Thursday March 26, 2026 Howard Neuthaler

Howard Neuthaler is a former travel agent *checks notes* scratch that, he's a lawyer, but his puzzle is about taking a trip. Because he's been busy lawyering, he's pretty new to constructing, and this is his LAT debut. Yay!

"Time now for everybody's favorite guessing game, What's My Line? Brought to you by the Los Angeles Times. It's like news that has been printed on paper!"

17. Starting line?: I BETTER GET GOING. Something said at the outset of a trip.

24. Punch line?: TICKETS PLEASE. Asked by a conductor who will punch your TICKET.

43. Pickup line?: WELCOME ABOARD. Spoken by an attendant as one climbs ABOARD.

56. Trip line?: ADVENTURE AWAITS. A phrase from a traveler as one leaves the station.

I assumed all these phrases referred to train travel rather than by ship or plane, because they have a history of punching TICKETS, although they don't do that anymore. In any case, these lines are phases that one might hear when embarking on a trip. Some are said by the traveler, while others are from crew members. I like that they tell a little story. 

Now, if you'll quickly find your seat, we're getting ready to go!

Across:

1. Language in the same family as Hindi: URDU. URDU has 230 million speakers worldwide, primarily serving as the national language of Pakistan and is a recognized official language in India.

5. Balance, for one: SENSE.

10. Spots for STEM classes: LABS.

14. Tap on the nose: BOOP.

15. Opening: WAY IN. This WAY IN is far out.

16. "Aha": I SEE. Hopefully we've seen the last of oho.

17. [theme]

20. Cravings: DESIRES. Yens. I DESIRE lots of yens.

21. Island country whose capital is St. George's: GRENADA.

22. __ and paste: CUT.

23. "Get Out" writer/director Jordan: PEELE. I knew him for years as a comedian, so was surprised when he became a writer and director of horror films. Good ones, too, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Get Out.

24. [theme]

29. Hoppy beers, briefly: IPAS. The ever popular India Pale Ales. 

Hoppy beer

30. __ out a win: EKE.

31. Ivan the Terrible and Feodor the Bellringer: TSARS. I knew Ivan the Terrible, but Feodor didn't ring a bell.

34. Scand. land: NOR. Strictly, Scandinavia is comprised of NORway, Sweden and Denmark. Taken together with Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, they're as known as the Nordic countries because of shared heritage and love of colorful crosses.

I35. Vote against: NAY.

36. That, in Spanish: ESO.

38. Poseidon's realm: SEA. The counterpart to this Greek deity is the Roman god Neptune. SEA?

39. "Hello" singer: ADELE. There was a time when I could fill in any 5-letter singer I didn't know as ADELE. Now she's slowly getting bumped by Drake, Kesha, Lorde...and I'm in trouble.

41. "Too cute!": AWW. FuzzyBrain (aka Buster) as a pup.

42. Shade in four-color printing: CYAN.

43. [theme]

47. 49-Across, for one: ASANA.

48. B.A. Baracus player: MR T. I pity the fool that hasn't seen the A Team.

49. Spine-stretching yoga move: CAT POSE.

52. Warm jackets: FLEECES.

56. [theme]

58. Wood used to make some woodwinds: PEAR.

59. Seize without right: USURP.

60. James of "The Godfather": CAAN. In a lighter role, he played a book publisher/dad in Elf.

61. Edges: ENDS.

62. Hammer parts: PEENS. 

63. "Bonanza" brother: HOSS. Some people remember there was a third Cartwright brother besides HOSS (Dan Blocker) and Little Joe (Michael Landon). Adam (Pernell Roberts) left the hit show mid-run due to "creative differences." Mom always liked the other two best.

Little Joe, Hoss and Adam (not pictured)

Down:

1. Former eBay rival: UBID. UBID was an online shopping site for refurbished and overstock consumer electrionics. It's was valued at $1.8 billion at one point, but went bankrupt after the dot.com bubble.

2. Wrapped garment: ROBE.

3. Carries out: DOES.

4. Baby bumps?: UP TICKS. Trending in the right direction - unless they're talking about my weight.

5. Sugary pitcherful: SWEET TEA.

6. Hearing things: EARS. 

7. Big Blue of the NFL, for short: NYG. The New York Giants of the National Football League.

8. Former NPR host Robert: SIEGEL. "Bob" SIEGAL held several news and production roles at National Public Radio, but is best known as a co-host of All Things Considered for many years. This is how I remember him:

9. Daily special, typically: ENTREE.

10. Sub-Saharan female: LIONESS. The Sahara desert spans all of northern Africa, so Sub-Saharan refers to everything south, which is most of the continent.

11. Forbidden City locale: ASIA. Really? That's as specific as you can get? It's like saying the White House is located in North America. Or on Earth.

