L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Kelly Morenus

Showing posts with label Kelly Morenus. Show all posts

Oct 31, 2026

Saturday, October 31, 2026, Kelly Morenus

Saturday Themeless by Kelly Morenus

Kelly provided a lot of nice treats and very few tricks with this fun puzzle.

Across:

1. Prince William, to Eddie Redmayne, at 51-Down 51. College founded in 1440: ETON.: SCHOOL MATE - The arrows point out Eddie and William, who is the very image of his mother.

11. Ask: POSE.

15. "This is news to me!": I HAD NO IDEA.

16. Quechua-speaking highlander: INCA.

17. Feeling that all roads lead to roam?: WANDERLUST.

18. Some Ivy Leaguers: ELIS.

19. Combine: ADD.

20. Some are plant-based: DIETS - Neither we nor our kitty Lily will ever be vegans

21. Winnow: SIFT - Letting a breeze help winnow the wheat from the chaff

22. Skye of "La Brea": IONE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think you can pick out Ms. Skye below

24. Prince of Moscow from 1325 to 1340: IVAN I.

26. "And there it is!": BOB'S YOUR UNCLE.

31. Helps out with a job: ABETS.

32. "Waiting for Godot" role: ESTRAGON - As I mentioned last week, Godot is a no show

35. "You don't say!": GOSH.

36. San Juan's __ de la Princesa: PASEO - A PASEO is a tree-lined public walkway

38. Took home: MADE - I took home less than $400/month in my first year of teaching

39. Reserved: SET APART - My son-in-law's architecture firm got four $2,300 reserved seats from a construction firm for a Husker VB earlier this month and took the entire family. The tix came with great parking and a prime rib buffet.

41. Many a "Hacks" guest star: COMIC - Here's a list. I don't know a lot of them.

42. Fixes a situation: STACKS THE DECK.

45. Needle: TEASE.

46. Strong: HALE.

47. Farm youngster: CALF.

48. Peter __ Steak House: LUGER - Here's the menu

51. Federal org. with a flower logo: EPA.

54. Dance in "Lilo & Stitch": HULA.

55. Topic for discussion: AGENDA ITEM.

58. Cartel headquartered in Vienna: OPEC.

59. List of attractions: PLACES TO GO.

60. Forward: PERT.

61. Fatal attractions?: SIREN SONGS - Sail on Odysseus!

Down:

1. "Boomerang" singer JoJo: SIWA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. African lake in four countries: CHAD.

3. Assistance: HAND.

4. Suspicious: ODD - Don't we all know this Sesame Street Song: "Three of these belong together, three of these things are kind of the same..."

5. Number of former public defenders who have served on the Supreme Court: ONE.

6. "Perish the thought!": LORD NO!

7. Environs: MILIEU - Not a word you might use in every environ

8. Together, musically: A DUE.

9. Try out: TEST.

10. Starts to consume: EATS INTO.

11. Dishes that can be both hot and cold: PIES ALA MODE 😀

12. Minecraft, e.g.: ONLINE GAME - The ORE elements of this game are regularly used here.

13. "Dune" realm: SCI FI.

14. From Armenia to Azerbaijan: EAST.

22. "Oh, yeah?": IS THAT A FACT.

23. Kvetching cries: OYS.

25. Home entertainment staple, once: VCR.

26. Secures: BAGS - Hunters around here try to BAG a deer in season

27. Prominent instrument in "Swan Lake": OBOE - Here it is (1:01)

28. Novelist's goal: BEST SELLER.

29. Sits for a spell: RESTS.

30. Mistreat, maybe: USE.

33. Like much of Pindar's work: ODIC - I wonder if they were BEST SELLERS

34. Ukulele part: NECK.

36. Warmup stretches: PACE LAPS - The PACE CAR at the Indy 500 race a few years ago

37. Synagogue fixture: ARK.

40. Some med. professionals: PAS - My doctor and her PA are both former students

41. Film frame: CEL - The practice of making hand painted CELS ended in the late 1990's

43. From that point on: THENCE - As used by Emily Dickinson

44. Firm up: HARDEN.

45. Neutral tone: TAUPE.

47. Lamb cut: CHOP - Remember?

49. Citrus hybrid: UGLI.

50. Neutral, for one: GEAR.

52. Simon of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise: PEGG.

53. "The West Wing" actor John: AMOS.

56. Donkey: ASS.

57. Manga artist Junji: ITO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm off to get out the bags of candy for tonight's 250+ trick or treaters who I don't think will look much like ITO's images!

Sep 29, 2026

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 Kelly Morenus

Rollin' Down the Highway. The last word of each theme answer is another name for a Street.

18-Across. "Show us how it's done": PAVE THE WAY.

24-Across. "Quit interfering": STAY IN YOUR LANE.

40-Across. "Don't stoop to their level": TAKE THE HIGH ROAD.

52-Across. "Perfect for me": RIGHT UP MY ALLEY.

And the unifier:

62-Across. Informal language, or what 18-, 24-, 40-, and 52-Across are examples of?: STREET TALK.

