to Olivia for collaborating on this puzzle, and thanks to Amanda for great editing. Most importantly, thank you for solving!
Leave a Reply