Saturday, June 21, 2025, Alan Massengill, Doug Peterson

 Themeless Saturday by Alan Massengill & Doug Peterson

Today is the first full day of Summer as the Solstice occurred at 9;42 pm (CDT) last night when the sun was directly over the Tropic of Cancer. We will have the greatest amount of daylight and, as you see at the left, this is where you will see the sunrise on this day at Stonehenge. For us here in Nebraska, the grackles will soon be moving on from our feeders and will not be missed.

Today's puzzle by Alan (left below) and Doug has a nice wide-open grid with only 27 blocks and 102 open squares. The long grid-spanners were very "gettable" and clever fill added to the fun. Hanging on to LEGIT too long was a speed bump. My potential Natick was at _AVI/_ONCE and for some reason, NONCE made some sense for one-off and the Congratulations window came up.

 

Across:

1. Ocean spray?: SEA SALT.

8. Sings the blues: ACTS SAD - I chose Buck's version over Ringo's.

15. Flurry: HUSTLE AND BUSTLE.

17. Particulars from behind closed doors: INTIMATE DETAILS - She should know.

18. Capital of Cambodia: RIELS - A Big Mac in Phnom Penh, the uh, capital of Cambodia,  costs 23,938 REILS

19. States: AVERS 20. __ service: LIP - He AVERS that he will back me up but it turned out to be LIP service when I needed him.

21. Space that may be kind of a lot: ACRE 😀

22. Signs: OMENS - Get to the basement!

23. Numbers game: KENO.

24. Really chill: ZEN.

25. Highlands estate owner: LAIRD.

26. One duo and two trios: OCTET 😀 (1 x 2) + (2 x 3) = 2 + 6 = 8

27. Works from home?: BATS 😀

28. Command performances?: SALUTES - What a private has to do to a general or...

QEII and the lads
after a command performance

30. Nancy, to Fritzi Ritz: NIECE - 1944 edition

32. Surveyor's support: BIPOD.

33. Game for pick-y people: LOTTERY.

35. CLE team: CAVS.

36. Final challenge, perhaps: ESSAY 😀 I always liked multiple choices better but knew there would probably be an ESSAY question near the end

37. Spark joy in: ELATE.

39. NL players since 2022: DH'S - The National League finally started using it 49 years later.

42. Groks: GETS - We solvers grok and suss

43. No-hit performance?: B-SIDE 😀 - Hanging onto LEGIT too long and not knowing BRITE left me starting at _ S E D E for a while. Richie Valens' La Bamba was once a B-SIDE.

44. Drink choice: NEAT - We veterans here remember Tinbeni who refused to have ice in his scotch 

45. "How To Triumph Like a Girl" poet Limón: ADA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  The poem

46. New York minute: TRICE.

47. One-off: NONCE 

48. "It came back to me so easily!": LIKE RIDING A BIKE.

51. "Let me worry about that": I'VE GOT IT COVERED.

52. Signified: DENOTED.

53. Text-style workers: EDITORS - A fun play on the word textile

Down:

1. Red selection: SHIRAZ - I picked up on the clue for red wine but this wine naif needed a lot of help for this variety 

2. Carol Burnett character: EUNICE - Eunice and her Mama had issues

3. Toward a paddle wheel: ASTERN.

4. Steps over a wall: STILE.

5. Element of the Third Pillar of Islam: ALMS.

6. Green span: LEA.

7. Tea ceremony surfaces: TATAMIS.

The mat is called a TATAMI

8. Plus ones?: ADDENDS - This math teacher deserves a time out for trying to see this as someone who is taken as date to an event instead of...

9. Many semi pros: CBERS - I quickly saw semi as a tractor/trailer combo, good buddy!

10. Sounds of contempt: TUTS.

11. Retirement income org.: SSA.

12. Lift provider on a runway: STILETTO - I'll admit my first thought was of supportive underwear.

Can be hazardous

13. Only Top 40 hit for actor/singer Jack Wagner: ALL I NEED - It reached #2 behind Madonna's Like A Virgin

14. Tyrants: DESPOTS.

16. "Give up?" comeback: NEVER - General McAuliffe had a different way to respond to a German demand to give up in 1944.

22. Western: OATER.

23. Trademarked pods: K CUPS - I use them everyday but can't find any strong enough  

25. Chabert of "Mean Girls": LACEY - She's on the left below. I did not know her name but her face was instantly familiar as my lovely bride is a big fan of her much different persona as Hallmark's Queen Of Christmas.

