Themeless Saturday by Rafael Musa & Geoffrey Schorkopf
I had these collaborators on September 6, 2025 and had much more luck with that puzzle than I did with this one. I had to get help on a few cells and had an honest-to-goodness Natick at IRE_A/A_AND. The cluing left me out in the dark and some of the fill were not in my vocabulary. All in all it was a slog for this solver and came in the "close but no cigar" category.
As the graphic shows, Rafael (A software engineer for Airbnb in S.F.) and Geoffrey (a software engineer at Fastly in Atlanta) had a lot of unique fill. The gentlemen had 104 open squares and only 28 blocks.
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| Rafael |
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| Geoffrey |
1. Emerge from the ashes, say: RISE AGAIN - Until last year, Indiana Unverstiy's football team had more losses (over 700) than another college program. But with the hire of coach Curt Cignetti they went to 16 - 0 and won the National Championship in 2026.
10. Violin stroke: UPBOW - We guitar players often use an upstrum stroke
15. Mammal with a protective shell: ARMADILLO - This easy 9-letter fill portended an easier solve than it turned out to be
16. Letizia, por ejemplo: REINA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I didn't even know Spain had a King and Queen and no idea what the Spanish word for a queen was either.
17. Drafty places?: BEER HALLS 😀 Perhaps the most famous BEER HALL was the Löwenbrau's Bürgerbräukeller in Munich where in 1923 Hitler attempted his famous putsch to oust the Weimar Republic.
18. 17-Across option: LAGER - Löwenbrau certainly made a LAGER beer even then
19. "Winners Take All" author Giridharadas: ANAND ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and 2. Polish humanitarian Sendler: IRENA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The makings of my Natick.
20. Wife of Osiris: ISIS.
22. Drooping: LIMP.
23. Sea dogs: TARS.
24. Caterpillar counterparts: DEERES - This John DEERE starts at $1.2M before options
26. Dandy: FOP.
27. Following a pattern, perhaps: ORDERLY.
28. "Sorry, did I overshare?": TMI.
29. End one's Dry January, say: IMBIBE.
33. Rational process?: MEAL PREP - Rational meal prep combines smart planning (stocking up, mapping meals, focusing on protein/leftovers) with efficient cooking, often using technology.
35. Demeanors: MIENS - I see MIEN and its lovely vowels here more often than anywhere else
36. Potential reward for a top-seeded team: BYE - The top four rated teams get a BYE in the first round of the College Football Playoffs. In the last two years those teams with a week off have a 1 - 7 record.
37. Danish fruit: PRUNE 😀 - That is only one filling option for the pastry known as a danish. They are so named because Danish bakers brought them to America. In Denmark they were known as wienerbrød (Vienna Bread).
38. They may trick or treat?: PLACEBOS 😀
40. Excel at another company?: SHEETS 😀
41. Guitar legend Paul: LES.
42. Tangy ramen toppers: SOY EGGS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
44. NYC setting: EST.
45. Fill a flat?: SUBLET - 😀 I abandoned any use of the word air quickly
46. The "A" of NATO: ALFA - Putting AMER first did not help. Once I changed that mistake the whole SE corner filled in.
50. Note givers: ATMS.
52. First U.S. president to own a car: TAFT -The 1909 Model M is at the Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
53. Clear as day: PLAIN.
54. Like a flue: SOOTY.
56. "I'm dead serious!": NO FOOLING.
58. Over: ENDED.
59. Parts in two?: DUAL ROLES - I had a huge crush on Haley Mills in her DUAL ROLES in 1961
54. Like a flue: SOOTY.
56. "I'm dead serious!": NO FOOLING.
58. Over: ENDED.
59. Parts in two?: DUAL ROLES - I had a huge crush on Haley Mills in her DUAL ROLES in 1961
61. Works outside?: STREET ART - Works is a noun here. ART came first in the fill for me.
Down:
1. North African capital: RABAT - Casablanca was the movie but RABAT is the capital of Morocco. Anyone else put Cairo first?
3. Bad mark: SMEAR.
4. Brings in: EARNS.
5. Med. condition treated with Vyvanse: ADHD.
6. "The Last Showgirl" director Coppola: GIA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
7. Together: ALLIED.
8. Comment after a bad joke: I'LL SEE MYSELF OUT 😀
9. Folksy denial: NO SIRREE.
10. Short address: URL.
11. Toll: PEAL 😀
12. "That would break the internet!": BIG IF TRUE 😀 If Abe had really said this...
