Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Gone Fishing

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! Gone Fishing

Constructor: Matthew Stock

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Random Thoughts & Interesting Things

• BOCA (14A: ___ Raton, Florida) BOCA Raton, Florida is located in Palm Beach County, about 45 miles north of Miami. With coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, BOCA Raton is particularly known for its two mile stretch of lifeguard-protected beaches. BOCA Raton's motto is "A City for All Seasons."
• LION (18A: Pride Rock feline) and OCELOT (9D: Big cat whose diet includes iguanas) Pride Rock is a massive rock formation in the Disney movie, The LION King. It is where the animals gather to meet Simba, the young LION cub, at the beginning of the movie. The OCELOT is a medium-sized wild cat native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America. OCELOTs prey on smaller animals than their big cat cousins, and their diet can include rodents, armadillos, opossums, birds, and iguanas. I don't think my cat, Willow would know what to do if she met an iguana. She is, however, happy to see LION and OCELOT in today's puzzle.

• LANCE BASS (23A: Lowest-singing member of *NSYNC) *NSYNC is a boy band whose members are Justin Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, LANCE BASS, and JC Chasez. The group was active from 1995-2002, and reunited last year to release the song "Better Place," which appeared in the animated movie Trolls Band Together. Appropriately, *NSYNC member LANCE BASS sings BASS.
• ELLIE (27A: Singer Goulding) ELLIE Golding is a British singer and songwriter. Her fifth studio album, Higher Than Heaven, was released last year. We saw ELLIE GOLDING as a theme answer November 14, 2021.
• RED HERRING (34A: Piece of literary misdirection) The use of RED HERRINGs is a frequent technique in my favorite literary genre, cozy mystery.
• HUMP DAY (51A: Midweek observance) and GEICO (65A: Insurance company that once ran an ad with a camel celebrating 51-Across) This is a delightful pair of clues! The GEICO HUMP DAY commercial was part of a "Happier Than..." series of ads, and featured a camel walking through an office asking folks to guess the day. "How happy are folks that save hundreds of dollars by switching to GEICO?" "I'd say happier than a camel on Wednesday."
• KING (6D: Tallest chess piece) This is a fun fact to store away for a future trivia contest.
• CBS (7D: "Survivor" channel) The reality TV series, SURVIVOR, first aired in 2000. Each season, a group of strangers are placed in an isolated location, and must provide themselves with food and shelter, while competing in challenges. The 46th season of Survivor premiered in February of this year.
• ASIA (11D: Turkmenistan's continent) Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central ASIA. The capital of Turkmenistan is Ashgabat. ASIA is making its first appearance of the month today.
• RAIDED (20D: Invaded, like a Twitch stream) A feature of the live-streaming service Twitch is the ability to RAID another channel. Basically, a streamer sends their viewers to another Twitch channel. A RAID is a way to provide visibility to streamers and help boost the popularity of a channel.
• ELK (24D: Official state animal of Utah) The state mammal of Utah is the Rocky Mountain ELK, a subspecies of ELK found in mountain ranges of Western North America.
• CHER (26D: "If I Could Turn Back Time" singer) "If I Could Turn Back Time" is a 1989 song from CHER's nineteenth album, Heart of Stone. "If I could turn back time / If I could find a way / I'd take back those words that have hurt you / And you'd stay ..."
• SPLEEN (48D: Organ next to the stomach) In humans, the SPLEEN is located behind the stomach, in the upper left abdomen. The SPLEEN is part of the body's immune system. It filters the blood and removes old or damaged red blood cells, and stores a reserve portion of blood.
• KATE (56D: "Glass Onion" actress Hudson) Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a 2022 movie directed by Rian Johnson. As the full title of the movie suggests, it is a follow-up (same style, different story) to the 2019 movie, Knives Out. I adore both of these movies. They are excellent examples of my favorite movie genre, whodunits with a cast of quirky characters. In Glass Onion, KATE Hudson portrays Birdie Jay, a former supermodel turned fashion designer. Filming on a third Knives Out movie is set to begin later this year.

Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis

• LANCE BASS (23A: Lowest-singing member of *NSYNC)
• RED HERRING (34A: Piece of literary misdirection)
• HOLY MACKEREL (53A: "Good golly!")

The last word of each theme answer is a type of FISH: BASS, HERRING, and MACKEREL.

HOLY MACKEREL! It's a straightforward theme today with three excellent theme answers. In addition to the answers I've highlighted above, I also enjoyed COBBLER, PLAY MAT, and WHISKED. Thank you, Matthew, for this great puzzle.

For more on USA TODAY’s Crossword Puzzles

• USA TODAY’s Daily Crossword Puzzles
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