Saturday, August 15, 2026, Barbara Lin and Jess Rucks

 Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Barbara Lin and Jess Rucks

Me and Jess

Barb

I was very pleased to see Jess's name come up today as a co-constructor. I have had the fun of blogging her Saturday themeless puzzles before and am always amazed by her work and, uh, creative clues 😀, a tradition she maintained here as well. As you can see in the picture at the left, Jess and I met up on a very cold night in Lincoln for a delightful dinner last year and hashed over a lot of crossword minutiae. She lives in Colorado with her husband and son and  is retired from the Air Force where she was an Urdu translator. Yes, she was a Division 1 volleyball player as well.

Her partner in crime construction is Barb Lin who lives just outside Philadelphia, PA, where she dabbles in gardening and excels in computer engineering. Here is a lovely interview of Barb Jess conducted.

 

                                  

Across:

1. Teddy bear: SOFTY - I thought this might be a brand name but no, it's just a tender-hearted person. Even Elvis knew this: "Oh let me be, your teddy bear". Hey, I heard you sing along! 😊

6. Carousel rider?: BAG 😀

9. Basaltic plain on the moon: MARE - MARE is latin for Sea and here we see the location of  The Lunar Sea Of Tranquility which hosted Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969.

13. Roadside snack: STREET TACO.

16. Driver on a movie set: ADAM - 😀 The answer below is no.

17. Sign that means it's time to turn around: NO ENTRANCE - How it's done in the UK

18. Spam musubi wrapper: NORI - Musubi (結び), translates to “tie” or “bind,”

19. White-hot: SEETHING.

20. Lights up: SMILES.

22. Quick kiss: PECK - Not a BUSS

23. Useful spot: PSA - Here's a Public Service Announcement from the 50's about saying Good Night after a date

24. Some sci-fi villains: ETS.

25. Multipurpose tool: SPORK - We really like KFC, but we opt for real silverware.

27. Verb coined in "Stranger in a Strange Land": GROK - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Author Robert Heinlein said GROK is a Martian word that literally means "to drink" .Metaphorically, it means to understand something so completely and deeply. Jess is fluent in Urdu but not Martian. 😀

28. Hindi honorific: SRI.

29. Berry grown in Ohio?: HALLE - She took her stage name from Halle's Department Store in Cleveland.

30. Jordan who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay: PEELE.

31. Org chart leader: CEO.

32. "Sure, that tracks": I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN.

35. "J to __ L-O!": 2002 remix album: THA - Some hip hop slang 

36. Replacements after leaving marks?: EUROS - Germans now use EUROS for currency after having used marks since 1876.

37. Huffs and puffs: PANTS and 40. Huffs and puffs: RANTS.

38. __ de deux: PAS - a ballet duet, literally translating from French as a "step of two", typically performed by a male and a female dancer. Below is the Grand PAS de Deux from the Nutcracker. Play as much of this 5:37 cut that you like to beautify your day.

39. Mass agreement: AMEN 😀

41. "Yes, captain": AYE.

42. Clear (of): RID.

43. Clear of contaminants: PURE - Clear in the clue is an adjective and not a verb

44. Varied: RANGED.

46. Opportunities to learn the hard way: MISTAKES - Do guys like this ever learn?

50. Mil. no-show: AWOL.

51. "Mine! Mine! Mine!": I WANT IT ALL.

53. "The Goonies" role for Ke Huy Quan: DATA - Saturday cluing for sure, Ke is in the bottom row, second from the right. 

54. Brings the temperature down, maybe: TALKS SENSE.

55. Googly-__: EYED - From a cartoon first published in 1919. A popular song of the day was, "Barney Google With the Goo, Goo, Goo Googly Eyes"

56. Fashion letters: YSL.

57. Trapped, in a way: TREED.

Down:

1. Fed. IDs: SSNS.

2. Della Warrior's heritage: OTOE is the first and only woman to date to serve as chairperson and chief executive officer for the Otoe-Missouria Tribe.

