Saturday, September 13, 2025, Jess Rucks

 Saturday Themeless by Jess Rucks

Jess is our former U.S. Air Force Urdu translator who has another fun offering today. Her husband is in the U.S. Space Force and they live in Colorado Springs. This is a lovely picture of Jess and her son, with husband lurking in the background on a recent vacation in Minnesota.       

   

  

Across:

1. Some fancy foot work: PEDIS 😀

6. Stylish confidence: SWAG 

10. Ocean spray: MIST.

14. Villainous superpower: EVIL EMPIRE.

16. Laptop brand: ACER.

17. Foam toy that can be repurposed for childproofing corners and doors: POOL NOODLE.

18. Lion-tailed macaque feature: MANE.

19. Meh: SO SO.

20. "I love the white stuff, baby / In the middle of an __": "Weird Al" lyric: OREO - A parody of You've Got The Right Stuff by New Kids on the Block

21. Cause of insomnia or euphoria: MANIA.

22. Some fountain drinks: MALTS.

24. Mocking bird: PARROT.

25. Ant-Man's partner: THE WASP ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

27. More loyal: TRUER.

28. Ring: PHONE - In the U.K. you might ring up someone

29. Leadership: BRASS.

31. On: LIT.

33. 1975 thriller based on a Peter Benchley novel: JAWS - Benchley was paid a mere $250,00o for the movie rights but got a per cent of the enormous profits which made him a multimillionaire.

34. Poet Jones who wrote the memoir "How We Fight for Our Lives": SAEED.

35. Mousse kin: PATE.

   

 

Mousse

Pate

36. Some Main lines on maps?: Abbr.: STS - There are over 10,000 Main Streets in America.

37. "The Subtle Power of the Red Carpet __": Vogue headline: DURAG ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

38. __ patootie: CUTIE 😀

39. Trouble spot: STAIN.

41. Cracks, in a way: DECODES - The most famous of these was done in Hut 8 in Bletchley Park in WWII led by Alan Turing

43. Pressures: FORCES.

44. Lost color: PALED.

45. Sign into law: ENACT.

46. Window shopper's purchase: PANE 😀

47. [Bor-r-ring!]: YAWN.

51. Actress Daly: TYNE.

52. Piece of art that's cut short: BONSAI TREE 😀

54. Nonchewing teeth: COGS 😀

55. Groups of world travelers?: ALIEN RACES.

56. Paint sample strip blocks: HUES.

57. Mineral in some homemade soap: MICA.

58. Cease and desist?: STOPS - Two synonyms not a single phrase

Down:

1. __ up: PEPS.

2. Dressing acronym: EVOO.

3. "Vaya con __": DIOS - Go with God in Spanish. Also a big hit for Les and Mary.

4. Warning signs: ILL OMENS.

5. Ottawa NHL pro: SEN.

6. Place for a draft pick: SPORTS BAR 😀

7. Jam band that holds the record for sold-out shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre: WIDE SPREAD PANIC - This is one of Jess's favorite groups and she offered Patti this clue and "Mass hysteria" as options and she was pleased which one was picked.

8. First name in folk: ARLO.

9. "Golly!": GEE.

10. "Drag Race" matriarch, affectionately: MAMA RU - Jess is also a Ru Paul fan

11. "Tell me about it!": I CAN RELATE.

12. Affliction similar to spring fever: SENIORITIS.

13. Reward: TREAT.

15. Scratch: MOOLA - So many euphemisms for money

21. Planet entirely inhabited by robots: MARS - I loved this one!

23. Start for some?: AWE 😀

24. EMDR target: PTSD - Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 

25. Fault line?: THAT'S ON YOU.

26. "Hmm, odd": HOW STRANGE.

28. Jammies: PJS.

30. Body of water said to be named for a king of Athens: AEGEAN SEA.

32. Lift for a drive: TEE 😀 Fore!

34. Home team at PHX Arena: SUNS.

35. Looney Tunes toon: PUDDY TAT.

37. Bamboo, for a panda: DIET.

38. Cedar Rapids college: COE.

40. Get into: ACCESS - Remembering passwords to ACCESS sites is sometimes difficult

42. Kid-friendly: CLEAN.

43. Sell for: FETCH -  Louis Vuitton expects this purse to FETCH $4,200

46. __-sci: POLI.

48. West Coast gas brand: ARCO.

49. React to a sad ending: WEEP.

50. Sad ending?: NESS.

52. "That's what I'm talkin' about!": BAM - Emeril's catchphrase

53. Tax org.: IRS.

 

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!