L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Husker Gary

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Mar 29, 2025

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Kunal Nabar

Saturday Themeless by Kunal Nabar

Kunal is a Senior Software Engineer at Snowflake in the San Francisco Bay Area and makes his initial appearance here in the LA Times Crossword. My first puzzle I blogged for Kanal was undone by his use of ASMRTIST who is a producer of Autonomist Sensory Media Responses ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Some ASMR examples:

Across:

1. Units of growth?: ACRES 😀 A very common sight in my part of the country

6. Bygone autocrat: TSAR.

10. Folder that may hold a missing email: SPAM.

14. Words of consolation: THERE THERE.

16. Avgolemono option: ORZO - Orzo is pasta

17. Developer's displays: MODEL HOMES.

18. Think piece?: BEAN. 😀

19. Futures analyst?: ORACLE.

20. Some specialist MDs: ENTS.

22. World Cup chant: OLE.

23. Breakout group: SECT.

24. "No one can know!": IT'S A SECRET - I'd bet Kunal has no idea about this TV show. FWIW, I can name the moderator and all four panelists.

27. Relatively recent arrival?: TOT.

28. Symbol an anxious texter may stare at: DOTS - I wonder what the reply will be...

29. End notes?: CODAS.

30. Skyscraper top: SPIRE - A famous one

32. "__ a thought ... ": HERE'S - They don't all work out

33. Divine messenger?: TAROT READER.

35. "Sláinte": SALUT - Cheers!

36. Filled: SATED.

37. Like some Oreos: VEGAN.

38. Stag: HART - A red HART or stag and his hinds or does

39. Tags on social media: ATS.

42. Proposed: ON THE TABLE.

44. Minor deviation: BLIP.

45. Radio personality Angela who co-hosted "The Breakfast Club": YEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

46. Take off: SOAR.

47. Grade again: RERATE.

49. Gelatin alternative: AGAR.

51. Ray Charles hit whose B-side was "Come Back Baby": I GOT A WOMAN - As good as it gets!

53. Wild-tasting: GAMY.

54. Bit of extra time: LEAP SECOND - Neal Degrasse Tyson explains it in 58 seconds

55. Coding conditional: ELSE.

56. Rolls the credits: ENDS. 🎥

57. Fresh: SASSY.

Down:

1. Maximally: AT MOST.

2. Dance sequences, familiarly: CHOREO - Sometimes used as shortened word for choreography

3. Ready for publication, perhaps: REDACT.

4. Put up: ERECT.

5. Move like a bear: SELL.

6. "OTOH ... ": THO - On The Other Hand...

7. School trips?: SEMESTERS ABROAD - My granddaughter spent a SEMESTER ABROAD in Lyons, France

8. Places to watch Earthquakes and Hurricanes: ARENAS - The San Jose Earthquakes play in the Major Soccer League and the Carolina Hurricanes are in the National Hockey League

9. Some score marks: RESTS - John Phillips used them. Go ahead and sing along...

10. Melodramatic sound: SOB.

11. Diehard's purchase: PREORDER - Every Star Wars film had diehards who PREORDERED tickets to make sure they got in for the first showing.

12. Plants whose name derives from the Greek for "dry": AZALEAS - The name azalea is from the Greek word azaleos, which means dry. These lovely plants are very prominent on the Augusta National Golf Course where the Mater's starts on April 10th.

13. "Water Lilies" and "Irises": MONETS.

15. Elif Batuman novel about a first-year college student: THE IDIOT.

21. Leave the country: SECEDE.

25. Suit material: TORT.

26. Prepped for a pie, perhaps: CORED.

30. Mohamed who is captain of Egypt's national soccer team: SALAH - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

31. Gets snippy?: PRUNES - 😀

32. Cape that's home to North Carolina's Diamond Shoals: HATTERAS - Along with its famous lighthouse

33. Tackles together: TAG TEAMS.

34. __ Grey tea: EARL.

