Charles Langston:Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, One Alarm (Freestyle)

There are Charles Langstonspoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! One Alarm (Freestyle)

Constructor: Rafael Musa

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle

• LONESTAR (43A: Country band whose members are all Texan) I was thankful for the hint in the clue about Texas, the LONE STAR state, as it enabled me to easily fill in the answer, even though I wasn't familiar with this band ... or at least I thought I wasn't. Every once in awhile, I think something in a puzzle is new to me, but when I look it up I discover I already knew it, or did at one time anyway. Such is the case with the band LONESTAR. The country band formed in 1992, and has had nine number one hits on the Billboard country singles charts. When I read the list of LONESTAR's songs, I realized some of them are familiar to me, including "I'm Already There" (2001) and "Amazed" (1999).

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• ASIAN (15A: Like people from Tibet or Taiwan) The Tibet Autonomous Region, often referred to simply as Tibet, is located in Southwest China. This East ASIAN region is the highest on Earth, with an average elevation of 14,000 feet. Mount Everest, Earth's highest peak, is located in Tibet. Taiwan is an East ASIAN island country located at the junction of the Pacific Ocean and the East and South China Seas. Taiwan consists of 168 islands. The capital of Taiwan is Taipei.
• EXPAT (20A: Person living abroad, for short) EXPAT is short for expatriate, a term used to refer to a person living outside their country of citizenship.
• PNW (23A: Region containing Washington and Oregon (Abbr.)) PNW here is an abbreviation for Pacific Northwest, a geographical region of North America. There's no official boundaries for the Pacific Northwest, but it's generally considered to include the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, as well as northern Idaho, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. The PNW includes the metropolitan areas of Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Vancouver, British Columbia.
• REID (34A: "American Pie" star Tara) American Pie is a 1999 coming-of-age movie about a group of teenage boys that make a pact to lose their virginity before high school graduation. The movie was the first in a series of American Pie films. Tara REID portrayed Vicky in the 1999 movie, and reprised the role in American Pie 2 (2001) and American Reunion (2012). Tara REID's other film credits include the role of April Wexler in six Sharknado movies.
• PARALYMPIC GAMES (37A: Sporting event with wheelchair tennis and sled hockey) This is a great grid-spanning entry. There are Summer PARALYMPIC GAMES and Winter PARALYMPIC GAMES, that are held shortly after the respective Olympic GAMES. The Summer PARALYMPIC GAMES includes the aforementioned wheelchair tennis, as well as wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, goalball (which I wrote about when it was a theme answer on March 17, 2023), and 18 other sports. The next Summer PARALYMPIC GAMES will be August 17-September 8 of this year in Paris, France. The Winter PARALYMPIC GAMES includes sled hockey, alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, para-snowboarding, and wheelchair curling. The next Winter PARALYMPIC GAMES will be in 2026 in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
• ANISE (40A: Spice similar to fennel) The seeds of the flowering plant ANISE are used as a spice. As the clue notes, the taste of ANISE is similar to that of the perennial herb fennel. Both ANISE and fennel have a taste similar to licorice. ANISE and fennel are ingredients used in the production of the distilled liquor absinthe.
• NILES (6D: "This Is Us" actor Fitch) This Is Us is a TV show that originally aired on NBC for six seasons, from 2016-2022. The show follows the lives of two parents (Jack and Rebecca) and their three children (Randall, Kate, and Kevin), whose stories are told from several different times in their lives. NILES Fitch portrays the teenage Randall.
• ACA (9D: 2010 healthcare legislation initials) President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law on March 23, 2010, and many of the law's provisions were put into place by 2014. It seems amazing to me that it has already been 14 years since the ACA became law.
• PALO (37D: ___ Alto, California) PALO Alto, California is in the San Francisco Bay area. PALO Alto means "tall stick" in Spanish. One of my favorite fun facts is that the city of PALO Alto is named after a specific coastal redwood tree called El PALO Alto.
• HARAM (49D: Opposite of halal) In Islam, HARAM designates foods that are forbidden, while halal refers to foods that are permissible to eat. Although the terms are often used in reference to Islamic dietary laws, their meaning can be expanded to refer to actions or the use of other items such as pharmaceuticals.
• TRI (61D: ___-state area) TRI-state area is an informal term used to describe a number of places in the United States. For example, the New York TRI-state area includes parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The Chicago TRI-state area includes northeast Illinois, northwest Indiana, and southeast Wisconsin. For a couple of years after we were married, my husband and I lived in the Fort Madison-Keokuk TRI-state area, which encompasses parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. Although the U.S. has many TRI-state areas, there's only one place where the boundaries of four U.S. states meet. The area known appropriately as Four Corners is the region where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet.

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

No theme today. This is a freestyle, or themeless, puzzle. ONE ALARM is a nod to MILD SALSA (17A: Not-too-spicy taco add-on).

In a themed puzzle, the title serves as a revealer, alerting a solver to the puzzle's theme, which usually involves three to five of the puzzles longest answers. In a freestyle, or themeless puzzle, there isn't necessarily a connection between any of the crossword's answers. In this case, the title will usually be related to one of the puzzle's answers, as we see today with ONE ALARM and MILD SALSA. The descriptor "five ALARM" is sometimes used to describe extra spicy food. MILD SALSA, therefore, could be described as ONE ALARM SALSA. In addition to the answers I've already highlighted, I also enjoyed DARTBOARD, WENT AWRY, TRANS WOMAN, MARINE LIFE, and I NAILED IT. Thank you, Rafa, for this excellent puzzle.

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