3. Priceless?: FREE.

4. One-night stand, perhaps?: TENT POLE 😀

5. Frustrated expression: YET HERE WE ARE.

6. [All of a sudden!]: BANG.

7. Stanford's gp.: ACC - With all the conference alignments up in the air, Stanford and  Cal Berkley (formerly in the Pacific 10) had to get into some conference even if it was on the other coast (Atlantic Coast Conference).

8. Disbands?: GOES SOLO - Michael Jackson had great success when he left this brothers 

9. Digital art, informally?: MANI 😀

10. Juvenile: ADOLESCENT.

11. Special indulgences: RARE TREATS.

12. Targets of smog checks: EMISSIONS.

14. Bridge unit: TRICK - 😀 A trick in a card games is a single round of play where each person plays one card, and the highest card wins.

   
15. Choke: TANK - These are both failures. In sports, if a player chokes, he might fail to make a winning play even though he is trying. If a player TANKS, he also fails but might be trying to lose or throw a game.

21. One who tries not to overshadow the star?: MAKE UP ARTIST 😀 Gotta love this one!

23. Feeds (on): PREYS.

25. "Shantay, you stay" opposite: SASHAY AWAY - During our dinner in Lincoln, Jess said she enjoyed RuPaul Drag Race and this phrase is part of that show.

  

26. "This is important": PLEASE NOTE.

27. Mount: GET ON - How The Lone Ranger accomplished this with Silver.

29. Top tunes: HIT PARADE - When The Lone Ranger was mounting Silver in the 50's, The Hit Parade was telling us the top songs of the week. Listen to as much of this 30-minute show (complete with cigarette commercials) as you like from over 70 years ago.

30. Trimmed (down): PARED - By the first game, NFL teams must have PARED down to a 53 man roster from the 100 or so that are trying out.

33. Hair curler?: HUMIDITY.

34. 1982 Hall & Oates song: MANEATER.

40. Shows signs of age: RUSTS.

43. Chappell Roan's "__ Pony Club": PINK - A fav of my granddaughters. 

45. Chuffed: GLAD - This is more of a UK expression.

46. Edina, Minnesota is home to the first U.S. indoor one: MALL - 1956. This would go along with The Lone Ranger and Your Hit Parade!

47. Lucci role: KANE - Susan Lucci played Erica Kane on All My Children for 41 years.

48. Conditional word in Python: ELSE - Barb is a computer engineer

49. Blair Braverman vehicle: SLED.

52. Portrayed: WAS - I first had DID, as in an impersonator DID Cary Grant.

More from Jess: Barb and I met at ACPT in 2025, and since then have been wanting to make a puzzle together. We finally made that happen with this one! Barb did a lot of the heavy lifting on the gridding and we collaborated on the clues. Hope you enjoyed it :) This one was fun to make. Barb is a great constructor, so I felt some pressure to push myself working with her -- I tried to clue with more wordplay and generally at a higher difficulty than I may have on my own. She clued, too, but I clued more of the entries since she ended up making more of the grid. 

Friday, Aug 14th, 2026 ~ Katie Hale

 FOURTH SUNDOWN & INCHES

Actually, it's #5, and Across, but . . .

LA Times assistant editor Katie Hale is back - her last crossword offering was a month ago, on a Monday, here.  The last one I blogged was a co-authored puzzle that had too much of a cringe factor ( for me ) to be enjoyable.  Today, however, was a pleasant, and partially humorous construction, with four themers, including two grid-spanners, that added our star, the three-letter word SUN, to common phrases, giving them 'solar' power.  There were maybe a few too many 2-word entries, especially in the Downs, but it was Friday-level, if not easier.  Standard grid, no "outlier add-ons" this week, with 10 names, no circles, and a near-perfect balance of 3-, 4-. and 5-letter words.  The themers and reveal;

18. *Action figure at the bottom of a pool?: SUNKEN DOLL - I first thought maybe G.I. Joe~?

