Saturday, November 14, 2026, Kareem Ayas and Brian Callahan

Saturday Themeless by Kareem Ayas and Brian Callahan

 

Kareem and his Siberian
Husky Kane

Kareem and Brian provided a lovely 18-minute walk in the park for me. It seemed I was on their wavelength all through the puzzle. The entire east filled and then I started up the west coast where the stack of 9's gave way for a nicely earned "got 'er done". Pinwheel stacks of 9's and 10's are always impressive and provide great help even with clever cluing.

Brian

Across:

1. Imitation game?: SIMON SAYS - A professional game (5:37)

10. Razzie Award adjective: WORST.

15. The masses: HOI POLLOI - Hoi (the) POLLI (many)

16. Japanese breed: AKITA.

17. Mark's words: IT'S A SETUP - Mark is capitalized because it is the first word in the sentence but the word is really referring to a dupe or mark who is being cheated.

George is a 
natural mark

18. Doesn't go deep: WADES.

19. Touch lightly: PAT.

20. Surface Pro rival: I PAD - The Surface Pro is big on NFL sidelines

 

21. Watch in astonishment: GAPE AT.

22. Place for drawing lots?: ART ROOM - Also useful for lots of drawings 😀

24. Tropical spot: ISLE - The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert ISLE
With Gilligan, the Skipper too... C'mon you know the lyrics.

25. Queen of the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy: PADME ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

28. Chinese coin: YUAN - In China, a Big Mac Combo Meal costs ¥35 CNY

30. Tarboosh, e.g.: HAT - More commonly known as a fez ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

31. Emerged: AROSE - From a poem that we will be hearing soon: Out on the lawn there AROSE such a clatter...

32. __ voce: SOTTO - I don't speak or sing softly

33. Make like: APE.

34. Part of many a Shaggy dog story, casually: SCOOB.

35. Calendar col.: TUE.

36. Hankook products: TIRES.

38. Sailor: TAR.

39. Eggy?: OVOID.

41. Do a virtual game night, say: E MEET - Anything electronic can use an "E" out front.

42. Big name in payroll processing: ADP.

43. Tab: BILL.

44. Whole to-dos?: TASKS.

45. Sniff out: SEEK.

47. Brimless topper: PILL BOX - Jackie's famous hat from that fateful day in 1963

The pink Chanel knock-off suit Jacqueline Kennedy wore on that historic day in Dallas in 1963 currently resides in an environmentally controlled storage facility in Maryland, complete with its blood stains. Banned from public display until 2103, the outfit is missing one important element - the matching pillbox hat. Mrs. Kennedy removed the hat at Parkland Hospital and it was last seen in the hands of Mary Gallagher, her personal secretary, but in the melee of the day, Gallagher nor anyone else recalls what happened to it after that.

50. Nods, maybe: AGREES.

52. __ ex machina: DEUS - A Latin phrase meaning "god from the machine: " referring to a plot device where an unsolvable storyline problem is abruptly solved by an unexpected, unlikely person, event, or object. 

53. Inflation no.: PSI - Tire pressure unit

56. Shone a light on?: LASED - The Moon gets LASED everyday from Earth. The beams bounce off reflectors left by Apollo astronauts and return to Earth. The round trip takes about 2.5 seconds and give the distance to the Moon down to a millimeter or about the thickness of a dime.

57. Screen name?: MOVIE STAR.

59. In the midst of: AMONG.

60. Cocktail party fare?: SMALL TALK.

61. Like osmium: DENSE.

 

62. Events such as crossword tournaments, endearingly: NERD FESTS - A lot of these participants are not even close to being NERDS

Down:

1. Root for romantically, in slang: SHIP - Another example of the modern convention of removing a syllable from a word: relationSHIP

2. Character in "Antigone"?: IOTA - There is no character named IOTA in the play but the word Antigone does have the letter/character IOTA in it.

3. Output from some handheld fans: MIST.

4. Vater of Vater, informally: OPA - In German, the father (Vater) of your father (Vater) can be affectionately called your grandfather (OPA).

5. Folksy denial: NO SIREE BOB.

6. Enjoyed a night out?: SLEPT 😀

7. Rite place: ALTAR.

8. "Let's just not get in each other's way": YOU DO YOU I'LL DO ME.

