Saturday, July 19, 2025, Chandi Deitmer and Erik Agard

  Saturday Themeless by Chandi Deitmer and Erik Agard

           

Chandi wrote, I am a full-time puzzler out of Cambridge, MA with a love of nice people, spicy food, and (whatever entry POWER CLASHING is!). Hmmm...I wonder who came up with that clue/fill? 😀

Erik Agard (born 1993) is a crossword solver, constructor, and editor. He is the winner of the 2016 LollapuzzoolaExpress Division, the 2018 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), a frequent contributor to the New York Times crossword puzzle, a crossword constructor for The New Yorker, the former USA Today crossword editor, and a former Jeopardy! contestant. He is currently a crossword editor at Apple News+.

I had a lovely trip through this collaboration but POWER CLASHING, BURBLE and MOCHI DONUT were speed bumps. Also, 46, 47 and 53 Down were just devious. I got the fill and then wracked what little brain power I had to make sense of them. 

Across:

1. Take off: STRIP.

6. Book jacket blurbs: BIOS.

10. Cover one's tracks?: DUB 😀 - Did you enjoy the "singing" of Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. Marni Nixon was the actual performer who glorious singing voice was DUBBED over for these famous roles.

 

13. African capital with a City of the Dead: CAIRO - More info

14. Step in some Sun Salutations: COBRA POSE - Number 5 below

16. Attorney-__: AT LAW.

17. Boxing titles?: RING NAMES - Take a guess at the RING NAME of this boxing great Walker Smith Jr.. Answer at bottom of write-up *.

18. Greta of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse": LEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ She voiced a character named Layla

19. GPS figs.: ETAS - My GPS does not consider detours and construction zones or my tendency to drive 4mph over the speed limit so my Estimated Time of Arrival is not always so accurate. 

21. Echelons: TIERS.

22. Magnetic presence in a classroom?: DRY-ERASE BOARD - My classroom board was home to many NASA and Disney magnetic "stickers"

26. Retired players?: VCRS - Failure to expand the idea of "players" made this take more time than necessary. At first I thought of baseball and OUTS.

27. Screenwriter's creations: ARCS - Those of us with a few miles on our tires will remember the name of the show whose story ARC was the search for the one-armed-man killer. Show is named below**

28. Halyard attachments: SAILS - This land lubber confused halyard with lanyard  which is where we coaches carry our whistle and convention goers wear their ID'S. 😀

30. Dose holder: VIAL.

31. Pewter element: TIN.

34. Setting for some of "Pachinko": KOREA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

35. Participate in story time: TELL A TALE.

37. GPS fig.: LAT - This screen shot shows you the LAT and LONG of the White House.

38. Catch: SNAG.

40. Stream-ing music?: BURBLE - Not a common word to me but exchanging it for BUBBLE gave me TRANCHE

41. Increases: UPS.

42. Some social circles?: HORAS. 😀

44. Standard intro course: SALAD 😀 the course was "intro" not "first". I wonder if this was a product of Chandi or Erik.

45. Rice flour pastry: MOCHI DONUT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

48. Team whose logo is a basketball with a B: NETS.

49. In some cases, it won't break: PHONE 😀 My iPhone is in an Otter Box case and has been saved several times

50. Surprisingly good event?: MIRACLE - The 1980 Lake Placid Olympics is truly one

52. Conductor Solti who held the record for most Grammys before Beyoncé: GEORG.

53. Slayer player: METAL HEAD.

55. Classic Monopoly token: IRON.

56. Ticket line?: ONE PLEASE.

57. Misses: GALS - Noun not verb

58. Worked into a lather: SUDSY 

59. Word with chosen or precious: FEW.

Down:

1. Prep, as milk for custard: SCALD.

2. Spud: TATER.

3. B.B. King's given name: RILEY.

4. SIMPLE __: IRA.

5. Looks in two different directions at once?: POWER CLASHING ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  It's a fashion "thing". Chandi's note to me said she did not enter this. 😀

6. City that can be seen from Table Rock: BOISE.

7. Male equivalent of "bint," in Arabic: IBN.

8. Edu alternative: ORG.

9. Man known for his many gifts: SANTA CLAUS.

10. Like many mosques: DOMED.

11. App opener: USER.

12. Téa's "Madam Secretary" role: BESS.

14. Uncouth: CRASS.

15. Skating event: PAIRS.

20. Paves the way?: TARS.

23. Irish novelist Woods: EVIE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

24. Leave folks hanging: BAIL.

25. Big name in brushes: ORAL-B.

28. Genre originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble: SOAP OPERA.

29. Media training?: ART SCHOOL 😀

30. Honey-don't list?: VEGAN MENU - I'm a "meat and taters" kind of guy!

31. Dining room section: TABLE LEAF 😀 Ours are stored in the dining table.

32. Unsettled: ILL AT EASE.

33. Maslovian considerations: NEEDS - I studied (read memorized) these for my Master's Degree and then forgot them.

34. Kloss's "Project Runway" predecessor: KLUM.

Heidi Klum   Karlie Kloss

35. Tropical staple: TARO.

36. Financial term from the French for "slice": TRANCHE - This compelling scene from Margin Call uses the word TRANCHE and gives insight into a big cause of the 2008 financial crisis. It's worth 9:48 of your time.