 

26. Fruit in caponata: OLIVE - Yeah, I guess it is a fruit but I usually don't thionk of it as one.

Caponata 

27. Almost-ready versions: BETAS.

29. Ease up: ABATE.

30. Plummet: NOSEDIVE.

31. "Don't sit there": IT'S TAKEN - Not a pleasant chore

33. Passport, for one: LEGAL ID.

34. "Guilty as charged": YES I DID - Saying "Guilty as charged" can defuse a tense situation

35. Rhythmic flow: CADENCE - A fun way to keep it.

38. Permissible: LICIT - As I said, I had LEGAL here for way too long.

39. "Taxi Driver" Oscar nominee: DENIRO - His famous line from that movie

40. Cyberwarrior, sometimes: HACKER.

41. Lipizzans, e.g.: STEEDS - Horse lover General George Patton was instrumental in saving a large number of Lipizzans from the advancing Russians in 1945.

43. "Rainbow __": classic cartoon that inspired collectible dolls: BRITE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

44. "Check": NO BET - The player can either say "Check" or tap the table

46. Turkey __: TROT - A jerky dance of the 20's is now a name used for Thanksgiving Day fun races like this one in our town.

47. Blue species native to Pandora: NAVI - I have never seen the movie Avatar

49. Comedian Nwodim: EGO - I'm getting used to her name

50. Ragnarok figure: GOD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Friday June 20, 2025 Jeremy Venook

 

Good morning, campers, it’s RustyBrain. Summer is upon us and Chairman Moe is taking some well-deserved time off.

I couldn’t find much about today’s constructor, Jeremy Venook, except he seems to be a brilliant fellow. He’s published a number of scholarly articles, but this may be his debut puzzle. If so, congrats! Let’s see if this one hits the spot. 

17. Person who's always available to help: JOHNNY ON THE. The first themer is obviously missing SPOT, but instead is followed by a black square, i.e. a blank SPOT. Cool. JOHNNY ON THE SPOT is a man who is there when really needed. “Johnny” (like Jack) being so common a name it stood for “man.” Heeeere's the man:

27. Theater employee who follows the stars closely: LIGHT OPERATOR. This themer started with a black square, so I tagged SPOT onto the beginning of LIGHT OPERATOR. A SPOTLIGHT OPERATOR uses a followspot to keep the “stars” on stage well lit. So far, so good.

44. Portable Wi-Fi source: HOT CONNECTION. The blank SPOT on the last themer is at the end again, so HOT CONNECTION SPOT? No, it’s a HOTSPOT CONNECTION. Turns out the black squares were just red herrings, to me, at least. Commonly known as a HOTSPOT, it’s a physical location or an antenna that people use to access the Internet, typically via Wi-Fi.

59. Comment to a less-than-thorough cleaner, or an apt title for this puzzle?: MISSED A SPOT. 
The revealer is spot on! This is a common idiom, often used jokingly, and fully explains what is happening here. 

I tried to read the tea leaves hidden in the black squares, but to no avail. The SPOT could be anywhere, which is fine. But let’s see what that leaves us. A “LIGHT OPERATOR” is a real job. A “HOT CONNECTION” is a real thing. A “JOHNNY ON THE” is…? I’d like the written part of the answer to be a complete phrase on its own, then be modified by the revealer into something fun. In the end, I guess I was looking for a little more out of a Friday. 

And now, see Spot run:

Across:

1. Recklessly hasty: RASH.

5. Site that calls itself "the heart of the internet": REDDIT. I thought they were "the front page of the internet." In any case, REDDIT is a clever name suggesting "I read it" past tense.

11. Filmmaker Lee: ANG. Crossword's favorite director (don't tell Spike).

14. Fundamentals: ABCS. ABCs are the basic building blocks of many learned skills.

15. Declaration from a sure-handed player?: I RAISE. Also from a bluffer. Poker is the rare game where the best hand doesn't necessarily win.

16. __ shu pork: MOO. I like to roll my own, kinda like a Chinese fajita.

17. [Theme]

19. Total: ADD. If you "total" your car, it will ADD to your insurance premium.

20. Queerplatonic orientation, casually: ARO. ARO is the shortened version of "aromantic," which refers to individuals who experience little to no romantic attraction.

21. Lets up: EASES. 

22. Narratives: TALES. Tall TALES are "yarns".

24. Stone-faced: STOLID.

26. __ and haw: HEM. 

27. [Theme]

34. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" painter Hieronymus: BOSCH. The Dutch painter's macabre imagery is often interpreted as a visual translation of metaphors found in the Bible. I'd love to see the original 7ft x 13ft triptych (3 panels depicting Paradise, The Garden, and Hell) to see all the intricate details. Hard to believe it's over 500 years old!

36. Range between Europe and Asia: URALS.

37. Messenger molecule: RNA. RiboNucleic Acid, in case you want to impress someone at your next party.

38. Missouri River Native: OTOE.

39. Coke or Pepsi: BRAND. And the cola war battles on...

40. Stay out all night: CAMP. My first thought was a rave, an all-night dance event.

41. Hilton-owned hotel chain: TRU. The name came about because they leave Capote novels in the drawers instead of Gideon Bibles. TRU story.

