Saturday, November 7, 2026, Adrian Johnson

Themeless Saturday by Adrian Johnson

A funny thing happened on my way to a very quick solve. I sped through the SW, SE and NW but the fill in the NE mocked me. As you can see in the colored grid, there were some real obstacles there. Even a NASA guy like me struggled with SPACE WASTE (usually called space junk) and I flat did not know SHOJIS, ARBORIO,  AGRABAH or suss out the sense of the word WEEPING. I'll struggle to get through the day, live with a couple of bad cells and try to stay out of the left over Halloween candy.

 

Across:

1. Tails the fox's creator: SEGA - Apparently our frequent crossword visitor, SEGA's Sonic The Hedgehog, has a friend.

5. Remains among the stars?: SPACE WASTE - OBVI the picture below is an exaggeration but there's a lot of junk up there. The first object in space was Sputnik in 1957 and it fell back to Earth after 3 months and burned up in the atmosphere. 

15. Snake's target: CLOG.

16. Factor in some accidents: HUMAN ERROR.

17. One consulting a manual, perhaps: USER - After this HUMAN makes an ERROR, he then seeks out the manual which, fortunately because I threw out the one that came with the item, is almost always online.

18. Event with pros and cons: OPEN DEBATE.

19. Cactus League city: MESA - We paid $65 per seat to watch the Cubs play the Royals during spring training in MESA, AZ.

20. Puts together: JUXTAPOSES - One of my favorite words.

21. "Duh": OBVI - There seems to be poetic license to take any word and chop off a part and use it as slang these days. Totes adorbs! 🤨

23. Title for Mo Farah: SIR.

 

24. Impulse-ive path?: SYNAPSE 😀

27. "How cool!": OH NICE.

30. What hikers wear: PATHS 😀 Some of those PATHS that HIKERS wear can be very precarious!

31. Aspirational hashtag: LIFE GOALS.

34. Letter between pi and sigma: RHO - In Greek, Gary becomes Γκάρι

35. Berry quantities: PINTS.

36. Softball stat: RBI.

37. Formal address: YOUR GRACE.

40. Affix: TIE ON - "Affix a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree"

42. Chocolaty cereal brand: OREO O'S.

43. Leila Fadel's venue: NPR NEWS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

45. Brand on a racetrack: STP - Too slick for a sumo wrestler in this 1960's commercial 

46. Austrian gent: HERR.

47. "Brake! Brake! Brake!": STOP THE CAR.

53. Not close enough: AFAR.

56. Name for five kings of Hawaii: KAMEHAMEHA.

57. Beyoncé voice role: NALA.

58. Structures at some winter carnivals: ICE CASTLES - Wisconsin's Magical ICE CASTLES

59. __ bag: GIFT - A welcome alternative for those of us who are very bad at gift wrapping.

60. "I'm in no mood": DON'T TEST ME.

61. Ballpark figs.: ERAS - Not EST'S today

Down:

1. Dirty film?: SCUM.

2. Term in conditional programming: ELSE.

3. Plays around?: GOES ON TOUR😀 After 60 years, Mike Love is the only original Beach Boy that still GOES ON TOUR (pink hat below) 

4. Fictional city that's a magic carpet ride away from the Cave of Wonders: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AGRABAH.

5. Sliding screens: SHOJIS - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ $800 at Home Depot

6. __ platter: PUPU - It was my first thought and it turned out to be right

7. Centurion co.: AMEX.

8. Tilt: CANT - Lean and Bias didn't work.

9. Dating connections in some publications?: EN DASHES - My full time teaching gigs ran from 1968 - 2015.

10. Overcome with joy, perhaps: WEEPING - My first sense of overcome with joy was BEAMING 

11. Rice named for a Piedmont municipality: ARBORIO - Grown in the Piedmont area in the far NW section of Italy.

12. Titles for mujeres casadas: Abbr.: SRAS - Married women in Español 

13. __ bag: TOTE.

14. Part of a basic Spanish conjugation: ERES.

22. Seconds, for short: VPS - Vice Presidents can be the second person in charge. I went through many thoughts about what "seconds" meant in the clue

24. Moving with ease: SPRY.

25. "Huzzah!": YAHOO.

26. Big name in sports statistics: ELIAS - The ELIAS Sports Bureau is famous for hyper-specific sports nuggets for the media such as 

There have been more than 4 million innings pitched in Major League history and Fernando Tatis is the only player to hit two Grand Slam home runs in the same inning.

27. Habitually: OFTEN.

28. Event intended to address trade deficits?: CAREER FAIR 😀 When you are looking for a new trade.

29. Pipe shape: ELBOW.

32. "Feel Good __": 2005 hit for Gorillaz: INC. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

33. Trespasses: SINS.

35. Initial stage of mitosis: PROPHASE.

38. Abide by: RESPECT.

39. "Capisce?": GOT THAT - "ARBORIO is Italian rice. Capisce?"

40. Uno e due: TRE.

41. Close enough: IN RANGE  - The arrival of the B29 Super Fortress put the home islands of Japan IN RANGE for bombing 

  

44. Express: PHRASE - PHRASING can make all the difference  

47. Shipping platform: SKID.

48. Qdoba snack: TACO.

49. Serious sign: OMEN.

50. Defib experts: EMTS - Many buildings now have defibrillator units in the hallways to use until EMT's get there.

51. Briton forebear: CELT.

52. "I'm still here": AHEM.

