Thursday April 16, 2026 Carolyn W. Stewart

Carolyn W. Stewart is a veteran constructor that for some reason or another, hasn't published here in the LAT before - probably because she has trouble spelling "GEARS." But she's turned that into an asset in today's Los Angeles puzzle. I'm glad she finally found us!

Here's the revealer:

59. Shift, or what the ends of 17-, 23-, 38-, and 48-Across do: CHANGE GEARS. In each of the themers, the order of the five letters that spell GEARS are CHANGED (scrambled). 

Since the themers don't relate to each other (except for sharing the last 5 letters) I'm going GEAR up by inventing new definitions for each of them:

17. Some fines: LATE CHARGES. A fine imposed when returning GEAR late.

23. Group leaders: TEAM MANAGERS. People who may select GEAR for a team to use.

38. Old name for neon or argon: RARE GAS. GEAR to contain gases include tanks and cylinders.

48. Prom purchase: WRIST CORSAGE. Floral GEAR worn on a wrist.

Now you're all in GEAR. This theme was one that needed the reveler to decode. Circles would have clued us in earlier that something was happening at the end of each answer, but then it wouldn't be Thursday. 

Let's CHANGE GEARS and shift into Drive!

Across:

1. Headcheese ingredient: ASPIC. Headcheese is not actually cheese. It is a spicy appetizer mold made of pork roast. For me, the gelatin is the worst ASPIC of this dish.

6. Nave-y bases?: PEWS. Ha ha! "Nave" as in the central area of a church. 

10. Ad __: HOC.

13. Like bagpipes and wetlands: REEDY.

14. Overly familiar: TRITE. 

16. Forest hooter: OWL.

17. [theme]

19. Messenger __: RNA. RiboNucleic Acid is essential for life (as we know it).

20. Marked down: ON SALE.

21. One with snappy comebacks: WIT. If you can't come up with a clever retort, you are WITout.

22. Attach a patch, say: SEW. A mini poem!

23. [theme]

27. Broccoli __: RABE. Broccoli RABE (pronounced ROB) isn't broccoli at all. AKA rapini, it's a leafy, bitter relative of the turnip. Mine is missing - I've been RABED!

30. Go without a destination: ROAM. Or ROVE. 

31. Carol contraction: TIS. 'TIS not the season yet, but it starts earlier every year, so who knows? And remember folks, there's only 252 shopping days until Christmas, so you'd better get going! To save time, you may contact me here for my list. Just sayin'...

32. Didn't waste: USED.

33. Landscaping supply: SOD. In South Florida, it's very difficult to grow grass from seed in our sandy soil, so I recently added some SOD to my lawn. Per instructions, I laid it green-side up.

34. Take exception to: RESENT.

37. None at all: NIL.

NIL (not pictured)

38. [theme]

40. San Francisco's __ Hill: NOB. NOB Hill is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the US. You can hobnob with snobs there.

41. Long rowboat, or a long kitchen: GALLEY.

43. Square on a waffle: PAT. A PAT of butter.

44. Best guesses: Abbr.: ESTS. Abbreviations is abbreviated, so we must double abbreviate ESTimateS?

45. In medias __: RES. Latin for "in the midst of things," it is a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of crucial action rather than with a traditional preamble. You see it at the beginning of every action movie, as director's try to stay fresh by emulating Homer's Odyssey from the 8th century BC.

46. The Smiths guitarist Johnny: MARR. Johnny MARR is an English-born Irish musician, singer and songwriter. Fender now offers a signature model Jaguar built to his specs. 

Johnny and his Jaguar

47. Political satire that won 17 Emmys in seven seasons: VEEP. It's on HBO, so many of us haven't seen it. 

48. [theme]

52. Many, many years: EON. Many, many years: EVEN. The rest are odd years.

53. "Color me intrigued!": OOH. Tell me more!

54. Drive-in server: CARHOP. Before the drive-thru, meals came to you! You were still eating in your car, but at least you were parked. So civilized.

58. Shakshuka ingredient: EGG. Shakshuka is a popular North African and Middle Eastern dish of EGGs poached in a flavorful sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, seasoned with spices like cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. I'm glad this clue wasn't the other way around - Egg dish: SHAKSHUKA. That would've been ridiculous. 

