Saturday, October 24, 2026, Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Rafael Must

Rafa, a software engineer at Airbnb in San Francisco, is a frequent constructor and collaborator. Although it took some time, I was delighted to receive a “got ‘er done” badge. Typically, there are clues or fills that can unlock a part of the puzzle, but it seemed like whenever I needed one, I was blocked by my lack of knowledge in areas where Rafa is much more knowledgeable. His FreshnessFactor Percentile was 97.3%.

Across:

1. Garage equipment: CAR RAMPS - $99 at Wal Mart

9. One who takes things the wrong way?: ROBBER 😀

15. Ancient Egypt's "plant of immortality": ALOE VERA - The plant was presented as a sacred gift at the burials of pharaohs and placed inside tombs to accompany rulers into the afterlife. Heck, all we want is some relief from a sunburn!

16. How donburi is served: ON RICE.

17. Parent who seems to do it all: SUPER MOM.

18. Umami-rich snack: TEA EGG - A TEA EGG is a Chinese savory food commonly sold as a snack, in which a boiled egg is cracked slightly and then boiled again in tea, and sauce or spices.

19. Audrey Tautou film: AMELIE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

20. Admits: SEES IN - This is a hoot!

22. RSVP part: SIL.

23. Chaps whose business is picking up?: BUSMEN - A very famous one from 50's TV

24. Habitat for some gnomes: LAWN.

26. Groups with routine practice sessions: DANCE CREWS.

30. "Over there," in Portuguese: ALI - "Vá ficar ALI" (Go stand over there)

31. Small bluff: CRAG.

32. Dough: MOOLAH.

33. Billboard entries: SINGLES 😀 Here is the top of Billboard's Hot 100 SINGLES on April 12, 1964.

35. "Tell the truth!": DON'T LIE.

36. Proceeds without a pause: SEGUES 😀 - Nobody did them better!

37. Common tamale ingredient: LARD - It's not labelled below, but I think you can see it in the little black pan.

38. "__ help!": IT'D.

39. Ephemeral post, colloquially: INSTASTORY - INSTAGRAM STORIES are said to disappear after 24 hours but does anything really disappear from the web?

41. Terrarium growth: MOSS.

42. Pen: ENCAGE.

43. Go unused: SIT.

44. Porowski of "Queer Eye": ANTONI ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

45. Place to enter a security code: PIN PAD.

48. Jumped out of one's skin?: MOLTED 😀 - Two weeks ago, August Miller gave us 6. Drop down?: MOLT 

50. What files can help with: NAIL CARE.

52. Preferring platonic connections, for short: ARO ACE.

53. University founded by Booker T. Washington: TUSKEGEE.

54. Reacts to a riot, say: LAUGHS 😀

55. "Sure, hon": OKAY DEAR.

Down:

1. Isabel Allende's "La __ de los espíritus": CASA - Even I could see this translates to The House Of The Spirits.

2. Grad: ALUM.

3. Means of access for some watering holes: ROPE SWINGS - A lot of the images were violent fails!

4. Attract: REEL IN.

5. "Complicated" singer Lavigne: AVRIL.

6. Part of a viral load?: MEME - If an internet posting goes viral, it can become a MEME

7. Maven: PRO - Not a common synonym for me but...

8. Korean company whose name means "three stars": SAMSUNG.

9. Capacity built via repetition: ROTE MEMORY 😀

10. "Be right with you!": ONE SECOND.

11. Low-quality internet content: BRAIN ROT.

12. Word in Spanish 101 and French 101: BIEN The play was well done. In Spanish: La obra estuvo BIEN hecha. In French: La pièce était BIEN réussie.

13. Diagnostic test, for short: ECG.

14. Bylaw, for short: REG - REGulations 

21. Key part of an exit strategy: ESC.

23. "Be right with ewe!" sounds?: BAAS 😀

24. Drink that may be topped with cardamom: LASSI.

25. Strange: ALIEN.

26. Style guides?: DRESS CODES - Fair?

27. "Gaycation" co-host: ELLIOT PAGE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

28. Stands by: WAITS - BTW, Godot never shows up.

29. Saw places: SHEDS 😀

31. Green transport, gray water recycling, etc.: CLEAN TECH.

  
 

34. "Yo!" de Cologne?: GUTEN TAG - What a fun clue! Good day in Cologne, Germany. 

35. "Just do it," e.g.: DARE.

37. Access, in a way: LOG INTO.

40. "Saving Fish From Drowning" novelist: TAN.

41. __ oath: MINCED.

43. Like flan: SILKY.

44. Six-time MLB All-Star Moisés: ALOU.

45. Tuscan city known for a campanile: PISA - Of course, a campanile is a bell tower and very common in Italy. However in PISA...

46. Painter's calculation: AREA.

47. Sacred animals in Nara, Japan: DEER.

48. __ educado: rude, in Spanish: MAL - MAL means bad in Spanish, so...

49. Pop singer Rita: ORA - We had a nice reference to RITA Hayworth yesterday.

51. North Sea bird: AUK.

Saturday, October 17, 2026, Jess Rucks

 Saturday Themeless by Jess Rucks

It's always a pleasure to see Jess's byline. Here you can see a picture of her and me as we met for a fun supper in Lincoln on a cold February night.  