54. The "A" of NATO: ALFA - The NATO alphabet where I would be Golf Alfa Romeo Yankee.

55. "Phooey!": RATS.

Saturday, September 26, 2026, Adrian Johnson

 Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson

  

Our Wyoming native who went to college in Minnesota is now doing greatwork for a startup group called BetterFi, a nonprofit working to end predatory lending in Tennessee.

I made great progress and soon had the NW to SE swath done and then had to go in to finish off the other corners which was a fun challenge with a lot of international cuisine and filmakers. 

Across:

1. Releases: EMITS.

6. Ardent supporter: MEGAFAN - This Raider fan qualifies

13. Island country that changed the shape of the International Date Line by skipping December 30, 2011: SAMOA.

14. "Anything you say": SURE SURE.

15. Guttural sound: CROAK.

16. Outermost meningeal membrane: DURA MATER.

17. Hot: IN DEMAND.

19. "Bad idea": DON'T.

20. High return: LOB.

21. 41-Across teacher: SENSEI and 41. Dojo discipline: KARATE.

23. Army __: ANTS.

24. Double-reed woodwind related to the shawm: OBOE - Adrian muddied the waters by adding a shawm in the clue 

26. Seldom seen: SCARCE.

28. Racing headgear: CRASH HELMET - 76-year-old comedian Andy Huggins says at his age he worries about falling and so he wears a HELMET. To keep from looking foolish, he also carries a skateboard.

30. Tailgating area: LOT.

33. Angiogram image, perhaps: AORTA - It kinda stands out, doesn't it

34. "__ bien": MUY.

35. Durable fabric: CHINO.

37. Drug featured in the Dock Ellis biopic "No No: A Dockumentary": LSD.

38. "How's it hangin'?": WHAT'S SHAKIN'

42. Bernie Sanders' mittens, for one: MEME.

What's shakin' Bernie?

43. Singer known as the "Goddess of Pop": CHER - Depends on who you ask. 

  

47. Harsh critics: HATERS.

49. PC IDs: IPS.

50. Martinican poet Césaire who helped found the Négritude movement: AIME ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

51. Dessert often made with espresso: TIRAMISU.

53. "Chocolate in every bite" cookie maker: CHIPS AHOY.

56. Sonicare rival: ORAL B.

58. Herb in fines herbes and herbes de Provence: TARRAGON - Fines Herbes (fēnz erbs - literally fine herbs): Made with a specific combination of four fresh herbs in equal parts: parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil.

59. Bring up: RAISE.

60. Welcome words?: IT'S OPEN.

61. Wrapped: ENDED.


Down:

1. Key hit in panic: ESC.

2. Platform game that debuted in 1983: MARIO BROS - I loved playing their lo-res game on my Apple IIe

3. "You sold me": I'M ON BOARD.

4. Bufotoxin source: TOAD - Bufotoxin is a milky, poisonous defense chemical secreted by the skin and parotoid glands of true toads in the genus Bufo.

5. Array at an izakaya: SAKES Izakaya (居酒屋) are casual drinking establishments, similar to tapas bars, where customers order a variety of small dishes of food that can be shared at the table. 

6. Genre in which readers are clued in to the plot?: MURDER MYSTERY.

7. Time to study: ERA. 

8. Beaut: GEM.

9. Taqueria option: ASADA - When you're done at the izakaya, you can drive on over to a taqueria for some carne ASADA (grilled meat) food.

 

10. Guest room fixture: FUTON.

11. "__ you sweet!": AREN'T.

12. "Aw, phooey": NERTS.

14. Vinyasa sequence also called Surya Namaskar: SUN SALUTATION ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  - Vinyasa is the movement between poses. This slowly revealed itself.

16. Event one must prepare for exhaustively?: DANCE MARATHON - A DANCE MARATHON was the subject of this movie 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. The trailer

18. Vibe well: MESH.

20. Word in many union names: LOCAL - Hormel's LOCAL 22 Union has sponsored champion softball teams here in town for years.

22. Halo-halo base: ICE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ More exotic food! This is a Filipino shaved ICE treat.

25. Part of i.e.: EST.

27. Make a lasting impression?: ETCH.

29. Skateboarding star Tony: HAWK - Tony now "hawks" Qunol products

30. "This bears repeating ... ": LIKE I SAID.

31. Instinctively: ON IMPULSE - I bought a Mazda Miata on impulse many years ago and regretted it. It always needed repairs and wouldn't handle snow.

32. Hues: TONES.

36. Muffuletta ingredient: HAM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ More unknown (to me) food. The classic New Orleans sandwich combines a homemade olive salad with layers of thin-sliced Italian cold cuts. Man it looks so good!

39. Derisive laugh: HAH.

40. "Buona __": SERA.

43. Tacos de nopales need: CACTI - Our buffet continues: 

To make cactus tacos, scrape thorns off nopales (duh), boil them for 15 mins with onions, bay leaves, and cilantro, then sauté with chilis and jalapeños.

44. Percussion set: HI HAT.

45. Dubai rulers: EMIRS.

46. High-quality proof, for short: REPRO - Repro stands for reprographics (or reproduction), but in publishing, printing, and design, a REPRO specifically refers to a high-quality proof of text and images. It is used as the final checkpoint to verify that everything looks perfect before the final print run.

48. Camping treat: SMORE.

52. Home country of filmmaker Asghar Farhadi: IRAN. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

54. Chump: SAP.

55. Sit in a cellar, perhaps: AGE.

57. Sack: BED.