Saturday, February 28, 2026, Zhou Zhang & Rafael Musa

 Saturday Themeless by Zhou Zhang & Rafael Musa

There was a lot to like and struggle with in Zhou and Rafa's wonderful puzzle that features pinwheel stacks of 8. My solving experience started on the SE edge of the pinwheel and rotated clockwise to the NE  where incredibly clued  BRA PAD and GOT OPEN finished the solve.

We have seen Rafa here quite often collaborating with others, especially Rebecca Goldstein. 

1. Superdome player: SAINT - I felt that knowing the Superdome is the home of the New Orleans SAINTS to be a good omen

6. Energy crisis?: BAD VIBES 

14. Some belly buttons: INNIES.

16. Result of doomscrolling, perhaps: BRAIN ROT - New to me but makes sense

 

17. Perform precisely: DO TO A T - 🤔 That hid for quite a while 

18. Maintain one's dignity: SAVE FACE.

19. Sanctions: ENABLES - Sanctions is a contronym where one definition can mean the exact opposite of another

21. Had no defense?: GOT OPEN 🤔 I assume this is when a football receiver GOT OPEN because the defense did not cover him.

22. Buggy site: DUNE.

23. SEC-regulated events: IPOS.

25. Farm worker: ANT.

26. M-W alternative: OED 🤔 - The Oxford English Dictionary can be an alternative to the Merriam-Webster version.

27. Surname of both founders of the fashion label The Row: OLSEN - They came to mind pretty quickly

29. Appears to point to: BODES - Seeing Rafa's name on a puzzle BODES that this could take some time!

31. Pan handler: OVEN MITT.

33. Animal with a white rump: ELK.

34. "A Court of Thorns and Roses," for one: ROMANTASY SERIES ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  A portmanteau of ROMANce and fanTASY- Bill Maher did a recent monologue about this where he posits that the popularity of these books—which often feature intense, protective, supernatural male characters—stems from a sense of sexual or romantic unfulfillment among women in the modern world.

39. Apple product: PIE - It would be easier if clued this way: An apple product.

40. "You wanna fight!?": COME AT ME - 😡

41. Composer with a namesake horn: SOUSA

44. Ignored a scarecrow, perhaps: CAWED 😀

45. Take (down): JOT 😀

46. Reactions to stubs: OWS - Nothing to do with tickets 

47. Automaker Karl: BENZ.

48. Simple shelters: HUTS.

49. Left over, in a way: UNEATEN.

52. Pretend: ACT AS IF.

55. Pico de gallo, e.g.: RED SALSA.

57. Short person?: DEBTOR 😀 - If you're short of funds...

58. Suddenly gave way: CRUMPLED - We studied this bridge that eventually gave way and CRUMPLED into the Tacoma Narrows in physics class

59. Solution for wounds: SALINE.

60. Ingredient in carajillo and affogato: ESPRESSO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

61. En __: MASSE - East Germans exited en Masse when the Berlin Wall fell.

Down:

1. Something that might be right up one's alley: SIDE DOOR - A slight variation 

2. Nochevieja follower: ANO NUEVO - Spanish: 

Nochevieja (December 31st, Old Year's Night) is directly followed by Año Nuevo (January 1st, New Year's Day).

3. As one: IN TANDEM.

4. Weeping mother of Greek myth: NIOBE - I've planted a few of these NIOBE Weeping Willows.

5. Charlotte Hornets color: TEAL.

6. Not-so-big shots: BBS 😀

7. Catalonia neighbor: ARAGON.

8. Swiss host of the World Economic Forum: DAVOS.

9. "The Sympathizer" Pulitzer winner __ Thanh Nguyen: VIET ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

10. Skinny: INFO 😀

11. Push-up form?: BRA PAD.

12. Epoch whose name means "new dawn": EOCENE - The term highlights the "dawn" of modern mammalian fauna like horse, bats and whales around 40 million years ago following the extinction of the dinosaurs. You're Welcome. 

13. Artery inserts: STENTS.

15. Office building subdivision, for short: STE - Suite

20. Queen Latifah's "Nature of a __": SISTA.

24. Imaging technique: PET SCAN - Positron Emission Tomography

27. __ vincit amor: OMNIA - A proclamation in ink that Love Conquers All

28. Lo-cal: LITE.

29. Run: BLEED.

30. National vegetable of Pakistan: OKRA.

32. Quick outings?: NAPS 😀

33. "Hanna" star __ Creed-Miles: ESME - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Beautiful, young women with guns are standard TV and movie tropes these days.

35. "Holy cow!": YOWZA.