35. Closest country to Cape Verde: SENEGAL.

37. Odyssey: VOYAGE.

38. Part of an ice cream brand's pseudo-Scandinavian name: HAAGEN.

39. Los __, New Mexico: ALAMOS - The super secret site where the atom bomb was developed

40. Nashville team: TITANS.

41. Expensive, informally: SPENDY 🤔

43. French for canvas: TOILE (twäl)

44. Scientist for whom a part of the brain is named: BROCA.

48. Much of a flock: EWES.

50. Bananarac liquor: RYE.

52. Rolls over a tree?: TPS.

Mar 22, 2025

Saturday, March 22, 2025, David P. Williams

Themeless Saturday by David P. Williams

My third Saturday themeless from David.

Across

1. Possessive pronoun that can be singular: THEIR Here is a discussion about this topic

6. Clue academic: PLUM 😀

10. Tesla, for one: SERB - I held on to SCOT for a time 🤨

14. Certain king-maker: SERTA 😀

15. Actress Chaplin: OONA - Yes, she is Charlie's granddaughter

16. Ancient Roman conqueror?: AMOR - Very cool cluing!

17. Survive scrutiny: PASS MUSTER - Derivation of the phrase

19. Green party, briefly?: LPGA 😀 Green is a noun here.

20. Samovar kin: TEAPOTS - I've got a pretty good handle on what a TEAPOT is, but this is a samovar that is widely used in Russia.

21. Banded marbles: AGATES.

23. Identical: SAME.

24. Light tunes: STRAINS - We can hear the STRAINS of the high school band wafting down to our house from the football field six blocks from here.

25. Anti-conservative slogan?: GO BIG OR GO HOME.

29. Saw: ADAGE.

30. Clear the air: DEFOG - The little button on the left below the mirror does this for me.

31. Blot: DAB.

34. Continental capital: BERN - BERN is a nearly 4-hour drive SW of my grandfather's home in Heiden which he left 100 years ago.

35. Encounter: RUN IN - Chris Rock had a famous RUN-IN with Will Smith

36. Piece of one's mind?: LOBE.

37. Oft-redacted fig.: SSN.

38. Digital services?: MANIS and/or pedis

39. Unit of energy: JOULE - It takes about 300,000 JOULES of energy to raise the temperature of a coffee pot of water from room temp to boiling.

40. Pool problem?: BRACKET BUSTER - When you are in the office pool and one of your favorite teams gets beat and is out early, your bracket in the office pool takes a severe hit!

43. Perfect figures?: SQUARES - Four equal sides and angles

45. Tops: A-ONE.

46. Takeoff locale: TARMAC.

47. Portrayer of Andy Bernard on "The Office": ED HELMS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

50. Actress __ Deavere Smith: ANNA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ A Saturday ANNA for me

51. Novels no one reads?: AUDIO BOOKS - This was a great clue when it finally hit me! 😊

54. Picked out, in a way: IDED.

55. Tagliatelle topper: RAGU - Tagliatelle (pasta) topped with RAGU (meat sauce)

56. "We agree": US TOO.

57. Early capital of Japan: NARA.

58. Appear: SEEM.

59. Frank who co-designed Prague's Dancing House: GEHRY.

Down:

1. Shortening in a recipe: TSP - Shortening can be used in recipe and its measured amount can be shortened as well 😀

2. Pressure, informally: HEAT - Now in his third year, Matt Ruhle is starting to feel the HEAT to make Nebraska football respectable again.

3. Highland tongue: ERSE.

4. "The universe has spoken!": IT'S A SIGN.

5. Frenzy: RAMPAGE.

6. Preserved jams?: POSTER DUNKS - 😀 Whoa, talk about a jam (dunk) that is preserved on a very famous poster.

7. Plenty: LOTS.

8. A word to les sages?: UNE - 😀 UNE (a) word to Les sages (the wise) is sufficient

9. Long-lasting event: MARATHON.

10. Bow low: SALAAM - I hung on to SCRAPE for a low bow for a long time.

11. Drained: EMPTIED OUT.

12. "The Lion King" voice actor Seth: ROGEN.

13. High-ranking officials: BRASS.

18. Italian man: UOMO - Difesa UOMO a UOMO (Man to man defense)

22. Buccaneer booze: GROG.

24. L.A. venue where "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" was filmed: SOFI STADIUM.

25. Chats: GABS.

26. Heart-filled texts?: ODES ❤️

27. Match that's lit: BARN BURNER - Lit has become slang for great. A very close, intense game can be called a BARN BURNER

28. Spirit of myth: GENIE - The wish granting version came later