Saturday, September 19, 2026, Kyle Dolan

 Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan

My 26th puzzle by Kyle was a shock to my eyes when I saw the clusters of the blocks on the edges. For those of you who know me, you can understand why CAPE CANAVERAL was a sitting duck for this NASA guy. The other long fills were very "gettable" and helpful but in his usual "not so fast" manner, he planted some twisted clues out in the middle!

I'll point out some of my issues below. 

Kyle was kind enough to write this:

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your note. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle and found that CAPE CANAVERAL resonated with you. I was motivated to see what I could do with a themeless grid of this type of pattern (which I think of as "S-shaped"). Curious to see what solvers think of it!

Best,

Kyle

Across

1. Amateurs who are known to make waves: HAM OPERATORS - In the opening scenes of Contact, young Ellie Arroway (played by Jena Malone) was a HAM OPERATOR. Jody Foster played Ellie as an adult.

13. Place where flights are astronomical: CAPE CANAVERAL - KSC and CAPE CANAVERAL sit adjacent to each other.

14. Meet-cute genre: ROMANTIC COMEDY - ROM COM leapt to my mind and then I saw I had to spell it out.

15. Piglike herbivores: TAPIRS - Mom and calf at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. Baby has jungle camouflage.

16. Female kangaroo: DOE.

17. Need for constructing some temporary buildings: PAIL. 😀

18. Great Lakes fish: SMELT.

19. Cause of a mass movement?: FORCE 😀 I taught this a few hundred times!

21. Handmade letters: DIY.

22. Sense of gloom: PALL  - Name that poem! (*Answer at the bottom)

 

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A PALL-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

23. Losses: DEFEATS.

25. Business with a relaxed dress code?: SPA 😀

26. Award-winning Netflix series about conflict: BEEF ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

27. Seehorn of "Pluribus": RHEA - In Better Call Saul, Rhea's character Kim stayed with Saul no matter what idiocy he pulled.

29. Pending: ON HOLD - The biggest VB crowd in Illinois history showed up to see #1 Huskers play in Wrigley Field. After 15 minutes of play, the coaches agreed the court was too slick to be safe and so the game was put ON HOLD for 45 minutes and eventually postponed. It may be the death knell for outdoor VB.

 

31. Antique counter: ABACUS 😀

33. Emigre from Kerala, say: DESI - In India and South Asia, desi (pronounced deh-see) means "local", "native" or "indigenous"

34. Bearing: MIEN.

35. Trunk stabilizer: RIB.

37. __ Medal: National Geographic Society honor: HUBBARD - Sir Edmund Hillary received one in 1954 from Dwight Eisenhower.

39. Word with tester or blocker: BETA - One for software testing and one for heart protection 

  
 

40. Jamaican style: SKA - This cwd solver has seen this word it many times but has never heard it played.

43. Classic Times Square lights: NEONS - A big tune for the Drifters, remember?

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway

They say there's always magic in the air

But when you're walking down that street

And you ain't had enough to eat

The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere

44. Two-time NBA Finals MVP Durant: KEVIN.

45. Student setting out for the bar?: ONE L.

47. Reward for a sacrifice, at times: RBI - Can be accomplished with a long fly ball or a short bunt

48. "Farewell": SO LONG.

49. Solar-powered lighting?: AURORA BOREALIS - When I was in Central Saskatchewan the northern lights were high in the sky and brilliant every night!

52. One whose digits are shielded: PRIVATE CALLER - If I see "Unknown Caller", ain't answerin'!

53. Guest spots?: SLEEPER SOFAS - My daughter had one in Lincoln I used during a Classe and don't remember a minute of rest.

Down:

1. Mark visible on many planets: HAMIL 😀 - Kyle!

2. To pieces: APART.

3. __ rea: MENS.

4. Fall Classic mo.: OCT - The World Series in OCT meant: 1) Day baseball games with long shadows, 2) Black and white TV. 3) Sneaking a transistor radio into class.

5. Was worth it: PAID OFF.

6. Program extension: ENCORE.

7. Furniture for a kid who's growing up fast?: RACE CAR BED 😀

8. Versatile fruit, for short: AVO - AVOcado 

9. Coverage resource: TEMP - We substitute teachers are really admired because we take coverage responsibility away from regular teachers. 

