Saturday, October 17, 2026, Jess Rucks

 Saturday Themeless by Jess Rucks

It's always a pleasure to see Jess's byline. Here you can see a picture of her and me as we met for a fun supper in Lincoln on a cold February night.  

Jess's long fills were the key to the solve and helped with some of the cleverness Jess supplied. Her Air Force job was as an Urdu translator and at least she did not use any of those words! 😊

Here's what our friend Jess had to say about this puzzle:

Hi Gary!

Yay, thanks! I don't remember if there was a seed for this one. LOOK MOM, NO HANDS was probably something inspired by my son Sigur! My goal was to keep the fill clean but also include interesting long answers that had the potential for fun cluing angles. To make up for having a few more shorter answers than is typical in a Saturday LAT themeless, I tried to up the difficulty a little bit in the clues!

I asked Jess how she came up with such a unique name for her son and I am quoting her reply because she actually used the word our cwd buddy EDDA in her answer:

We both have strong Scandinavian roots, so we looked to Nordic folklore. Sigurd is a hero in the Poetic EDDA, so we thought that name could be cool, but decided to drop the "d."

Across:

1. Aid in scratching an itch: CLAW.

5. Jeans choice: SLIM - Levi, Lees? Nope.

9. "What's wrong with u?": SMH - Get it?

                

12. Vader offspring: LEIA - Not her brother Luke this time

13. Southwestern casserole: TAMALE PIE.

16. "Same here": SO AM I.

17. "Let's do this!": IT'S GO TIME.

18. Forex benchmark: USD - FOReign currency EXchanges use US dollars for comparison

19. The old you: THEE - Not THOU

21. Like some kitchen herbs: POTTED.

22. Nullifies: NEGATES.

24. Tradition within Swedish coffee culture: FIKA.

25. Like some jobs: CUSHY.

26. Abound (with): TEEM.

27. Shengjian __: pan-fried pork bun: BAO - We seem to be learning a lot of bread products from around the world

30. Setting of Fox's "Best Medicine": MAINE.

31. Milanese dish traditionally served with risotto: OSSO BUCO.

33. With 47-Down, extra lives?: ALTER and 47. See 33-Across: EGOS - Clark Kent, Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne come to mind.

34. Service rep with a lack of humanity: BOT - I keep saying "Representative or pushing O" hoping I will get out of an annoying conversation with a BOT  

35. David's "Baywatch" role: MITCH.

36. Eyes angrily: GLARES AT.

38. Takes down: NOTES.

39. Letters from a bygone empire: SSR.

40. Travels cross-country?: SKIS.

41. Wades through: FORDS.

42. Leave out: OMIT.

43. Nullifidian: ATHEIST - I had no idea but it makes sense

45. Cold treat: ICE POP.

48. National Farm Toy Museum locale: IOWA -  It's about a 10 minute drive between these two attractions in tiny Dyersville, IOWA.

                        

49. Whiz: ACE.

50. Home brewer's appliance: KEGERATOR.

52. Chute material: NYLON - American parachutes were mostly made from Japanese silk. As you can imagine, Pearl Harbor cut off that supply and DuPont came with a synthetic substitute called NYLON. The first person to test the new material was parachute rigger Adeline Gray. She made her historic jump on June 6, 1942, two years to the day before they were widely used on D-Day.

54. Resolved: IRONED OUT.

55. Exploit: DEED.

56. Court figs.: DA'S.

57. Nueva canción great Mercedes: SOSA - Nueva Canción means "New Song"

58. Singer who has six top 10 studio albums with her namesake band: SADE.

Down:

1. Scary-good moments?: CLOSE CALLS.

2. Role for one who picks the melody?: LEAD GUITAR.

Bass    Drum    Lead        Rhythm

3. Asset in a snowball fight: AIM.

4. "You're telling me that's only part of the story?": WAIT THERE'S MORE - Remember pitchman Billy Mays?