13. "Be right with you": ONE MOMENT.
14. Mario Bros. transports: WARP PIPES ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
21. Ward in movies: SELA - How old am I? I put Ward BOND first.
24. Beats by __: DRE
25. Spirits of the air: SYLPHS.
27. Go deep, say: OBSESS.
29. "That makes me happy": I'M PLEASED.
30. Solid foods for a baby, e.g.: MILESTONE - The "potty trained" MILESTONE is monumental!
31. Competitive athletic state, colloquially: BEAST MODE - We had this a few Saturdays ago.
32. Business end?: INC.
34. School opening?: PRE.
36. Focus of the 2024 miniseries "Dirty Pop": BOY BANDS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
34. School opening?: PRE.
36. Focus of the 2024 miniseries "Dirty Pop": BOY BANDS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
40. Mil. rank: SGT - I had to muster out CPL, CAP and COL
43. Win at life: GET FAR.
46. Divvy up: ALLOT - The end of every family get together is the "divvy up" session for leftovers
47. Boxer Ali: LAILA - Here with dad.
48. Less coarse: FINER.
49. Inner turmoil: ANGST.
51. Academic acronym: STEM.
53. Toner target: PORE.
55. Passing concern, for short?: YDS - I, uh, passed on INT and TDS
57. Estádio do Maracanã cheer: OLE - The Estádio do Maracanã stadium is in Rio and OLE celebrates soccer goals rather than bull fighting success.
40 comments:
Well, I got it.
Although there are still a few things I don’t understand. I’ll say more a little later on.
TTYL!
Thank you, Rafael, and Geoffery.
I love a good themeless. At first glance, with only 28 black squares, this one looked pretty wide open. And somewhat daunting. Solved it unaided in good time so I'M PLEASED. I loved the clue for PLACEBOS.
The early gridspanner I'LL SEE MYSELF OUT was enough to get on a roll. Dash T has written that expression many times here after one of his jokes.*
A few minor problems slowed me down. I had moMS for note givers at 50A. I misspelled OBSESS. At the Excel clue, my first thought was a spreadsheet program, but I use Libre Office and needed perps to get SHEETS.
The NE block caused a bit of uncertainty in that I might not be able to ace the test. Mainly with WARP and REINA. I very seldom played arcade games or other video games, but am somewhat aware of things like Pacman and the Mario Bros.
* A grasshopper walks into a bar,
Bar keep says, "Hey, we gotta drink named after you..."
Grasshopper says, "You have a drink named Bob?"
I'll see myself out. Time to read HG's review.
ANAND is a first name here? I went with N at ANAND x IRENA because IRENA looked the most name-like out of all the options, and I know an ANAND (chess grandmaster and former world champion, with ANAND as his last name).
Is "rational MEAL PREP" a thing? Google doesn't give many results and I didn't see the full phrase. I believe the "rational" in the clue is meant to refer to "rations".
Lots of great long fills, including the spanner. WARP PIPES was a gimme for me, but I can see it being pretty tricky for some. Knowing that the Mario Bros. are plumbers helps with PIPES.
Pretty average "?" clues overall (and way too many, as per usual) but the clue on PLACEBOS stands out.
Thank you HG. I think you may have had an off day when you solved this one.
I did pause at IRENA and ANAND just because I hadn't heard of either person. Not a long pause. There are a lot of Poles in Chicagoland. IRENA is a common Polish name. I figured that Giridharadas was an Indian name, and I think I've seen ANAND before. So the N went in.
- Yes, and now Northwestern holds the dubious honor after Cignetti's masterful reign at IU over the last two seasons. I heard it on PTI. Tony Kornheiser was giving Mike Wilbon the business about that. Their back and forth banter is enjoyable.
- I "rationed" too many potatoes for my pot roast yesterday. :>) They'll be excellent as leftovers today or tomorrow.
- STREET ART. Banksy came to mind with that one. His work has been in the news again lately.
- GIA perped in. Don't know of her, but Francis Ford comes to mind.
- The consecutive clues at 32D (Business end) and 34D (School opening) both had a possible answer of ESS. Today, neither did.
- With the A from ALFA, 49D could have been either Agita or ANGST. PLAIN dictated the latter.
