Saturday, October 4, 2025, August Miller

  Saturday Themeless by August Miller

This is my fourth Saturday themeless blog this year for August Miller. He is a former physics Ph.D. candidate turned farmer who lives in Berkshire County, MA:   

Across:

1. Dominant figure in a matriarchal hierarchy: ALPHA FEMALE.

12. Court marshal?: REF 😀

15. Minimally processed fare: NATURAL FOOD - As opposed to this

16. Paramore genre: EMO - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Paramore is a band who plays this kind of music

17. Event that may feature gate crashers: GIANT SLALOM.

18. Letter before upsilon: TAU - Similar: Rho, Sigma, TAU, Upsilon - R S T U

19. Cards that reveal who's who and what's what: IDS.

20. Brad Paisley's "__ Everything": SHE'S.

21. Figure in Celtic folklore: DRUID - DRUIDS and pagans gather at Stonehenge on the Autumnal Equinox

23. Central: MAIN.

24. In a serious way: MAJORLY.

26. "Measure for Measure" antagonist: ANGELO - All you need to know

29. Maggie who wrote "On Freedom": ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ NELSON.

30. Tie-breaking method: GOLDEN GOAL - Most Soccer matches now run two 15-minute overtimes not just do "sudden death" which ends on a single GOLDEN GOAL

32. "c ya": TTFN - Ta Ta For Now

35. Company that sells nudes: OPI.

Nude Nail Lacquer

36. Start to wrestle?: SILENT W 😀

38. River inlet: RIA.

39. Grasps: GETS.

41. Technique often used to make 3D images appear in the style of a comic book: CEL SHADING.

43. Mortise inserts: TENONS.

45. Congo forest dwellers: OKAPIS - O _ A _ _ S called for ORANGS first and not this giraffe relative

46. Clarence of the E Street Band: CLEMONS - On the sax

48. Leveraged: USED.

49. Earn: MERIT.

50. Boatload: SLEW.

51. Wrestling win: PIN.

54. Due-in hr.: ETA.

55. "You lost me": I DON'T FOLLOW.

59. Mud season hazard: RUT.

60. Space-age revolutions?: LUNAR ORBITS - Ron Evans made a record 75 LUNAR ORBITS in the command module while Apollo 17 crew mates Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt were the last men to walk on the Moon in 1972.

61. Prefix with center: EPI.

62. Antarctic predator: LEOPARD SEAL.

Down:

1. Online resource for home renos: ANGI - Rebranded from Angies List

2. Best-__ plans: LAID.

or in Scottish

3. STEM project fundraisers, often: PTAS - Science Technology Engineering and Math projects could be funded by PTA'S

4. "Mulan" soldier: HUN ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

5. Events that feature moving pictures?: ART SALES 😀 This Picasso fetched $103M at an ART SALE at Christie's.

6. Big name in threads: FASHION ICON and 28. May 6-Downs: GLITTERATI.

7. Novelist Raskin: ELLEN.

8. Creative degs.: MFAS - Granddaughter is pursing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree

9. Early ISP: AOL - Didn't we all get free AOL disks years ago?

10. Head across the pond?: LOO.

11. Some club bookings, for short: EDM DJS - My last fill was this monster - Electronic Dance Music Disc JockeyS

12. Back leg?: RETURN TRIP.

13. Target of some filters: E-MAIL.

14. Julie who won two World Cup titles with Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain: FOUDY.

Mia              Brandi         Julie

22. Many a storage crop: ROOT.

23. Club __: MED.

24. Deep pockets: MEANS - Always sue the guy with the deep pockets. He has the most MEANS to pay.

25. House call?: ALL THOSE FOR - 😀 - ALL THOSE FOR adjourning say AYE!

26. Full of anticipation: AGOG.

27. "Uh-uh": NOPE.

29. Songs sung in the snow: NOELS.

31. Dales: GLENS.

33. Kaput: FINI - A French synonym for a German word

34. Pesters: NAGS.

37. Cue for a smart device: WAKE WORD - I just say "SIRI" to my iPhone and she wakes up and asks me what I want.

40. Tourney game: SEMI.

42. Family guy: DAD.

44. Farming method that helps preserve soil structure: NO TILL - A very common practice around here that saves moisture and fuel. I asked one farmer why his neighbor still turns the soil over and he replied, "That's what his grandfather did."

A 16-row planter planting
right on top of last year's stubble

46. "I wanna show you something": C'MERE.

47. Slow down: LET UP - The atmosphere slows down the Apollo spacecraft as it returns to Earth from 25,000 mph to 22 mph. In the process the, bottom of the command module reaches 5,000F.

48. Über: ULTRA.

50. Button alternative: SNAP.

51. Bend in slippers: PLIE.

52. Crumb: IOTA.

53. Sports org. with the Royals: NWSL - National Women's Soccer League. Not my MLB KC Royals.

56. 40 weeks pregnant, e.g.: DUE 😀

57. "Who Has Seen the Wind?" singer: ONO.

