Thursday March 5, 2026 Susan Gelfand

Susan Gelfand has been constructing crosswords for over five Winter Olympics! To celebrate the victories of both the men's and women's USA Hockey teams, she offers us a POWER play. She trying to stay current.

If you unwrap them, there's chocolate inside!

No reveal, just five nice phrases that begin with something an electrician would deal with.

17. Electrician's favorite method of payment?: CHARGE CARD.

25. Electrician's favorite exercise?: POWER WALK.

36. Like an electrician's favorite sweater?: CABLE KNIT.

51. Like an electrician's favorite eyeglasses?: WIRE FRAME.

61. Electrician's favorite shopping venue?: OUTLET MALL. My favorite of the bunch. 

Nothing shocking here, so it didn't put up much resistance for a Thursday. Minimal proper nouns (only two of which were people) was a big plus. Thanks Susan! 

Let's CHARGE ahead.

Across:

1. Rx orders: MEDS. MEDICATIONS. The "Rx" symbol is derived from the Latin word recipe or “recipere,”which means to take, often the first word in a prescription. It was later abbreviated to Rx.

5. Accumulate: AMASS.

10. Jacksonville team, familiarly: JAGS. JAGUARS football team.

14. Farmland unit: ACRE. 

15. Valletta's island: MALTA.

16. HarperCollins romance imprint: AVON. 

Ding. Dong. Romance calling!

17. [theme]

19. Was dressed in: WORE.

20. Vicinity: REGION.

21. "You __ my day!": MADE.

23. Chef-training sch. in Hyde Park: CIA. Julia Child is the most famous "chef spy," having worked for the OSS (precursor to the CIA) during WWII. Wait, that has nothing to do with this! They're talking about the Culinary Institute of America.

24. Floating: ALOFT.

25. [theme]

27. "Au contraire, __ frère": MON. "On the contrary, my brother." Those Frenchmen, they have a different word for everything!

28. The WNBA's Sky, on scoreboards: CHI. The CHICAGO Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association.

30. Tease: NEEDLE. 

31. Nav. rank: ENS. An ENSIGN is the lowest commissioned officer rank in the Navy, and is equivalent to a Second Lieutenant.

32. Shucks: HULLS. I wrote HUSKS before shucking it.

35. Fly like an eagle: SOAR. Land like an eagle: SORE.

Two bald eagles crash landed but survived the fall.

36. [theme]

39. California valley that was one of the first American Viticultural Areas: NAPA. Viticultural pertains to growing grapes for wine production.

42. Flight part: STAIR. Flight part: STAGE. 

43. Craze: FAD. It's all the rage!

46. Make true: EVEN UP. In carpentry, "true" means perfectly straight and aligned.

49. Chinese philosophical concept: TAO.

50. "Is that __?": A NO. Yes, it's A NO.

51. [theme]

54. Game with a caller: BINGO. 

56. Game with a chaser: TAG. I thought this might be a drinking game of some sort. Like every time I enter the wrong word first, I have to take a shot. If this review stops making sense near the bottom, now you know why.

57. Move like molasses: OOZE.

58. Lounged around: LOAFED. I wrote LOLLED at first...bottoms up!

59. Perched on: ATOP.

61. [theme]

63. Caffeine-rich nut: KOLA. I had COLA first, which goes nicely with shots of rum.

64. Trademarked refrigerant: FREON. Is it cold in here, or is it just me?

65. French cheese with a rind: BRIE.

66. Notable periods: ERAS. The one at the end of this sentence is not notable.

67. Some Slavs: SERBS.

68. Min. divisions: SECS. Three minute divisions are Triple SECS. 

Down:

1. Knotty craft: MACRAME. 

2. Level: ECHELON.

3. Creatures on the flags of Wales and Bhutan: DRAGONS.

Wales (left) and Bhutan (right) 

4. Calligraphy stroke: SERIF.

5. "Could not agree more": AMEN.