I had the 80's "action figures" the same size as the Star Wars ones

23. *Naval officer's very quiet "ahoy there"?: LITTLE BOSUN PEEP - Bosun, how one pronounces "boatswain" 

35. *Jokes about miscellaneous items?: SUNDRY HUMOR

48. *Essential for authors who work at the beach?: WRITER'S SUNBLOCK

56. Clean energy option, or a hint to what the answers to the starred clues have?: SOLAR POWER

But Wait There's More~!

ACROSS:

1. "Cor, blimey!": "I SAY~!" - Brit-speak

5. Oxygen co-creator: OPRAH - Oxygen, the network, not the element from THE Creator -  name #1

10. Mascaron image: FACE - filled via perps, WAGed the "C" - this architectural detail

14. Drive-__: THRU

15. Tricky tennis serve: SLICE - meh.  It's called an "ace" where I play tennis

16. Traffic-dependent figs.: ETAs

17. Azaria of "Brockmire": HANK - I know him from the Simpsons; name #2

20. WSW reversal: ENE

21. Virtual citizenry: SIMS - Another good guess on my part - but I have played Sim City & The Sims

22. Dad's sister: AUNT

28. Outdoor dining spot: PATIO

29. "Oh, now I see": "A-HA~!"

30. TV controller?: FCC - The Federal Communications Commission - I cound not recall what the second "C" stood for

31. 19th Greek letter: TAU

33. Cryptography org.: NSA - Thursday dupe

34. Mineralogist who created a scale: MOHS - this puzzle's themers gave me a laugh, so I'm giving it the "other" kind of star, a 4 / 5⭐ from on the "other" Moe's Scale - name(ish)

38. 2025 WNBA champions: ACES - I follow no basketball at all, tried the SUNS - but knowing the theme after the fact meant it could not be - plus I missed the "W" part of the clue as well . . . 😜

40. Solstice mo.: DECember - Monday, the 21st of this year, 12:50pm on the LA Times coast

41. Live and __ live: LET - in 1973, Wings "used to say . . ."

Live & Let DIE~!, Mr. Bond - James Bond

42. "Starship Troopers" backdrop: WAR - had it, filled it in, then took it out . . . an overdone movie with egregious graphic violence - I loved it.  The IMDb

43. Zing: PEP

44. Gives, but not forever: LENDS - I had perps from doing the Downs first, so it was not LOANS

53. Olympic swimmer Torres: DARA - name #3 - her website

54. Cruising: ASEA

55. __ leaf: stew herb: BAY - why you shouldn't eat one~!?

The YouTube link

59. Snitch (on): NARC

60. "Copacabana" bartender: TONY - had this Barry Manilow reference three weeks ago; name #4

61. Hugo or Edgar: AWARD - Both for literature, one Sci-Fi, the other Mystery and other genres

62. Wayfair rival: IKEA - I have bought home items from Wayfair, only shopped once at an Ikea

63. Referendum side: PROS

64. Like some buns: MESSY - Ah.  Those kinds  of bun

There's a red-haired beauty at my gym,

always on the Stairmaster when I am

65. Join (up): TEAM

DOWN:

1. Networking assistance: IT HELP - 2-word #1 - AND - 51D. 1-Down callers: USERS

2. Grammy winner Twain: SHANIA -  name #5 

A knock-off of Robert Palmer's video, which has more leg in it

3. "Is This Thing On?" star Will: ARNETT - name #6

4. Big laugh: YUK

5. Activist/actor Davis: OSSIE - learned by doing crosswords, name #7

6. Straight up: PLUMB - the same client with the pantry doors just got a new pocket door installed

7. Classic laundry soap: RINSO - I have heard of this brand, but I used Tide, then switched to soap flakes as suggested by the book "Laundry Love" which I learned of from sumdaze - name(ish)

8. "Jeepers!": "ACK~!" - Dah~! Not "EEK~!"