Forbidden City in Beijing, China

12. Big __ National Park: BEND. Big BEND National Park is in western Texas bordering Mexico along over a hundred miles of the Rio Grande. Although huge (like everything in Texas, apparently) it only ranks 14th in area, with 7 of our largest national parks being in Alaska. In the lower 48, Death Valley (#5), Yellowstone (#8) and the Everglades (#10) round out the top 10.

13. Genesis creator: SEGA. This clue always seem like it wants a biblical answer.

18. "Valid point": TRUE.

19. Affogato scoop: GELATO. Affogato is a simple Italian dessert consisting of a scoop of vanilla GELATO or ice cream "drowned" (affogato) with a shot of hot espresso, creating a contrast of hot and cold, and sweet and bitter flavors. Can't believe I've never tried it.

23. Some EMT gear: PPE. Emergency Medical Technicians may wear Personal Protective Equipment.

24. Rock legend Turner: TINA. The "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" was pretty much timeless.

25. Discontinued Apple gadget: IPOD.

26. Hall of Famer Rod with 3,053 career hits: CAREW. Rod CAREW appeared in 18 consecutive All-Star games, basically his entire career. Among many accolades, he was named the recipient of the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award for his involvement in local community affairs in 1977.

27. Chicago hoops squad: SKY. The SKY of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

28. Undemanding class: EASY A. As has been discussed here before, when I was in college, we called this a gut course, or simply a gut.

32. __ admiral: REAR.

33. Zen garden rake target: SAND.

35. Country great Willie: NELSON. When a guitar is played for many years, it collects wear and tear which adds to its mojo. Modern guitar companies sometimes artificially "relic" their instruments for players that can't wait and will pay extra to look cool now. Personally, I dislike this, as every scratch and ding reminds me of a past moment, and is hard earned. Just think about all the stories that Trigger could tell...

Willie Nelson and Trigger

36. Feta source: EWE. Feta is a Greek cheese known for its salty, tangy flavor and crumbly texture, and is traditionally made from sheep's milk. But EWE knew that.

37. Worked out in the pool: SWAM LAPS.

40. Ten lords in a Christmas carol, e.g.: LEAPERS. I thought they should be LEAPING.

41. "I'm an open book" sesh: AMA. An Ask Me Anything session.

42. Split a course?: CO-TEACH. Although two teachers could CO-TEACH a classroom, or split it in half for smaller groups, more often one teacher leads instruction while the other circulates to offer individual support. This is known as One Teach/One Assist.

44. Total, as numbers in a ledger: CAST UP. New to me. It derives from the Middle English "casten" ("to throw") combined with "up." It originally meant ejecting/vomiting, which morphed into "throwing up" figures on a page. Etymology isn't always pleasant!

45. Like most straws: ONE USE. Millions of plastic straws are used daily, and even those that are disposed of properly may blow away from landfills and harm wildlife. Unfortunately, paper straws get soggy, so here's an idea. Don't use straws.

46. Concoct: BREW. 

49. Wrapped garment: CAPE. I was sari I wrote "toga" first.

50. Arabian port: ADEN. ADEN, Yemen is strategically located at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula and serves as a gateway to the Red Sea. Due to the Strait of Hormuz being blocked, the route to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal gains significance. 

51. Spot on the small screen: TV AD. Not a pixel, but an AD spot.

52. Common houseplant: FERN. 

53. "Toodles, dahling": CIAO. Because I can't imagine Eva Gabor saying, "Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya." Well, maybe in Hooterville.

54. Waze guesses, for short: ETAS. Waze is a navigation app that uses real-time traffic updates to provide Estimated Time of Arrivals.

55. Tax doc IDs: SSNS. Social Secuity Numbers are personal identifications on tax documents.

57. Word on a Paris map: RUE. Rue is "street" in French.

And that's the bottom line.
Be good. RB

Thursday March 19, 2026 Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg

Shannon Rapp has been a crossword constructor since 2021. She is also a co-director of the annual Midwest Crossword Tournament in Chicago. Will Eisenberg is a musician, music teacher, and puzzlemaker since 2019. Together, they're trying to bowl us over!

61. 1985 novelty hit for the Bears, with "The," or an apt title for this puzzle?: SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE. In 1985, the Chicago Bears were riding high when this song came out to benefit hungry families in the area. They went on to win the Super Bowl, having lost only one game* all season. For our purposes here, however, these BOWLs are the classic college football championship games - with their letters SHUFFLEd.

18. Ina Garten franchise: BAREFOOT CONTESSA. COTTON BOWL. Ina is famous for her dinner parties. Here she is preparing wine for the evening.

24. Video game series based on Dungeons & Dragons: BALDUR'S GATE. SUGAR BOWL. BALDUR'S GATE is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. I guess you've got to be into D&D to make sense of this.

