Saturday, June 14, 2025, Adrian Johnson

 Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson

                    

Our Wyoming native who went to college in Minnesota is now doing great work for a startup group called BetterFi, a nonprofit working to end predatory lending in Tennessee.

This face below represents how surprised I was when DOLMA and ANARCH turned out to be correct and I got the congratulations message!

                   

Across:

1. Longtime Harmon role: GIBBS - Watching Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon as GIBBS on the left below) on NCIS is a guilty pleasure of mine. The good guys always win, there is a lot of technology and some very quirky but attractive characters.

6. Solutions-oriented support group?: LAB TECHS - They prepare chemical solutions and can provide solutions to problems. 

14. "The Misfits" star: MONROE - Her husband Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay for his wife Marilyn but her marriage and life fell apart during the shooting of this last film for her and Gable. More about this troubled film

15. Emphatic phrase in an accusation: I MEAN YOU.

16. Raise, in a way: UPTILT - An unfamiliar word to me whose meaning is obvious

17. Course layout: SYLLABUS.

18. Timepiece useful in lunar gardening: MOON DIAL - If you believe the success of your garden depends on what the phase of the Moon is when you plant...

20. Reach: ACCESS.

21. Pandora selection: SONG.

22. Opposite of pos.: NEG - Does anyone remember Erik Agard's "Negative post/PRE" from a few Saturdays ago?

24. Image on the Lebanese flag: TREE.

25. Showing gumption: FEISTY.

28. "The Low __ Theory": A Tribe Called Quest album: END ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

31. Bankroll: WAD.

32. "Shame": THAT'S TOO BAD - Standard sarcasm on Seinfeld 

35. Banker who fills and empties pockets?: POOL HUSTLER - Oh, those pockets that can be targets of banked shots! A classic, gritty b/w 1961 film that got 94% on the Tomatometer!

36. "Tell the truth": DON'T LIE TO ME.

37. Clear dishes: BUS.

38. Brief, for short: Abbr.: SYN - Meta clues are always a challenge. Brief is a SYNONYM for short

39. Disorder organizer: ANARCH - From Greek an- "not" + arkhon "ruler," meaning "leader of leaderlessness," a paradoxical term used since the 1660s for "anarchist"

42. Source of some plant-based milk: OATS.

44. Shock-absorbing component of some running shoes: GEL.

46. Branch of Islam: SHIA.

48. High winds: FLUTES.

51. Disorder organizers: NEATNIKS - A Hawkeye line from M*A*S*H

54. Liquidation event: FIRE SALE.

56. Some bees: DRONES.

57. Family time at the Y: OPEN SWIM.

58. Chestnut kin: AUBURN.

59. "Alas ... ": SAD TO SAY.

60. Outdoor tables?: MESAS 😀

Down:

1. Disappear suddenly: GO POOF.

2. Chant: INTONE.

3. "Challenge accepted!": BRING IT ON - You can be pretty 4. Willing to accept a challenge, perhaps: BOLD  from the balcony.

5. "Are we alone?" org.: SETI - A trailer for a fav movie of mine, Contact, about the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence 

6. Hosiery thread: LISLE - LISLE is a type of finish that was applied to obtain smooth and even yarns. More

7. "The Backyard Bird Chronicles" writer/illustrator Tan: AMY.

8. New Grass Revival icon Fleck: BELA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

9. One on the Mohs scale: TALC.

10. Put into law: ENACT.

11. Offensive actions online: CYBER WAR.

12. Promotion from within: HOUSE AD - A HOUSE AD refers to advertising content that a website or media outlet uses to promote itself for its own offering rather than external products or services.  

13. Figured (out): SUSSED - A skill we solvers must have

14. "__ the word": MUM'S.

19. "Updates to share?": ANYTHING.

23. Age poorly: GET STALE.

26. Takes on set: SHOTS.

27. Running figure: TALLY.

29. Off: NOT ON.

30. Stuffed dish from Turkey: DOLMA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Stuffed grape leaves

33. Perkins who co-hosted "The Great British Baking Show": SUE - Not only had I never heard of Ms. Perkins, she is no longer with the show. In the picture below, SUE is on the left.

34. People with strong opinions on draft picks?: BEER SNOBS.

35. Copped an attitude: POSTURED.

36. "Radical Optimism" singer: DUA LIPA - She, and her helpful vowels, have been on our cwd playlist for quite a while now.

37. West End smashes: BOFFOS - Indicates a big hit in London's West End theatre district

40. "Things Fall Apart" novelist Achebe: CHINUA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

41. Folks who walk on the wild side?: HIKERS 😀

43. Surgical tube: STENT.

45. Foe: ENEMY.

47. Professional gp.: ASSN.

49. Petro-Canada rival: ESSO.

50. Maxims: SAWS.

52. DeVine of "The Righteous Gemstones": ADAM - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

53. "Can't argue with that": TRUE.

55. "Weetzie Bat" writer Francesca __ Block: LIA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Saturday, June 7, 2025, Rafael Musa & Rebecca Goldstein

 Saturday Themeless by Rafael Musa & Rebecca Goldstein

I skated around with gradual success and then I wound up with one empty cell which you can see

in red at the right. I wrestled with what letter would work in that cell that began two unkown-to-me words and correctly guessed the L. I was so pleasantly surprised to get the congratulations message. I'll take a "got 'er done!"

