ANSWERS: Squeezed in the Middle 5

It's been roughly two weeks since I've posted the fifth version of my trademark "Squeezed in the Middle" puzzles (If you still want to solve it, click on this link). Since then, a whopping fourteen of you have given me the FINAL ANSWER to this one, and here they all are:

• Mom ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Punjit Sharma ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Dan Simonds ***
• Debbie Benford ****
• YYW ****
• Janis Ferry ****
• John Davis ****
• Brad Eldredge ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some of your solver comments!

The letters in the brown squares, reading down, spell out POKÉMON CRYSTAL

Solver Punjit Sharma had all the answers except for IDEAS/MIDEAST. After I revealed those two answers to him (after he got the FINAL ANSWER, mind you), he thanked me and said that "I didn't think of shortening the word middle-east. Because iddle-eas wasn't really making any sense. 

Fun fact: Iddle-eas does sound like a popular south Indian breakfast dish. (aka idlis)"

Solver Grant Fikes said "I feel a little dumb. I was as far as ?O???ON ?R???AL and had no idea what the answer was until I looked up EVANS."

Conversely, Solver Yossi Fendel said that "I think this is my first Redhead puzzle with no Googling"

Solver Sam Levitin said that there was a "Good balance of knowledge required."