Saturday, November 1, 2025, Ryan Patrick Smith

 Themeless Saturday by Ryan Patrick Smith

Ryan Patrick Smith lives in Austin, TX and is a writer, editor, gamer and frequent moviegoer who has been constructing word puzzles for over a decade. His work has previously appeared in the NYT and other venues. He and I have been visiting via FaceBook messaging and he is a very nice guy.

I did tell Ryan I had a huge issue in the SE corner where, as the grid shows below, he had a stack of ten unique fills.😳 He replied, Thanks for the kind words, and for giving the puzzle a fair shake! I look forward to your blog post.

Across:

1. "For me? You shouldn't have!": AW HOW SWEET.

11. Froze (out): SHUT - An all too common event in a school lunchrooms and playgrounds 

15. I dropper: THE ROYAL WE - Queen Victoria may or may not have said this but it is usually attributed to her.

16. Antler point: TINE - Makes sense

17. Approximately: MORE OR LESS.

18. Derby, for one: RACE - The most famous one in America and in Britain where they pronounce Derby as Darby.

19. Org chart topper: CEO.

20. Soapstone, largely: TALC.

21. Product line?: SLOGAN.

23. Hardcore: AVID.

25. Red __: HOTS - Red HOTS candy is hot because of cinnamaldehyde, a chemical found in cinnamon bark. It's a skin irritant; when put on the tongue, that's perceived as "hot". It was a favorite in my misspent yute but "burns" my tongue too much now.

27. Youngest sister in the band Haim: ALANA - Taylor Swift considers herself the fourth sister in Haim. I'm sure you know which girl below is Taylor and ALANA is one of the other three.

28. Buy more Time: RENEW 😀

30. With 56-Down, piledriver or Polish hammer: WRESTLING and 56. See 30-Across: MOVE.

                   

Polish Hammer

Pile Driver

32. Milwaukee rival: DREMEL.

34. "Got it": I SEE.

35. "Auld Lang Syne" time, for short: NYE - It is sung on New Year's Eve

36. Plan for a night out?: STAR CHART 😀 Tonight's sky

39. Common thing to clasp behind one's back: BRA 😀 or unclasp

42. Chicken __: KIEV.

43. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" role: MARTHA - Elizabeth Taylor won her second Academy Award for portraying MARTHA. Martha to her husband: I hope that was an empty bottle, George! You can't afford to waste good liquor, not on YOUR salary!

47. Take courses in the evening?: EAT DINNER 😀

50. SoFi Stadium pro: LA RAM.

51. Pays for hand delivery: ANTES 😀

52. Word before or after what: THEN.

54. NOLA squad: PELS.

55. Self-evident observation: TRUISM.

57. Plays that create one-on-one scoring opportunities, in basketball shorthand: ISOS -  All members of the red team have moved to one side of the court so the one red player left is ISOLATED on one defender.

59. Block letters: ABC.

60. Animated musical film set in a theater: SING.

61. Radiohead album with the single "Paranoid Android": OK COMPUTER. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

64. Brand in some bathrooms: MOEN.

65. Phase when one stops being a pushover: VILLAIN ERA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

66. Travel itinerary info: ETDS - When you are departing

67. Cartoon Network series about a trio of similarly named friends: ED EDD N EDDY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Down:

1. Item that's easy to swipe: ATM CARD. 😀

2. "Anyone'll do": WHOEVER.

3. Captain Marvel, for one: HEROINE.

4. 31-Down material: ORE and 31. Underground band: SEAM.

5. Triumphant cry: WOOT.

6. Red choice: SYRAH.

7. Refuse to move on, say: WALLOW.

8. Quiet ride: ELECTRIC VEHICLE - A nice freebie grid spanner

9. Disgusted chorus: EWS.

10. Novelist Gerritsen: TESS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

11. Mosey: STROLL - I believe we have a poster here who is prone to sashay.

12. Follow-up start: HI AGAIN.

13. Preternatural: UNCANNY.

14. Adolescent: TEENAGE.

22. Rugby pass: LATERAL.

24. Hill side, for short: DEMS - DEMocratS are one side on Capital Hill

26. Meet: SESH - Slang for session

29. Smooch from a pooch: WET KISS - Awww...

33. Edward R. Robinson's "Hymn for Soldiers Who Have __ in the Snow":  Not a pleasant read

37. Number for a letter?: RENT - Let is a synonym for rent so a renter is also a letter

38. "It's a __!": TRAP.

39. [Shrug]: BEATS ME - A symbol I use a lot: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

40. Went berserk: RAN RIOT - Yeah, I put RAN AMOK first too

41. Listening carefully (to): ATTUNED.

44. Got a round, say: TREATED.

45. Renaissance weapon: HALBERD - They all have one

46. "Go jump in a lake!": AMSCRAY - I haven't heard Pig Latin in a long time

48. Condescends: DEIGNS.

49. Like many concert tickets: RESOLD - If you buy a ticket on the secondary market, you are at the mercy of "supply and demand". Some Taylor Swift tickets for her Era Tour went for $14,000.

53. Itinerant: NOMAD.

58. Get around?: SPIN - Very different from "Get a round".

62. Tyke: KID.

63. Article indéfini: UNE - Je conduis UNE Buick (I drive a Buick).

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.