Thursday February 5, 2026 Rich Katz

Rich Katz is relatively new to the crossword game, but has been coming on strong and has built a reputation of being inventive and humorous. Today, he has something shady going on.

Rich Katz (maybe)

Here are the themers. Don't scratch your head too hard trying to figure out how the answers are related, because they're not. It's clues that are BLUE.

18. "Aquaman" star: JASON MOMOA. Aqua blue. 

23. Cocktail that may be made with Bombay Sapphire: GIN AND TONIC. Sapphire blue.

36. Band with the hit "In the Navy": VILLAGE PEOPLE. Navy blue. 

52. Microsoft Azure competitor: GOOGLE CLOUD. Azure blue. 

57. Children's show whose title character leaves paw-print hints, and what 18-, 23-, 36-, and 52-Across have in common: BLUE'S CLUES. BLUE is an animated puppy who leaves a trail of paw print CLUES that her human co-host (and viewers) must follow to solve riddles.

So, the theme refers to the CLUES and not the answers on the grid. This seems tangent to what a crossword is supposed to be and falls in the gray are between themed and themeless. Shades of blue in the clues can be fun, but their associated answers are obvious, except for knowing Microsoft Azure is akin to GOOGLE CLOUD if you're not a techie. All in all, a pretty easy Thursday. In fact, I blew right through it!

Double your pleasure, double your fun! Note all the doubled letters!

Across:

1. Title said with a hat tip, perhaps: MA'AM.

5. Daddy: PAPA. Who's your PAPA?

9. "__ out!": PEACE. 

14. Photographer Geddes: ANNE. The "Queen of Baby Photography."

15. Wasn't colorfast: BLED.

16. Complete: UTTER.

17. Sign gas: NEON. Gas sign: NEON.

18. [theme]

20. Out of order: AMISS.

22. "Hey, Soul Sister" rock band: TRAIN. This smash hit has sold over 10 million units in the U.S.  Released in 2009, it was the top-selling single of 2010, reached the top 10 in multiple countries, and has surpassed 1 billion streams...which means I probably should've heard of it.

23. [theme]

26. PC pioneer: IBM. The usual M.O. (modus operandi) of us contributors is to spell out abbreviations in case someone doesn't understand the clue or answer. Informal poll - should I spell out ultra-common abbreviations like these? Personal Computers and International Business Machines?

29. Chow down: EAT. Chew up: EAT.

30. Small battery, or an org. that may help with a car battery: AAA. American Automobile Association.

31. Iditarod racer: SLED DOG.

33. Suomi speakers: FINNS. Suomi means Finland in Finnish, but can also mean the language.

35. Ages and ages: EONS. Many, many, ERAS.

36. [theme]

41. Gyro bread: PITA.

42. Give a bit more: TOP UP. Brit-speak for adding more to an existing level of something. We usually TOP off here in the States.

43. Accounts with round numbers?: BAR TABS. As in a round of drinks that may need TOPPING UP.

47. Spy-fi novelist Deighton: LEN.

48. Visitor in a knock-knock joke that ends, "It's nothing to cry about!": BOO. 
        Knock, knock. 
        Who's there? 
        BOO. 
        BOO who? And hilarity ensues...

51. Tricky: SLY.

52. [theme]

55. Herb in caprese salad: BASIL. I love caprese salads with the bright colors of the Italian flag. So simple to make yet so fancy on the table.

56. Upper crust: ELITE.

57. [theme]

62. "Sad to say ... ": ALAS. 

63. Goodyear products: TIRES. One of the three Goodyear blimp bases is right here in nearby Pompano Beach, FL. 

64. Legendary rebuke: ET TU.

65. Memory units, for short: MEGS. MEGAbyteS.

66. Branch of Islam: SUNNI.

67. Leader whose address ends with .edu: DEAN.

68. Bailiwick: AREA. A bailiwick is one's sphere of operations or particular AREA of interest.

Down:

1. Run: MANAGE. 

2. Condition often treated with iron supplements: ANEMIA.

3. Tap, as one's successor: ANOINT.

4. High-IQ society: MENSA. I had to drop out when my brain got rusty.

5. Many a school sammie: PBJ. The classic Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. I looked up "sammie" and found most people hate the term, unless they are in grade school. Here's the gourmet version. It's cut on a diagonal. Ooh la la. 