59. [theme]

62. Low grade: DEE.

63. "Home Alone" boy: KEVIN. KEVIN! Played by Macaulay Culkin.

64. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES. Will ESTES is an actor, apparently, who stars in something. 

65. Orchestra sect.: STR. The STRING section.

66. Tide type: NEAP.

67. Surgical tube: STENT.

Down:

1. "Collapsed in Sunbeams" singer-songwriter Parks: ARLO. ARLO Parks is a performer perhaps better known by her English countrymen, although now living in the States. Since the only ARLO I know is Guthrie, I assumed she was a he. And you know what happens when you assume...

2. Astin of "The Goonies": SEAN. SEAN Astin is an accomplished American actor who started as a child in Goonies. I liked him as the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's best friend in Lord of the Rings.

3. Dependents that can't be claimed as tax deductions: PETS. Actually, they can be deducted if they are also service animals. Here's Buster patrolling the beach as a tax-deductible life guard.

4. Contributed to a brainstorming session: IDEATED.

5. Repetitive sequence: CYCLE. Ever felt like you're getting nowhere?

6. Org. that may take summers off: PTA. Like many school-related organizations, the Parent Teacher Association follows the academic calendar and has summer vacation.

7. Miss a cue, say: ERR.

8. Native American hut: WIGWAM. A WIGWAM differs from a teepee in that there are less ways to misspell it.

9. Hofbrau vessel: STEIN. Hofbräu is a Bavarian beer from Munich traditionally served in a German beer STEIN.

10. Good judgment: HORSE SENSE. You can trust a horse's advice if he's wearing glasses.

Mr. Ed talking sense into Wilbur

11. One with a title: OWNER. 

12. Scratches (at): CLAWS.

15. Lots of rich folks?: ESTATES. See sNOB HILL.

18. Word of mouth: HEARSAY.

24. "Wuthering Heights" setting: MOOR. The MOOR in this story is in northern England, thus no bagpipes. It lies between Liverpool and Leeds, near Haworth where the Brontë sisters wrote most of their novels.

25. Met expectations, in a way: MADE PAR. This clue was average.

26. PX patrons: G.I.S. G.I. is a nickname for an US soldier, thought to be mass-produced "Government Issue." Originally stamped on trash cans and equipment made of "Galvanized Iron" in WWI, it's adoption is an even more cynical take. In any case, soldiers shop at Post EXchanges, retail stores on an Army base.

27. Stepladder step: RUNG.

28. Land east of the Urals: ASIA.

29. Quasimodo, for one: BELL RINGER. Yeah, I know. His face doesn't ring a bell.

34. Daily grind: RAT RACE.

35. Pay attention to: NOTE. Because if you miss a NOTE, the melody sounds wrong.

36. Cookbook meas.: TBSP. A TaBleSPoon measure.

38. Update, as inventory: RESTOCK.

39. Needle-nosed swimmers: GARS.

42. French article: LES.

44. Highest point: EVEREST. While Mount EVEREST is the highest point above sea level, it's interesting that there are taller mountains on Earth, but they start on the sea floor.

46. Natives of the Colorado river valley: MOHAVE.

48. Works the garden: WEEDS. The difference between WEEDS and flowers is whether you want them there or not. We're trying to grow more wildflowers around our South Florida home that add color and thrive naturally in the sub-tropics with low water requirements. 

Not our yard, but it's certainly colorful!

49. Thesaurus creator: ROGET. In junior high, I thought it was Roger's Thesaurus, but that's a different word.

50. Financier Steve who owns the New York Mets: COHEN. He seems very popular.

51. Green plums: GAGES. Greengages (or Green GAGE) are a cultivar group of the European plum recognized for its small, round shape and intense sweetness. That's plum crazy! The things you learn from xwords.

55. Can't stand: HATE. Can't stand: SITS.

56. __ Ishii: Lucy Liu's "Kill Bill" role: O-REN. I stumbled upon Kill Bill: Volume 1 while flipping channels years ago, and was immediately riveted. Watched it from the middle, then again from the beginning. I like Tarantino's incongruent music choices.

Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii

57. "Over here!": PSST.

60. Actress Vardalos: NIA. It all started at her wedding...

61. Economic fig.: GNP. This nomenclature for a country's wealth figure, the Gross National Product, is outdated though still in common use. In 1993, the United Nations renamed it GNI, the Gross National Income, to better reflect their intent to measure residents' income vs. product manufacturing.

Be good. RB

Thursday April 9, 2026 Rebecca Goldstein

 Rebecca Goldstein has been creating square grids for a very long time, but today she has us going around in circles. 

63A. Waste time and effort, in a way, or progress as this puzzle's circled letters do?: REINVENT THE WHEEL. Looks like we are going to build a WHEEL, one letter at a time.

:3D. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" novelist: L. FRANK BAUM. This gives us one letter of the word WHEEL.

6D. Smallest Central American country: EL SALVADOR. Now we have two letters, building a WHEEL from the bottom up.

9D. Durable material made from hagfish skin: EEL LEATHER. Three letters - we're halfway there!

Pacific hagfish are not eels, but they produce fine leather.

12D. Sideways jump flourishes: HEEL CLICKS. With the four letters, we've almost come full circle. 

I thought this worked out wheel well. The letters built up like stacking blocks, each themer adding one more as you worked across the puzzle. I also liked that each partial WHEEL was the stand alone first word of its answer: L., EL, EEL, and HEEL. The fact that all the themers were the same length did my OCD good, and justified the unique layout. 

Black hole department: I tried to discern some sort of image in all the black squares and large crosses, but they are simply part of the grid.

Mirror image department: Kudos to Rebecca for using the reflective symmetry to place INCAS opposite MAYAN, and the video game answers LUIGI and ATARI next to those.

All set? Let's roll!

Across:

1. Designation for some food carts: HALAL. HALAL is an Arabic term meaning "permissible" or "lawful" under Islamic law, governing all aspects of life including food.

6. Outer space?: EDGE.

10. Portal name with an exclamation point: YAHOO. YAHOO! was one of the Internet pioneers 32 years ago, but has lost relevance since. However, it's still worth $7.4 billion, so there's that.

15. Actress Woodard: ALFRE. I didn't know ALFRE, but she is very worthy. She has graced the stage and screen, winning four Emmy's, a Golden Globe, and three Screen Actors Guild awards. She's even been nominated for two Grammy's and and Oscar!

16. Tales as old as time: LORE.

17. Justice Kagan: ELENA. ELENA was appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and is the fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

18. Needing a nap: TIRED.

19. Pot filler: SOIL. Pot filler: ANTE.

20. Put in a seat, say: ELECT.

21. Travel approx.: ETA. Your Estimated Time of Arrival is an estimation and subject to change. I often drive to Miami, and the ETA is an hour. A half-hour later, I'm still an hour away as traffic builds up like I'm in a backwards time machine!

22. Crushes underfoot: TRAMPLES.

25. "__ Misérables": LES. "The Miserables" describes Russell Crowe's singing in the movie.

26. Orange variety: NAVEL. 

28. Work __: ETHIC.

30. Kinds: ILKS.

32. Online image: AVATAR. Mine is a sunburst Fender Stratocaster. I have two from the 60s.

35. Poetry event: SLAM. A poetry SLAM is a competitive event in which poets perform original spoken-word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges.

38. Much-used pencils: NUBS. My dad always said, "Beware of people with long pencils and short erasers."

39. One with good taste?: PALATE. 

40. Falafel bread: PITA. But it doesn't taste falafel.

41. Langley org.: CIA. I grew up in the Tidewater area of Virginia and my dad worked at Langley AFB, so when I hear Langley, the Central Intelligence Agency is not the first thing that comes to mind.

42. "The lady __ protest too much, methinks": DOTH. One of hundreds of quotes attributed to Shakespeare. "Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

43. Small island: CAY. CAY is pronounced "key" as in Key West.

44. Orinoco flow: AGUA. The Orinoco River flows through Columbia and Venezuela, hence the Spanish word for water. The phrase "Orinoco Flow" was made popular by a song from new-age artist Enya. 

