Saturday, March 28, 2026, Grant Conley

  Saturday Themeless by Grant Conley

I found Grant on FaceBook and he was kind enough to share this:

• This is only my second puzzle published, with the first being in the WSJ. (I'm currently waiting to see if the same paper will accept my latest themed puzzle.)
• Outside of work and crosswords, I enjoy reading, bouldering (new to me hg), and participating in local trivia nights. I also bake a pretty good sourdough.

As for seed entries, DRUMROLLPLEASE and LANDSPEEDRECORD were the first set in this puzzle, though I originally had them in the opposite order; I thought it would make for a snappy solve with the "drum roll" leading into the big stunt. This was eventually sacrificed for a better grid flow and some easier letter pairings. Aside from these, I enjoyed creating the puzzle's few parallel entries, like DOODAD/NOODLE, since such a late-week grid really asked for a little playfulness to lighten it up.

Grant said he did not see the connection I made with the first three clues but for some reason they just came together.

Across:

1. Stratagem: ARTIFICE - Devices used to trick or deceive. One ARTIFICE used by the allies just before D-Day was Operation Fortitude. They assembled to be what appeared to be an actual army "commanded" by General George Patton to fool Hitler into thinking the invasion would take place further east near Calais and not Normandy. Interesting reading

9. Farce: SHAM - Operation Fortitude was a SHAM but it made Hitler divert a lot of firepower away from the Normandy beaches.

13. Phrase shouted after some extras?: READ ALL ABOUT IT - People selling newspapers the next day might be shouting, "Extra, Extra READ ALL ABOUT IT"

16. Critical component of fast response times: CAT LIKE REFLEXES.

18. Fall bloom: ASTER.

19. Chronicle: ANNAL - D-Day was one of the major events in all of the ANNALS of history.

20. Polo alternative: TEE - Better golf courses require players to wear collared shirts.

21. Common feature of a grandfather clock: DOOR.

22. Astaire and Rogers: FREDS - It was fun when I realized Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were really Fred Astaire and Fred Rogers! 😀

23. Hamlet, for one: DANE.

24. Capital One's virtual assistant: ENO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

25. Western outfit: POSSE.

26. Fatty compound: LIPID - Liposuction physically removes adipose tissue (fat cells/lipids)

27. Place for pints: BAR - PUB seemed to be more likely 

28. Intern, often: TRAINEE - We educators call them student teachers or cadets 

30. Closely affiliated with: WED TO.

32. Drops: SINKS.

33. Location without an outlet: DEAD END.

35. "L.A. Law" actress: DEY.

36. Like cappuccino: FOAMY.

37. Wind farm structures: VANES.

39. Tune paired with a silent movie, often: RAG.

42. "My bad!": OOPS.

43. Raptors, e.g.: DINOS.

44. "If This Is a Man" author Primo: LEVI.

45. Turmoil: ADO.

46. Podcast medium: AUDIO - Add two more vowels to previous fill

47. Gainbridge Fieldhouse player: PACER - It is home to the NBA Indiana PACERS and the WNBA Indiana Fever.

48. Achievement last set in 1997 in Nevada's Black Rock Desert: LAND SPEED RECORD.

51. Dramatic introduction: DRUMROLL PLEASE 😀 - One of Grant's seed entries

52. Olden days: YORE.

53. Two quarters, perhaps: SEMESTER - I got my B.A. from Wayne State College that was on a trimester schedule. 

Down:

1. Location with an array of cabinets: ARCADE. 😀

2. Work (out): REASON - We solvers have to use REASON to work out tricky fill

3. Heart on one's sleeve, perhaps: TATTOO - I loved this when I finally worked out what Grant was going  for.

4. One unlikely to have long to-do lists: IDLER - I was first looking for the opposite: Someone who had mostly already done the chores.

5. "Good point": FAIR 🤔

6. Kind: ILK.

7. Busses: CLEARS - The dent in my forehead will heal from when it got hit after I had my DOH moment. I thought I was being so clever with KISSES, then I tried to think what transport vehicle it might be and then the right answer jumped up.

8. From the heart: EARNEST.

9. Places to lounge: SOFAS.

10. Naval base: HULL 😀

11. Consumed: ATE.

12. Cassettes that may spark nostalgia: MIX TAPES 😀

14. Binges: BENDERS.

15. Adjective for a bikini, in a 1960s hit song: TEENIE - Chant it with me - "One, two, three, four, tell the people what she wore..." I love 60's music but this would not make it onto my MIX TAPE.

17. Growing need?: SEED - My radish SEEDS are already sprouting in this record hot Nebraska weather.

22. Specialty: FORTE.

23. Less than impressive: DINKY - The aforementioned bikini might also add this adjective

25. Rice field: PADDY.

26. Most of a stick figure: LINES.

27. Part of a support system: BEAMS - This past Wednesday, Mutual of Omaha celebrated the "topping out of its new 44-story headquarters in downtown Omaha by placing the last BEAM.

29. Interns, often: AIDES - I suspect you can name this intern who started as an unpaid AIDE for Universal Studios in 1969.

30. Phaser banks on the Enterprise, e.g.: WEAPONRY.

31. Captured, in a way: ON VIDEO.

33. Whatsit: DOO DAD.

34. "Dumb & Dumber" co-star: DANIELS.

36. Little horse: FOAL.

38. Noggin: NOODLE.

39. Apply again, as paint: RECOAT.

40. Disinclined (to): AVERSE.

41. Part of a support system: GIRDER - A lovely spot for lunch in 1932

43. British cellist Jacqueline: DUPRE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

44. Corset tighteners: LACES.

46. Whispery genre, for short: ASMR - 

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response

 (ASMR) is a calming, static-like tingling sensation triggered by soft sound like whispering, tapping or gentle visuals. It has become a frequent fill in our puzzles.