10. Water : naiad :: mountain : __: OREAD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Nymphs of the water and nymphs of the mountains

11. Spoke multiple times?: RADII 😀

12. In a foxy way: SLYLY.

13. Ballet dancer Misty: COPELAND - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I wonder if she's ever had a cheeseburger 

14. New York/New Jersey's __ Mountains: RAMAPO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  - 42 miles from "Where the neon lights are bright" 

15. Recipe amts.: TSPS.

19. Doomscroller's milieu: FEED - Once you get on a negative FEED, the sites will just keep coming for you.

20. "__ Frome": ETHAN - a 1911 novella by American author Edith Wharton. It details the story of a man who falls in love with his wife's cousin and the tragedies that result from the ensuing love triangle.

23. Do some peer review, legally?: DELIBERATE - Wow, Kyle! A jury of your peers must DELIBERATE in your legal matter 😀

24. Triple __: SEC - Triple sec is a clear, sweet, orange-flavored liqueur made by distilling neutral alcohol with dried sweet and bitter orange peels.

26. Mr. Smee in "Peter Pan," e.g.: BOSUN.

28. "Farewell": AU REVOIR.

30. Chuckle sound: HEH.

31. Publicizes: AIRS.

32. Counter protests?: SIT INS - It's hard to believe these needed to happen in my lifetime.

34. Plants whose roots are used to make tapioca: MANIOCS - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Into each puzzle a little learning must occur

36. Complete rapidly, with "out": BANG.

38. Fishing gadget: BOBBER.

39. __ lettres: literary genre: BELLES - Fine letters or beautiful writing. More

40. Daytime fare: SOAPS.

41. Metalworking ridge: KNURL

42. American Eagle Outfitters subsidiary: AERIE.

44. Animal that sleeps 18 to 22 hours a day: KOALA.

46. Robert Indiana sculpture: LOVE.

48. Ego: SELF.

50. Grammy category: RAP.

51. Big name in pasta sauce: RAO - I noticed it on the grocery shelf next to Prego after I saw it in a cwd.

*

Saturday, August 8, 2026, Kyle Dolan

 Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan

Today, Kyle and I celebrate our silver anniversary, as this is the 25th puzzle of his that I've blogged. As I looked for a good entry point, the southeast corner filled in quickly, and I thought I was headed for an easy solve. Not so fast, I did enjoy Kyle's clever puzzle but the word easy does not describe the required effort! 😊

Kyle's quirky cluing kept the left side full of holes until, on my way to a haircut, the fill GREET came to me for the clue "Receive," and everything fell into place. The fabulous word SENTIENCE completed my Saturday assignment! As you will see in by blog I did contact Kyle to be reassured about some of this clue/fills and he kindly let me in on what he was thinking.

A note from Kyle which included this picture taken at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.:

Hi Gary,

I hope you are doing well. My inspiration for the puzzle came from eminent themeless constructor Robyn Weintraub, whose crosswords I admire. She has often used a design similar to the one seen here, and I wanted to see how I could fill such a grid. I began with ANY QUESTIONS, which is a lively conversational entry that is making its LAT debut (unless I am scooped in the next two weeks :-D). 

Thanks as always for your kind words and interesting reviews of my work.

Best regards,

Kyle

Across:

