Saturday, October 11, 2025, Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Rafael Musa

From Brazil, Musa moved to the Bay Area a decade ago to attend Stanford, where he earned his B.A. and master's degrees in computer science. He has called San Francisco home since graduating in 2018, which is the same year he started solving crosswords. Musa now solves up to six a day. He is a software engineer at Airbnb.

I made very good time in this puzzle but there was no way I was going to get the red cell you see below. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Across:

1. Warning on some sauce: ATOMIC.

          

7. __ Darya river: AMU - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  It is mostly a DaRYa River now and it "flows" into the southern remnants of the Aral Lake.

10. Solidarity leader Walesa: LECH - A true Polish living legend whose courage foreshadowed the fall of the Soviet Union. 

14. Place to take a break from the hustle and bustle: URBAN OASIS.

16. Part that helps the wheels on the bus go round and round: AXLE 😀

17. Words before a gavel banging: GOING TWICE 😀 

18. Fuss: STIR.

19. Doing: UP TO.

20. [Jazz hands]: TADA.

21. "David Copperfield" villain: HEEP.

22. Caldo de __: Mexican beef soup: RES.

23. "Was that not enough?": MORE?

24. Plow creation or brow formation: FURROW 😀

26. Cake or Bread: BAND - I only knew one of them. You?

 

27. Asset in cornhole: AIM.

28. Dallas-to-Plano dir.: NNE.

29. "Shake it off": HATERS GONNA HATE.

34. "No complaining!": I DON'T WANT ANY LIP.

35. Events that only get some coverage?: PARTIAL ECLIPSES 😀

36. Big primate: APE.

37. 50-Down org.: NBA and 50. Cleveland pro: CAV.

38. Aware of: ONTO.

39. Pitfall! consoles: ATARIS.

41. Be overly maudlin: CLOY - His bleak and jaded worldview is tempered by an unflagging, never cloying faith in love and its ability to transcend the muck and vile.
— Carlos Valladares, SFChronicle.com, 4 Nov. 2019
42. "Golly!": BOY.

45. Work: OPUS.

46. One may thicken over time: PLOT 😀

47. Like the oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber: PURE - They are believed to promote faster healing by using PURE oxygen under increased pressure.

48. "A Visit From the Goon Squad" novelist: EGAN and 30. Substance in herbal medicine: ADAPTOGEN. - The G where these two intersected was an impossibility for me as you saw in the grid. 😔

49. Seeing things that aren't natural?: BIONIC EYES - These can restore sight to blind people

51. "Mistakes __ made": WERE.

52. Break in?: STAYCATION - Take a break but stay in town

53. Otorhinolaryngologists, for short: ENTS.

54. Not assume, say: ASK.

55. "Regardless ... ": EVEN SO.

Down:

1. Herald: AUGUR - These clouds in central Nebraska AUGUR some extreme weather

2. Enemies to lovers, e.g.: TROPE - A familiar plot device in TV shows and movies. This fun movie leapt to my mind.

3. Dying words?: OBITS.

4. Hand for a mariachi band?: MANO - ... or any hand in Spanish 

5. English equivalent to the French -ant: ING - Crosswords are amusing (Les mots croisés sont amusants)

6. Test kit items: COTTON SWABS.

7. Tangent: ASIDE.

8. Ground mineral in joint compound: MICA - The second ingredient listed

 

9. Capitalize on: USE.

10. Surgical tool: LASER.

11. Appearances: EXTERNALS - Front and back of the Hill Valley Courthouse from Back To The Future

 

12. Hassle-free accessory: CLIP ON TIE.

13. "I Can't Breathe" singer-songwriter: HER.

H.E.R.

15. Occasion to celebrate achievements: AWARD GALA.

21. Habitat for __: HUMANITY - Two famous workers

23. Gin cocktails: MARTINIS.

24. Recourse before pursuing legal action, maybe: FINAL NOTICE.

25. Responds with great emotion: WEEPS.

26. Predisposition: BENT - I have always been a man with a math and science BENT

27. Carpenters' union?: ANT COLONY 😀 🐜

29. Abbr. on some medical forms: HIPAA.

31. Criticized harshly: TORE APART.

32. Half and half: ONE 😀

33. Shot provider: HYPO 😀

40. Old Norse characters: RUNES.

41. Conceal: CLOAK.

42. Poker fee: BUY IN - Ya gotta pay to play

43. Treat with vanilla creme: OREOS - How do I clue thee, Let me count the ways

44. Binary, in a way: YES NO - If this makes no sense to you, ask a math peep.

46. Centers of drupes: PITS.

47. Mets slugger Alonso: PETE.

48. Manchego source: EWE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Manchego is traditionally made from the milk of Manchega ewesthat graze in Spain's La Mancha region. For a cheese to be authentic Manchego, it must be made from 100% sheep's milk from this specific breed and region, following strict Denominación de Origen (DO) rules. You're welcome.

49. Org. now known as Scouting America: BSA.

Saturday, September 6, 2025, Rafael Musa, Geoffrey Schorkopf

 Themeless Saturday by Rafael Musa & Geoffrey Schorkopf 

BRICK went in immediately and then I raced down the eastern seaboard with just Florida to fill in. That did take a little doing but I came back and finished there. Cutesy cluing and modern slang provided some speed bumps but I did get a satisfying Congratulations message when I "got 'er done". 