47. Brazilian soccer legend: PELE.

49. Pair: DUO.

50. Dashboard stat: RPM.

Saturday, March 21, 2026, Kyle Dolan

 Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan

I liked Dr. Dolan's puzzle and never felt I was not going to solve it. My issue became trying to decipher what Kyle meant by his "off-the-wall"cluing. My experience was the frequent recitation of 48. Exasperated cry: DOH! once I saw what he intended, the fill was fun to enter and also unlocked big sections of the puzzle. Today's exercise had only 28 blocks which gave us 103 open squares and only six three-letter words. I'll share with you some of the circuitous thinking that I used to cut through Dr. Dolan's obfuscations. :-)  As has become my custom, I did have a one-cell problem where you see the red cell in the grid, but I'll get over it. I thought ARE WE OK/ALAIK worked.

Across:

1. Shell station?: PASTA BAR - Just when I thought of every shell I could...

                  

9. Yet: IN TIME.

15. The 24 Hours of Le Mans, e.g.: AUTO RACE - This great movie is about personal rivalries and corporate machinations but the climax is The 24 Hours Of Le Mans.

16. Networking aid: ROUTER - If we need a generator after a power loss, the order for plugging in would be fridge/freezers and then the modem and ROUTER. 😀

17. Exams with answers provided by parents: DNA TESTS 😀

18. World capital named for a river: OTTAWA - fun to learn

19. Headgear that sparked a riot in 1922 New York City: STRAW HAT - Really? Talk about your fashion police.

20. Christmas delivery?: NOEL 😀

21. Floral gifts for some graduates: LEIS - Three-letter (plural) floral gift? Ya gotta go Hawaiian! 

22. American painter James __ Whistler: MCNEILL - Of course his famous work below was entitled Arrangement In Gray And Black No. 1 which we all know by its more famous name. A fascinating bio

25. Chef's coat?: TEFLON 😀 Well actually, Kyle, the coat is on the pan.

28. Is revealing: TELLS ALL.

29. Harlem Renaissance writer Locke: ALAIN. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

30. Waiter's annoyance: DELAY - I never even thought it might be about a food server. The DELAY waiting in the line at Space Mountain was always very long and annoying.

31. Bucket brigade?: NBA Groan. A made basket in basketball is also called a bucket.

32. Flooring option: TILE - My first two floor coverings  were

C

A

R U G S

P

E

T

33. Unbroken?: FIXED - Now that's funny!

34. "Estoy __": Spanish "I'm doing all right": BIEN. 

35. Joint-stabilizing band, for short: ACL.

36. Gold __: PLATE - Sometimes all that glitters is not gold, it's gold PLATED

37. Tree cultivated for its seeds more than 5,000 years ago: CACAO.

38. Magic City residents: MIAMIANS - Not Orlandoans 😀

40. Grows darker: LATENS - If spellcheck is all right with this, so am I

41. Offer to treat: IT'S ON ME - A phrase a friend of mine never uttered

42. "The Leavers" novelist Ko: LISA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

43. Marvel hero Cage: LUKE  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

44. Lines from the heart: LOVE NOTE - Ketty Lester had a beautiful 1962 song with this theme

48. Exhausts: DOES IN 

50. Basis of some ratings: AGE LEVEL.

51. "Nearly there": ONE SEC - A familiar phrase I heard waiting for three women in the car

52. Reef denizen: MORAY EEL - Yikes!

53. "Knock on wood": HOPE SO.

54. "I won't ask again!": ANSWER ME.

Down:

1. Exaggerates, in a way: PADS - I had an expense account once that may have not been all that accurate 😁

2. Family member: AUNT.

3. Outstanding: STAR.

4. Blatant fabrication: TOTAL LIE - This is one of the worst.

5. Confirmation question: ARE WE ON.

6. Open, as a piñata: BASH IN.

7. Represent: ACT AS.

8. Musical pause: REST.

9. Battleship precursor: IRONCLAD - The Civil Wr featured the battle of the IRONCLADS, the Monitor and the Merrimac.

10. More than: NOT ONLY.

11. Contracted pupils, perhaps: TUTEES - Wow! I suppose a tutor would have a contract with TUTEES who are also pupils. No eyes involved!

12. Granita kin: ITALIAN ICE.

A Sicilian treat

13. Bit of Persian language?: MEW 😀

14. Young fig.: ERA - The winner of MLB's Cy Young Award usually has a low Earned Run Average.

22. Rumble: MELEE.

23. Outfitter with signature boots: L.L. BEAN.

24. Grassy plains: LLANOS - Pampas or LLANOS coin flip

25. Flooring option: TATAMI.

26. Bring out: ELICIT.

27. Go out: FALL ASLEEP 😀

28. Scholarship materials: TEXTS - As a teacher since 1968 I can tell you just seeing a student with a TEXT does not guarantee any scholarship is going on.

30. Designer von Furstenberg: DIANE.

33. Spanish steps?: FLAMENCO 😀

34. React: BAT AN EYE.

36. Small digits: PINKIES.

37. Guide for future rulings: CASE LAW - Not the actual law or statute but a compilation of how different jurisdictions have applied laws.

39. Do stuff?: MOUSSE - Oh, that kind of "do".

40. Natural detox centers: LIVERS.

42. Access, in a way: LOG ON - Remembering User Names and Passwords can be a real chore

44. Eastern priest: LAMA.

45. Simple wager choice: OVER  - The OVER/Under for the recent Super Bowl was 45.5 points. The final score was 29 - 13 which adds up to 42 and that means you'd be a loser if you bet the OVER.

46. Swarm (with): TEEM.

49. Chef Jiro of the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi": ONO - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Jiro ONO is in the middle below