9. Little laugh: HEE - waited on perps; HEE, HAW or TEE~?

10. Beyond irritated: FED UP - the name chosen for the new merger of Federal Express and UPS 😜

11. Try to make right: ATONE FOR - 2-word #2

12. Pasadena research univ.: CAL TECH - 2-word #3

13. Pre-naturalization test course, for short: ESL - "English as Second Language" - Do you have to take the test/course these days~?

19. Meemaw alternative: NANA - no one in my family has ever used either term for "Granny"

21. "McSorley's Bar" painter: SLOAN - John, name #8

24. "__ Andronicus": TITUS - T.I.L. this is a Shakespeare play, name #9

25. Ceremonial accessory: SASH - I tried VEIL first

26. Rental after closing, maybe: U-HAUL - I was thinking a place to sleep after closing on the sale of a house, but you haven't bought a new one, like "HOTEL"

27. Hardware for Xbox: PCs

32. Cow's milk source: UDDER - this is udderly true . . . 🙄

33. US Open locale: NYC - I figured it was the tennis Open

34. Interstate stopover: MOTEL - so my HOTEL was looking wrong now . . .

35. Fig. for ordering replacement parts: SERIAL No. - 2-words, yeah, but I like this fill, #4

36. Set pieces: REPS - at the gym.  I am now 193.0lbs - I took a pic of the scale last Saturday; my trainer allows 3lbs for sneakers and clothes - when I picked up the phone for the image, it added .5lbs~!

Now my trainer thinks I can get down to 160lbs - Yikes~!

37. Peach __: MELBA - Pie & Cobbler didn't fit the dish

38. "So sweet!": "Aww. . ."

39. Side mirror spot: CAR DOOR - I clipped the one on the passenger side on my Dodge Grand Caravan, bought a replacement unit, but to get to the screws I have to strip out half the dashboard - I'm in no hurry, and the mirror isn't actually broken - it's the remote motor that doesn't work - 2-word #5

43. Cider source: PEAR - never heard of cider from pears - it's called Perry; a recipe here

45. Like some cheesecake: NO-BAKE - technically, there's a hyphen, so not a 2-word answer

46. Region with many Nats fans, briefly: D.C. AREA - 2-word(ish)

47. Overview producer?: SKYCAM - Big Brother is watching . . . 😶

49. Canteen stack: TRAYS

50. Perceived to be: SAW AS - aaaand Twurd~!

52. Uncool: NERDY

56. Auto care brand: STP - Crossword staple

57. Actress Grier: PAM - two mentions in three weeks for me, name #10

58. Come up short, maybe: OWE

59. Minor quibble: NIT - "can't you see that man is a nit~!"

No, dagnubbit~!

Splynter

Grid Flow an even 30.0 - and it was the Katie puzzle I blogged

where I first introduced this parameter

Thursday August 13, 2026 Desirée Penner & Jeff Sinnock

When Desirée Penner and Jeff Sinnock were standing at the altar, the minister asked them, "What's an oath of acceptance? Three letters." She immediately said, "YES," and he said, "VOW." The minister shook his head. "Try again." They eventually came up with, "I DO," and the Crossword Couple was born.

All these answers are answers...to questions from celebrities. The resulting common phrases end with a pun using the celebs first names. 

18. Reply when Mr. Nicholson asks, "How do you like your coffee?": BLACK, JACK. JACK Nicholson. Like most of today's celebs, he needs no introduction. Yay!

24. Reply when Mr. Garfunkel asks how everyone is doing?: FINE, ART. ART Garfunkel. My favorite reply of the bunch.

39. Reply when Mr. Nye asks why there are so many wind turbines?: ELECTRICITY, BILL. BILL Nye, the Science Guy. Perhaps this phrase is more commonly known as an ELECRTIC BILL.

51. Reply when Ms. Deeley mentions her new TV gig?: COOL, CAT. CAT Deeley is a British television presenter? This is the only person I didn't know, but was very inferable. So, it's COOL. 