6. Big name in laptops and lipstick: MAC. I knew the Apple product, but not MAC Cosmetics. 

7. San Antonio field trip destination: ALAMO. I remember going there.

8. Scarecrow contents: STRAW. Now, if it only had a brain...

9. Make melancholy: SADDEN.

10. Mandible: JAW. Here's Richard Kiel in his memorable role as JAWs, a villain with metal teeth, in two James Bond movies: The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Turns out his bite was worse than his bark.

11. Toast spread: AVOCADO.

12. Silverback, for one: GORILLA.

13. Puma, for one: SNEAKER. True, but I like to buy them in pairs. Conversely, here's a puma SNEAKER:

18. "Heard": GOTCHA. Roger that.

22. Quaint preposition: ERE.

25. Contents of some weekly organizers: PILLS. I don't think this person knows how they are supposed to work.

26. Dominic of "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale": WEST. Dominic WEST is an English actor, director, producer, and musician.

29. Center of activity: HUB.

33. Lead-in to "It Go" and "It Be," in song titles: LET. "LET It Go" from Disney's Frozen, and "LET It Be," from the Fab Four.

34. Manta ray kin: SKATE. SKATEs and manta rays are both cartilaginous fish (like sharks), but they have significant differences. SKATEs lay eggs, have stocky tails with small thorns, and live on the seafloor. Conversely, manta rays give birth to live young, have long, whip-like tails without stingers, and are large, filter-feeders that swim near the surface.

36. Sugar stalk: CANE. Sugar stalker: NINJA.

37. "Hedda" writer/director DaCosta: NIA. NIA daCosta is an award-winning American filmmaker.

38. Asimov collection first published in 1950: I, ROBOT. I, ROBOT serves as a cautionary tale, warning against issues like unchecked AI and monopolized control. Written in 1950, it predicted a world with "smart" machines that are integrated into daily life, and is still relevant today.

39. Fresh perspective: NEW TAKE. I entered NEW FACE, which fit with KOLA (misspelled with a "C"). It worked for a while, but now I'm tipsy.

40. Cockpit occupant: AVIATOR. We hope so, anyway.

41. Covered walkway: PERGOLA. 

43. Fuss and feathers: FANFARE.Tar and feathers: FORFEIT. Tarring and feathering was a form of punishment and public humiliation used primarily in 18th-century America. 

A Cure for the Refractory (Williamsburg, Va)

44. Sporting a halo: ANGELIC. Just like my kids...now that they're out of prison.

45. Absent-minded scribbles: DOODLES. Some are worth more than others.

John Lennon

47. Strange sight in the night sky: UFO. An Unidentified Flying Object is now called a UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), but we still don't know what it is.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

48. Reads for errors: PROOFS. Or proofreads. 

52. Sky blue: AZURE.

53. Olympic track unit: METER. 

55. Sonnet line quintet: IAMBS. For example, "Mary had a little IAMB..."

58. Binoculars part: LENS. Pet peeve: In movies, they use a mask like this to simulate looking through binoculars, but when you actually use them, you see a single round image like a telescope. 

Is that alien from a UFO or a UAP ?

60. Faux __: PAS.

62. Arcing throw: LOB.

Stay positive and let the negativity discharge.

Be good. RB

Thursday February 26, 2026 Patti Varol

As you know, Patti Varol is not only the LAT crossword editor, she is also an accomplished constructor. Today, she has delivered our paper by HAND with a well-themed crossword on the puzzle page, so let's start with the revealer:

33. Walk with one's sweetie, and what 16-, 23-, 49-, and 58-Across do?: HOLD HANDS. Each of the themed answers actually HOLD HANDS of one type or another. Very nice and straightforward.

