Saturday, October 24, 2026, Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Rafael Must

Rafa, a software engineer at Airbnb in San Francisco, is a frequent constructor and collaborator. Although it took some time, I was delighted to receive a “got ‘er done” badge. Typically, there are clues or fills that can unlock a part of the puzzle, but it seemed like whenever I needed one, I was blocked by my lack of knowledge in areas where Rafa is much more knowledgeable. His FreshnessFactor Percentile was 97.3%.

Across:

1. Garage equipment: CAR RAMPS - $99 at Wal Mart

9. One who takes things the wrong way?: ROBBER 😀

15. Ancient Egypt's "plant of immortality": ALOE VERA - The plant was presented as a sacred gift at the burials of pharaohs and placed inside tombs to accompany rulers into the afterlife. Heck, all we want is some relief from a sunburn!

16. How donburi is served: ON RICE.

17. Parent who seems to do it all: SUPER MOM.

18. Umami-rich snack: TEA EGG - A TEA EGG is a Chinese savory food commonly sold as a snack, in which a boiled egg is cracked slightly and then boiled again in tea, and sauce or spices.

19. Audrey Tautou film: AMELIE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

20. Admits: SEES IN - This is a hoot!

22. RSVP part: SIL.

23. Chaps whose business is picking up?: BUSMEN - A very famous one from 50's TV. I had a mental coin flip between  this and men who clear tables, but I am a huge Jackie Gleason fan.

24. Habitat for some gnomes: LAWN.

26. Groups with routine practice sessions: DANCE CREWS.

30. "Over there," in Portuguese: ALI - "Vá ficar ALI" (Go stand over there)

31. Small bluff: CRAG.

32. Dough: MOOLAH.

33. Billboard entries: SINGLES 😀 Here is the top of Billboard's Hot 100 SINGLES on April 12, 1964.

35. "Tell the truth!": DON'T LIE.

36. Proceeds without a pause: SEGUES 😀 - Nobody did them better!

37. Common tamale ingredient: LARD - It's not labelled below, but I think you can see it in the little black pan.

38. "__ help!": IT'D.

39. Ephemeral post, colloquially: INSTASTORY - INSTAGRAM STORIES are said to disappear after 24 hours but does anything really disappear from the web?

41. Terrarium growth: MOSS.

42. Pen: ENCAGE.

43. Go unused: SIT.

44. Porowski of "Queer Eye": ANTONI ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

45. Place to enter a security code: PIN PAD.

48. Jumped out of one's skin?: MOLTED 😀 - Two weeks ago, August Miller gave us 6. Drop down?: MOLT 

50. What files can help with: NAIL CARE.

52. Preferring platonic connections, for short: ARO ACE.

53. University founded by Booker T. Washington: TUSKEGEE.

54. Reacts to a riot, say: LAUGHS 😀

55. "Sure, hon": OKAY DEAR.

Down:

1. Isabel Allende's "La __ de los espíritus": CASA - Even I could see this translates to The House Of The Spirits.

2. Grad: ALUM.

3. Means of access for some watering holes: ROPE SWINGS - A lot of the images were violent fails!

4. Attract: REEL IN.

5. "Complicated" singer Lavigne: AVRIL.

6. Part of a viral load?: MEME - If an internet posting goes viral, it can become a MEME

7. Maven: PRO - Not a common synonym for me but...

8. Korean company whose name means "three stars": SAMSUNG.

9. Capacity built via repetition: ROTE MEMORY 😀

10. "Be right with you!": ONE SECOND.

11. Low-quality internet content: BRAIN ROT.

12. Word in Spanish 101 and French 101: BIEN The play was well done. In Spanish: La obra estuvo BIEN hecha. In French: La pièce était BIEN réussie.

13. Diagnostic test, for short: ECG.

14. Bylaw, for short: REG - REGulations 

21. Key part of an exit strategy: ESC.

23. "Be right with ewe!" sounds?: BAAS 😀

24. Drink that may be topped with cardamom: LASSI.

25. Strange: ALIEN.

26. Style guides?: DRESS CODES - Fair?

27. "Gaycation" co-host: ELLIOT PAGE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

28. Stands by: WAITS - BTW, Godot never shows up.

29. Saw places: SHEDS 😀

31. Green transport, gray water recycling, etc.: CLEAN TECH.

  
 

34. "Yo!" de Cologne?: GUTEN TAG - What a fun clue! Good day in Cologne, Germany. 

35. "Just do it," e.g.: DARE.

37. Access, in a way: LOG INTO.

40. "Saving Fish From Drowning" novelist: TAN.

41. __ oath: MINCED.

43. Like flan: SILKY.

44. Six-time MLB All-Star Moisés: ALOU.

45. Tuscan city known for a campanile: PISA - Of course, a campanile is a bell tower and very common in Italy. However in PISA...

46. Painter's calculation: AREA.

47. Sacred animals in Nara, Japan: DEER.

48. __ educado: rude, in Spanish: MAL - MAL means bad in Spanish, so...

49. Pop singer Rita: ORA - We had a nice reference to RITA Hayworth yesterday.

51. North Sea bird: AUK.

Saturday, August 29, 2026, Geoffrey Schorkopf & Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Geoffrey Schorkopf & Rafael Musa

Rafael

Geoffrey

This is my 3rd collaborative puzzle I have had with these transcontinental constructors. I was very pleased to earn a "got 'er done" and really enjoyed some of the cluing and fill. 