Take two:
FIR! Me! Saturday! Make that two Saturdays in a row, a first for me. However, breweries->BEER HALLS, reaps->EARNS, united->ALLIED, selphs->SYLPHS, and int->YDS.
CSO to our Phoenician contingent @ "emerge from the ashes, say."
I'm sure that our medical professionals here in the corner already know this, but if you accidentally OD on Viagra, there's a sure cure. Put a piece of gravel in your shoe. Makes you LIMP.
I just bought a couple of long-sleeved tee shirts emblazoned with DEERE and their famous logo. Don't know why Costco had them, but they are very comfortable and a great base layer for this morning's freezing temperatures and the even colder days ahead.
FLN - Monkey, I Googled "gut course" and Marriam-Webster says "a course (as in college) that is easily passed." It's been around since 1948. Ultimate Lexicon's web site gave this example: "When scheduling her next semester’s courses, Jenna decided to enroll in Art History 101. Known as a gut course among students, it promised a welcome reprieve from her demanding pre-med classes. Though she knew the term “gut course” might make the class sound unserious, she appreciated the opportunity for an “easy A” that would help bolster her overall GPA without adding substantial stress to her workload." I'm simpler - it's like Lucina taking Spanish 101.
Thanks to Rafael and Geoffrey for the Saturday special that even I was able to solve. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review.
Very close but no cigar today. I couldn't get the area in the middle SOY EGGS, PLACEBOS, BOY BANDS (both unknown), SUBLET, and BOUT. Tried BADLANDS and RERENT but BOUT was never a thought for 'spell'.
But I'M PLEASED I got the rest, even guessing the cross of two foreign unknowns IRENA & ANAND. GIA was perps.
Google SHEETS- I gave up on EXCEL years ago.
PTSD or ADHD- guessed correctly on that one. Vyvanse was unknown.
WARP PIPES- that unknown took all perps; new to me. I haven't played any video games since Asteroids, Space Invaders and PacMan. I was never any good at any of them and didn't want to waste the quarters to play.
And with those comments, I'LL SEE MYSELF OUT.
I'd never heard the term 'gut course' either. I think those type of courses originally had two purposes. Music appreciation, Health,...etc.
1. To make sure the student's GPA was at least a 2.0 to keep from getting kicked out.
2. To keep a professor employed
Good Morning:
Congrats to all the hardy souls who completed this puzzle. After spending a lot of time trying to gain traction, I was still facing a great white expanse, so I TITT and resorted to red letter help. There were too many unknowns (to me) and too many vague clues (to me), which led to a frustrating and unrewarding solving experience.
Thanks, Rafael and Geoffrey, and thanks, HG, for the review and commentary. You and I sort of had the same experience, except I believe you fared better than I, over all.
Have a great day.
My Naticks were the same as some others, ILE__A/ANA__D, my last blank and did an a-run in my head to successfully WAG the N for the congratulatory message in 27:02, better than my average Saturday. Also in that NW area, needed perps for the unknown GIA. Other DNKs included REINA, SOY EGGS, BOY BANDS, and WARP PIPES (which looked wrong, shouldn’t it be WARP(ED)? BIG IF TRUE sounds made up by the constructors, as a lie can also break the internet. Great clues for PLACEBOS and SUB LET. A fun themeless, thanks for the challenge Rafael and Geoffrey, and to HG for your informative synopsis.
FIW. The crossing of dual roles and pore did me in. I had to take more than a few WAG's throughout this puzzle and one was wrong.
The crossing of proper names, of which there were way too many today, is in my mind a no-no. I give you Irena and Anand for example. That is unfair.
So overall this was definitely NOT an enjoyable puzzle.
Another red letter whack a vowel day. I was just happy to get (more than) a few AHA moments...
Rafael Musa has been one of those challenging Saturday constructors some of us dread, and this one was suitably difficult.
Thanks to BEAST MODE, I completed the SW quickly, but ARMADILLO was my first entry and paved the way for me in the NW. I guessed correctly that TAFT was the first-car president but struggled with the ramen topper. I also lucked out on SYLPHS.
I’LL SEE MYSELF OUT is kind of a non-sequitur, although understandable in context, and it held me up quite a while. BIG IF TRUE was another difficult vertical. UP BOW eluded me until near the end. I knew REINA but I think that’s too deep a Spanish word unless you speak Spanish.