42. Tortuga's country: HAITI. "Tortuga" is Spanish for "turtle." This island, part of HAITI, was named La Tortuga by Christopher Columbus due to its turtle-like shape.

43. Backs (away): SHIES.

44. [Theme]

47. Large deer: ELK. Similar to Moose, they often meet at a watering hole.

48. Defiant confirmation: I DID SO.

51. Lure: DECOY. I was visiting Orlando and saw this duck being attacked by a bird. On a return visit, I noticed the duck was still there. I guess the bird wasn't the only one fooled.

54. Gala, for one: APPLE. It wouldn't be a gala without APPLE bobbing!

57. Sprite: ELF.

58. Mined material: ORE.

59. [Theme]

62. The Brewers, in box scores: MIL. The Milwaukee baseball team, named after "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," sorta. CC knows much more about this than I do (about baseball, not drinking). Anyway, they have a clever logo using their initials to look like a glove.

63. Real __: ESTATE.

64. Browser button: HOME.

65. Long fish with no pelvic fins: EEL. One of many ways to clue this popular x-word fish.

66. Invisible pollution: NOISES. Good clue. Have I mentioned that RightBrain and I hate going to noisy restaurants?

67. Alma mater of many British prime ministers: ETON.

Down:

1. Indian royals: RAJAS.

2. Call off, as a mission: ABORT.

3. Cry at the beginning of summer break: SCHOOL'S OUT. When the kids were young, I cued up the Alice Cooper song and played it when they walked in the door on the last day. We'd dance a silly jig and it became an annual tradition, because that's what cool dads do (or so I'm told).

4. Sales channel: HSN. Home Shopping Network, which I now call "Amazon."

5. Capital of Saudi Arabia: RIYADH. Awesome skyline.

6. Greek matchmaker: EROS.

7. Great __: DANE.

8. Morse taps: DITS. DITS and dahs are dots and dashes. Ta da!

9. "Or so": ISH. ~ (see TILDES below).

10. Wavers: TEETERS.

11. International lawyer Clooney: AMAL. Seen here with her little-known husband.

12. Lymph __: NODE.

13. Deities: GODS.

18. Speak horse-ly: NEIGH. I used to live next to a horse farm. They were noisy NEIGHbors.

23. Tell-all sesh on 5-Across: AMA. Sesh is short for session, so on REDDIT, AMA is short for Ask Me Anything.

25. Targets of insecticidal shampoo: LICE. I have a nit to pick with this one.

26. Contained: HELD.

28. Shrouded locale?: TURIN. This relic, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus, is shrouded in mystery.

29. Speechify: ORATE.

30. Lose one's cool: PANIC.

31. End of the line: TRAIN DEPOT. Actually, a DEPOT can be anywhere along the line, the one at the end is the "terminal." Here's one at local Tradewinds Park that we frequented when the kids were little. The models are one-eighth life-size and the track is over a mile long! Note: this isn't Gulliver's family traveling, it's the trains that are small.

32. "I'm buying": ON ME. My two favorite words (when someone else says them).

33. Performs like Ice Spice: RAPS.

34. Ideal option for the indecisive: BOTH. The eternal question - like Coke vs. Pepsi.

35. Other, in Oaxaca: OTRO. Today's lección de español (Spanish lesson).

39. Rely (on): BANK.

40. "Parasite" star Woo-shik: CHOI. I also saw him in the zombie thriller "Train to Busan." South Korea is producing a lot of popular movies, TV and music these days. 

42. Some saints: HOLY MEN.

43. Record half: SIDE A. Had to wait to see which side we were on.

45. Corp. VIP: CEO. A Chief Executive Officer is a Very Important Person, that's why he/she is worth 1000 times more than everyone else? 

46. Symbols indicating similarity, in geometry: TILDES. In mathematics, TILDES (~) often indicate "approximately" or "about." For example, "~20" would mean "approximately 20".

49. Sportscast tech: SLO-MO. Sloooow Mooootion...

50. Over and over: OFTEN. Not this one again!

51. Common mosque feature: DOME. A DOME, called qubba in Arabic, can improve the acoustics within the mosque, helping the Imam's voice resonate effectively. The onion-shaped ones are especially beautiful. 

52. Shallowest Great Lake: ERIE. Hint: it's the four-letter one.

53. Nucleus holder: CELL. Wanted "atom" at first.

54. Italian bubbly: ASTI.

55. Unpaid TV ads: PSAS. Public Service Announcements.

56. Mets slugger Alonso: PETE. The 6'-3" first baseman is nicknamed "Polar Bear." I'm not sure why.

60. Equi- kin: ISO. An equilateral triangle has three equal length sides, while an ISOsceles triangle has just two.

61. Pronoun option: SHE. 

Out, damned spot! Over and out!