46. Having more wiggle room, say: LOOSER.

48. Gumbo vegetable: OKRA.

Oops! Wrong picture! This is an orca.

49. A lot alike: SIMILAR. I liked this a lot!

51. Arrives casually: ROLLS IN.

53. Free (of): RID.

54. Small tweak?: MOD. Just a little MODification.

55. Spots to let sleeping dogs lie: PET BEDS. This bed seemed so big when Buster was a pup. We adopted him during COVID, and he turns 6 today!

59. Small spot: SPECKLE. Small spot filler: SPACKLE

63. [theme]

66. Part of UAE: ARAB. United ARAB Emirates. The UAE has ARABs in it.

67. Not as grim: ROSIER. As in the Grim Reaper's kid sister, ROSIER Reaper.

68. Large vases: URNS.

69. Green carpet: MOSS.

70. Boggy places: SWAMPS. This one mired me down.

71. Teeny bit: MITE.

Down:

1. Abhor: HATE. This clue is detestable.

2. Settled: ALIT. 

3. [theme]

4. "All bets __ off": ARE.

5. Streaming device, maybe: LED TV. This one seemed off, so I turned it on.

6. [theme]

7. Tragic fate: DOOM. 

8. Strong hold: GRIP.

9. [theme]

10. "Oof": YEESH.

11. Every last one: ALL. ALL at ONCE.

12. [theme]

13. A single time: ONCE. ONCE and for ALL.

14. Quaker grains: OATS.

23. Sow's counterpart: REAP. Ah, the verb, not the noun. I wanted "boar."

24. To be, in Paris: ETRE. 

Vous êtes ici.

27. Donkey: ASS.

29. Co. for surfers: ISP. An Internet Service Provider is a company that connects individuals and businesses to the internet.

30. Natives of pre-Columbian Peru: INCAS.

31. Super Mario brother: LUIGI. 

33. Potatoes, in Urdu: ALOO.

34. Body art: TATS. People get TATS (tattoos) of the weirdest things...

36. Arcade pioneer: ATARI.

37. Like the ruins in Tulum: MAYAN.

45. Some short-term rentals: AIRBNBS. A very good friend lives just blocks from the Atlantic. Three houses surrounding him have become AIRBNBS, turning his quiet neighborhood into a party zone. Residential zoning laws need to be updated to prevent this.

46. Corporate structures: LADDERS.

47. Tots' playwear: ROMPERS. Tots' quandary - where should we wear our ROMPERS?

48. Buddy from way back when: OLD CHUM. OLD CHUM is also useful for luring orcas.

50. Actor Schreiber: LIEV. LIEV Schreiber is an acclaimed American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He's known for his roles as Sabertooth, Wolverine's brother, in the X-Men series and the titular Ray Donovan in the TV series.

52. Theater eponym: LOEW.

55. Brit's stroller: PRAM.

56. Wireless router brand named for a Finnish architect: EERO. EERO Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer, famous for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the TWA Terminal at JFK in NYC. He also designed iconic furniture. I guess if he were around today, he'd have come up with a router casing?

1956 Tulip Chairs and Pedestal Table

57. Spanish aunts: TIAS.

58. Winter coat?: SNOW.

59. Herding dog name: SHEP. Here's the most faithful border collie, SHEP. After watching his master's coffin leave on a train in Montana in 1936, he waited in vain for years at the station.

Now Buster wants a bronze statue!

60. Russell of "The Diplomat": KERI.

61. Mardi Gras follower: LENT. LENT follower: EASTERTIDE, the 50 days following Easter, culminating in Pentecost.

62. "How __ can I say it ... ": ELSE.

64. Org. that operates AIT scanners: TSA. The Transportation Security Administration primarily monitors aviation, but also does rail and mass transit. And until recently, the organization worked without pay as they were used as pawns by Congress.

Advanced Imaging Technology

65. Actor/comedian Meadows: TIM. Another SNL alum. 

 

Rebecca spoke and now I'm tired. Wheel see you 'round!

Be good. RB