60. Reply when Mr. Hamill says, "May the Force be with you"?: DITTO, MARK. MARK Hamill, AKA Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. A DITTO MARK looks like a double quote symbol " or " " under a word or words you want to repeat.

I liked the execution of this puzzle better than some punster themes we see. No awkward spellings or twisted phrases made to fit. And, with the possible exception of CAT, all the celebrities are well known. Good, clean fun all around!

And now, on with the show:

Across:

1. Biblical queen's land: SHEBA.

6. "Hurry!" letters: ASAP. As Soon As Possible. I can hear the groans already, and I mostly agree. So, I wrote STAT.

10. Mojito garnish: MINT. I wrote LIME and voilà! I had two of the first three answers wrong!

14. Cultured sort?: PEARL.

15. Interpretation: TAKE. What's your TAKE on this clue?

16. Chimps and gorillas: APES.

17. Like 11-Down and 27-Across, often: ON TAP. It's a "pony keg"-sized mini-theme!

18. [theme]

20. Lode load: ORE. 

21. Bam Adebayo's team: HEAT. Bam Adebayo plays on the Miami HEAT basketball team. In March, he scored 83 points against the Washington Wizards (I guess they left their wands at home). That is the second-highest single-game scoring performance in NBA history!

23. Merchant stalls: KIOSKS. In related news, music KIOSKS are bandstands like the one in Henri Rousseau's painting at 2-Down.

24. [theme]

26. Beloved: DEAR.

27. Beer with a Grillo's Pickles flavor, briefly: PBR. Pabst Blue Ribbon. I've heard of people putting a pickle spear in their beer mug, but this concoction seems like a bad idea. 

28. Short clip?: VID. Short for VIDeo. 

29. Warbled: SANG. 

33. Bicycle spokes, essentially: RADII. A single spoke is a radio. Or maybe I'm thinking of an antenna.

36. Grand-scale tales: SAGAS. Anyone seen The Odyssey yet?

38. Battle (for): VIE. Like Matt Damon as Odysseus, taking on giants.

Except this pic shows his stunt-double, Devyn Dalton, a woman!

39. [theme]

42. Yahoo! alternative: AOL. So last century...although my brother still uses LOL AOL.

43. Midsize car: SEDAN. 

44. Great Grandma?: MOSES. I grew up with a Grandma MOSES print hanging by our dining table. I always thought it was just a winter scene of people playing in the snow. It wasn't until returning home as an adult that I really looked at it and noticed everyone was working, making maple syrup.

"Sugaring Off" 1955

45. Lat neighbor: DELT. Lats (Latissimus Dorsi) and DELTs (Deltoids) are upper body muscle groups.

47. "Mean Girls" screenwriter Tina: FEY. She of SNL fame, among other things.

48. Center prefix: EPI. EPIcenter - the exact spot on the ground above where an earthquake starts. Being at the epicenter was disastrous for the poor souls of Venezuela and Columbia recently.

49. Big bustles: ADOS. In the late 1800's, women with big ADOS were all the rage.

51. [theme]

55. One with an eye for dotting i's: EDITOR. EDITORs and proofreaders may correct a missing dot (called a tittle) on a lowercase "i", although in modern digital text it's usually caused by a font glitch rather than forgetfulness.

58. Downsides: CONS.

59. Director DuVernay: AVA. AVA is an award-winning director of TV and movies, including a Best Picture nod for Selma.

60. [theme]

62. Along for the ride, say: IN TOW. Kinda sorta.

64. Nerve: GALL.

65. Lake at the Detroit River's end: ERIE. 

66. Track star Bolt: USAIN. He's just the fastest man alive. 

67. Fashion monthly: ELLE. Unfortunately, my subscription ran out, so I'm left wearing t-shirts like this.

68. Informal claim: DIBS. 

69. Moore of "This Is Us": MANDY. MANDY made a successful pivot from teenage pop star to Emmy-nominated actress. 

Then and now.