9. Savor, say: SIP.

10. East Coast market chain: WAWA.

11. Endangered mammal in Congolese rainforests: OKAPI.

12. Pool parties?: RIDE SHARES - I have SHARED RIDES in several carpools 

13. Eye on the sly: STEAL A PEEK.

14. Trying times?: TASTE TESTS.

21. Exam for a future financier, for short: GMAT.

22. Indignant response: AM SO.

23. Unmasked: OUTED - Not a good thing when someone does not wish to be OUTED

25. Bow ties that are not out of place at a picnic: PASTA SALAD 😀 My DW makes a great SALAD using bow tie PASTA.

26. Asteroids, for one: ARCADE GAME - These games saw a lot of quarters in their day.

27. Entry level position?: DOOR PERSON 😀 - Jerry's real life friend Larry Miller played a DOORMAN who gets into a confrontation with Jerry in Seinfeld 

29. "Dear future me ... ": NOTE TO SELF.

32. Skyy alternative: STOLI - Among others

37. "Oppenheimer" format: IMAX.

40. Big deals: VIPS - Some "VIPS "are not as big of a deal as they think

46. Some rugged water shoes: KEENS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

48. "Trivial Pursuit" host Burton: LEVAR.

49. Play with Lincoln Logs, say: BUILD - As kids, we got these and Tinker Toys because we could not afford an Erector set.

51. Advantage: EDGE.

53. Fundraising gps.: PTAS.

54. Sailor: SALT.

55. Gets hot: IRKS.

57. Web portal with a butterfly logo: MSN.

58. Office building div.: STE.

Friday, The 13th, 2026 ~ Stacey McCullough & Larry Snyder

SEWER ENTRANCE

Sō - er en TRANCE, not this . . .

Today we have a duet of previous LA Times crossword constructors; here's one from Stacey, and one from Larry.  Our Friday theme, not related to the "Thirteenth", is a play on words that could, but don't, rhyme - words that are spelled the same, but have a different pronunciations are called "Heteronyms".  Two grid-spanners in the over-sized 15 x 16 puzzle frame, no circles, no outlier letters, 2 Napoleons, a few quotes, a Twurd or two.  3- & 5LWs combined equal the number of four-letter words, plus a number of proper nouns, but fair ones.  The themers, no reveal;

18. Year of tears?: PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR - yeer of "tares"

The caption says "llamas at home", and in the bubble -

"Llook out Llary, it's the llandllord~!"

30. Show bow?: CURTAIN CALL - shō - bao

The Princess Bride

45. Kind of wind?: OCEAN BREEZE - kye-nd of wih-nd - a bit meh, since one would inherently read this as such - not kih-nd of wye-nd, or kye-nd of wye-nd . . . 

58. Power shower?: BATTERY INDICATOR - IMHO, the best of the bunch - pao-wer shōw-er

Butte Weight, Tare's Moor~!

ACROSS:

1. Chicago team: CUBS - Major League Baseball

5. Atmosphere: AURA

9. Put in the rearview mirror: GO PAST - you can go past fast if you go past fast

15. Still working: AT IT - Yes, I know it's parsed differently, but no way the previous editor lets this fly with "TIT" in the grid as well . . . 😖

16. Apple variety: iMAC - computers, not crisps

17. Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon: EROICA - 'Hero' in Italian

Napoleon #1

21. "Hoo boy": "OH MAMA~!" - oh, Twurd(ish)~!

22. Paleozoic, for one: ERA

23. Minor progress: DENT - i.e., "I made a ' _ _' in my to-do list today."

24. Little dickens: IMP

25. Pumpkin seeds: PEPITAS - filled via perps

Straight definition

28. __-bitsy: ITSY - teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini . . .

34. Pointillism bit: DOT - coulda been tied to 30D.

More about this painting style from this website

35. Ribs, e.g.: BONES

36. Ashram mentors: GURUS

37. Class with makeup tests?: ANATOMY - Meh. Cosmetology would have been funnier; anatomy is the study of internal and external structures that "make up" a body

39. Countertop option: FORMICA - I still have the one from the 1950s - a product now over 100yrs old

41. One who keeps on trekkin': HIKER

42. Quaint greeting: M'LADY - "It's a bit windy, M'lady . . ."

Our dear departed Queen Elizabeth can't look

44. Bird that may be rufous-naped, fire-capped, or black-bibbed: TIT - and a Wednesday dupe

48. Some postgrad degs.: PhDs - abbrs

49. Mixture: MELANGE - a meaty mouthful 

50. Poorly lit: DIM

51. Big personalities: EGOS

54. Do one's part: ACT - I prefer being behind the scenes - literally making the "scenes"

55. "You promise?": "HONEST~?" - Quote #1

62. "Shove it!": "BITE ME~!" - Quote #2

63. Outdated marriage vow word: OBEY

64. Flooring choice: TILE - I plan to redo my cheap linoleum kitchen floor with ceramic tile

65. Horse barn sounds: SNORTS

66. Gram: NANA - Grandmother nick-names

67. Solitaire foundation cards: ACES

DOWN:

