Saturday, November 8, 2025, Kelly Morenus, Erik Agard

 Themeless Saturday by Kelly Morenus and Erik Agard

Kelly and Erik have provided an enjoyable challenge that was a challenge where I never felt out of it. Let's see what they had for us. 

 

Across:

1. Advice to someone who's about to blow?: MAKE A WISH 😀

10. Applications: USES.

14. Good-looking?: IDEALISTIC.

16. Patriots quarterback Drake: MAYE - He has led the NE Patriots resurgence this year.

17. It's the thought that counts: MENTAL MATH - I can at least approximate this very quickly. 

18. Card dealer?: AMEX - Pick a card, any card

19. Caribou relative: ELK.

20. Number in brackets: SEED - In an 8-team tournament, the team with the best record will be SEEDED #1 and will play the team with the worst record who is SEEDED #8 in the first round.

21. Like Santa Fe, among U.S. capitals: OLDEST - Santa Fe, NM was founded in 1610 and is the oldest capital city in America.

23. Ran out of juice: DIED.

25. Oil formations: SLICKS - I had spills first

27. Tool in a shed: HOE.

28. Biblical son of Seth: ENOS.

30. Drew: LURED and 38. Draw (into): SUCK.

31. Dendriform Tolkien character: ENT.

32. Choose: OPT.

34. Challenges for students and senators: MIDTERMS.

36. Toast types: GONERS 😀

39. Exercise named for a physiologist: BURPEE.

40. Get even: LEVEL OUT - Airplanes use an artificial horizon indicator

42. Fan's request: PIC.

43. Suffix with origin or liquid: ATE.

44. "__ gusto": "Pleased to meet you": MUCHO.

46. Ceremony: POMP and circumstance 

49. Dwelling for some modern nomads: VAN - RVS did not work

50. __ price: ASKING - Does anyone pay this?

52. Slander, e.g.: TORT.

54. Eurasian weasel: ERMINE.

56. Snitch: NARC - A NARC can NARC on someone.

58. Former capital of Brazil: RIO.

59. Type of PED: ROID - Short for Performance Enhancing Drugs like steroids which can lead to

60. Asset turned liability?: ROGUE AGENT.

63. Bit of critique: NOTE - TV shows and movies routinely get NOTES from producers and others that suggest changes.

64. Structure installed to annoy a neighbor: SPITE FENCE.

65. Ambulance team: Abbr.: EMTS.

66. "Absolutely relatable behavior right there": AS ONE DOES.

Down:

1. Performed silently: MIMED.

2. Most widespread species of penguin: ADELIE.

3. Puzzle invented by Tetsuya Miyamoto: KENKEN - How to play

4. Celebrate Eid al-Fitr, e.g.: EAT - Following Ramadan fasting 

5. "Sadly ... ": ALAS.

6. Bits of trickery: WILES.

7. "Please tell me the shower's available": I SMELL.

8. Show place: STADIUM.

9. Word with single or home: HIT - A song can be a HIT single or something can really HIT home with you. No baseball here. 

10. Question from a troll: U MAD.

11. "Twinsies!": SAME HERE.

12. Gander-herding call?: EYES ON ME - Don't be gandering!

13. Volleyball teams, e.g.: SEXTETS - Here a Nebraska VB SEXTET playing in front of 92,000 fans last year. 

15. Overcome, in a way: CHOKED UP.

22. Experience that might include hallucinations: LSD TRIP.

24. Lorna __: DOONE.

26. Home, informally: CRIB.

29. Alma mater of Stacey Abrams: SPELMAN.

33. Formal bottoms: TROUSERS - Yeah, for both genders

35. Park with a reproduction torii gate and stave church: EPCOT - One is in the Japan pavilion and the other is in the Norway pavilion. 

 

36. Comment when things are heating up: GET A ROOM.

37. Protection when things are heating up: OVEN MITT.

40. Cox of "Orange Is the New Black": LAVERNE -  I knew of this character but not the character's name

41. "About that ... ": THING IS.

45. Mindlessly: ON AUTO 😀

47. "One Day at a Time" star: MORENO - The Netflix reboot and the original cast

48. Royals prospect?: PRINCE 😀

51. Light that never stops?: GREEN 😀

53. Bags often given as swag: TOTES.

55. Time to beware: IDES.

57. Feature of some bookstores: CAFE.

61. Celebratory Greek cry: OPA.

62. Goal for some night sch. students: GED.

Saturday, July 19, 2025, Chandi Deitmer and Erik Agard

  Saturday Themeless by Chandi Deitmer and Erik Agard

           

Chandi wrote, I am a full-time puzzler out of Cambridge, MA with a love of nice people, spicy food, and (whatever entry POWER CLASHING is!). Hmmm...I wonder who came up with that clue/fill? 😀

Erik Agard (born 1993) is a crossword solver, constructor, and editor. He is the winner of the 2016 LollapuzzoolaExpress Division, the 2018 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), a frequent contributor to the New York Times crossword puzzle, a crossword constructor for The New Yorker, the former USA Today crossword editor, and a former Jeopardy! contestant. He is currently a crossword editor at Apple News+.

I had a lovely trip through this collaboration but POWER CLASHING, BURBLE and MOCHI DONUT were speed bumps. Also, 46, 47 and 53 Down were just devious. I got the fill and then wracked what little brain power I had to make sense of them. 