5. Spots for muckety-mucks?: STIES 😀 

6. Like someone who gets stuck in traffic, perhaps: LATE.

7. Pings online: IMS.

8. Birds that recognize faces and hold grudges: MAGPIES - Now there's a face a MAGPIE can remember.

9. Rotisserie rod: SPIT.

10. Expert in nonverbal communication: MIME - A MIME MEME?

11. Obey: HEED.

14. Cry for attention: LOOK MOM NO HANDS - Jess was thinking of her son when she thought of this.

15. James in the Blues Hall of Fame: ETTA.

16. Feature of Namibia's flag: SUN - It's in here:

20. "Yo!": HEY.

23. Ed of "Up": ASNER 

24. End of Oktober?: FEST.

26. __ and the Maytals: TOOTS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

27. Rang up from down under?: BUTT DIALED - My favorite clue!

28. Opening sequence: ACCESS CODE.

29. Sounds amazed: OOHS.

30. Some off-the-rack purchases, briefly: MAGS - A recurring scene in this movie

32. "Free your pores" brand: BIORE.

34. Entice: BAIT.

37. Bypass online promos: SKIP ADS - I click on 'em every time I can.

41. "Victory!" letters: FTW - I'll take Leslie Uggams For The Win

42. Like a tips-only bar: OPEN - The booze is already paid for so...

43. Place for a stent: AORTA.

44. Point value of "five" in Scrabble: TEN - Find the letters and add 'em up

45. "Only joking": I KID - His material would never work today

46. Michael of "The Running Man": CERA.

48. Chits: IOUS.

51. As well: TOO.

53. "About __ big": YEA.

Saturday, August 15, 2026, Barbara Lin and Jess Rucks

 Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Barbara Lin and Jess Rucks

Me and Jess

Barb

I was very pleased to see Jess's name come up today as a co-constructor. I have had the fun of blogging her Saturday themeless puzzles before and am always amazed by her work and, uh, creative clues 😀, a tradition she maintained here as well. As you can see in the picture at the left, Jess and I met up on a very cold night in Lincoln for a delightful dinner last year and hashed over a lot of crossword minutiae. She lives in Colorado with her husband and son and  is retired from the Air Force where she was an Urdu translator. Yes, she was a Division 1 volleyball player as well.

Her partner in crime construction is Barb Lin who lives just outside Philadelphia, PA, where she dabbles in gardening and excels in computer engineering. Here is a lovely interview of Barb Jess conducted.

 

                                  

Across:

1. Teddy bear: SOFTY - I thought this might be a brand name but no, it's just a tender-hearted person. Even Elvis knew this: "Oh let me be, your teddy bear". Hey, I heard you sing along! 😊

6. Carousel rider?: BAG 😀

9. Basaltic plain on the moon: MARE - MARE is latin for Sea and here we see the location of  The Lunar Sea Of Tranquility which hosted Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969.

13. Roadside snack: STREET TACO.

16. Driver on a movie set: ADAM - 😀 The answer below is no.

17. Sign that means it's time to turn around: NO ENTRANCE - How it's done in the UK

18. Spam musubi wrapper: NORI - Musubi (結び), translates to “tie” or “bind,”

19. White-hot: SEETHING.

20. Lights up: SMILES.

22. Quick kiss: PECK - Not a BUSS

23. Useful spot: PSA - Here's a Public Service Announcement from the 50's about saying Good Night after a date

24. Some sci-fi villains: ETS.

25. Multipurpose tool: SPORK - We really like KFC, but we opt for real silverware.

27. Verb coined in "Stranger in a Strange Land": GROK - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Author Robert Heinlein said GROK is a Martian word that literally means "to drink" .Metaphorically, it means to understand something so completely and deeply. Jess is fluent in Urdu but not Martian. 😀

28. Hindi honorific: SRI.

29. Berry grown in Ohio?: HALLE - She took her stage name from Halle's Department Store in Cleveland.

30. Jordan who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay: PEELE.

31. Org chart leader: CEO.

32. "Sure, that tracks": I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN.

35. "J to __ L-O!": 2002 remix album: THA - Some hip hop slang 

36. Replacements after leaving marks?: EUROS - Germans now use EUROS for currency after having used marks since 1876.

37. Huffs and puffs: PANTS and 40. Huffs and puffs: RANTS.

38. __ de deux: PAS - a ballet duet, literally translating from French as a "step of two", typically performed by a male and a female dancer. Below is the Grand PAS de Deux from the Nutcracker. Play as much of this 5:37 cut that you like to beautify your day.