I needed perps for WARP PIPES, and the three horizontal entries in the SE corner were all kind of clunky, but eventually perps helped me find SHEETS. I could tell it was some other company’s version of the Microsoft spreadsheet app, but I didn’t know of any.
But I did FIR.
Rafael and Geoffrey's challenge today showed craftsmanship in construction, less so in the fill, I think. I was impressed by those great gobs of white in the corners, where the boys somehow managed to get stacked triple 9's in all four corners. And of course the vertical grid-spanner that was the feature of the center.
But the fill to me proved a bit unsatisfactory in places. For example, BIGIFTRUE may be "in the language" from the standpoint of crosswords, but I've never used it. And occasionally today's cluing crossed the line from misdirection to misleading. The "A" of NATO stands for Atlantic. ALFA is from their alphabet, not from NATO per se.
Back to the puzzle's construction, with its impressively paltry 28 black squares. I wonder how often anyone has come up with a 15 x 15 puzzle that has only 23 (or fewer) black squares. That would be a MILESTONE: it would be 90% white.
Thanks, Geoffrey and Rafael, for your hard work. And thanks, Gary, for another fine recap.
To ration could also be a verb meaning to allot. Your rations are your allocations. And meal prep, they're rationing it out in advance
Oops. 22 or fewer black squares are needed, not 23.
What I couldn’t find, and I don’t think anyone knows, is where the expression comes from. Only conjectures.
Not very close and no cigar for me.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who knew the A of NATO had to be ATLAntic. That threw the SE off for me.
I was hoping for better from Rafa. Vyvanse, SYLPHS, REINA, ANAND, SELA, WARP PIPES . . . he’s capable of better than that. Unfortunately, a good walk spoiled by way too much arcana. Some of that stuff doesn’t even qualify as trivia. It’s basically just slop. So many ways to clue ADHD - a little more respect for your solvers is in order without resorting to Vyvanse. The potential was definitely there for an awesome grid. Too bad.
About 75% completed then TITT. The below zero weather outside has iced up my noodle. Yeah that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it (like a tongue to a frozen metal pole.) Cooties to you who finished. Sorry I meant KUDOS
Saturday clues are expected to be Klever, Konvoluted and Kryptic but these were over the top. Inkovers: Cairo/RABAT, ATLA/ALFA (not alpha?)
A Natick with IRENA and ANAND but IRENA sounds Polish so.
BYE? What does it stand for? Never heard of Google SHEETS. SOY EGGS? Do they come from Tofu Chickens?
Could only think of lease for the “flat” clue. BIGIFTRUE: is this a thing/saying?
“Ward of movies” Most constructers are not old enough to know Bond. That’s why the answer is always SELA
Rafael you spell your name wrong.
Finally hit Zero degrees 🔥🥵
So many unknowns for me. Some, perps revealed and some I looked upWARP PIPES, BOY BANDS, IRENA, ANAND. Never heard of SOY EGGS to top Ramen noodles. BOUT was scraping the barrel.
There were some fiendishly clever clues like the ones for PLACEBOS, MEAL PREP, STREET ART. All in all, a typical mind bending Saturday puzzle.
Thank you HG for your review. You’re brave. You get all the tough ones.
Well, I got it, but not without “red letter”
help. So I was more like Irish Miss than I was like Jinx or others that solved it WITHOUT help.
That’s my story today.
Now you know.
11:20 for me. Really enjoyable puzzle. Best Saturday in a long time.
I assume everyone started there and only moved on after frustration set in?!
FIR - but a slog in the NE! Took awhile for lager to finally help me out although that should have been easy once beer halls was in place but I was trying pales for pale ales! Also tried Im blessed before being pleased. Not familiar with soy eggs, irena, anand, Reina, big if true, or warp pipes - but I did know they were plumbers! I do my crossword on a physical paper so not familiar with red letters (or naticks for that matter). Certainly a good challenge - even better if we could get rid of a couple more not well known proper names!
We called Easy A courses "gut' courses - that was in the 70s but I don't remember why. The term wasn't used by my kids, so it went out somewhere in between. Everyone had to take a variety of science/math, humanities, and social science courses to have a liberal arts degree. I remember my freshman roommate was an English major and she took gut courses like "Physics for Poets", Astronomy, and the always popular Human Sexuality to fulfill those requirements
TAFT was a pretty easy guess for me. Polk was too early, and Ford and Bush too late. (Actually, I forgot about Polk, but rejected Ford and Bush.)