1. Kitchen drawer?: AROMA - 😀 Kyle went pretty far down the list of definitions for this use of drawer! 

6. Follow: OBEY.

10. NYC venue whose final show featured Patti Smith: CBGB - The Country Blue Grass Blues club shut down after 33 years.

14. Economic justice topic: LIVING WAGE.

16. Willie who broke the NHL's color barrier: OREE.

17. Forest formations with mythological associations: FAIRY RINGS - What they are and what causes them

18. Crux: MEAT 

19. Useful element in making connections: AND 😀

20. Group in Mercury's orbit?: QUEEN - Oh, that QUEEN and that Mercury

21. Causes of spiraling, at times: FEARS.

22. Their feet may have claws: TUBS. 😀

23. Writers commissioned for tributes: ODISTS.

25. Tightens, perhaps: RETIES.

28. Down for drama?: FOURTH - 😳 Wow, what a Kyle special!

29. Stuff: ITEMS.

30. Chrysler that won the 1978 Motor Trend Car of the Year Award: DODGE OMNI.

33. Receive: GREET - My key to completing the left side

34. Offline: IRL - In Real Life

35. Threw a pity party, perhaps: CRIED.

36. Feature of HAL 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey": SENTIENCE - A sentient being doesn’t just detect stimuli and react automatically. Sentient means having the capacity for subjective experience, particularly the ability to feel sensations like pleasure and pain. Here is HAL showing a sign of SENTIENCE.

38. Nephric: RENAL.

39. Coin bearing a bear: TOONIE - A C$2.00 coin whose name is a portmanteau for two and the loonie Canada's C$1.oo coin

40. Bear claw, e.g.: PASTRY.

41. Volunteer: SIGN ON.

42. Result of productive talks: PACT.

43. Some bookmarks: SITES.

44. "Find out": GO ASK.

46. Mercury, for one: GOD - Not Freddie this time.

49. Nursing spot: TEAT.

50. "Perfectly reasonable": I CAN SEE WHY - I CAN SEE WHY Kyle's choices might ruffle a few feathers. 😀

52. Some Indigenous Canadians: INNU - We very recently had the CREES.

 

53. Clue in evolutionary history: MARKER GENE.

54. Cobbler's tool: RASP.

55. Around: OR SO.

56. Maker of the One SL speaker: SONOS.

Down:

1. __ Romeo: ALFA.
 
2. Filmmaker Johnson: RIAN - This was the third film in RIAN'S Knives Out series.

3. Poet frequently referenced in "Don Quixote": OVID - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cervantes refers to himself as “nuestro español Ovidio” (Our Spanish OVID) in a sonnet addressed to Sancho Panza 

4. Bygone orbiter: MIR.

5. "All clear?": ANY QUESTIONS - Kyle's seed entry

6. Boo-boos: OWIES.

7. Curse: BANE.

8. Spaetzle, e.g.: EGG NOODLE - Made in southern Germany and Alsace

9. "Uh-huh!": YES.

10. Settles: COMES TO REST - No matter how hard you yeet throw something, it will COME TO REST

11. One may be taken on a date: BREATH MINT 😀

12. Shift workers?: GEARS.

13. Kalshi actions: BETS - 90% of its BETS are placed on sporting events but it also takes BETS on politics, finance and about anything else. It has made its 29-year-old founder the youngest female billionaire in history, passing even Taylor Swift.

15. Some bait: GRUBS.

21. Party poppers: FIRECRACKERS.

22. "Cock-a-doodle-doo!": TIME TO GET UP.

24. Vibed on: DUG.

25. Fixes: RIGS - Perhaps the most famous example

26. Peut-__: French "perhaps": ETRE - Peut-ÈTRE qu’elle a oublié la fête. (Perhaps she forgot about the party)

27. Animated superhero series featuring the voice of Tara Strong: TEEN TITANS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

28. Word in Beaufort readings: FORCE.

30. Setting for some on-line orders?: DINING CAR - 😀 I had to ask Kyle about this one. He said:

DINING CAR should be interpreted as a generic name for a place to eat on a train, not a specific restaurant. The clue is a pun on the idea that you go to the dining car to order food on a (rail) line.

31. Close: NEAR.

32. How much scrolling is done: IDLY - I'm approaching an addiction

37. Producer on seven U2 albums: ENO - The only British record producer I know

40. Dated: PASSE - Is opening a door for a woman now PASSÉ?

41. Italian home of the world's oldest bank: SIENA - It appears they might have been able to loan Columbus a few lira.

42. Coat put on in the kitchen?: PANKO.

43. Verb in a polenta recipe: STIR - The spoon is still in the bowl

45. Sticks in the water: OARS.

46. Longtime "PBS News Hour" anchor Ifill: GWEN. 

47. "Gah!": OH NO.

48. Top jobs?: DYES 😀

50. Letters expressing personal thoughts: IMO.

51. Team challenge: EGO.