Saturday, November 1, 2025, Ryan Patrick Smith

 Themeless Saturday by Ryan Patrick Smith

Ryan Patrick Smith lives in Austin, TX and is a writer, editor, gamer and frequent moviegoer who has been constructing word puzzles for over a decade. His work has previously appeared in the NYT and other venues. He and I have been visiting via FaceBook messaging and he is a very nice guy.

I did tell Ryan I had a huge issue in the SE corner where, as the grid shows below, he had a stack of ten unique fills.😳 He replied, Thanks for the kind words, and for giving the puzzle a fair shake! I look forward to your blog post.

Across:

1. "For me? You shouldn't have!": AW HOW SWEET.

11. Froze (out): SHUT - An all too common event in a school lunchrooms and playgrounds 

15. I dropper: THE ROYAL WE - Queen Victoria may or may not have said this but it is usually attributed to her.

16. Antler point: TINE - Makes sense

17. Approximately: MORE OR LESS.

18. Derby, for one: RACE - The most famous one in America and in Britain where they pronounce Derby as Darby.

19. Org chart topper: CEO.

20. Soapstone, largely: TALC.

21. Product line?: SLOGAN.

23. Hardcore: AVID.

25. Red __: HOTS - Red HOTS candy is hot because of cinnamaldehyde, a chemical found in cinnamon bark. It's a skin irritant; when put on the tongue, that's perceived as "hot". It was a favorite in my misspent yute but "burns" my tongue too much now.

27. Youngest sister in the band Haim: ALANA - Taylor Swift considers herself the fourth sister in Haim. I'm sure you know which girl below is Taylor and ALANA is one of the other three.

28. Buy more Time: RENEW 😀

30. With 56-Down, piledriver or Polish hammer: WRESTLING and 56. See 30-Across: MOVE.

                   

Polish Hammer

Pile Driver

32. Milwaukee rival: DREMEL.

34. "Got it": I SEE.

35. "Auld Lang Syne" time, for short: NYE - It is sung on New Year's Eve

36. Plan for a night out?: STAR CHART 😀 Tonight's sky

39. Common thing to clasp behind one's back: BRA 😀 or unclasp

42. Chicken __: KIEV.

43. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" role: MARTHA - Elizabeth Taylor won her second Academy Award for portraying MARTHA. Martha to her husband: I hope that was an empty bottle, George! You can't afford to waste good liquor, not on YOUR salary!

47. Take courses in the evening?: EAT DINNER 😀

50. SoFi Stadium pro: LA RAM.

51. Pays for hand delivery: ANTES 😀

52. Word before or after what: THEN.

54. NOLA squad: PELS.

55. Self-evident observation: TRUISM.

57. Plays that create one-on-one scoring opportunities, in basketball shorthand: ISOS -  All members of the red team have moved to one side of the court so the one red player left is ISOLATED on one defender.

59. Block letters: ABC.

60. Animated musical film set in a theater: SING.

61. Radiohead album with the single "Paranoid Android": OK COMPUTER. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

64. Brand in some bathrooms: MOEN.

65. Phase when one stops being a pushover: VILLAIN ERA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

66. Travel itinerary info: ETDS - When you are departing

67. Cartoon Network series about a trio of similarly named friends: ED EDD N EDDY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Down:

1. Item that's easy to swipe: ATM CARD. 😀

2. "Anyone'll do": WHOEVER.

3. Captain Marvel, for one: HEROINE.

4. 31-Down material: ORE and 31. Underground band: SEAM.

5. Triumphant cry: WOOT.

6. Red choice: SYRAH.

7. Refuse to move on, say: WALLOW.

8. Quiet ride: ELECTRIC VEHICLE - A nice freebie grid spanner

9. Disgusted chorus: EWS.

10. Novelist Gerritsen: TESS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

11. Mosey: STROLL - I believe we have a poster here who is prone to sashay.

12. Follow-up start: HI AGAIN.

13. Preternatural: UNCANNY.

14. Adolescent: TEENAGE.

22. Rugby pass: LATERAL.

24. Hill side, for short: DEMS - DEMocratS are one side on Capital Hill

26. Meet: SESH - Slang for session

29. Smooch from a pooch: WET KISS - Awww...

33. Edward R. Robinson's "Hymn for Soldiers Who Have __ in the Snow":  Not a pleasant read

37. Number for a letter?: RENT - Let is a synonym for rent so a renter is also a letter

38. "It's a __!": TRAP.

39. [Shrug]: BEATS ME - A symbol I use a lot: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

40. Went berserk: RAN RIOT - Yeah, I put RAN AMOK first too

41. Listening carefully (to): ATTUNED.

44. Got a round, say: TREATED.

45. Renaissance weapon: HALBERD - They all have one

46. "Go jump in a lake!": AMSCRAY - I haven't heard Pig Latin in a long time

48. Condescends: DEIGNS.

49. Like many concert tickets: RESOLD - If you buy a ticket on the secondary market, you are at the mercy of "supply and demand". Some Taylor Swift tickets for her Era Tour went for $14,000.

53. Itinerant: NOMAD.

58. Get around?: SPIN - Very different from "Get a round".

62. Tyke: KID.

63. Article indéfini: UNE - Je conduis UNE Buick (I drive a Buick).

Saturday, October 25, 2025, David Karp

   Themeless Saturday by David Karp 

Earlier this year David told us he was a relatively new constructor from Victoria, B.C.,  Canada who took up puzzle construction during the pandemic. David's "day job" is as a policy advisor for the provincial government. As you can see by the color-coded grid, David has a lot of  unique fill in this puzzle.