Jess's long fills were the key to the solve and helped with some of the cleverness Jess supplied. Her Air Force job was as an Urdu translator and at least she did not use any of those words! 😊

Here's what our friend Jess had to say about this puzzle:

Hi Gary!

Yay, thanks! I don't remember if there was a seed for this one. LOOK MOM, NO HANDS was probably something inspired by my son Sigur! My goal was to keep the fill clean but also include interesting long answers that had the potential for fun cluing angles. To make up for having a few more shorter answers than is typical in a Saturday LAT themeless, I tried to up the difficulty a little bit in the clues!

I asked Jess how she came up with such a unique name for her son and I am quoting her reply because she actually used the word our cwd buddy EDDA in her answer:

We both have strong Scandinavian roots, so we looked to Nordic folklore. Sigurd is a hero in the Poetic EDDA, so we thought that name could be cool, but decided to drop the "d."

Across:

1. Aid in scratching an itch: CLAW.

5. Jeans choice: SLIM - Levi, Lees? Nope.

9. "What's wrong with u?": SMH - Get it?

                

12. Vader offspring: LEIA - Not her brother Luke this time

13. Southwestern casserole: TAMALE PIE.

16. "Same here": SO AM I.

17. "Let's do this!": IT'S GO TIME.

18. Forex benchmark: USD - FOReign currency EXchanges use US dollars for comparison

19. The old you: THEE - Not THOU

21. Like some kitchen herbs: POTTED.

22. Nullifies: NEGATES.

24. Tradition within Swedish coffee culture: FIKA.

25. Like some jobs: CUSHY.

26. Abound (with): TEEM.

27. Shengjian __: pan-fried pork bun: BAO - We seem to be learning a lot of bread products from around the world

30. Setting of Fox's "Best Medicine": MAINE.

31. Milanese dish traditionally served with risotto: OSSO BUCO.

33. With 47-Down, extra lives?: ALTER and 47. See 33-Across: EGOS - Clark Kent, Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne come to mind.

34. Service rep with a lack of humanity: BOT - I keep saying "Representative or pushing O" hoping I will get out of an annoying conversation with a BOT  

35. David's "Baywatch" role: MITCH.

36. Eyes angrily: GLARES AT.

38. Takes down: NOTES.

39. Letters from a bygone empire: SSR.

40. Travels cross-country?: SKIS.

41. Wades through: FORDS.

42. Leave out: OMIT.

43. Nullifidian: ATHEIST - I had no idea but it makes sense

45. Cold treat: ICE POP.

48. National Farm Toy Museum locale: IOWA -  It's about a 10 minute drive between these two attractions in tiny Dyersville, IOWA.

                        

49. Whiz: ACE.

50. Home brewer's appliance: KEGERATOR.

52. Chute material: NYLON - American parachutes were mostly made from Japanese silk. As you can imagine, Pearl Harbor cut off that supply and DuPont came with a synthetic substitute called NYLON. The first person to test the new material was parachute rigger Adeline Gray. She made her historic jump on June 6, 1942, two years to the day before they were widely used on D-Day.

54. Resolved: IRONED OUT.

55. Exploit: DEED.

56. Court figs.: DA'S.

57. Nueva canción great Mercedes: SOSA - Nueva Canción means "New Song"

58. Singer who has six top 10 studio albums with her namesake band: SADE.

Down:

1. Scary-good moments?: CLOSE CALLS.

2. Role for one who picks the melody?: LEAD GUITAR.

Bass    Drum    Lead        Rhythm

3. Asset in a snowball fight: AIM.

4. "You're telling me that's only part of the story?": WAIT THERE'S MORE - Remember pitchman Billy Mays?

5. Spots for muckety-mucks?: STIES 😀 

6. Like someone who gets stuck in traffic, perhaps: LATE.

7. Pings online: IMS.

8. Birds that recognize faces and hold grudges: MAGPIES - Now there's a face a MAGPIE can remember.

9. Rotisserie rod: SPIT.

10. Expert in nonverbal communication: MIME - A MIME MEME?

11. Obey: HEED.

14. Cry for attention: LOOK MOM NO HANDS - Jess was thinking of her son when she thought of this.

15. James in the Blues Hall of Fame: ETTA.

16. Feature of Namibia's flag: SUN - It's in here:

20. "Yo!": HEY.

23. Ed of "Up": ASNER 

24. End of Oktober?: FEST.

26. __ and the Maytals: TOOTS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

27. Rang up from down under?: BUTT DIALED - My favorite clue!

28. Opening sequence: ACCESS CODE.

29. Sounds amazed: OOHS.

30. Some off-the-rack purchases, briefly: MAGS - A recurring scene in this movie

32. "Free your pores" brand: BIORE.

34. Entice: BAIT.

37. Bypass online promos: SKIP ADS - I click on 'em every time I can.

41. "Victory!" letters: FTW - I'll take Leslie Uggams For The Win

42. Like a tips-only bar: OPEN - The booze is already paid for so...

43. Place for a stent: AORTA.

44. Point value of "five" in Scrabble: TEN - Find the letters and add 'em up

45. "Only joking": I KID - His material would never work today

46. Michael of "The Running Man": CERA.

48. Chits: IOUS.

51. As well: TOO.

53. "About __ big": YEA.