6. In the style of: ALA. Borrowed from French, à la, means “according to” or “in the manner of.” As in a PBJ ALA Cordon Bleu. 

7. 55-Across sauce: PESTO.

8. Decorates: ADORNS.

9. Pedicure stone: PUMICE. 

10. Harry and William's alma mater: ETON.

11. Convenience in a cash-only venue: ATM. Automated Teller Machine.

12. Corp. leader: CEO. A Chief Executive Officer is the highest-ranking executive in a corporation.

13. Shaded section of a timeline: ERA. Here's the famous ERAs Tour:

19. Execute perfectly: NAIL. Perfectly executed NAILs:

21. Slug kin: SNAIL.

24. Comedian Carvey: DANA. Meet Garth, one of  DANA's most famous characters from Wayne's World, originally an SNL skit.

25. Punchy flavor: TANG. 

26. Pop sensation: IDOL.

27. Barbecue discard: BONE. 

28. Booker T.'s band: M.G.'S. Sadly, Steve Cropper, songwriter and their original guitarist, died this past December (thanks for reminding me, MalMan!). I dabble on the keyboards, and one of my favorite songs to play is Green Onions, written by Cropper, with its distinctive Hammond B3 organ sound.
 

32. "Nosferatu" actress Lily-Rose: DEPP. You guessed it, Lily-Rose is Johnny DEPP's daughter.

33. No longer fizzy: FLAT. 

34. Game, __, match: SET. Tennis’s notoriously bizarre scoring system (using love, 15, 30, 40, and “deuce” instead of 0-1-2-3-4) likely stems from medieval clock-based scoring, where quarters (15, 30, 45) marked points.

36. Lab container: VIAL.

37. "It was nothing": I TRY.

38. Exit __: POLL.

39. Fencing blade: EPEE. Whee! It's EPEE...again.

40. Light weight: OUNCE. Actually, light has no weight. It consists of photons, which are massless particles. However, because light possesses energy and momentum, it behaves as if it has a relativistic mass and is affected by gravity. I watch NOVA!

41. "Nova" network: PBS. For over 50 years, NOVA has the most popular prime-time science series on American television.

44. Tennis star Andre: AGASSI. Tennis players often place a small silicone dampener in their strings to reduce vibration. RightBrain has a bunch that look like anything from ladybugs to smiley faces, but I use a simple rubber band because AGASSI does. 

45. Anjou alternative: BOSC. Members of your pear group:

46. Dirtied: SOILED.

48. Tank in a basement: BOILER. Tanks in a basement: AQUARIUMS.

49. Service interruption: OUTAGE. I hope none of you had a power OUTAGE during the winter storms last week.

50. Black Sea port: ODESSA.

53. Posterior muscle, informally: GLUTE. Know your GLUTEs:

54. Many a denizen of Machu Picchu: LLAMA.

55. "It's __ a minute!": BEEN. 

57. "Mic Drop" K-pop septet: BTS. This South Korean sensation is known to me only by xwords.

58. Actor Simu: LIU. He's kicked Lucy LIU out of the xword rotation, but it seems like they're still friends!

59. Samovar: URN. Universal Remains Niche. (This might not be an abbreviation!)

60. Due-in hr.: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival.

61. Phoenix NBAer: SUN. National Basketball Association is abbreviated, but the team is still just the SUNs.

I hope this chased some of your BLUES away!
Be Good. RB

Thursday, January 29, 2026 MaryEllen Uthlaut

Today, MaryEllen Uthlaut has given us a Dutch treat, if going Dutch is indeed a treat! The last time she treated us here was on Thanksgiving Day.