36. Unsatisfying response to "why?": IT JUST IS.

37. Love and hate: EMOTIONS.

38. Releases: SETS FREE.

41. Point of origin: SOURCE.

42. People with good deeds to their names?: OWNERS - This is a famous deed for a home in Memphis.

43. Finished: USED UP.

44. Perfumes during a rite: CENSES.

47. Quintet in London's Elizabeth Tower: BELLS - Big Ben is the largest of these five

48. "Se __ inglé": HABLA - English is spoken.

50. Video genre that may cause chills, for short: ASMR - Experience as much of this 3-hour example of eerie 

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response

 as you like.

51. Box closer: TAPE.

53. S&L options: CDS.

54. Bears, e.g.: TEAM - They are threatening to move

56. Flap: ADO.

Friday, Feb 27th, 2026 ~ Sara Muchnick & Doug Peterson

 CROSS [ I ] EYED

Iron Maiden's Cross-Eyed Mary cover - I grew up with these guys,

but if you prefer the Jethro Tull orignal . . .

This is the second LA Times collaboration between Sara & Doug; Moe had the other one two years ago.  Mr. Peterson is a regular, and I found this link to a crossword blog from Sara - I like the phrase she used to 'celebrate' her first published NYT puzzle.  We have a "sort-of" visual theme to the puzzle, as the sans serif font of the LA Times crossword makes a capital "I" look like a vertical line; when rotated, or "rolled", it becomes a hyphen.  Took me a bit to suss, but once "EYE" did, "EYE" smiled - a fresh, thought[ I ]provoking theme -AND - there are NO other wandering "I"s in the entire frame.  Well done, constructors~!  A standard grid, a handful of names, no circles, a balance of twenty 3LWs, and, having added in the "I"s, the 'straight definition' themers become unique;

17. *Inlay material, often: MOTHER [ I ] OF [ I ] PEARL - mother-of-pearl

28. *Not cooped up: FREE [ I ] RANGE - free-range

49. *Flexible: OPEN [ I ] ENDED - open-ended

61. *Lightheaded ones?: JACK [ I ] O' [ I ] LANTERNS - jack-o'-lanterns

37. Silent display of skepticism, or a phonetic hint for making sense of the answers to the starred clues: EYE ROLL - that is, one takes the "I"s in the themers and "rolls" them 90° ( either clockwise or counterclockwise, it works the same 🙄), and now they make sense~!

But Wate, There's More ~!

ACROSS:

1. After-dinner drink: DECAF - Oh, coffee; "EYE" went straight to alcohol 😜  A rolled-eye [ I ] Easter Egg in the clue, too~!

6. Players who may have to start over many times: NOOBS - short for 'Newbies', one who is unfamiliar with whatever they're involved in; here's my Revit T-shirt ( it's a drafting inside joke )

BIM = Building Information Modeling - essentially 3D CAD

11. Cannabis compound: THC - TetraHydroCannabinol - what gives the "buzz/high" of smokin' the (Cross-eyed) mary jane, weed, ganja, pot, herb, grass, dank, chronic, etc.

14. Tickle: AMUSE -  some of the slang for marijuana does tickle me

15. Home of the first jet bridge: O'HARE - EYE love clues/answers where EYE learn something new

16. Peach or plum: HUE - it was fruitless trying to fit FRUIT 🙄

20. Opposite of very: A TAD - Atwurd

21. "iZombie" setting: SEATTLE - no clue, but perps gave me all but the two "E"s

Never heard of this bizarre [ I ] but intriguing [ I ] concept for a show

22. Lip __: BALM

25. "The Phoenician Scheme" director Anderson: WES - name #1; more from IMDb

27. Surgical tool: LASER

32. Boris Johnson, for one: TORY - no ( British ) politics at the Corner~! Name(ish)

33. Keeps (off): FENDS

34. Treats embossed with flowers, dots, and dashes: OREOs - well, it's not just one OREO today

36. Blue: SAD - another color con clue 

40. Cash back?: COW - "Cash Cow"

Dunk your Oreos in your cash cow "output" 🙄

43. Leavening agent: YEAST

44. Lorna of literature: DOONE - NOT the cookies; name #2

46. Typical choice: GO-TO - e.g., when EYE get Chinese, my "go-to" choice is General Tso's Chicken

52. Totally believed: ATE UP - believe it - EYE "ate up" my egg roll, too 🙄 ( and a Thusday dupe )

54. Rx writer: DOC

55. Price points: TAGS

56. Moseys: STROLLS

59. "Poppycock!": "TOSH~!"