39. Place to make a connection: NODE - Part of a Local Area Network

43. Apt: SUITED.

46. Lockers in a row?: HORNS  - Wow, variations on locker, row and horns! Here we see two kudu locking HORNS during a row (rhymes with cow). People can do the same thing metaphorically. 

47. Quarry containers: TRAPS - Continuing with animal references, some people use TRAPS to catch whatever quarry they are after. 

51. Person to fight with: ALLY - Two ways to go: The person who is with you and fighting on your side is an ally. The person who is not with you is someone you are fighting with/against.

52. Piece of work?: GIG.

53. JASON's five, e.g.: MOS - I got this eventually. JASON stands for the first letters in the MO.'S July through November. All capital letters in the clue put me off the name and MOS is most likely months. Aarrgghh! 

54. __ point: DEW - Recent numbers for Omaha.

*Walker Smith Jr. fought as Sugar Ray Robinson

**Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) sought the one-armed-man who killed his wife in The Fugitive

Friday July 18, 2025 Tracy Gray

Hi everyone, it’s RustyBrain on the first of three fortnightly visits. Our illustrious Chairman is no Scrooge, but you may think of these reviews as the spirits of Moe past, present and future!

Tracy Gray serves up a double scoop of goodness today. She's a veteran constructor so we expect nothing less. Let's get started on the double with the revealer: 

53. Request to a bartender, and what must be done to the last words of 20-, 30-, 36-, and 47-Across for the answers to match their clues: MAKE IT A DOUBLE. By doubling the last word of each answer, we end up with wacky phrases.

20. Casual departure from a pub crawl after just one drink?: FIRST ROUND BYE. → FIRST ROUND BYE-BYE. In a tournament, the top seeded players often get to skip the preliminary rounds. Here, it's re-imagined as a bar-hopper who drops out early. Good thing, too, as you'd have to be drunk to follow this map!

30. Big name in transparent Band-Aids for toddlers?: PEEKABOO. → PEEK A BOO-BOO. Cute! And a good idea for bandages that match any skin color instead of generic flesh-tone. 

36. Confident shout from a Moulin Rouge dancer?: OH YES I CAN. → OH YES, I CANCAN. My favorite of the bunch! It's rare that I actually chuckle at an answer, but this one conjured up a delightful image. She sure cancan!

47. Question of quality?: IS THAT SO. → IS THAT SO SO. Odd to see this posed as a question, but then again, everyone's a critic.

Double your pleasure, double your fun! A bit easy for a Friday, but I'm traveling in the Pacific Northwest (beautiful vistas everywhere!) so I'm a happy camper. Okay, let's go-go:

Across:

1. Chill (with): HANG. Cool beans.

5. Storied meanies: OGRES. I like the use of "storied" here.

10. Au naturel: BARE. My one erasure, I had nude. 

14. Ancient theaters: ODEA. Plural of odeum, the theaters of Greece and Rome. 

15. Steaming mad: IRATE.

16. Limburger feature: ODOR. Does anyone remember a children's story called "Giant Grummer's Christmas"? He planned to steal presents but Prince Toppsy Turvy knew he liked Limburger, the smelliest cheese. The prince outsmarted the giant by delivering wheels of the stinky cheese that he ate then fell asleep and missed Christmas. Since childhood, the thought of the world's smelliest cheese has intrigued me - although not enough to actually try it!

17. __ history: ORAL. It's something my dentist keeps track of. 

18. Get connected: LOG ON.

19. Blu-ray kin: DVDS. These are two types of optical discs for storing data, usually movies.

20. [theme]

23. Easily fooled sort: SAP.

24. Mai tai liquor: RUM. Just add a fruit salad and an umbrella!

25. Celebrity with a book club: OPRAH. Counterintuitively, while her book club increased sales of individual titles, it caused a short-term overall decrease in sales for the book industry as a whole. Since Oprah's selections were often longer and more difficult classics that demanded greater time and energy to read, those people who were reading from her list were not buying their usual fare of books.

28. "Rub-a-dub-dub" location, in a classic rhyme: IN A TUB. How many of you know the next lines?

30. [theme]

33. Cartomancy deck: TAROT. Cartomancy is a form of divination using cards, TAROT being one type of deck. It involves interpreting the symbols and meanings associated with each card to provide guidance or predict outcomes.

34. O'Reilly purchase: PART. O'Reilly's is a huge chain of auto PART stores.

35. Bora Bora, e.g.: ISLE.

36. [theme]

39. "Stop living in the __!": PAST. Also, a classic Jethro Tull album. Hey, I had to include at least one!