38. Tomie dePaola book whose title evokes the Italian for "Grandma Witch": STREGA NONA. ORANGE BOWL. STREGA NONA is a 1976 Caldecott Honor-winning children's book about a kind "Grandma Witch" in a Calabrian town who uses a magical, ever-full pasta pot to help her community.

55. Cry after a triumphant return: WE ARE SO BACK. ROSE BOWL. WE ARE SO BACK is a popular phrase used to signal a comeback or relaunch.

Normally you  don't see circles this late in the week, but in this case they are needed. I'm not great at anagrams, and without the heads-up, I never would've found them, or even understood what the revealer was trying to say. Luckily, COTTON popped out at me early on, but then I started looking for textiles until I got down to the revealer.

Well, I was bowled over, all right. BALDUR"S GATE and STREGA NONA were either "know them or you don't." They mostly filled in by perps, but where they both crossed another name (ARIE) left me scratching my head for the intersecting letters. That's always the problem with too many names.

The rest of this was more up my alley.

Across:

1. Mensa stats: IQS. Intelligence QuotientS are used in Mensa statistics. I don't mean to brag, but I'm a perfect 10...is that good?

4. Deprive (of): STRIP. I once went to a poor joint where the women were deprived of clothes. I left them a few dollars so they could buy some.

9. T's, in Morse code: DASHES. "T" in Morse code is simply ( – ) because it represents one of the most frequently used letters in the English language. You guessed it, "E" is just ( • ).

15. "Is the Pope Catholic?": DUH. A classic rhetorical question.

16. Hawaiian letter that resembles an apostrophe: OKINA. The ʻOKINA ( ʻ ) is a consonant letter in the Hawaiian language representing a glottal stop, similar to the pause between the sounds in "oh-oh". It is distinct from an apostrophe or reversed comma.

17. "In my view ... ": I THINK.

18. [theme]

21. Director Kurosawa: AKIRA. AKIRA Kurosawa was a Japanese writer-director and filmmaker known for his innovative storytelling and cinematic techniques.

22. Species known as the Evolution Pokémon: EEVEE. EEVEE evolves into eight distinct forms ("Eeveelutions") based on stones, friendship, time of day, or location. Crazy!

23. Sanskrit for "goddess": DEVI. DEVI is the term for "divine female," representing the supreme feminine energy in Hinduism.

24. [theme]

30. Receptionist, often: GREETER.

32. Reasons: MOTIVES. Why do you ask?

33. YMCA class: ESL. English as a Second Language class at a Young Men's Christian Association facility.

34. Sam of "Peaky Blinders": NEILL. Sir Nigel John Dermot “Sam” NEILL is an actor with dual New Zealand and British citizenship. He is also well know for his role in the Jurassic Park movies.

37. On deck: NEXT. 

On deck at the DMV.

38. [theme]

42. "Not cool!": DUDE. Not, "That's not cool, DUDE," but "DUDE! That's not cool!"

45. Investment: STAKE. Investment: STEAK. Kobe Beef is the most expensive meat in the world due to its extremely high marbling and limited availability.

46. So-so, slangily: MID. Why not? We used to call this MOR, an abbreviation of Middle-Of-the-Road.

49. Cut without permission?: FAN EDIT. They tried to fool us with TRUANCY, but FAN EDITs are essentially unauthorized alternative versions of films made by fans.They may remove, reorder or add material in order to create a new interpretation of the source material.

53. Composer parodied in "Rabbit of Seville": ROSSINI. Gioachino Antonio ROSSINI not only composed the Barber of Seville opera, he was a friend and supporter of many of the greatest French chefs of his time, inspiring many dishes in his name. He was also believed to be an incredible cook and possess exquisite taste. Just like me! Not.

Beef Rossini - investment grade

55. [theme]

58. Burnt __: ENDS. Now, this is more my style!

Burnt Ends - ingestion grade

59. Comedy legend Burnett: CAROL. CAROL made a guest appearance a few years ago in Better Call Saul, and suddenly she's in demand again. She's presently starring in the Apple series Palm Royale, a period piece about the haves and have-nots in 1969 Palm Beach high society.

60. Toyota hybrid: PRIUS.

61. [theme]

67. Main dish: ENTREE. Like Beef ROSSINI or Burnt ENDS.

68. App for foodies: EATER. This puzzle is making me hungry! 

69. Game review site: IGN. "In-Game Name" describes a player's identity in virtual worlds. IGN is a leading online destination for video game and entertainment news, reviews, and guides. 

70. Untrustworthy sort: WEASEL. 

71. Run for fun, say: RHYME. This one took a moment to jog my memory.

72. Receive: GET.

Down:

1. Workplace accessibility issue?: ID BADGE. IDentification BADGE. In the abbreviation, I stands for I, and D stands for -dentification. Doesn't seem fair.

