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.

Saturday, October 10, 2026, August Miller

Saturday Themeless by August Miller

Our physics student turned farmer from Massachusetts  returns. As usual, I'll point out some of his trickery but the key to the whole puzzle was his long fills, particularly the stack of three grid spanners

As you can see below, August had a lot of unique fills which earned him a "freshness factor" of 96%,

    

Across:

1. "__ Supreme": MARTY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The movie Marty I knew started Ernest Borgnine.

6. Hebrew name that means "who is like God": MICAH ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

11. Folks who are often recognized: CELEBS.

12. One who is recognized: HONOREE.

14. Like many John Cage compositions: ATONAL - If you'd really like to hear 2:22 of one of his compositions

15. Piece of crude machinery: OIL DRILL. 😀

16. Less ridiculous: SANER.

17. Drambuie cocktail: RUSTY NAIL - Two ingredients - Scotch Whiskey and Drambuie Liqueur. I don't think I could drink and blog!

18. Whole lot: SLEW.

19. Caresses: PETS.

20. Plum kin: SLOE.

21. Pretend: ACT.

22. Spanish dairy animal: VACA - From VACA to VACCINE

23. Journalist Cabrera: ANA.

25. Smart, in a way: VOICE CONTROLLED - It helps when my fat fingers can't get the job done.

31. Ankylosaurus, for one: ARMORED DINOSAUR.

32. "That's not so outrageous": SEEMS REASONABLE.

33. "Au revoir, __ amis": MES - Even I can see it that this is French for "Goodbye my friends"

34. Farm unit that may be round or square: BALE - The old square (really rectangular) were very labor intensive and involved made for a hot, unpleasant job. The new modern round balers are a one man operation. 

 

35. Sigur __: ethereal Icelandic band: ROS - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

36. Zoë of "The Afterparty": CHAO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

39. Need for some pan sauces: FOND - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The word FOND is a French term that refers to the browned bits of food in a pan after food has been sautéed or roasted.

40. Grand piano trio: LEGS 😀

41. Starts to look really cold: TURNS BLUE.

44. Hasbro toy that tests reaction speed: BOP IT.

45. Looping: ON REPEAT.

46. Traditional Chinese dumplings: JIAOZI - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

47. Giving nightmares, maybe: SCARING.

48. Spotless?: AD FREE 😀

49. "Be more here" hotel chain: HYATT.

50. Licks: BESTS.

Down:

1. Hybrid genre: METAL CORE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ A combination of heavy metal and hard core punk.

2. Chance to recharge one's social battery: ALONE TIME - I love mine!

3. Commit to another year, say: RENEW.

4. Lift option: T-BAR.

5. Couture initials: YSL.

6. Drop down?: MOLT 😀 - Down is a noun: When a bird MOLTS, it drops down!

7. Fedora-sporting hero, familiarly: INDY - Ah yes, back when a movie actually made me want to go to the theater. The streaming services I already pay for want $3.99 more to see this many other entertaining movies.

8. Mix with kernels: CORN SALSA.

9. No-frills type: ARIAL - Our regular font. Arial font.

10. Trope starter: HELIO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Turns out it is not a tired plot device but is a flower. We astronomy buffs know of another HELIO word

11. Plants used to make tapioca: CASSAVAS.

12. Sibilant warning: HISS - That snake doesn't have to warn me twice!

13. Vogue rival: ELLE.

15. Not home: OUT AND ABOUT.

17. Deal with bugs, say: RECODE 😀

19. Some harness horses: PACERS.

22. Frost bit?: VERSE.

23. "Frog and Toad" series writer Lobel: ARNOLD.

24. "... said __ ever": NO ONE.

26. Modern dating phrase: COMMON ERA.

27. Herbal infusion: TISANE - Colonel Hastings did not care for Poirot's TISANE

28. Solution pages?: LAB REPORT 😀

29. Shares passing thoughts?: EULOGIZES.

30. Ascot alternative: DRESS TIE.

36. Some A.I. execs: CTOS - Chief Technical Officer

37. Suspicion: HUNCH.

38. Assortment: ARRAY.

39. Icon in a World Cup score: FLAG.

40. Doesn't work: LOAFS.

42. One taking turns cooking?: SPIT 😀

43. Kinked: BENT - The "water fountain" of my misspent yute.

44. __ one's time: BIDE.

46. Vaccination, to a Brit: JAB - Prime Minister Boris Johnson gets a JAB