42. Olympic event with masks: EPEE. I dream that someday they'll come up with a sword that is spelled with all E's to help our constructors out of tight corners.

43. Crete's highest pt.: MT IDA. Point is abbrev. so Mount is MT. Speaking of mountains, here are some I'm looking at - the Olympics in Washington State. Pictures don't do it justice; their scope is almost too vast to comprehend.

47. [theme]

49. Decathlon equipment: DISCUS. Essay question for extra credit: What other equipment is needed for a decathlon? Please DISCUS.

50. "Chopped" contestants: CHEFS. I like "The Bear," a TV series about a restaurant in Chicago. Everyone in the kitchen addresses each other as CHEF. Now I have some friends that also call each other CHEF! 

51. "Corduroy" writer/illustrator Freeman: DON. "Corduroy" is a childhood classic that tells the heartwarming story of a teddy bear and a little girl finding friendship.

52. Center of Dallas?: ELS. They're letterally in the middle!

53. [theme]

58. Prefix with conductor: SEMI. This guy's a full conductor.

60. Banjo sound: TWANG.

61. __ plaid: fabric also known as Prince of Wales check: GLEN. Don't stare at it too long...you are getting sleepy...very sleepy...

62. "Your turn," in radio lingo: OVER. 

63. Decadent dessert: TORTE.

64. Blow hard: GUST. Not unlike a windbag at your party. He's an uninvited GUST.

65. "Downton Abbey" title: LADY. Not my cup of tea.

66. Got in on a deal: ANTED. Better clue than usual for this crosswordese.

67. Gels: SETS. 

Down:

1. Travels on foot: HOOFS IT. Fun answer.

2. Girls in Tech founder Gascoigne: ADRIANA. ADRIANA Gascoigne is an American technology executive and activist. Girls in Tech is a global non-profit dedicated to empowering, educating, and mentoring women in the technology industry.

3. Decent, in golf: NEAR PAR. I don't play golf, mainly because when I hit a ball, I like someone to try and hit it back, not for me to go chase after it. In any case, NEAR PAR seems better than "decent."

4. "Archie's Pals 'n' __": classic comic book series: GALS. One of the GALS from the long running comic was Josie, who later went on to fame as the leader of the Pussycats. 

5. Massage option: OIL RUB.

6. Stable figure: GROOM. The happy couple.

7. Newman's Own rival: RAGU. I don't know how they fare in a taste-test, but Newman's donates most of their profits to charities if that helps you pick one. 

8. Historic British school: ETON.

9. Pop in the mail: SEND. Pop up in the mail: SPAM

10. Temporary art media: BODY PAINTS.

11. Some modifiers: ADVERBS. This is totally correct.

12. Eye cell that plays a role in night vision: ROD. The photo-receptor counterpart of a ROD is a "cone," which provides color perception.

13. Hosp. areas: ERS. Emergency Rooms aka the waiting area.

21. "Facts!": TRUTH.

22. __ choy: BOK. BOK choy is a type of Chinese cabbage that is sometimes called spoon cabbage because of its shape.

26. Early ISP: AOL. America On-Line has been chugging away as an Internet Service Provider since 1989.

27. Garden tool: HOE.

29. Visitor who leaves money under a kid's pillow: TOOTH FAIRY. What's the current exchange rate?

30. Public walkway: PASEO. PASEO means "stroll" in Spanish, but I'm more familiar with the Toyota model which, now that I think about it, is a rather uninspiring name for a car. 

31. Cleveland's lake: ERIE.

32. "The rest is obvious" abbr.: ETC.

34. Spices (up): PEPS. "Let's take it up a notch!"

37. Still: YET.

38. __ acid: AMINO.

39. Snap: PIC.

40. Bat wood, once: ASH.

41. Like some glasses: STEMMED. I wanted STEaMED, like when I walk out from air conditioning into Florida humidity and my glasses fog up.

44. Glacial hue: ICE BLUE. Shades of blue in July on Mount Rainier as we flew into Seattle.

45. Least exciting: DULLEST.

46. Says yes: ASSENTS.

48. "Shoot!": ASK. "Shoot" also means "darn," but not like socks - unless you shoot yourself in the foot.

49. Managed to avoid: DODGED. 

51. "Inferno" poet: DANTE.

54. James of blues: ETTA. OK, you twisted my arm. One more album because she is sooo good!

55. Victor's shout: I WON. Another Victor shouted, "It's alive!"

56. Acerbic: TART.

57. Fleecy boots: UGGS.

58. Santiago sun: SOL. 

59. "Hadestown" Tony nominee Noblezada: EVA. I thought she was nominated for the Noble-zada Prize. Seriously, though, why didn't this clue mention any of the awards she actually won? Like the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album?

And remember, kiddies, never double dip your chip!