These puzzles make me abandon my concrete ideas about language and force me to interchange nouns for verbs or vice versa.We solvers also have to access less common definitions for words. That is part of the frustration fun!!

Across:

1. Option for keeping travel plans on track?: TRAIN - Plan B leapt to my mind before "track" made the correct fill obvious

6. Band: GANG and 13. Band: POSSE.

10. Influential lobbying org.: AARP.

14. Goat rodeo: HULLABALOO - A goat rodeo is a slang term for something going totally, unbelievably, disastrously wrong, and there's nothing left to do but to sit back and watch the trainwreck.

16. "See ya!": CIAO.

17. "Seems legit": I BELIEVE IT.

18. Dip targets, for short: TRIS - His TRICEPS are pretty easy to see!

19. __ ed: SEX.

20. Dens: LAIRS.

21. Stop and yield: SIGNS - Usual verbs become nouns

22. Scary stories?: HAUNTED HOUSE - This one has three stories 😀

24. Amusement park ride: GO KART.

27. Téa of "Madam Secretary": LEONI.

28. __-garde: AVANT - On clearance at Kohl's 😀

29. Try something new: SHAKE IT UP.

33. Get the band back together?: WELD - If your band is broken...

34. Luxury fashion house founded in Madrid: LOEWE - The eponymous shirt below goes for $990!

35. Starchy element in some bubble tea: TARO.

36. Season openers: PREMIERES - That last E was a speed bump.

38. At a loss for words?: TERSE.

39. Wassail ingredient: CIDER.

40. First sentence of a book written with only 50 distinct words: I AM SAM.

41. Chicken: SCAREDY PANTS.

45. Features of some loyalty programs: TIERS.

46. Inapt rhyme for "first": WORST 😀 The Royals first World Series win was in 1985 after many years of being usually WORST 

47. "Hilarious": HAH and 30. Part of a giggle: HEE.

50. Further: ALSO.

51. When many abandon ship: SHORE LEAVE 😀 - In Honolulu just before heading out to fight the Japanese during WWII

53. Exclamation from someone refusing to buy something: LIAR 

54. Move that can plump accent pillows: KARATE CHOP 😀

55. Feature of some Disney headgear: EARS - Some other EARS can be found in Disney's famous Hidden Mickeys around the properties.

56. Minute: ITSY - Yeah, I put TINY first.

57. "The Goldfinch" novelist Tartt: DONNA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

Down:

1. That isn't it: THIS 😀

2. Goldberg who won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning: RUBE.

 

3. "Call Her Daddy" podcaster Cooper: ALEX - She signed a contract with Spotify for $60M

4. Not 100%: ILL.

5. Some digital displays: NAIL ART - Oh, those digits!

6. First name in California politics: GAVIN.

7. At the ready: ALERT.

8. Public hearing guidelines?: NOISE LAWS - For Arlington, VA

9. "A Song of Ice and Fire" show, colloquially: GOT.

10. Meeting points?: ACTION ITEMS - AGENDA ITEMS? Not so much.

11. Imaginary instruments: AIR GUITARS 😀

12. Causes delays, perhaps: RAINS.

15. Stunner: BEAUT.

21. Something dropped in an idiom about inevitability: SHOE 😀

22. Portable self-checkout devices?: HAND MIRRORS 😀

23. Wild maneuver?: DEKE - Now this is a wild DEKE!

24. Stare stupidly, to a Brit: GAWP 

gawp

/ɡôp/

verb

INFORMAL•BRITISH

1. stare openly in a stupid or rude manner.

   "what are you gawping at ?"

   
   

25. Completed: OVER.

26. Salad whose main ingredient may be massaged: KALE CAESAR - The massage helps break down the tougher parts of the raw KALE

 

29. "Excuse me!?": SORRY WHAT.

31. Astronomical bear: URSA.

32. Sapphic work: POEM - Sappho was an influential ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos whose passionate, emotional lyric poetry about intimacy between women led to the term “sapphic” and the island itself becoming associated with female homoeroticism. More about this

34. Green building cert.: LEED - Leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

37. Portentous day: IDES.

38. Told a grown-up, say: TATTLED.

40. Like Alaska, often: INSET.

41. Left out overnight, maybe: STALE.

42. Fine hairs: CILIA.

43. Standard partner?: POORS.

44. Data structure in computer science: ARRAY - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In computer science, an array is a data structure consisting of a collection of elements (values or variables), of same memory size, each identified by at least one array index or key, a collection of which may be a tuple, known as an index tuple.  Yeah, I knew that! 😀

47. "Agatha All Along" star Kathryn: HAHN - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

48. River associated with Shakespeare: AVON.

49. __ filter: HEPA.

51. Common sight at oversized baggage pickup areas: SKI.

52. Prefix with hotel or tourist: ECO - Ion Adventure Hotel, Iceland. Taking up residence in an abandoned building of the nearby geothermal power plant, the hotel was sustainable from inception and continues to be today. With sinks made from old tyres and furniture from recycled wood, it repurposes materials in an eco-friendly way.