Saturday, February 21, 2026, Dr. Kyle Dolan

  Saturday Themeless by Dr. Kyle Dolan

This is the 22nd themeless Saturday puzzle by Dr. Dolan I have blogged. For this puzzle I sought out someplace where I could get multiple fills and work out from there. For this puzzle it was the SW corner where things filled in and ERIVO took care of itself greatly aided by my fortuitous guess at SCUBA DIVE. As you can see by the red square I did have one bad cell where I had to confess to my French major 

granddaughter that I guessed ENTRE VOUS and not NOUS. I made the connection to Egypt with Theban deity but AMENRA escaped me. 

Across:

1. "Hold my beer": WATCH THIS - Idiocy fueled by alcohol and testosterone.

             

10. __ forest: KELP.

14. "It's not up to me": IF YOU WANT.

15. Obsession: MANIA - Are you old enough to remember this MANIA?

 
 

16. "Ask away!": DON'T BE SHY.

17. Quirkily creative: ARTSY.

18. Leaves home?: TREE 😀 Leaves is a noun and is possessive. 

19. Put on board: LADE.

20. Board game: DARTS.

21. Pronoun option: HER.

22. Radiation that triggers vitamin D synthesis, for short: UVB.

23. Lineup of runners?: SLATE - This is the SLATE of runners you would have seen in 2024 in Nehawka, NE (pop. 167)

25. Used a prayer rug: KNELT.

27. Supreme Theban deity: AMENRA - AMEN-RA (alt. AMUN-RA) was the supreme state deity of New Kingdom Egypt (150-1100 BCE) merging the Theban creator god Amun ("The Hidden One") with the sun god Ra. Searching for his book was a plot arc of the 1999 movie The Mummy.

30. Mexico City's __ de la Reforma: PASEO - Walkway Of The Reform. A nine-mile diagonal street modeled on the Champs-Élysée in Paris.

33. "Truce?": ARE WE COOL.

35. As soon as: ONCE - ONCE you get some time 

36. Natl. Merit Scholarship qualifying exams: PSATS.

37. Dance with a kahiko style: HULA - Includes chanting

38. Small beard: SOUL PATCH.

40. Amounts on some bottles: DOSES.

41. Sportscaster Dick with the catchphrase "Touch 'em all!": ENBERG - Said after a home run

42. Tilt: TIP UP - Getting the stones to Stonehenge was one thing and then they had to TIP them UP

44. "Fare thee well": ADIEU.

46. Top suit: CEO 😀 A suit is one of the executives of a company and so the top one would be the CEO

47. Toe bean spot: PAW - Lily did not like that channel!

50. Shots after whiffs, say: REDOS or after a really bad bunker shot

52. Polish place: NAIL 😀

54. [Not again!]: SIGH.

55. "Wicked" star: ERIVO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

56. "Count me in!": I'M SO THERE.

58. Assumption: GIVEN.

59. Suit perfectly: FIT TO A TEE.

60. Forward thinker?: SEER.

61. "Why not both": YES AND YES - Do you love me and will you marry me?

Down:

1. Mover's concern: WIDTH - Oops!

2. "Loch Lomond" preposition: AFORE.

3. Pianist McCoy who played with the John Coltrane Quartet: TYNER- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

4. Home on an apartment building's roof, maybe: COTE - Brando shows Eva Marie Saint a pigeon egg from his rooftop COTE in On The Waterfront.

5. Carrier base: HUB.

6. Not quite a teen: TWELVE - Pat Boone sang Twixt TWELVE And Twenty

7. Lives it up: HAS A BLAST.

8. Clear for all to see, so to speak: IN HD - Fill words can be complicated when abbreviations have become "words" on their own.

9. Lid blemishes: STYES.

10. Handy maneuver?: KARATE CHOP 😀

11. "Confidentially ... ": ENTRE NOUS - Just between you and me. Entre vous means between us as a group.

12. Lay out: LIST - My projects are much more successful when I lay out what I need to do in a LIST.

13. Foots: PAYS - We used to "foot the bill" when we took our girls out but now they have families and we go dutch. 

15. Nice thing to call someone?: MADAME - I suppose MADAME would be a nice thing to call someone in Nice, France. 😊

22. Shedding card game: UNO.

24. Code components: LAWS - One of the first compilatons

25. Succumbed to gravity: KEELED OVER.

26. Leaflet: TRACT - A famous one.

28. Part of a play list?: ROLE 😀 - A person, who later became very famous, was listed here as a minor character for her first ROLE. She played a lesbian lover for Joan Molinsky (later Joan Rivers)

 

29. "Woe is me!": ALAS.

30. False front: POSE.

Give it up, poser!

31. Mystery author, briefly: ANON - Here the identity of the author is the mystery not the work itself 😀

32. Get tanked on a tropical vacation?: SCUBA DIVE - A confident fill when I only had the "S" showing. Yay me!

34. People with concerns about trolleys?: ETHICISTS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Happy to learn.

36. Resident of D.C.'s Daniel Webster Hall: PAGE - A former funeral home that was refurbished in 1995 to house Senate PAGES.

39. "Orange Is the New Black" setting: PRISON - A binge watch for me.

40. Couple: DUO.

43. Cesta-slung sphere: PELOTA - Here a jai alai player is slinging a PELOTA (sphere) with his cesta (basket)

45. Bring together: UNIFY.

47. Reverence: PIETY.

48. Concur: AGREE.

49. Carnival cries: WHEES - Kevin Hart seems to be making a cry of terror while Jimmy Fallon is doing more of a WHEE.

50. Policies, for short: REGS.

51. Put-in-Bay's lake: ERIE - The village of Put-In-Bay is located in our favorite crossword lake

53. Femme friend: AMIE - A French friend who is female

54. Roe source: SHAD.

57. 100 runs, for a cricketer: TON ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Saturday, February 14, 2026, Amanda Cook

Saturday Themeless by Amanda Cook 

 

Amanda is a music critic and digital editor who is a published crossword puzzle constructor that maintains a blog for refined sugar-free dessert recipes, and enjoys taking care of her growing collection of houseplants. Amanda lives in Minnesota with her husband Kenny, and together they enjoy hiking, playing board games, and cheering for the Cleveland Guardians. She added that she had certainly heard of C.C., had met her once and lives in a Minnesota city next to our lovely blogmistress.