2. Society of Friends: QUAKERS. The Religious Society of Friends, or QUAKERS, is a 17th-century English-originated tradition focusing on direct, personal experience of God (the "Light Within") rather than rigid doctrines. They believe everyone has capacity for divine access. Core beliefs include spiritual equality, peace (pacifism), simple living, and social justice. These seem like tenets that more of us should espouse, even if we don't eat oatmeal. 

3. Dry (up): SHRIVEL.

4. Porch party fixture: SOFA. I guess porch parties are a thing now, building community support and generating momentum about local causes. Part of it is providing comfortable outdoor seating for potential prospects and donors, hence a SOFA.

5. Match stopper, briefly: TKO. Technical KnockOut.

6. Former Portuguese Royal Court city: RIO. From 1808 to 1821, RIO de Janeiro served as the capital of Brazil.

The Royal Palace in Rio de Janeiro today

7. Dirt from a bug, perhaps: INTEL. Basic spycraft.

8. Walked the floor: PACED. Worked the floor: MIXED, and mingled.

9. Mexican cheddar?: DINERO. "We're having queso (cheese) for DINERO (dinner)." Wait! That's not right. DINERO means money in $panish, as you remember from watching Westerns over the years. 

10. Swear (to): ATTEST. Yes, I can ATTEST that DINERO means money.

11. __/her pronouns: SHE.

12. Casual hellos: HIS. Not him/HIS.

13. Outskirts of New Haven?: ENS. A letteral clue. New Haven starts and ends with ENS.

14. Reggae kin: SKA.

19. Canal that runs 351 miles: ERIE. That's scary long.

20. Egg cell: OVUM.

24. Taproom pour: BEER. Taproom poor: BROKE.

"Maybe you should get the next round."

25. "Acoustic Soul" singer India.__: ARIE. India ARIE is an American singer and songwriter.

26. "Jane the Virgin" star Rodriguez: GINA. GINA Rodriguez is an American actress and producer.

27. "__ Maria": AVE. It's just down the road from Hallelujah Court.

28. __-Mex cuisine: TEX. 

29. Contractor's no.: EST. An ESTimate is a price quoted for a job. If it's too high, the contractor gets a "No."

31. Explosive stuff: TNT. We've blown this up many times before, so I won't spell it out.

35. Some kitchen appliances: LGS. LG uses the tagline, "Life's Good," but the Korean company's name is actually Lucky-Goldstar. Good marketing because otherwise it sounds like a Chinese restaurant.

36. Long. counterpart: LAT. Longitude and LATitude. My geography teacher helped us keep them straight by saying that LONGitudes are the LONG ones that go from pole to pole.

38. Oracle: SEER. I divined this answer.

39. Rat (on): NARC.

40. "Enough, I get it": OK OK.

41. Old console letters: NES. The Nintendo Entertainment System has a library of 1370 officially licensed games. I think I played Super Mario Bros. once.

42. Texas airport letters: DFW. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is the 2nd busiest in the U.S. behind Hartsfield–Jackson in Atlanta.

43. Abu Dhabi's fed.: UAE. Abu Dhabi's federation is the United Arab Emirates.

44. Tiny twisted molecule: DNA. Though this clue is twisted, the answer is straightforward.

46. Lego character, informally: MINIFIG. Short for a MINIFIGure, it's a little plastic figurine that snaps onto Lego bricks. These guys look familiar, but I can't quite place them.

47. Humor: INDULGE.

48. Voice opposition: DISSENT.

50. Proclamation: DECREE.

51. "Violeta" novelist Allende: ISABEL. 

Violeta

(2022) is a sweeping historical novel by Chilean author ISABEL Allende.

52. Fatty tuna: TORO. TORO doesn't refer to the fish itself – just the fatty meat from the belly prized in sushi and sashimi for its buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture and rich marbling. To me, TORO tuna sounds like a surf & turf entree - investment grade!

54. Vassal: SERF.

56. Shady garden spot: BOWER. New to me. Unlike a long, arched arbor, it's more akin to a covered garden seat.

57. God of Islam: ALLAH.

60. Unadulterated: PURE.

61. Use a Singer: SEW. Or HEM.

62. French article: UNE.

63. Book fair gp.: PTA. A Parent Teacher Association is a group that may run a book fair as a fundraiser. Maybe they should try a Porch Party!

64. Hesitant sounds: ERS.

65. Pigpen: STY.

66. Make shorter, maybe: HEM. Or SEW.

* The Bears only loss in 1985 was to Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins in an epic Monday Night Football showdown. I was there in the old ORANGE Bowl and was so hoarse from shouting that I could barely talk the next day. The thunderous noise from the fans created unheard of game stoppages when Chicago had the ball. The more the refs tried to quiet the crowd, the louder we got (with our players encouragement) and helped preserve the 1972 Dolphin's perfect season - a feat no other major American league team in any sport has equaled.

Be good. RB