Monday, November 9, 2026, Robin Stears

Theme:  Wham!

Robin Stears is a longtime pro at crossword construction.  This marvelous Monday is my first opportunity to blog one of her puzzles. 

The theme clues and answers are:

17-Across. *Spinach eater who's smitten with Olive Oyl: POPEYE THE SAILOR.

26-Across. *"I Don't Like Mondays" new wave band: BOOMTOWN RATS.

48-Across. *"Mighty Morphin" heroes of 1990s television: POWER RANGERS.

63-Across. Has a thrilling opening, or what the answer to each starred clue does: STARTS WITH A BANG.

Every one of the starred clues opens with the sound of a BANG:  POP, BOOM, or POW.  This puzzle is banging!  Popping!  (Booming is not the same, and powing is not a thing!)  Wham, bam, thank you, Robin!

Across:

1. "Forever Your Girl" singer Abdul: PAULA.  Paula Abdul began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18, became the head choreographer for the Laker Girls, and then choreographed music videos for Janet Jackson.  She went on to become a very popular singer, talent show judge, and choreograher for films, television, and award programs.  

Paula Abdul

6. Radio band toggle: AM/FM.

10. Rotating roasting rod: SPIT. 

piggies on spits -- eww!

14. Online moderator, briefly: ADMIN.  I'm an ADMIN for a Facebook group that shares daily photos of clouds around the world.  Someone's gotta enforce the rules!

15. King, queen, or jack: CARD.

16. Hawaiian dance: HULA.

17. [Theme clue]

20. Office helper: Abbr.: ASST.  The abbreviation for "assistant."

21. Self-storage rental: UNIT.

22. Looped rope at a 31-Across: LASSO.

23. Other, in Spanish: OTRO.  I appreciate it when the answer is masculine, as it is today.  When the answer turns out to be OTRA, as it often does, I think there should be a hint that we're looking for a feminine adjective.  Otro hombre (other man), otra mujer (other woman).

25. Short choral compositions: MOTETS.  Musical compositions in which various voices sing distinct words and melodies at the same time.  Having evolved from the 13th century to the present, there have been tremendous changes in the form over time.

26. [Theme clue]

31. Official state sport of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Texas: RODEO.  And Alaska has dog mushing as its state sport!  In the category of sports not based on animal abuse, we have surfing (California), skiing (Colorado), outrigger canoe paddling (Hawaii), jousting (Maryland), archery (Missouri) and stock car racing (North Carolina), among others.

32. Lithium-__ battery: ION.  A rechargeable energy storage device.

33. Lyft rival: UBER.

37. Mattel game with colorful cards: UNO.  The goal is to be the first person to get rid of all the cards in your hand.

Uno

38. "The __ of the Opera": PHANTOM.  The Phantom of the Opera is a story created by French novelist Gaston Leroux as a 1910 serialized novel. It follows a disfigured musical genius who lives in the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House and becomes infatuated with a young chorus singer.  There was a 1925 silent horror film version starring Lon Chaney, a 1935 Technicolor version starring Claude Rains, a 1986 Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and a 2004 film starring Gerard Butler.

Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera, 1925

42. St. crosser: AVE.  Streets are typically narrow roads with closely spaced buildings on both sides, whereas avenues are often wider thoroughfares with large scale landscaping, but this usage varies regionally.  In Los Angeles, streets usally run east-west, and avenues run north-south.  The house where I grew up was on a north-south avenue, but it was a narrow road with closely spaced houses, fitting the description of a street.

43. Skater Lipinski: TARA.  Tara Lipinski was the 1997 U.S. national champion and world champion in women's singles figure skating, a two-time Champions Series Final champion (1997–1998), and the 1998 Olympic champion.  She was the youngest single skater Olympic champion and World champion ever (at age 15), and is currently a commentator on the sport.

45. Have bills to pay: OWE.

46. Lubricated: OILED.

48. [Theme clue]

52. College grounds: CAMPUS.

55. Auth. unknown: ANON.  An unknown AUTHor is ANONymous.

56. Opera solos: ARIAS.

57. Failed to float: SANK.

59. Slender woodwind: OBOE.

63. [Theme clue]

66. Heavy book: TOME.

67. Slowly grow dim: FADE.

68. Student of Socrates: PLATO.  Socrates taught Plato; Plato taught Aristotle.  The three of them are credited with creating the foundations of Western philosophy.

Three hard headed guys.

69. Garden dirt: SOIL.

70. Pundit piece: OP-ED.  An op-ed (short for "opposite the editorial page") is a piece of opinion journalism written by an outside contributor who is not on a publication's editorial board.  A pundit is a person who has deep knowledge about a specific subject and shares opinions, analysis, or commentary through mass media.