Here's what David had to say about GEN ALPHA (my last fill) when I wrote to him about it wondering why the classification starts at 2010.

 - Hi Gary, 

I was just reading up on Gen Alpha again. It sounds like 2000-2010 is generally considered Gen Z and 2025 onward is apparently considered "Gen Beta" by people who apparently decide such matters. Go figure. 

Best, 

David

Across

1. 2-Down, for one: BALM and 2. Soothing gel: ALOE.

5. Name on Iran's flag: ALLAH - The phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) is written in white, Kufic script 11 times along the top and bottom edges of the white stripe, for a total of 22 repetitions.

10. "Excuse you!": AHEM.

14. Pelvic bones: ILIA.

15. "Nightcrawling" novelist Mottley: LEILA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

16. Umami-rich paste: MISO.

17. Design trend that showcases literary treasures: BOOKSHELF WEALTH.

20. One of the Six Nations: SENECA.

21. Buzzy instruments: KAZOOS.

22. Cookbook writer Rombauer: IRMA.

24. Vibing with: INTO.

25. Gold-backed cryptocurrencies, e.g.: STABLE COINS - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Here ya go

28. "There is no there there" coiner: GERTRUDE STEIN - Today I learned that Gertrude's comment was meant to indicate her painful nostalgia that her hometown of Oakland, CA was  mostly all gone not that the city was meaningless. The meaningless use is more common today.

30. "Aladdin" actor Massoud: MENA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

31. To love, in Italian: AMARE - Let's all conjugate together

32. Birkenstock option: CLOG.

34. Studio sign: ON AIR.

36. Texting tech: SMS - This texting method is used by our entire family to share news and make plans. Unlike phone calls, it allows for some rumination before commitments are made. 

37. Central focus: THEME.

38. Festive vegan drink: OAT NOG.

40. "They are ready to see you now": GO ON IN.

41. Guardians, on scoreboards: CLE - For some they will always be the Cleveland Indians

42. Spice cultivated from Crocus sativus: SAFFRON - SAFFRON is a spice derived from th dried stigmas of the Crocus satis flower. It is the most expensive spice in the world due to the labor-intensive process of harvesting the tiny stigmas by hand, with approximately 150 flowers needed for just one gram of the dried spice. You're welcome.

46. Demo stuff: TNT - Demolition not demonstration

47. Rivals, slangily: OPPS.

49. Nasty fall: SLEET - In March a horrible SLEET and wind storm weighed down wires here in Nebraska. It broke over power poles and we were without power for three days.

50. Thermometer type: ORAL - Don't ask an angry pharmacist how to use a rectal thermometer!

51. Question while filling out a form: WHAT'S TODAY'S DATE.

54. Figure on Arizona license plates: SAGUARO - I wonder how HUSKER GARY would look

55. Enthusiastic assent: DO I EVER.

56. One who picks up speed?: SENSOR - I used this SENSOR in my physics lab to determine speed.

57. Puzzled (out): SUSSED.

Down:

1. Lobster catchers: BIBS 😀

3. Animal on Sri Lanka's flag: LION.

4. Money order?: MAKE IT RAIN.

5. Islamic palace in Spain: ALHAMBRA.

6. Spike in direction: LEE - 20 lashes with a wet noodle for this former volleyball coach for not seeing Spike as a name and not as a verb

7. Smaller than sm.: LIL.

8. Melmac native: ALF.

9. Curved facial feature: HAWK NOSE.

10. Component in many a smart home: AMAZON ECHO - Alexa does your bidding via the Amazon ECHO Dot

11. Only U.S. city with a zoo in a rainforest: HILO.

12. Spanish "this": ESTO.

13. Mineralogist with a scale: MOHS - Talc is at 1 on the MOHS scale and diamonds are at 10

18. "Ice Age" squirrel: SCRAT - In any language

19. "Weird Al" parody that begins, "How come you're always such a fussy young man?": EAT IT 😀 With apologies to Michael Jackson. 

How come you're always such a fussy young man?
Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran
Well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?
So, eat it, just eat it

23. Homecoming week crowd: ALUMS.

24. Decoration specialists: ICERS.

25. Teen who helps with the bills: SENATE PAGE - Oh, legislative bills.

Senator George Pepper playing
ball with some Senate PAGES

26. Common cheese in kaasstengels: EDAM - I filled in only one letter to SUSS out our frequent cheese visitor. 

27. Bring-your-own-headphones dance party: SILENT RAVE.

28. People born yesterday: GEN ALPHAS - New to me. It applies to people who were born in the 21st century from 2015 - 2024.  See David's note in the intro. 

29. Given a nod: NOMINATED.

30. Udder delights for a toddler?: MOO COWS.

33. Less rough: GENTLER.

35. Children's author Asquith: ROS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

37. Long or short amount: TON.

39. Pub prefix: GASTRO - What is it?

40. "Heard": GOT YOU - "I heard you the fourth time!" 😠

43. Completely wow: FLOOR and 48. Completely wow: STUN.

44. Govt. agent: FED.

45. Anticipates: READS.

50. Dedicated works: ODES.

52. Nordic carrier: SAS.

53. Member of the fam: SIS.