1. Tool for a quick key change: CAPO - Hah~!  That kind of key change - nailed it.  

I say a Kay-po, You say a Cah-po - fits the theme, too - the other Capo

2. State whose license plates say "Life Elevated": UTAH - I lived in OHIO, so that four-letter state was out, and it definitely wasn't IOWA - but I couldn't recall this last four-letter one . . . and a Tuesday dupe

3. "You'll regret that": "BIG MISTAKE." - 10-letter Down, Quote #3 - and a unique fill, too 

4. Torrid: STEAMY - Dah~! I had stORmy first . . .

5. Opera mentioned in the 10,000 Maniacs song "Verdi Cries": AIDA - yada yada four-letter opera~?

6. Actress Thurman: UMA - Crossword three-letter name staple

7. Word with UV or X, but not W: RAY - Took me a minute, but a great clue/answer; UV-ray, X-ray

8. Learns to live with: ACCEPTS - ABIDES was a letter short

9. Frozen Italian desserts: GELATI - the Italian plural of gelatO

10. Mine find: ORE - More ORE~!  Every Friday, it seems - and a Thursday dupe 

11. High-grossing film?: POND SCUM - The disgusting, "gross", water-covering kind of "film" - and one of my favorite "Edgar" scenes from Men In Black

. . . as they scurry about, in short, pointless, lives . . . 

12. Staffer: AIDE

13. Read quickly: SCAN

14. Small pie: TART - I'm making fudge peanut-butter brownies for Thanksgiving 

19. Concert piece: AMP

The Grateful Dead's "wall of sound"

20. Opera solo: ARIA - opera #2

25. Dinky: PUNY

26. Before, once: ERE - we had palindrome on Tuesday

Napoleon #2

27. Spitting nails: ANGRY - not IRATE

28. Craters of the Moon locale: IDAHO - more here

29. Elixir: TONIC

30. Business extension: .COM - I actually had to think about this one; ".biz" was my first notion

31. Branch of mathematics: ARITHMETIC - the other 10-letter Down

32. __ dreaming: LUCID - I try to recall all the details of my dreams in the morning - the Wiki

33. Future DAs' exams: LSATs - District Attorney, Law School Admissions Test

35. Carried: BORNE - e.g., "wind-borne" sand

Jason Bourne sand

38. Semi pro?: TEAMSTER - Didn't fool me - I knew we were looking for a "rig driver", but that didn't fit - Teamsters is the "semi" truck-driving union, which includes UPS, e.g., where I was once a member

39. Put off one's game: FAZE - most of us are fazed by too many names in a crossword

40. Many a poem by Clint Smith: ODE - no clue, but yada yada three-letter poem~?

42. Bring up: MENTION - did I mention there were 18 3LWs today~?

43. Limb lifted in a développé: LEG - I can't believe I tried ARM first - I'm so ashamed . . . 

Frawnche #1, the ballet move, "unfolded"

46. Plays loudly: BLARES - Like one's stereo

Quiet Riot - "Cum on Feel the Noize" - 

the YouTube link

47. Somewhat blue: RACY - Ah. That kind of "blue"

48. One hanging around a party?: PIÑATA - Har-har

50. MS Word file: .DOC

51. Starts to peter out: EBBS - Dah~! not DIES

52. Profit: GAIN 

53. Inflatable pilot in "Airplane!": OTTO - Ah, the all-time best comedy movie~? 

Blazing saddles, Young Frankenstein are in the running, too

55. "Hey there!": "HI-YA~!" - I tried PSST first

56. Single: SOLE - Dah~! Not LONE, but 75% correct

57. "__ chic!": "TRES~!" - Frawnche #2

59. Vitals checker, briefly: EMT - Emergency Medical Technician, but I thought "RNs" was better

60. Org. for Suns and Rockets: NBA - Basketball from Phoenix & Houston - not NASA 😁

61. Guest room, in a pinch: DEN

Splynter

Grid Flow 52.4

 

 

Notes from C.C.:

Happy birthday to Big Easy (George), husband of Louisiana Tennis Hall of Famer Diane! Hope you have a wonderful birthday and a great year ahead, George!