71. Mexican bucks: PESOS.

Down:

1. Smurf with a white beard and red hat: PAPA.  The Smurfs is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest.  There was an American Saturday morning cartoon series from 1981 to 1989 which continued in reruns and TV specials for several years, and is still broadcast on the cable Boomerang channel.

2. Noisy commotions: ADOS.

3. Baseball officials: UMPS.  Umpires also officiate at tennis, cricket, badminton, and field hockey games.

4. "I can't handle the truth!": LIE TO ME.  In the TV drama series Lie to Me (2009-2011), crime solving psychologists detected deception by analyzing microexpressions, body language, and vocal tones.  

5. "__ ideas?": ANY.

6. "Don't wait or you'll miss out!": ACT NOW.

7. Fish often grilled for tacos, informally: MAHI.  The fish formally known as mahi-mahi.

human being with future fish taco filling

8. Ridge on a guitar fingerboard: FRET.  Frets are usually thin metal strips inserted in the neck of a guitar, providing guidance for finger placement to create musical notes.

frets

9. Rx writers: MDS.  Medical doctors can write a prescription (Rx).

10. Japanese massage technique whose name means "finger pressure": SHIATSU.  Practitioners use thumbs, fingers, palms, elbows, knees, or feet to apply pressure along energy pathways called meridians.

11. Heart rate: PULSE.

12. "You beat me": I LOST.

13. Starchy roots used in poi: TAROS.  Taro is a tropical plant grown for its starchy roots (tubers), which are a major food staple in the Pacific Islands, Africa, the Caribbean, and parts of Asia.  In Hawaii, cooked taro roots are mashed into poi.

taro on the left, poi on the right

18. Continental currency: EURO.

19. Like crazy: A LOT.

24. Sporty car roof: T-TOP.

Corvette T-top

25. Spanish hand: MANO.  Give me your hand:  Dame la mano.

26. Dry, as champagne: BRUT.  Sparkling wines are labeled according to the amount of residual sugar per liter after fermentation.  

27. Actress Chaplin: OONA.  Oona Chaplin is a granddaughter of English filmmaker and actor Charlie Chaplin, and great-granddaughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill.  She had roles in HBO's Game of Thrones, BBC's The Crimson Field and Taboo, and the Avatar films.

As Talisa Maegyr in Game of Thrones, Oona Chaplin got to be married to Robb Stark -- for a minute.
She was first to die at the Red Wedding (Game of Thrones, season 3, episode 9).

28. Febreze target: ODOR.  Isn't it better to clean up the mess than to cover the odor with this sort of thing?

29. Bay Area NFLer: NINER.  The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

30. Decompose: ROT.  Febreze is not really the solution to that.

34. Hay bundle: BALE.

35. Penultimate word in many fairy tales: EVER.  "... and they lived happily EVER after."  Not the ultimate (last) word, but the penultimate (next-to-last) word.

36. Maroon, crimson, ruby, and the like: REDS.

39. "__ it going?": HOW'S.

40. Astonishment: AWE.

41. Stereo alternative: MONO.  Monophonic audio recordings use one channel, and stereophonic recordings use two.  Mono is great for voice recordings and public address systems.  For music and movies, it's nice to have different sounds playing on separate channels to mimic a natural sound environment.

44. Clothes: APPAREL.

47. Dishonorable: IGNOBLE.

49. Depose: OUST.

50. __ and raved: RANTED.

51. Egyptian cross with a top loop: ANKH.  The ankh is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol that represents "life" or "breath of life."

A god offering the breath of life to a deceased pharoah?

52. Acting ensembles: CASTS.

53. Threepio pal: ARTOO.  Artoo (technically R2-D2) and Threepio (technically C-3PO) are fictional droids in the Star Wars movies.

R2-D2 and C-3PO

54. "The Golden Girls" city: MIAMI.  The Golden Girls, starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, aired on NBC from 1985 to 1992.  The four older ladies shared a house in Miami, Florida. 

57. Trade: SWAP.

58. Office helper: AIDE.

60. Sheep sounds: BAAS.

61. "I'm __ your tricks!": ONTO.

62. Inner selves: EGOS.

64. Bay Area hub, for short: SFO.  San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is the primary international airport serving the San Francisco Bay Area.

65. iPad download: APP.  An app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.

Here's the grid:

Solvers,

Did you get A BANG out of today's puzzle?

Tell me in the comments section!  But don't LIE TO ME!

ACT NOW!

-- NaomiZ