Birds of a feather: Rafael is a software engineer for Airbnb in S.F.  and Geoffrey is a software engineer at Fastly in Atlanta. 

Across:

1. Chance to refuel after a run: APRES SKI - Oh, APRES (after) a SKI run! 

9. Cruelty-free target of poaching: PEAR. 😀

13. Contributes to: GOES IN ON.

14. Ncuti who plays the Fifteenth Doctor: GATWA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

15. Mobile vendor?: APP STORE. 😀 The vendor is not mobile, the device for which it is intended is mobile 

16. Extravagant: WANTON.

17. Chiang Mai residents: THAIS - Chiang Mai is the name a city in NW Thailand that is also the capital of the Chiang Mai province.

 

18. Bath bomb component: EPSOM SALT.

20. Place that's all abuzz: HIVE.

21. The Refined Feline purchase, perhaps: CAT TREE.

22. Did brunch, say: ATE.

23. Like crosswords, hopefully: FUN.

24. Vicuòa kin: ALPACAS.

28. Folks who are so last yr.: SRS 😀

29. Spanish for "the gilded one": EL DORADO - A legend of South America 

30. Pilots on the air: SERIES PREMIERES - Can you name these pilots that became regular SERIES after this PREMIERE. * Answer at bottom

34. Conflict involving customs: TRADE WAR.

35. Y as in Yucatan?: AND - One of my all time favorite clues! The letter Y is Spanish serves as the conjunction AND and Spanish is certainly spoken in Yucatan. 

C.C. Y yo somos amigos desde hace años. (C.C. and I have been friends for years). Even after I had AND filled in, it took a small bolt of lightning for me to get it! DOH!

36. Japanese leader: EMPEROR.

37. On point: APT.

38. Deg. from Goizueta: MBA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

41. Causes a scene?: DIRECTS - He directed many a memorable scene.

43. Snippy: CURT.

44. Physical procedure?: BLOOD DRAW 😀

47. Husk-steamed fare: TAMAL - Tamale is an anglicized version of the Spanish word tamal (plural: tamales ). The English "tamale" is a back-formation from tamales. You're welcome.

Here is a TAML on a plate with 
some tamales in the background

48. Freshens, in a way: REDOES.

49. New York university: COLUMBIA - COLUMBIA is about 4 miles north of Ground Zero

51. Swears: AVERS.

52. Cutesy name for the squishy parts of a paw: TOE BEANS.

53. Trash: DISS.

54. High-minded one: IDEALIST.

Down: 

1. Name on a literary award: AGATHA - The Agatha Awards are annual literary prizes named after AGATHA Christie and present by Malic Domestic Ltd to honor traditioanal "cozy" mystery and crime fiction. These are books featuring no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence. 

2. Chart-topper: POP HIT.

3. Fix a lot, say: REPAVE - Uh, perhaps a parking lot

4. Polish brand: ESSIE.

5. Takes a load off: SITS.

6. __-Cat: SNO.

7. Like gochujang and jjimjilbang: KOREAN - The former is a culinary item and second is a bathhouse. 

  

8. Bumbling: INEPT.

9. With a crispy crust, say: PAN-SEARED.

10. Piedmont blues guitarist Baker: ETTA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

11. Unaccounted for, for short: AWOL.

12. Tirade: RANT.

14. Important part of a set: GAME POINT - Unusual tennis scoring for a game is 15, 30, 40, GAME POINT. You win the set if you win 6 games (7 games if there is OT). Tennis peeps will understand this scoreboard:

16. Country homes?: WORLD MAPS 😀

19. Played out: STALE - Same old, same old

21. Swears: CUSS WORDS - Producer David O. Selznick fought the censors hard in 1939 to get this word into one of the most famous lines in film history. 

23. Full scholarships, informally: FREE RIDES.

25. Mercury or Saturn: CAR.

26. Gator tail?: ADE.

27. Short cry for help: SOS.

28. Means of indirect access: SIDE DOORS.

29. Stray: ERR.

30. Femme canonisée: Abbr.: STE - The abbr. for a French female saint (Femme canonisée) is STE

31. Hesitant sound: ERM.

32. Art form that originated in the Bronx: RAP.

33. Knife block insert: PARER.

37. "Oryx and Crake" novelist: ATWOOD.

 

38. Capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra: MUMBAI - Originally MUMBAI, Portuguese Bombain, British BOMBAY, Back to MUMBAI to get rid of all British influence in 1995.

39. Processing centers?: BRAINS - Some process better than others.

40. "About dang time!": AT LAST - Nobody does it better than our cwd friend Etta James.

42. Sustainable landscaping options: CACTI.

43. __ Up: board game with a desert motif: CAMEL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

44. Slender fastener: BRAD.

45. Stubbs of the Four Tops: LEVI - Of all their great tunes, this is my fav.

           LEVI

46. Some Olds works: ODES - Sharon's ODE to Dirt

47. Polka horn: TUBA.

50. Suni honored with the Best Comeback Athlete ESPY Award in 2025: LEE.

 

*Friends     Big Bang Theory     Golden Girls     Seinfeld