This solved as a themeless, which is just as well because after I read the revealer, I still had no idea what was going on. But my fans (?) out there in crossword-land wouldn't want me to give up! So I dug in and eventually everything checked out.

63. With 65-Across, request from some diners, or what a black square creates in rows 3, 6, 8, and 10 of this puzzle: SEPARATE + CHECKS. So, we have SEPARATE CHECKS, where people in a group  each pay for their own meal. The trick is the end of the first answer together with the beginning of the second (the parts that are "separated" by a black square) ideally combine to form a type of "check." 

3rd row = 17A + 18A TARMAC COUNTESS → An ACCOUNT is a financial arrangement with a business entity whereby goods or services may be obtained without outlaying money until a set time later. I don't think she meant a checking ACCOUNT.

6th row = 27A + 30A SATIN VOICED → An INVOICE is a itemized document a seller sends to a buyer requesting payment for goods or services.

8th row = 38A + 40A LOVE SET ABSCOND → A TAB is a running total of what one owes, typically at a bar. 

10th row = 47A + 50A GERBIL LEMON → A BILL is a payment request,,but usually more informal than an invoice.

All pretty clever, but some of these work better than others. When patrons ask for a check, they are often handed a totaled TAB or BILL. They are never handed an INVOICE, at a restaurant at least. And having an ACCOUNT is more of a business dealing, meaning that you will pay later (on ACCOUNT of having no money!). Unless MaryEllen simply intended that all these debts could be paid by check...

CHECK please! I've got a game to catch.

Across:

1. Grape used for sweet wine: MUSCAT. Varieties of MUSCAT grapes have been around since antiquity. Their intense perfume inspired Pliny the Elder to call them "the grape of the bees". Unfortunately, he didn't respond to my email asking why.

7. Ornery sort: CUSS. I had CRAB at first and wouldn't let it go for the longest time. Am I a CUSS?

11. Nev. neighbor: ARI. Nevada is next to ARIZONA and four other states.

14. Colored ring: AREOLA.

15. Like many new recruits: UNTESTED.

17. Airport area: TARMAC. Here's the TARMAC at NARITA, Japan.

18. Noble title: COUNTESS. I entered "dutchess" at first, part of my ornery NE corner.

19. High-five, e.g.: SLAP.

20. HP supply: INK. Formerly known as Hewlett-Packard, HP printers need INK.

22. Airport serving Tokyo: NARITA. NARITA International Airport is in a city on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Not to be confused with Narnia, which is on the other side of the wardrobe.

23. Make changes to: RETOOL. Usually in order to improve something.

26. Buttonlike flower: TANSY. I wrote pANSY, adding to my infamous NE meltdown.

27. Silky material: SATIN.

30. Spoken: VOICED.

32. Novelist Lurie: ALISON. ALISON Lurie won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs.

34. The Mustangs of the NCAA: SMU. The Southern Methodist University Mustangs football team play in the NCAA Football Subdivision (FBS) under the Atlantic Coast Conference. Dallas-based SMU, along with California's Stanford, joined the ACC last year even though neither school is anywhere near the east coast. Unfortunately, it makes extremely long road trips for all teams involved with them.

35. Feel sorry about: RUE.

38. Tennis shutout: LOVE SET. Winning a set 6-0. My LOVE, RightBrain, plays in two tennis leagues. Her custom license plate says "ELSKA," which is Swedish for LOVE. She was an exchange student there in high school.

40. Run away (with): ABSCOND.

43. 1980s Formula One driver __ Fabi: TEO. I somehow forgot about this Italian driver who was in his heyday 50 years ago. 

44. North Sea diving bird: AUK.

46. Fill with bubbles: AERATE.

47. Leaping rodent: GERBIL.

50. Edsel, notably: LEMON. The Edsel wasn't really a LEMON, in the sense that it was in the shop all the time. It failed due to styling missteps, poor marketing strategy and bad timing as a recession hit.

A face only a mother could love!

51. Follow, as a tip: ACTON.

54. Ties in knots: SNARLS. Like South Fla. rush hour traffic, or in almost any major city nowadays. Honestly, traffic is my #1 complaint around here.