66. Short-horned bighorn: EWE - Another rolled-eye [ I ] Easter Egg in the clue, plus a change-up from the "ewe"sual 🙄

More from the San Diego zoo

67. Key in: ENTER

68. Acrobat's platform: ADOBE - oh so very clever; not a performing acrobat - Adobe Acrobat - the PDF managing software; EYE was stumped for a while

69. "¿Qué __?": Spanish greeting: "TAL~?" - Español, which filled via perps, but still doesn't look right; the literal translation is "¿~What [is] such~?"

70. Run-down: SEEDY - rolled-eye [ I ] Easter Egg in the clue

71. Rub it in: GLOAT - EYE did not have to reach out to the other Corner bloggers for help with an explanation of the theme; EYE figured it out all by mEYEself~! 😁 🙄

DOWN:

1. Reservoir creator: DAM - a dam good way to start the Down clues 🙄

2. Punk subculture: EMO - three-letter "music" genre~? = EMO

3. Share of the profit: CUT - members of Ocean's Eleven got an even cut of . . .

"My advice to you is this [ I ] run and hide"

4. Fearing disgrace: ASHAMED - slighly meh; feeling seems to work better

5. Stanza units: FEET - LINES and IAMBS were just inches too long . . . 🙄

6. "Ask someone else": "NO IDEA." - what do you call a blind Bambi~?  no "EYE" deer 🙄

7. Exultant cry: "O-HO~!"

8. Bumblers: OAFS

9. "The Marvels" star Larson: BRIE - the EYE in her name was my one error; EYE had BREE, ergo, did not get my "ta-DA~!".  It took a while to find my mistake; once I grasped the theme and changed the vowel - "O-HO~!" name #3

Got started in acting at six years old - her EYEMDb 🙄

10. Floral leaf: SEPAL - had this one two weeks ago

11. "For real?": "THAT SO~?"

12. Starter, e.g.: HURLER - baseball reference; one of the team's pitchers

13. Sticks in the refrigerator: CELERY - Ah.  Not BUTTER

18. Cutesy growl: "RAWR~!" - this is becoming acceptable, I guess

19. Divisions d'une nation: ETATS - Franwche for states ( of the nation )

22. Pair sharing halves of a heart charm, informally: BFFs - Best Friends Forever

23. Environs: AREA

24. Furnish temporarily: LEND - I had LOAN, which is {teeth-suck} close, but 50% wrong

Close, but, definitely wrong

26. Expressed contempt: SNORTED

29. "10-4": "I SEE." - eh, a bit meh, but a rolled eye [ I ] in the clue again

30. Miracle-__: GRO - another rolled-eye [ I ] Easter Egg clue; EYE ordered new house plants through Amazon; they sat on my cold February porch for a few hours - but it looks like they'll be OK . . .

They came with this packet - is it plant food~?  No labels or instructions on the thing

31. Serpentine creature: EEL - ASP would work, too

35. Ye __ Shoppe: OLDE

38. NBA legend Ming: YAO - name #4, crossword staple

39. Predict-ability?: ESP - Har-har; ExtraSensory Perception - another rolled-eye [ I ] in the clue

40. Musical conclusion: CODA - and Led Zeppelin's "last" studio album

Bonzo's Montreaux

Jimmy Page's "trick" to get the steel drum sound

41. Earth's pull, for short: ONE G - one (unit) of gravity

42. Settles down, in a way: WEDS - I used to blog WEDs

43. "Just checking in": "YOU OK~?"

45. Discreetly, in slang: ON THE DL - the "Down Low" - not a unique fill

46. Chemistry lab fixture: GAS JET - "HAL" doesn't like this; EYE kept getting GAS KET suggestions

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do jet"

47. National Gallery of Canada locale: OTTAWA - nailed it, but six-letters Canada~?

48. Old Toyota subcompact: TERCEL - had it, took it out; crossing 'go-to' eluded me at first

My buddy Mark in Florida called his the "turbo Tercel"

50. Public figure?: NOTARY - that person at the bank, e.g., that can attest to your signature

51. Symbol: ICON - Dah~! Not RUNE

53. Works at, as a trade: PLIES

57. Solitary: LONE

58. Venue: SITE

60. __ beetle: STAG - EYE am not posting a picture of this insect 😝

62. Took charge: LED - Zeppelin - no, wait . . . we had that already 🙄

63. Joey of fiction: ROO - Winnie the Pooh, and Kanga's "Roo"

64. "Space Jam" org.: NBA - Not a basketball fan, but I did know this

65. Fully taken care of: SET - win the lotto, and you're "SET" for life~!

Splynter

Spent a few minutes looking for my error

Grid Flow a very low 17.4