No way, today. Had to finally TITT with only about half the squares filled. Way too much obscure A&E, and clues that made no sense. (To me, at least!) Too many ? Paraphrase items...BIG IF TRUE made no sense, either. How are these even considered "clues"? Then clues which were just plain wrong, like the A in NATO, which is ATLANTIC. The A in the Nato ALPHABET is ALFA, OR ALPHA (as I learned it.) I realize that Saturday puzzles are supposed to be tough, but this was just frustrating. Even after HG 'splained things I found very little to enjoy on this one.
It pays to shop around. Those Beats Studio 3's are available for $149 at Best Buy. Nice write up.
This was a challenge but fun solve. Started off with 1D - and until that moment didn't know that there are 3 North African capital cities that are 5 letters: Cairo, Tunis, and RABAT so waited for perps
Thought the ashes would have a reference to a Phoenix the bird that rises from the ashes but it was the much easier just RISE AGAIN which got the RABAT to fill
Only vehicle I knew of for Mario was a kart - so ESP to get to WARP PIPES
I'm with TTP and Ray-O on the IRENA fill being a common Polish name even though I didn't know the person named and a friend's SIL is ANAND so the N worked for both
I like SOY EGGS - easy to make and I knew they were common in Asian fare so not much of a leap to put them on ramen
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/soy-marinated-eggs
Around here people are quite loyal to their DEERE vs Caterpillar vs International Harvester farm equipment - just like in cars the international manufacturers like Kubota have made inroads
Thanks Gary for the interesting blog and to Rafael and Geoffrey for the puzzle.
We're at 6 degrees F with a WC of -7 and the snow is coming down that is supposed to stop tomorrow - I'll probably end up reading and doing more crosswords this weekend. Nice to be retired as my DH doesn't have to figure out whether to have church tomorrow or not and I don't have to figure out how I'm getting to the hospital or office to see patients!
I studied engineering in the 70s, and there were no guts in my curriculum.
Has anyone ever used that term RATIONAL MEAL PREP? Can someone explain what RATIONAL means in this case?
Rations?
Lots of starts and stops with a few whooshes, but still FIW because of those now famous names in the NW. Still not a bad Saturday outing from Rafael & Geoffrey.
My first Ward thought was Burt, who filmed a Batman movie in addition to the TV show.
Good luck to all the folks up north. My brother from Iowa is down for my son's wedding and they are happy that it's 80 in S. Fla. today.
Were heading of for pho tonight, and SOY EGGS are a common add similar to on ramen.
Super write-up as always, HG.
I think this was answered by an Anon. @ 10:16 (Who are all these anonymous people? I would be nice to put a name to them. Don't worry, we won't spam your inbox!) Use ration in a verb sense, as to portion out.
28 blocks in a 15x15 grid is slightly below the (NYT) Saturday average of 31. So it is low, but not the lowest. This one just "looks" wide open.
The record lowest amount of black squares in a 15x15 grid is 17 by Joe Krozel on Friday, July 27, 2012. Jim Horne noted it as the most famous of the crossword records.
Another tidbit... There are about 95 15x15 grids with a block count of 24 or less.
Love it when the Anonymi (anonymuses? Anonymisses, Mrs? Mice?) disagree with each other.
I picture one person arguing with themself in a mirror or the same individual suffering from multiple personality disorder.
But seriously folks appreciate your input.
Is possible to add a suffix so we know who each person is or doesn’t that work?
For some reason I thought you were still practicing. I’m now the oldest practicing doc in our 420 bed hospital
Partime and no call but always pressured by admin to do more. Congrats on retirement whenever that was.
Hola! No. It's a Saturday flop for me and worse than usual. I can sometimes fill about 80% but not today. I was PLEASED to fill IMBIBE, MILESTONE, LES, SOOTY, DEEMS and a few others but overall, this puzzle defeated me. Even ALEXA didn't help.
I should have known RISE AGAIN as it's often related to the PHIENIX bird.
TAFT was an easy guess as has been noted.
ANGST is what I felt in not being able t finish this puzzle.
I knew Spain had a queen but not her name.
SYLPHS really was pulled out of thin air!
Clever clue for PLACEBOS.
Congratulations to all who finished this!
Have a wonderful rest of your day!
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