Across:

1. Take off: STRIP.

6. Book jacket blurbs: BIOS.

10. Cover one's tracks?: DUB 😀 - Did you enjoy the "singing" of Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Marni Nixon was the actual performer who glorious singing voice was DUBBED over for these famous roles.

 

13. African capital with a City of the Dead: CAIRO - More info

14. Step in some Sun Salutations: COBRA POSE - Number 5 below

16. Attorney-__: AT LAW.

17. Boxing titles?: RING NAMES - Take a guess at the RING NAME of this boxing great Walker Smith Jr.. Answer at bottom of write-up *.

18. Greta of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse": LEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ She voiced a character named Layla

19. GPS figs.: ETAS - My GPS does not consider detours and construction zones or my tendency to drive 4mph over the speed limit so my Estimated Time of Arrival is not always so accurate. 

21. Echelons: TIERS.

22. Magnetic presence in a classroom?: DRY-ERASE BOARD - My classroom board was home to many NASA and Disney magnetic "stickers"

26. Retired players?: VCRS - Failure to expand the idea of "players" made this take more time than necessary. At first I thought of baseball and OUTS.

27. Screenwriter's creations: ARCS - Those of us with a few miles on our tires will remember the name of the show whose story ARC was the search for the one-armed-man killer. Show is named below**

28. Halyard attachments: SAILS - This land lubber confused halyard with lanyard  which is where we coaches carry our whistle and convention goers wear their ID'S. 😀

30. Dose holder: VIAL.

31. Pewter element: TIN.

34. Setting for some of "Pachinko": KOREA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

35. Participate in story time: TELL A TALE.

37. GPS fig.: LAT - This screen shot shows you the LAT and LONG of the White House.

38. Catch: SNAG.

40. Stream-ing music?: BURBLE - Not a common word to me but exchanging it for BUBBLE gave me TRANCHE

41. Increases: UPS.

42. Some social circles?: HORAS. 😀

44. Standard intro course: SALAD 😀 the course was "intro" not "first". I wonder if this was a product of Chandi or Erik.

45. Rice flour pastry: MOCHI DONUT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

48. Team whose logo is a basketball with a B: NETS.

49. In some cases, it won't break: PHONE 😀 My iPhone is in an Otter Box case and has been saved several times

50. Surprisingly good event?: MIRACLE - The 1980 Lake Placid Olympics is truly one

52. Conductor Solti who held the record for most Grammys before Beyoncé: GEORG.

53. Slayer player: METAL HEAD.

55. Classic Monopoly token: IRON.

56. Ticket line?: ONE PLEASE.

57. Misses: GALS - Noun not verb

58. Worked into a lather: SUDSY 

59. Word with chosen or precious: FEW.

Down:

1. Prep, as milk for custard: SCALD.

2. Spud: TATER.

3. B.B. King's given name: RILEY.

4. SIMPLE __: IRA.

5. Looks in two different directions at once?: POWER CLASHING ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  It's a fashion "thing". Chandi's note to me said she did not enter this. 😀

6. City that can be seen from Table Rock: BOISE.

7. Male equivalent of "bint," in Arabic: IBN.

8. Edu alternative: ORG.

9. Man known for his many gifts: SANTA CLAUS.

10. Like many mosques: DOMED.

11. App opener: USER.

12. Téa's "Madam Secretary" role: BESS.

14. Uncouth: CRASS.

15. Skating event: PAIRS.

20. Paves the way?: TARS.

23. Irish novelist Woods: EVIE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

24. Leave folks hanging: BAIL.

25. Big name in brushes: ORAL-B.

28. Genre originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble: SOAP OPERA.

29. Media training?: ART SCHOOL 😀

30. Honey-don't list?: VEGAN MENU - I'm a "meat and taters" kind of guy!

31. Dining room section: TABLE LEAF 😀 Ours are stored in the dining table.

32. Unsettled: ILL AT EASE.

33. Maslovian considerations: NEEDS - I studied (read memorized) these for my Master's Degree and then forgot them.

34. Kloss's "Project Runway" predecessor: KLUM.

Heidi Klum   Karlie Kloss

35. Tropical staple: TARO.

36. Financial term from the French for "slice": TRANCHE - This compelling scene from Margin Call uses the word TRANCHE and gives insight into a big cause of the 2008 financial crisis. It's worth 9:48 of your time.

39. Place to make a connection: NODE - Part of a Local Area Network

43. Apt: SUITED.

46. Lockers in a row?: HORNS  - Wow, variations on locker, row and horns! Here we see two kudu locking HORNS during a row (rhymes with cow). People can do the same thing metaphorically. 

47. Quarry containers: TRAPS - Continuing with animal references, some people use TRAPS to catch whatever quarry they are after. 

51. Person to fight with: ALLY - Two ways to go: The person who is with you and fighting on your side is an ally. The person who is not with you is someone you are fighting with/against.

52. Piece of work?: GIG.

53. JASON's five, e.g.: MOS - I got this eventually. JASON stands for the first letters in the MO.'S July through November. All capital letters in the clue put me off the name and MOS is most likely months. Aarrgghh! 

54. __ point: DEW - Recent numbers for Omaha.

*Walker Smith Jr. fought as Sugar Ray Robinson

**Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) sought the one-armed-man who killed his wife in The Fugitive