Amanda had this to share with us after I asked her if SOCIAL BATTERY was a seed entry like BEIGE FLAG was for her last puzzle: 

Hi Gary! You’re correct about SOCIAL BATTERY! I’m very much an introvert, so I’m always conscious of mine when I’m out socializing. I also asked if my take on MINOR ROLE was right. She was shocked happy and replied, Yes!

 Across:

1. Grazing spots?: TAPAS BARS.

10. Classic Milwaukee brewer: PABST.

15. Holding back tears, perhaps: EMOTIONAL.

16. Cornmeal cake: AREPA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

17. Final act for a big star: SUPER NOVA 😀

18. Tiptoe: CREEP.

19. Phillies All-Star shortstop Turner: TREA - Here is TREA on the right with our cousin Alec Bohm from Omaha who plays third base next to him.

20. Salon sounds: SNIPS.

22. Squeaks (by): EKES.

23. Hermana de la madre: TIA - Mother's sister (Hermana de la madre) is my aunt (TIA).

25. Scoped out: CASED.

27. Resource that may be recharged with alone time: SOCIAL BATTERY - Amanda's seed entry is a metaphor for explaining how much energy a person has for socializing when recharging is necessary. What's your level today?

32. Alan Ladd Western: SHANE - In a 2005 poll, this was chosen as the 47th best movie line of all time.

34. Sphere: REALM - One sphere of influence has been decreased in size

35. Green shade: PEA.

36. 1990s fad item: POG - These were ubiquitous in my 90's classroom!

37. State gemstone of Minnesota: AGATE.

38. [Raises hand]: I AM.

39. Ferment, perhaps: AGE.

40. Cut back: PRUNE.

41. Alabama and Kansas: BANDS - One of them has a song whose music and lyrics are favs of mine:

43. Unapologetic self-promotion: SHAMELESS PLUG - Celebrities doing this are staples of the TV talk show business.

46. Infer: EDUCE.

47. "__ complicated": IT'S.

48. Big D cagers: MAVS.

49. David Oyelowo film set in Alabama: SELMA.

53. French head: TETE.

57. Covered in vines: IVIED.

59. Reason to cover a lot of ground quickly?: RAIN DELAY 😀

61. Come and go: RECUR.

62. Nonbillable work?: MINOR ROLE 😀 Harrison Ford's film debut was as a bellboy in Dead Heat On A Merry-Go-Round which was such a MINOR ROLE, his name did not appear on the bill.

           
 

63. Goomba, to Mario: ENEMY - An Italian word for friend came to become a derogatory for Italian-Americans.

64. Local cultural ecosystems: ART SCENES 😀

Down:

1. Exam: TEST.

2. River between Russia and China: AMUR.

3. Vatican City resident: POPE.

4. Carbo-loaded, say: ATE A TON.

5. Military address: SIR.

6. Art with a moyogi style: BONSAI - I thought it was Mr. Miyogi's BONSAI tree from Karate Kid but your humble blogger missed the fact that moyogi is not capitalized. It still would have worked. 🤔

7. Rando on a message board: ANON - Our ANONs on this site are not usually RANDOm

8. Sitarist Shankar: RAVI - He greatly influenced the Beatles, especially George Harrison, but did not play on any of their songs.

9. Give a hand?: SLAP - Anyone else CLAP first?

10. Campaign gp.: PAC.

11. Mesmerize: ARREST.

12. Sting operation?: BEEKEEPING 😀 

13. Cram for book club: SPEED READ.

14. Dances like Savion Glover: TAPS - Saturday cluing for a common word

21. Magnitude: SCALE - The magnitude of the space shuttle and the crawler taking it out to the launch pad is easier to see when you look at the trucks on the crawler way next to them.

24. Water cooler: ICE. 😀

26. Texter's "Currently": ATM - Today, At The Moment replaces our cash dispenser 

27. Words from a seasoned pro: SAGE ADVICE.

28. Engage in forensics: ARGUE.

29. Tilts: LEANS.

30. "Matlock" star: BATES - Kathy BATES stars in a reboot of the TV series made famous by Andy Griffith

31. Staple of Nigerian cuisine: YAMS.

32. Beauty spots: SPAS.

33. State of bliss: HOG HEAVEN - Talk about being happy! Humans might seek other avenues for a state of bliss. 

37. "Les Alyscamps" city: ARLES - A Roman necropolis in southern France. 

40. Burpee target: PEC

41. Club kin: BLT - My two favs!

42. Puritanical: AUSTERE.

44. Institution that may have a repatriation policy: MUSEUM - This happened in 2019

45. Moving challenges: PIANOS - The most famous PIANO movers that I'll wager most of us have seen in our "yute".

48. Wetland: MIRE.

50. Gospel singer Franklin: ERMA - Not Etta or Ella

51. Burrow: LAIR - As a noun

52. Bread maker: MINT - So many euphemisms for money

54. North Carolina college town: ELON - What a great athletic nickname.

55. Epic: TALE.

56. Emoji reaction to a hot take: EYES. 😳

58. Word with rub or run: DRY - Barbecue seasoning and a test 

60. Kinshasa's country, briefly: DRC - Its Atlantic Ocean shoreline is a little over 20 miles long.