16. See 33-Across: CLOCK FACES. When the big hand is on the 2, it means you're late for work.

23. See 33-Across: CARD PLAYERS. Got any 2s?

49. See 33-Across: RANCH HOUSES. Actually, bunkhouses hold the ranch hands, but close enough. 

58. See 33-Across: WOOL GLOVES. These were made for ewe.

I loved this theme, very well executed. At first I was bothered by the "See 33-Across" clues. Like many of you, I usually start at the top. This one required jumping down to discover the revealer first. Once the center was done, the rest of the themers fell into place. For most of them, I had the second word then asked myself, "How would these HOLD HANDS?" Each became a little AHA moment. Lots of fun! But what wasn't so fun was all the people's names - about a dozen of them, not counting a half-dozen other proper names. DIOS MIA!

Names of rivers or schools seem fair; a plethora of people do not. The NE corner was particularly troublesome with 2 short names crossing GIRARDI (assuming you don't know this off the top of your head, like me). Ida, Ila, Ima, Ina, Ira, Iva - nope, not one of those. Then Tala, Tama, Tana, Taya. None of those either. I eventually settled on an "M" at the intersection of TARA. Close, but no cigar.

Let's HOLD HANDS as we traverse the grid together.

Across:

1. Former "Top Chef" host Lakshmi: PADMA. Padma Lakshmi is an Emmy-nominated producer, television host, author, and activist. Oh, and she began her career as a supermodel. 

6. Imperfection: FLAW.

10. Tennis champion Swiatek: IGA. IGA Świątek was born in Warsaw, Poland, and has won the French Open four times, and the U.S. Open and Wimbledon once each. Her primary weapon is a powerful extreme-topspin forehand that is very difficult to return.

13. Second calling?: ALIAS. Good clue.

14. Untimely?: LATE. Another good clue.

15. Carpentry wedge: SHIM.

16. [theme]

18. "Educated" memoirist Westover: TARA. TARA s an American essayist and historian. Here she is receiving the National Humanities Award in 2023. 

19. Creative inspiration: MUSE.

20. "In __ of gifts ... ": LIEU. In LIEU of gifts...No! You may send me gifts!

21. Coffees, casually: JAVAS. "I'll have a cup of JAVA, please," said no one, ever (at least in this century).

22. Branch: ARM.

23. [theme]

25. Marcus partner: NEIMAN. I misread this as Marcus painter. I briefly wondered, "What famous painting is called Marcus?" Note to self: Buy new reading glasses.

Marcus Aurelius

27. __ baseball: esoteric knowledge: INSIDE. Knowing how to spell GIRARDI was INSIDE baseball to me.

28. Dove bar: SOAP. When my mom got mad and wanted to wash my mouth out with soap, I suggested this. It didn't help.

29. Pacific resort, casually: CABO. CABO San Lucas is at the southern tip of Baja California. You can get there via Tijuana Taxi or CABO.

32. "__ but a scratch": TIS. Here is King Arthur fighting the Black Knight who says "Ni" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"We'll call it a draw."

33. [theme]

37. General on a takeout menu: TSO. He's only outranked by King Pao Chicken.

40. Financial services co. for mil. families: USAA. Originally called the United Services Automobile Association, it provides insurance, banking, and investment products exclusively to military members, veterans, and their families.

41. Checkout device: IPAD. Checkout device: BINOS.

44. Down counterpart: ACROSS. This could've had a meta clue, such as "This clue." But it plays nicely into the the next one...

47. Margaret who was the first editor of the New York Times crossword: FARRAR. Her stint ran from 1942 through 1969, and she created many regulations that have become standards, such as limiting the number of black squares in the grid, creating a minimum word-length of three letters, requiring grids to be symmetric and forbidding unchecked squares. Great shout-out to a fellow editor from Patti.

49. [theme]

53. Molecule in some vaccines: RNA. RibiNucleic Acid.

54. "No fooling!": TRUTH. Believe it or not!

55. Mousetrap brand: D-CON.

56. Supermodel Hadid: GIGI. Supermodel? Yes. An Emmy-nominated producer, television host, author, and activist? No.

57. Land measure: ACRE.

58. [theme]

60. Take five: REST.

61. Ponte Vecchio river: ARNO. Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone arch bridge over the ARNO in Florence, Italy.