39. Mass agreement: AMEN 😀

41. "Yes, captain": AYE.

42. Clear (of): RID.

43. Clear of contaminants: PURE - Clear in the clue is an adjective and not a verb

44. Varied: RANGED.

46. Opportunities to learn the hard way: MISTAKES - Do guys like this ever learn?

50. Mil. no-show: AWOL.

51. "Mine! Mine! Mine!": I WANT IT ALL.

53. "The Goonies" role for Ke Huy Quan: DATA - Saturday cluing for sure, Ke is in the bottom row, second from the right. 

54. Brings the temperature down, maybe: TALKS SENSE.

55. Googly-__: EYED - From a cartoon first published in 1919. A popular song of the day was, "Barney Google With the Goo, Goo, Goo Googly Eyes"

56. Fashion letters: YSL.

57. Trapped, in a way: TREED.

Down:

1. Fed. IDs: SSNS.

2. Della Warrior's heritage: OTOE is the first and only woman to date to serve as chairperson and chief executive officer for the Otoe-Missouria Tribe.

3. Priceless?: FREE.

4. One-night stand, perhaps?: TENT POLE 😀

5. Frustrated expression: YET HERE WE ARE.

6. [All of a sudden!]: BANG.

7. Stanford's gp.: ACC - With all the conference alignments up in the air, Stanford and  Cal Berkley (formerly in the Pacific 10) had to get into some conference even if it was on the other coast (Atlantic Coast Conference).

8. Disbands?: GOES SOLO - Michael Jackson had great success when he left this brothers 

9. Digital art, informally?: MANI 😀

10. Juvenile: ADOLESCENT.

11. Special indulgences: RARE TREATS.

12. Targets of smog checks: EMISSIONS.

14. Bridge unit: TRICK - 😀 A trick in a card games is a single round of play where each person plays one card, and the highest card wins.

   
15. Choke: TANK - These are both failures. In sports, if a player chokes, he might fail to make a winning play even though he is trying. If a player TANKS, he also fails but might be trying to lose or throw a game.

21. One who tries not to overshadow the star?: MAKE UP ARTIST 😀 Gotta love this one!

23. Feeds (on): PREYS.

25. "Shantay, you stay" opposite: SASHAY AWAY - During our dinner in Lincoln, Jess said she enjoyed RuPaul Drag Race and this phrase is part of that show.

  

26. "This is important": PLEASE NOTE.

27. Mount: GET ON - How The Lone Ranger accomplished this with Silver.

29. Top tunes: HIT PARADE - When The Lone Ranger was mounting Silver in the 50's, The Hit Parade was telling us the top songs of the week. Listen to as much of this 30-minute show (complete with cigarette commercials) as you like from over 70 years ago.

30. Trimmed (down): PARED - By the first game, NFL teams must have PARED down to a 53 man roster from the 100 or so that are trying out.

33. Hair curler?: HUMIDITY.

34. 1982 Hall & Oates song: MANEATER.

40. Shows signs of age: RUSTS.

43. Chappell Roan's "__ Pony Club": PINK - A fav of my granddaughters. 

45. Chuffed: GLAD - This is more of a UK expression.

46. Edina, Minnesota is home to the first U.S. indoor one: MALL - 1956. This would go along with The Lone Ranger and Your Hit Parade!

47. Lucci role: KANE - Susan Lucci played Erica Kane on All My Children for 41 years.

48. Conditional word in Python: ELSE - Barb is a computer engineer

49. Blair Braverman vehicle: SLED.

52. Portrayed: WAS - I first had DID, as in an impersonator DID Cary Grant.

More from Jess: Barb and I met at ACPT in 2025, and since then have been wanting to make a puzzle together. We finally made that happen with this one! Barb did a lot of the heavy lifting on the gridding and we collaborated on the clues. Hope you enjoyed it :) This one was fun to make. Barb is a great constructor, so I felt some pressure to push myself working with her -- I tried to clue with more wordplay and generally at a higher difficulty than I may have on my own. She clued, too, but I clued more of the entries since she ended up making more of the grid.