Saturday, February 28, 2026, Zhou Zhang & Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Zhou Zhang & Rafael Musa

There was a lot to like and struggle with in Zhou and Rafa's wonderful puzzle that features pinwheel stacks of 8. My solving experience started on the SE edge of the pinwheel and rotated clockwise to the NE  where incredibly clued  BRA PAD and GOT OPEN finished the solve.

We have seen Rafa here quite often collaborating with others, especially Rebecca Goldstein. 

1. Superdome player: SAINT - I felt that knowing the Superdome is the home of the New Orleans SAINTS to be a good omen

6. Energy crisis?: BAD VIBES 

14. Some belly buttons: INNIES.

16. Result of doomscrolling, perhaps: BRAIN ROT - New to me but makes sense

 

17. Perform precisely: DO TO A T - 🤔 That hid for quite a while 

18. Maintain one's dignity: SAVE FACE.

19. Sanctions: ENABLES - Sanctions is a contronym where one definition can mean the exact opposite of another

21. Had no defense?: GOT OPEN 🤔 I assume this is when a football receiver GOT OPEN because the defense did not cover him.

22. Buggy site: DUNE.

23. SEC-regulated events: IPOS.

25. Farm worker: ANT.

26. M-W alternative: OED 🤔 - The Oxford English Dictionary can be an alternative to the Merriam-Webster version.

27. Surname of both founders of the fashion label The Row: OLSEN - They came to mind pretty quickly

29. Appears to point to: BODES - Seeing Rafa's name on a puzzle BODES that this could take some time!

31. Pan handler: OVEN MITT.

33. Animal with a white rump: ELK.

34. "A Court of Thorns and Roses," for one: ROMANTASY SERIES ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  A portmanteau of ROMANce and fanTASY- Bill Maher did a recent monologue about this where he posits that the popularity of these books—which often feature intense, protective, supernatural male characters—stems from a sense of sexual or romantic unfulfillment among women in the modern world.

39. Apple product: PIE - It would be easier if clued this way: An apple product.

40. "You wanna fight!?": COME AT ME - 😡

41. Composer with a namesake horn: SOUSA

44. Ignored a scarecrow, perhaps: CAWED 😀

45. Take (down): JOT 😀

46. Reactions to stubs: OWS - Nothing to do with tickets 

47. Automaker Karl: BENZ.

48. Simple shelters: HUTS.

49. Left over, in a way: UNEATEN.

52. Pretend: ACT AS IF.

55. Pico de gallo, e.g.: RED SALSA.

57. Short person?: DEBTOR 😀 - If you're short of funds...

58. Suddenly gave way: CRUMPLED - We studied this bridge that eventually gave way and CRUMPLED into the Tacoma Narrows in physics class

59. Solution for wounds: SALINE.

60. Ingredient in carajillo and affogato: ESPRESSO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

61. En __: MASSE - East Germans exited en Masse when the Berlin Wall fell.

Down:

1. Something that might be right up one's alley: SIDE DOOR - A slight variation 

2. Nochevieja follower: ANO NUEVO - Spanish: 

Nochevieja (December 31st, Old Year's Night) is directly followed by Año Nuevo (January 1st, New Year's Day).

3. As one: IN TANDEM.

4. Weeping mother of Greek myth: NIOBE - I've planted a few of these NIOBE Weeping Willows.

5. Charlotte Hornets color: TEAL.

6. Not-so-big shots: BBS 😀

7. Catalonia neighbor: ARAGON.

8. Swiss host of the World Economic Forum: DAVOS.

9. "The Sympathizer" Pulitzer winner __ Thanh Nguyen: VIET ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

10. Skinny: INFO 😀

11. Push-up form?: BRA PAD.

12. Epoch whose name means "new dawn": EOCENE - The term highlights the "dawn" of modern mammalian fauna like horse, bats and whales around 40 million years ago following the extinction of the dinosaurs. You're Welcome. 

13. Artery inserts: STENTS.

15. Office building subdivision, for short: STE - Suite

20. Queen Latifah's "Nature of a __": SISTA.

24. Imaging technique: PET SCAN - Positron Emission Tomography

27. __ vincit amor: OMNIA - A proclamation in ink that Love Conquers All

28. Lo-cal: LITE.

29. Run: BLEED.

30. National vegetable of Pakistan: OKRA.

32. Quick outings?: NAPS 😀

33. "Hanna" star __ Creed-Miles: ESME - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Beautiful, young women with guns are standard TV and movie tropes these days.

35. "Holy cow!": YOWZA.

36. Unsatisfying response to "why?": IT JUST IS.

37. Love and hate: EMOTIONS.

38. Releases: SETS FREE.

41. Point of origin: SOURCE.

42. People with good deeds to their names?: OWNERS - This is a famous deed for a home in Memphis.

43. Finished: USED UP.

44. Perfumes during a rite: CENSES.

47. Quintet in London's Elizabeth Tower: BELLS - Big Ben is the largest of these five

48. "Se __ inglé": HABLA - English is spoken.

50. Video genre that may cause chills, for short: ASMR - Experience as much of this 3-hour example of eerie 

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response

 as you like.

51. Box closer: TAPE.

53. S&L options: CDS.

54. Bears, e.g.: TEAM - They are threatening to move

56. Flap: ADO.

Saturday, January 24, 2026, Rafael Musa, Geoffrey Schorkopf

  Themeless Saturday by Rafael Musa & Geoffrey Schorkopf 

I had these collaborators on September 6, 2025 and had much more luck with that puzzle than I did with this one. I had to get help on a few cells and had an honest-to-goodness Natick at IRE_A/A_AND. The cluing left me out in the dark and some of the fill were not in my vocabulary. All in all it was a slog for this solver and came in the "close but no cigar" category.