Down:

1. "Weird Al" specialty: SPOOF. "Weird Al" Yankovic has four gold records and six platinum ones, and has won five Grammy's. "I Love Rocky Road!"

2. Postimpressionist painter Rousseau: HENRI. HENRI paints in a Naive or Primitive manner. He's like the Grandma Moses of France! They also have something else in common - they both started painting late in life.

"View of Montsouris Park, the Kiosk" 1910

3. All finished, say: EATEN.

4. Wacoal garment: BRA. Wacoal is a major international manufacturer of women's lingerie and intimate apparel from Japan. But I didn't know this as my subscription to ELLE expired as noted earlier.

5. Cereal that once featured a crossword puzzle in magazine ads: ALPHA-BITS. This one came out in 1959. I'm still working on it because I can't find a Q.

799 boxes later...

6. Currently hitting: AT BAT.

7. Curing agent: SALT.

8. Otherwise called: AKA. Also Known As the answer to this clue.

9. Like a bird feeder: PECKED AT. 

10. College paths: MAJORS. College paths: DESIRE. Desire to graduate and get a good job? Maybe, but desire paths are unofficial trails leading more directly to a destination, as often seen on campuses.

11. Some craft pours, for short: IPAS. India Pale Ales.

12. Make out: NECK. This is canoodling, but if you crane your NECK, you can make out a couple in the back row.

13. Tuts: TSKS.

19. Korean automaker: KIA. "Who makes that new KN car?" KIA's redesigned logo created quite a controversy when it was unveiled in 2021. But all publicity is good publicity, and the confusion generated millions of free internet searches.

22. Go amiss: ERR.

25. Grand-scale tale: EPIC. A clecho of 36A, but singular. 

26. "Bon appetit!": DIG IN. French cuisine vs. American in a nutshell.

28. Short trip?: VACAY. A little vacation.

30. Rental car giant: AVIS. This may be needed on one's VACAY.

31. River near the Great Pyramid: NILE. Looks more like a pool to me...wait, that's the Luxor in Las Vegas.

32. Meshes well: GELS.

33. Interpretation: READ. It's cleco day. What's your READ on this?

34. Spiky succulent: ALOE. 

35. "Hi-ho, the derry-o" locale: DELL. From "The Farmer in the DELL".

36. Heads and tails: SIDES. Although there's a small chance a coin will land on its EDGE.

37. Academic gathering: SYMPOSIUM.

40. Back on the straight and narrow: REFORMED.

41. Fume: BOIL.

46. Be a rat: TATTLE. I didn't know rats could sing.

48. One billion years: EON. However, in formal Earth geology, an eon is a variable block of time lasting hundreds of millions to billions of years rather than an exact number. 

50. "Yabba-dabba-__!": DOO. People from Dubai don't watch the Flintstones, but people from Abu Dhabi do! I'll be here all weekend.

51. Classic colas: COKES. In another case of all publicity is good, Coca-Cola's' failed introduction of New COKE in 1985 created a backlash that propelled sales of the original "Classic" COKE. Conspiracy theorists have suggested they did this on purpose to revitalized sales. 

52. Board game with settlers: CATAN. Back when my boys lived closer to home, they'd come by on Sundays and we'd play board games. We liked CATAN, and apparently so did everyone else - it has sold over 45 million copies worldwide and is available in more than 40 languages.

53. Dance around: AVOID. I learned to play the guitar so I could AVOID dancing around at school hops.

54. Like some port: TAWNY. TAWNY port gets its name from its warm, amber-brown color, which develops from long aging in oak barrels.

55. Perimeter: EDGE. Heads or tails? I call EDGE!

56. Body wash brand: DIAL.

57. "C'mon, __ be fun": IT'LL.

58. Spot for a tot: CRIB. Some are nice than others.

61. Cal. neighbor: ARI. California and Arizona.

63. Codebreaker Challenge org.: NSA. The National Security Agency. The Codebreaker Challenge is an annual, cybersecurity competition offered to high school and college students who try to solve realistic threat scenarios.

Be good. RB