62. "25" and "30" singer: ADELE. She names her albums after her age at the time of recording. I hope Van Halen doesn't do the same thing. I mean they're old, but not that old.

63. Afore: ERE.

64. 403(b) IDs: SSNS. Social Security Numbers.

65. Early PC platform: MSDOS. The MicroSoft Disc Operating System.

Down:

1. Arcade classic with ghosts: PAC-MAN. The "Ghost Gang" of Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde chased after PAC-MAN, and made my wrist sore in the process. 

2. Draws: ALLURES.

3. "¡Ay, caramba!": DIOS MIO. "Oh my gosh!": MY GOD! Spanish exclamations.

4. Spice cookie spice: MACE. MACE is an aromatic spice derived from the covering of the nutmeg seed, offering a warm, delicate, and slightly sharper flavor. 

5. "Thought you'd never __": ASK.

6. 14-time WWE Women's Champion Charlotte: FLAIR. Charlotte is the daughter of popular wrestler Ric FLAIR. She is part of World Wrestling Entertainment.

7. Like most sneakers: LACED. These shoes are LACED with alcohol:

8. Devoured: ATE UP.

9. Bentley of "Yellowstone": WES. He's not just another pretty face! Well, okay, he's just another pretty face.

10. "Found a solution!": I HAVE IT. I'd prefer, "I've got it!" but you gotta fit what fits.

11. Yankees manager after Torre: GIRARDI. Joe GIRARDI managed the Yankees from 2008 to 2017, and winning the 2009 World Series. He was born in Peoria, that's why he played.

12. Racks up: AMASSES.

15. Hotel bookings: STAYS.

17. Custard dessert similar to crème caramel: FLAN. My daughter-in-law is of Cuban descent. She says FLAN is popular there because it can be made without baking when power is out, which is often.

21. First mo.: JAN. JANUARY is the first month.

23. Guitar accessory: CAPO. Yay! A guitar-related clue! A CAPO can be clamped onto the neck of a guitar, effectively shortening the strings and raising its pitch. 

24. Animal in the Premier League logo: LION. The Premier League is England's highest level of professional association football (aka soccer).

26. __-jongg: MAH. MAH-jongg looks like fun. I'll have to learn how to play it.

29. Pre-iTunes stack: CDS. Pre-CDs stack: LPs - although I cringe when I see records stacked this way. Years ago, my cousin ran a load of them through the dishwasher after a party! I'm still in therapy.

30. Cry with a finger snap: AHA. Vastly better than an "oho" moment.

31. Response to Bo Peep: BAA. That is, if she can find her sheep.

34. Rich: LUSH.

35. Semana parts: DIAS. Parts of weeks are days, en español.

36. Beautiful time of yr. at a botanical garden: SPR. It's almost SPRING! I'm sure those of you up north can hardly wait.

37. Raw preparation: TARTARE.

38. Harder to find: SCARCER.

39. Hosp. caregiver during surgery: OR NURSE. The Operating Room NURSE in a hospital.

42. Got somewhere: ARRIVED.

43. Beverly of the "Vacation" films: D'ANGELO. She was perfect playing the wife of the "expert in exterior illumination," Chevy Chase, in one of my favorite Christmas movies.

45. Largish jazz combo: OCTET.

46. "Quiet, you!": SHH.

47. __ shui: FENG.

48. Hikes: RAISES.

50. Baking soda targets: ODORS.

51. NCAA school with the most first-round WNBA draft picks: UCONN. The women's team at the University of Connecticut is perennially top-ranked, leading many players into the professional Women's National Basketball Association.

52. Pilots' milestones: SOLOS. To get your pilot's license, you must fly so high and SOLO.

56. Mercury and Neptune: GODS. Roman gods and their namesake roamin' planets. "Planets" (from Greek planētēs) means "wanderers," a term used by ancient astronomers for five bright, naked-eye objects (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) that roam across the fixed starry background.

58. Once cost: WAS.

59. Go on the __: LAM.

Be good. RB