Here's the grid:

Across:

1. Liquefy: MELT.

5. Lima's country: PERU. Peru is a South American country that bordered by the Pacific Ocean, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile. It's home to a section of Amazon rainforest. Machu Picchu, the ancient Incan city, is located high in the Peruvian Andes mountains.

9. Pokes (around): NOSES.

14. Fruit with wrinkled skin: UGLI. Ugli fruit is a Jamaican tangelo. It is a natural citrus hybrid created from a cross between a grapefruit (or pomelo), an orange, and a tangerine. It is larger than a grapefruit with a thick peel that fits loosely around the pulpy orange flesh inside. Green patches on the skin do not mean it is unripe. Did you know that it is also the registered trademark for a brand of Jamaican tangelo?

15. Greek Cupid: EROS.

16. Disconnected: APART.

17. Mouse catcher: TRAP.

20. Some office subs: TEMPS.

22. Wedding declaration: I DO.

23. Ascend: RISE.

28. Britches, informally: TROU. The last time I heard this word was back in college when the frat boys would joke about dropping trou.

29. Pod filler: PEA.

30. Part in four-part harmony: ALTO.

33. __ carte menu: À LA. A crossword staple.

35. Car in the Beach Boys' "Fun, Fun, Fun": T-BIRD.

44. Large deer: MOOSE. I never thought of a moose as a deer, but apparently they ar the largest living species in the deer family, known scientifically as Cervidae.

45. Contraction that's typically followed by "be": IT'D. Followed by another contraction: 46-Across. Fails to be: ISN'T.

47. Corp. VIP: CEO. As in Chief Executive Officer.

50. House of Lords title: EARL.

59. Junior staffer: AIDE.

60. Charcoal grill residue: ASH.

61. City with the Heat and the Hurricanes: MIAMI. A sports reference: Basketball and Football.

66. Out of control: AMOK.

67. "Money __": Netflix crime series: HEIST. In this series, a criminal mastermind (The Professor) developed a plan to pull off the biggest heist in recorded history ~ to print billions of euros in the Royal Mint of Spain. To help him carry out the plan, he recruited eight people with certain abilities and who have nothing to lose. The group of thieves took hostages to aid in their negotiations with the authorities.

68. Actor Morales: ESAI. Esai Morales (né Esai Manuel Morales Jr.; b. Oct. 1, 1962) used to make frequent guest appearances in the puzzles. He will be celebrating his 64th birthday on Thursday.

69. "Great" detective of kid-lit: NATE. Nate the Great is a children's chapter book series featuring a young boy detective and his dog, Sludge. There are 31 books in the series, which was initially created in 1972.

70. Donkeys: ASSES.

71. Credit report category: DEBT.

72. Uno y dos: TRES. Spanish math.

Down:

1. Mixed-breed dogs: MUTTS.

2. Everglades wader: EGRET. Egrets aren't limited to the Florida Everglades. There are many egrets that hang out near my house.

3. Woolly pack animal of 5-Across: LLAMA.

My encounter with a Llama in Peru.

4. What a child might stand on to watch a parade: TIPPY-TOES.

5. Get-up-and-go: PEP.

6. Chapter of history: ERA.

7. Finnish game developer that created Angry Birds: ROVIO.

8. Depleted: USED UP.

9. Casual refusal: NAH.

10. "Tosca," for one: OPERA. Tosca is an opera by Giacomo Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858 ~ Nov. 29, 1924). It is sometimes billed as a political thriller that takes place in Rome during the Napoleonic Wars.

11. Welcomed at the door: SAW IN.

12. Delete: ERASE.

13. Eyelid irritation: STYE.

19. Dashed: TORE.

21. Title for Paul McCartney: SIR. Paul McCartney (b. June 18, 1942) was knighted in 1997. He was the first Beatle to be awarded this honor.

25. "Hurt Somebody" singer-songwriter Kahan: NOAH. I am not familiar with this singer-songwriter.

26. Christmas season: YULE.

27. Lattice strip: LATH.

30. Convenience in many cash-only establishments: ATM. This used to be a crossword staple.

31. Thai neighbor: LAO.

32. Boxing ref's ruling, for short: TKO. As in Technical Knock-Out.

34. Tropical tuna: AHI. Yummers!

36. Sparkling: BRILLIANT.

37. iPhone platform: iOS. As in iPhone Operating System.

38. Tried to get elected: RAN.

39. Pesticide in Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," for short: DDT. Silent Spring was first published in 1962. The book exposed the hazards of indiscriminate pesticide use, particularly DDT, and launched the modern environmental movement. Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907 ~ April 14, 1964) named the book Silent Spring because it envisioned a future spring morning where no birds sang due to the devastation of wildlife from chemical pesticides.

41. __ support: TECH.

42. Thing: ITEM.

43. Aussie greeting: G'DAY.

48. Coup d'__: ÉTAT. Today's French lesson. A coup d'état is a sudden, illegal overthrow of an existing government by a small group, usually backed by the military or internal state forces.

49. Removed from power: OUSTED. Probably ousted due to a coup d'état.

51. Smash (into): RAM.