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 including all of a triple horizontal stack of 9's in the NW. Its matching triple stack in the SE had one unique fill and the symmetric double vertical 10's each had one. 

Rafael

Geoffrey

 

Across:

1. Showers with affection in a manipulative way: LOVE BOMBS - I was happy to learn this. It seems to be an example of "too much, too soon".

10. Classic surface for the Indy 500: BRICK - My first confident fill. The last vestige of the old brick surface is a strip just after the finish line.

15. Option at a Mediterranean bakery: OLIVE ROLL - Unknown to me but makes perfect sense.

16. Art print, for short: LITHO - A very nice one minute video about the LITHO (rock) GRAPHY (picture) process. 

17. Hero in a 2018 Thai rescue operation: CAVE DIVER.

18. Photographer Adams: ANSEL.

19. Fertility clinic donations: OVA.

20. Piggy back?: LOIN - I had _ O I N and thought GO IN as you piggy back on someone else's idea or gift purchase and GO IN on it. 😀

21. Not spotted: UNSEEN.

22. People taking steps together: LINE DANCERS 😀

24. Pro pitcher, perhaps: AD MAN - Pitcher is one of those clue words that warn you this is might not be a baseball player or a container of lemonade.

27. Symbol of statistical deviation: SIGMA - Yes, 𝛔 is a lower case SIGMA. 𝜇 is the mean or average.

28. One who might run a Lab's labs: VET. 😀

30. Host who fielded many, many questions: TREBEK - It just ain't the same without him

32. New beginning?: NEO.

33. Aura: VIBE.

34. Water under the bridge: BYGONES.

36. Medium for pop art?: SODA CAN - Andy Warhol's Campbell's SOUP CAN came to me first

38. Cracked: AJAR - This door can be said to be slightly cracked or AJAR

39. Long-nosed fish: GAR.

41. Fights off: REPELS.

42. Primary ingredient in the Nigerian dish āmālā: YAM - When I saw it wasn't OCA I entered YAM

43. Conceive: BEGET - The Book Of Matthew chronicles 40 generations of BEGETTING! 

45. Church walkway: AISLE.

46. Butler honor: NEBULA AWARD.

49. Arm-twisting: DURESS.

50. Coin featuring Hagia Sophia: LIRA.

51. Interior designer's deg.: BFA - This is the degree my youngest granddaughter is currently pursuing 

54. Parties hearty: RAGES.

55. One-in-a-million personality: RARE BREED.

57. Goddess of peace: IRENE.

58. Departing words: ALL ABOARD before they 21. Cast off: UNMOOR.

59. Guy Fawkes Night structures: PYRES - What is this all about?

60. Updos that might be carefully arranged to appear casual: MESSY BUNS.

Down:

1. Set into -motion?: LOCO - I never miss a chance for some great 60's rock 'n roll!

2. Norwegian ruler known as Folkekongen, "the people's king": OLAV.

3. " ¡__ la fiesta!": VIVA - "Long live the party!" or "Hooray for the festival!" 

5. Set for retirement?: BED LINEN 😀 Set is a noun

6. Spacecraft of NASA's Artemis program: ORION - Yeah, I knew it! The ORION spacecraft that will carry astronauts sits high atop this massive rocket. The vast majority of rocket below the ORION craft simply carries fuel and two boosters.

 

7. Things pushed by trailers: MOVIES. 😀

8. Become one with the crowd: BLEND IN.

Hint to find Waldo at bottom of write-up

9. Snap decision, for short?: SLR - Yes, you can use a Single Lens Reflex camera to take a snap (photo)

10. Bahía __: city whose name means "White Bay": BLANCA.

11. Dishwasher setting: RINSE.

12. Field for one with their head in the cloud?: IT SERVICES - Uh, the virtual cloud (singular in the clue)

13. Lacking taste: CHEESE BALL - He is so CHEESE BALL

14. City on the Rhein: KOLN - In Germany they say KURN in English we say Kuh LOWN. Koln or Cologne?

22. When one might hope for same-day delivery?: LABOR 😀

23. Quite a stretch: AGES.

24. No longer dangerous: AT BAY.

25. Nondrinking age?: DRY JANUARY.

26. Very big deal: MEGA MERGER.

29. All knotted up: TENSE.

31. Pelvic exercises: KEGELS.

33. Jejune: VAPID.

35. Hardly a digest: SAGA.

37. Advice column with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: DEAR ABBY.

40. Cask beer in traditional British pubs: REAL ALE.

43. Kisses: BUSSES.

44. Shows off a new dress, say: TWIRLS 47. Geoffrey of fashion: BEENE. Here is a TWIRL in a Geoffrey Beene dress.

ee

48. Fields: AREAS.

49. Stalactite origin: DRIP  - The DRIP can make them grow as fast as 1" per 100 years.

51. Main squeeze: BEAU.

52. Scottish comedian Brady: FERN - She's a hoot who says, "I am an intelligent woman trapped in a Scottish accent". Here's a 29 second clip.

53. Does the math: ADDS.

55. Mac spec: RAM.

56. Hold up: ROB.

Here's Waldo!