56. Kin of ad hoc: PRO TEM.

58. Add color to: DYE.

59. Set of circumstances: CASE. As in The Curious Set of Circumstances of Benjamin Button. 

63. [theme]

65. [theme]

67. Perfect examples: EPITOMES.

68. Maintenance job: TUNE UP.

69. Champagne label word: SEC. Despite the name SEC meaning "dry," it is sweeter than Brut and Extra Dry.

70. Transmitted: SENT.

71. Place for mail to accumulate: IN TRAY.

Down:

1. Floor cushions: MATS.

2. Eurasia's __ Mountains: URAL. It's URAL, as usual.

3. "Buona __": SERA. "Good evening" in Italian. "Buona SERA" may be used as both a hello and a goodbye during the evening hours.

4. Be made up of: COMPRISE.

5. Taking after: ALA.

6. Understood: TACIT.

7. Birds that make hourly appearances: CUCKOOS. The CUCKOO'S sound is created by two tiny flue pipes in the clock with bellows attached to their tops. The clock's movement activates the bellows to send a puff of air into each pipe alternately when the timekeeper strikes. That's CUCKOO!

8. Card game with an edition for colorblind players: UNO. When you're down to one card, you must shout, "UNO!"

9. Shock: STUN. When another player asks, "How many cards do you have left?" before you say "UNO!"

10. Legislative century: SENATE.

11. Had DiGiorno, perhaps: ATE IN. Frozen pizza has gotten better over the years, but still can't compete with fresh. "Is this delivery?" said no one, ever.

12. Takes five: RESTS.

13. Emphatic agreement: I'D SAY.

16. Fine fiddle: STRAD. STRADivarius. The difference between a fiddle and a violin is mainly what kind of music is played on it. Folk and country musicians call them fiddles, while classical and jazz players use violins.

21. Veterans Day mo.: NOV. It falls in the month of NOVember.

24. Mireille of "Hanna": ENOS. Who? Of what? I guess I don't watch the right TV shows. 

25. Peruvian metropolis: LIMA.

27. Shaker fill: SALT.

28. __ vera: ALOE.

29. Early DVR: TIVO.

31. Birthplace of 2021 AL Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena: CUBA. Names can be hard, but you know what's harder? Where they're from.

33. Closely related: NEAR. 

35. Cover a lot of ground: ROAM. 

36. King James preposition: UNTO. UNTO is used many times in the KJV, such as, "For UNTO us a child is born." Surprisingly, it was not in the Golden Rule as written: "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

37. Garden of delight: EDEN. Here's the most famous panel from Bosch's triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights."

39. Ice cream containers: TUBS. 

41. "Don't __ yourself short": SELL.

42. __ roll: CRESCENT.

45. Most charitable: KINDEST.

47. Insinuated: GOT AT. I see what they are getting at.

48. Año openers: ENEROS. Spanish years begin in Januaries, as do most years. (The plural of January looks weird!)

49. Nonprofessional: LAY.

51. Semicircular recesses: APSES. APSES may also be polygonal.

52. Pancake with frizzled edges: CREPE.

53. Debate assignment: TOPIC.

55. Prefix with linear: RECTI. Rectilinear means consisting of, or moving in a straight lines, unlike this fellow:

57. Broadway "Auntie": MAME. Rosalind Russell played everyone's favorite aunt in both the 1956 play and 1958 movie.

60. Aspire laptop maker: ACER.

61. Predatory seabird: SKUA. Today I learned that SKUAs (pronounced skew-ah) are common in Antarctic and Arctic regions. They've been spotted at the South Pole. (At the North pole, they are striped! 💈 )

62. Catch sight of: ESPY. I ESPY with my little eye...

64. Lost Tribes number: TEN. The TEN Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE.

66. Nomadic invader: HUN. 

Thank you for all the kind words on yesterday's puzzle that I coauthored with C.C. This really is the best Corner of the internet! Be good. RB