Saturday, October 11, 2025, Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Rafael Musa

From Brazil, Musa moved to the Bay Area a decade ago to attend Stanford, where he earned his B.A. and master's degrees in computer science. He has called San Francisco home since graduating in 2018, which is the same year he started solving crosswords. Musa now solves up to six a day. He is a software engineer at Airbnb.

I made very good time in this puzzle but there was no way I was going to get the red cell you see below. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Across:

1. Warning on some sauce: ATOMIC.

          

7. __ Darya river: AMU - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  It is mostly a DaRYa River now and it "flows" into the southern remnants of the Aral Lake.

10. Solidarity leader Walesa: LECH - A true Polish living legend whose courage foreshadowed the fall of the Soviet Union. 

14. Place to take a break from the hustle and bustle: URBAN OASIS.

16. Part that helps the wheels on the bus go round and round: AXLE 😀

17. Words before a gavel banging: GOING TWICE 😀 

18. Fuss: STIR.

19. Doing: UP TO.

20. [Jazz hands]: TADA.

21. "David Copperfield" villain: HEEP.

22. Caldo de __: Mexican beef soup: RES.

23. "Was that not enough?": MORE?

24. Plow creation or brow formation: FURROW 😀

26. Cake or Bread: BAND - I only knew one of them. You?

 

27. Asset in cornhole: AIM.

28. Dallas-to-Plano dir.: NNE.

29. "Shake it off": HATERS GONNA HATE.

34. "No complaining!": I DON'T WANT ANY LIP.

35. Events that only get some coverage?: PARTIAL ECLIPSES 😀

36. Big primate: APE.

37. 50-Down org.: NBA and 50. Cleveland pro: CAV.

38. Aware of: ONTO.

39. Pitfall! consoles: ATARIS.

41. Be overly maudlin: CLOY - His bleak and jaded worldview is tempered by an unflagging, never cloying faith in love and its ability to transcend the muck and vile.
— Carlos Valladares, SFChronicle.com, 4 Nov. 2019
42. "Golly!": BOY.

45. Work: OPUS.

46. One may thicken over time: PLOT 😀

47. Like the oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber: PURE - They are believed to promote faster healing by using PURE oxygen under increased pressure.

48. "A Visit From the Goon Squad" novelist: EGAN and 30. Substance in herbal medicine: ADAPTOGEN. - The G where these two intersected was an impossibility for me as you saw in the grid. 😔

49. Seeing things that aren't natural?: BIONIC EYES - These can restore sight to blind people

51. "Mistakes __ made": WERE.

52. Break in?: STAYCATION - Take a break but stay in town

53. Otorhinolaryngologists, for short: ENTS.

54. Not assume, say: ASK.

55. "Regardless ... ": EVEN SO.

Down:

1. Herald: AUGUR - These clouds in central Nebraska AUGUR some extreme weather

2. Enemies to lovers, e.g.: TROPE - A familiar plot device in TV shows and movies. This fun movie leapt to my mind.

3. Dying words?: OBITS.

4. Hand for a mariachi band?: MANO - ... or any hand in Spanish 

5. English equivalent to the French -ant: ING - Crosswords are amusing (Les mots croisés sont amusants)

6. Test kit items: COTTON SWABS.

7. Tangent: ASIDE.

8. Ground mineral in joint compound: MICA - The second ingredient listed

 

9. Capitalize on: USE.

10. Surgical tool: LASER.

11. Appearances: EXTERNALS - Front and back of the Hill Valley Courthouse from Back To The Future

 

12. Hassle-free accessory: CLIP ON TIE.

13. "I Can't Breathe" singer-songwriter: HER.

H.E.R.

15. Occasion to celebrate achievements: AWARD GALA.

21. Habitat for __: HUMANITY - Two famous workers

23. Gin cocktails: MARTINIS.

24. Recourse before pursuing legal action, maybe: FINAL NOTICE.

25. Responds with great emotion: WEEPS.

26. Predisposition: BENT - I have always been a man with a math and science BENT

27. Carpenters' union?: ANT COLONY 😀 🐜

29. Abbr. on some medical forms: HIPAA.

31. Criticized harshly: TORE APART.

32. Half and half: ONE 😀

33. Shot provider: HYPO 😀

40. Old Norse characters: RUNES.

41. Conceal: CLOAK.

42. Poker fee: BUY IN - Ya gotta pay to play

43. Treat with vanilla creme: OREOS - How do I clue thee, Let me count the ways

44. Binary, in a way: YES NO - If this makes no sense to you, ask a math peep.

46. Centers of drupes: PITS.

47. Mets slugger Alonso: PETE.

48. Manchego source: EWE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Manchego is traditionally made from the milk of Manchega ewesthat graze in Spain's La Mancha region. For a cheese to be authentic Manchego, it must be made from 100% sheep's milk from this specific breed and region, following strict Denominación de Origen (DO) rules. You're welcome.

49. Org. now known as Scouting America: BSA.

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.