As the graphic shows, Rafael (A software engineer for Airbnb in S.F.)  and Geoffrey (a software engineer at Fastly in Atlanta) had a lot of unique fill. The gentlemen had 104 open squares and only 28 blocks.

Rafael

Geoffrey

 

Across:

1. Emerge from the ashes, say: RISE AGAIN - Until last year, Indiana Unverstiy's football team had more losses (over 700) than another college program. But with the hire of coach Curt Cignetti they went to 16 - 0 and won the National Championship in 2026.

10. Violin stroke: UPBOW - We guitar players often use an upstrum stroke

15. Mammal with a protective shell: ARMADILLO - This easy 9-letter fill portended an easier solve than it turned out to be

16. Letizia, por ejemplo: REINA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I didn't even know Spain had a King and Queen and no idea what the Spanish word for a queen was either.

17. Drafty places?: BEER HALLS 😀 Perhaps the most famous BEER HALL was the  Löwenbrau's Bürgerbräukeller in Munich where in 1923 Hitler attempted his famous putsch to oust the Weimar Republic.

18. 17-Across option: LAGER - Löwenbrau certainly made a LAGER beer even then

19. "Winners Take All" author Giridharadas: ANAND ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  and 2. Polish humanitarian Sendler: IRENA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  The makings of my Natick.

     

20. Wife of Osiris: ISIS.

22. Drooping: LIMP.

23. Sea dogs: TARS.

24. Caterpillar counterparts: DEERES - This John DEERE starts at $1.2M before options

26. Dandy: FOP.

27. Following a pattern, perhaps: ORDERLY.

28. "Sorry, did I overshare?": TMI.

29. End one's Dry January, say: IMBIBE.

33. Rational process?: MEAL PREP - Rational meal prep combines smart planning (stocking up, mapping meals, focusing on protein/leftovers) with efficient cooking, often using technology.

35. Demeanors: MIENS - I see MIEN and its lovely vowels here more often than anywhere else

36. Potential reward for a top-seeded team: BYE - The top four rated teams get a BYE in the first round of the College Football Playoffs. In the last two years those teams with a week off have  a 1 - 7 record.

37. Danish fruit: PRUNE 😀 - That is only one filling option for the pastry known as a danish. They are so named because Danish bakers brought them to America. In Denmark they were known as wienerbrød (Vienna Bread).

 

38. They may trick or treat?: PLACEBOS 😀

40. Excel at another company?: SHEETS 😀

41. Guitar legend Paul: LES.

42. Tangy ramen toppers: SOY EGGS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

44. NYC setting: EST.

45. Fill a flat?: SUBLET - 😀 I abandoned any use of the word air quickly 

46. The "A" of NATO: ALFA - Putting AMER first did not help. Once I changed that mistake the whole SE corner filled in.

50. Note givers: ATMS.

52. First U.S. president to own a car: TAFT -The 1909 Model M is at the Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts.

 

53. Clear as day: PLAIN.

54. Like a flue: SOOTY.

56. "I'm dead serious!": NO FOOLING.

58. Over: ENDED.

59. Parts in two?: DUAL ROLES - I had a huge crush on Haley Mills in her DUAL ROLES in 1961

60. Considers: DEEMS.

61. Works outside?: STREET ART - Works is a noun here. ART came first in the fill for me.

Down:

1. North African capital: RABAT - Casablanca was the movie but RABAT is the capital of Morocco. Anyone else put Cairo first?

3. Bad mark: SMEAR.

4. Brings in: EARNS.

5. Med. condition treated with Vyvanse: ADHD.

6. "The Last Showgirl" director Coppola: GIA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

7. Together: ALLIED.

8. Comment after a bad joke: I'LL SEE MYSELF OUT 😀

9. Folksy denial: NO SIRREE.

10. Short address: URL.

11. Toll: PEAL 😀

12. "That would break the internet!": BIG IF TRUE 😀 If Abe had really said this...

13. "Be right with you": ONE MOMENT.

14. Mario Bros. transports: WARP PIPES ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

21. Ward in movies: SELA - How old am I? I put Ward BOND first.

24. Beats by __: DRE

 

25. Spirits of the air: SYLPHS.

27. Go deep, say: OBSESS.

29. "That makes me happy": I'M PLEASED.

30. Solid foods for a baby, e.g.: MILESTONE - The "potty trained" MILESTONE is monumental!

31. Competitive athletic state, colloquially: BEAST MODE - We had this a few Saturdays ago.

32. Business end?: INC.

34. School opening?: PRE.

36. Focus of the 2024 miniseries "Dirty Pop": BOY BANDS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

39. Spell: BOUT - I had a 10-day BOUT with a cold around Christmas 

40. Mil. rank: SGT - I had to muster out CPL, CAP and COL

43. Win at life: GET FAR.

46. Divvy up: ALLOT - The end of every family get together is the "divvy up" session for leftovers

47. Boxer Ali: LAILA - Here with dad.

48. Less coarse: FINER.

49. Inner turmoil: ANGST.

51. Academic acronym: STEM.

53. Toner target: PORE.

55. Passing concern, for short?: YDS - I, uh, passed on INT and TDS

57. Estádio do Maracanã cheer: OLE - The Estádio do Maracanã stadium is in Rio and OLE celebrates soccer goals rather than bull fighting success.