58. Birth announcement abbr.: LBS.

Saturday, August 16, 2025, August Miller

 Saturday Themeless by August Miller

Here is a wonderful interview of this former physics Ph.D. candidate turned farmer who lives in Berkshire County, MA: https://dailycrosswordlinks.com/2025/03/29/constructor-spotlight-august-miller/

 Across:

1. "Totally had you there!": PSYCH.

6. "Odelay" musician: BECK ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

10. Pricing words: A POP.

14. Terence Blanchard work: OPERA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

15. Boba tea additive: ALOE.

16. Igloo shape: DOME.

17. Modern farm technology: SOLAR ARRAY.

19. Rollover subj.: IRAS.

20. One who went gray gracefully: SILVER FOX.

21. Way around D.C.: METRO - My granddaughter used this on every school day at American University in D.C.

22. "Or __ what?": ELSE.

23. __ out: TRY - Not: Far, Pig, Cry, Pan, Opt, Eke, Way, etc.

24. Part of a college visit: TOUR.

25. "American Hustle" org.: FBI - Based on FBI Abscam Sting scandal of late 70's

26. Orbiter until 2001: MIR - A space station launched and operated by Russia (nee Soviet Union 😀)

27. Clerical tunic: ALB.

30. Line at a reunion: IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU - First of three grid spanners. The top two were helpful but the name took a lot of help.

36. Springtime side: ASPARAGUS SPEARS.

37. "The Substance" Golden Globe nominee: MARGARET QUALLEY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

38. Natori Feathers garment: BRA.

39. QB stats: YDS.

40. Rte. 180?: UEY - We said, "Flip a UEY"

41. First name in couture: YVES - We often see his initials in crosswords

43. Tip for a writer?: NIB.

44. Simple sammies: PBJ'S - I love PB&J's and BLT's

48. Gross-smelling: FETID - A lyric from the play 1776 sung by William Daniels as John Adams as he bemoans the tedious drafting of the Declaration in the hot summer of 1776.

50. "Get some rest": GO TO SLEEP.

52. Very little: A DAB.

53. Gathering where everyone gets shots?: BOTOX PARTY.

54. Niche mag: ZINE - In slang, "zine" is a shortened term for fanzine, which is a small-circulation, self-published magazine or booklet, often focusing on a a specific niche interest. 

55. Injury kissed by a parent: OWIE.

56. __-Norman French: ANGLO.

57. Outlet for crafty types: ETSY.

58. Six-legged farm animals: ANTS.

59. Ingredient in some printing ink: RESIN.

Down:

1. Crew: POSSE - Originally a group formed by a lawman in the old west to pursue outlaws. These days it can be any group with a common purpose.

2. Turn: SPOIL.

3. Uses one's outside voice: YELLS.

4. Fancy and then some: CRAVE.

5. Fabled napper: HARE.

6. Spots to grab a few beers: BAR FRIDGES 😀

7. Orbit City boy: ELROY - George Jetson's son

8. Cajole: COAX.

9. Essential: KEY.

10. Parting mot: ADIEU 😀

11. Representation: PORTRAYAL - Hmmm... Burt Lancaster as an Apache warrior in the 1954 movie Apache

12. Actor Sy of the Netflix series "Lupin": OMAR ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

13. 100 centavos: PESO.

18. Multimedia surfaces: ART BOARDS.

21. Union's demand: MORE PAY.

24. Container that can be repurposed as a biodegradable planter for seedlings: TISSUE BOX - EGG CARTON was a first confident entry for this solver.

25. Made inroads: FORAYED - Yup, you can make any noun into a verb

26. Summer cloud: MOSQUITOES - We have hardly any at all for several summers but with all the rain we have had this year...

28. Stories of the past: LORE.

29. Not free: BUSY.

30. "For one," for one: IAMB - "For one" is one IAMB

31. Ruler until 1917: TSAR.

32. Some faux coats: SPRAY TANS - A lot of Nebraska girls get a "fake bake" for Spring Prom

33. __ gift: GAG.

34. Sound of disapproval: TUT.

35. Serpentine creature: EEL.

42. Evoking good feelings, in slang: VIBEY  - "Vibey" is an informal term, generally meaning lively and brand, often used to describe a place, atmosphere, or even a piece of music. 

43. Cry in the playground: NOT IT - I remember these words preceding a spirited round of hide-and-go-seek.

44. American way?: PLANE. 😀

45. Features of icy breakups: BERGS.

46. Actor who played the Emperor of China in 2020's "Mulan": JET LI.

47. Watch from the bushes, say: SPY ON.

48. Get to: FAZE.

49. Exchange words?: EDIT. 😀

50. Vera Wang design: GOWN.

51. Exchange words: SPAR - Before fists fly, these sessions are used to increase the gate 

53. Serpentine creature: BOA.

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 75th birthday to our punny and witty Friday  Sherpa MM. Here is a picture of him at Chiang Rai in 2017. 

Chiang Rai, 2017