Husker Gary LA Times Cwd

Saturday, October 24, 2026

Saturday, October 24, 2026, Rafael Musa

Saturday Themeless by Rafael Musa

Rafa, a software engineer for Airbnb in San Francisco. is a frequent constructor and collaborator. It took a while but I was very pleased to earn a "got 'er done". Usually there are clues or fills that can unlock a part of the puzzle but it seemed like whenever I needed one I got blocked by my lack of knowledge areas in which Rafa is much more familiar. His FreshnessFactor Percentile was 97.3%

Across:

1. Garage equipment: CAR RAMPS - $99 at Wal Mart

9. One who takes things the wrong way?: ROBBER 😀

15. Ancient Egypt's "plant of immortality": ALOE VERA - The plant was presented as a sacred gift at the burials of pharaohs and placed inside tombs to accompany rulers into the afterlife. Heck, all we want is some relief from a sunburn!

16. How donburi is served: ON RICE.

17. Parent who seems to do it all: SUPER MOM.

18. Umami-rich snack: TEA EGG - Tea egg is a Chinese savory food commonly sold as a snack, in which a boiled egg is cracked slightly and then boiled again in tea, and sauce or spices.

19. Audrey Tautou film: AMELIE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

20. Admits: SEES IN - This is a hoot!

22. RSVP part: SIL.

Coffee Please!

23. Chaps whose business is picking up?: BUSMEN - A very famous one from 50's TV

24. Habitat for some gnomes: LAWN.

26. Groups with routine practice sessions: DANCE CREWS.

30. "Over there," in Portuguese: ALI - "Vá ficar Ali" (Go stand over there)

31. Small bluff: CRAG.

32. Dough: MOOLAH.

33. Billboard entries: SINGLES 😀 Here is the top of Billboard's Hot 100 SINGLES on April 12, 1964.

35. "Tell the truth!": DON'T LIE.

36. Proceeds without a pause: SEGUES 😀 - Nobody did them better!

37. Common tamale ingredient: LARD - It's not labelled below, but I think you can see it.

38. "__ help!": ITD.

39. Ephemeral post, colloquially: INSTASTORY - INSTAGRAM STORIES are said to disappear after 24 hours.

41. Terrarium growth: MOSS.

42. Pen: ENCAGE.

43. Go unused: SIT.

44. Porowski of "Queer Eye": ANTONI ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

45. Place to enter a security code: PIN PAD.

48. Jumped out of one's skin?: MOLTED 😀 - Two weeks ago, August Miller gave us 6. Drop down?: MOLT

50. What files can help with: NAIL CARE.

52. Preferring platonic connections, for short: ARO ACE.

53. University founded by Booker T. Washington: TUSKEGEE.

54. Reacts to a riot, say: LAUGHS 😀

55. "Sure, hon": OKAY DEAR.

Down:

1. Isabel Allende's "La __ de los espíritus": CASA - Even I could see it translates to The House Of The Spirits.

2. Grad: ALUM.

3. Means of access for some watering holes: ROPE SWINGS - A lot of the images were violent fails!

4. Attract: REEL IN.

5. "Complicated" singer Lavigne: AVRIL.

6. Part of a viral load?: MEME - If an internet posting goes viral, it can become a MEME

7. Maven: PRO - Not a common synonym for me but...

8. Korean company whose name means "three stars": SAMSUNG.

9. Capacity built via repetition: ROTE MEMORY 😀

10. "Be right with you!": ONE SECOND.

11. Low-quality internet content: BRAIN ROT.

12. Word in Spanish 101 and French 101: BIEN The play was well done. In Spanish: La obra estuvo BIEN hecha. In French: La pièce était BIEN réussie.

13. Diagnostic test, for short: ECG.

14. Bylaw, for short: REG - REGulations

21. Key part of an exit strategy: ESC.

23. "Be right with ewe!" sounds?: BAAS 😀

24. Drink that may be topped with cardamom: LASSI.

25. Strange: ALIEN.

26. Style guides?: DRESS CODES.

27. "Gaycation" co-host: ELLIOT PAGE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

28. Stands by: WAITS.

29. Saw places: SHEDS 😀

31. Green transport, gray water recycling, etc.: CLEAN TECH.

34. "Yo!" de Cologne?: GUTEN TAG - What a fun clue! Good day in Cologne, Germany.

35. "Just do it," e.g.: DARE.

37. Access, in a way: LOG INTO.

40. "Saving Fish From Drowning" novelist: TAN.

41. __ oath: MINCED.

43. Like flan: SILKY.

44. Six-time MLB All-Star Moisés: ALOU.

45. Tuscan city known for a campanile: PISA - Of course, a campanile is a bell tower, so...

46. Painter's calculation: AREA.

47. Sacred animals in Nara, Japan: DEER.

48. __ educado: rude, in Spanish: MAL - MAL means bad in Spanish, so...

49. Pop singer Rita: ORA.

51. North Sea bird: AUK.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

https://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2020/07/2020-l-times-crossword-corner-map.html

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Saturday, May 16, 2026, Karen Steinberg

Saturday Themeless by Karen Steinberg

Karen and David
Steinberg

Hi Gary,

I'm the mom of crossword constructor and editor David Steinberg; I'm also a writer and psychologist, even though in high school math was my favorite subject and an occupational interest test told me I should become a computer programmer (!). As a teenager I solved crosswords in magazines and logic puzzles in books but stopped when I got to college. I didn't start up again until more than 35 years later, when David began constructing.

As for this puzzle, ZILLENNIAL was the seed entry—as soon as I heard the term, I wanted to make a puzzle using it. I listen to many podcasts and watch many (too many!) reality TV shows, so I'm constantly hearing new words and expressions and writing them down. I was lucky that some other good long entries (especially ZETTABYTE and BELLY BUTTON RING) worked well with the grid. Despite all the great new words these days, though, I'm trying to focus more on themed puzzles now. I do have a couple of other themelesses I'm working on too, however, so we'll see which I end up finishing first!

Best,

Karen

On a sadder note, Karen told me that her husband Paul passed away in 2023. Losing someone like Paul is heavy, but there’s something genuinely powerful in what Karen said—“the puzzles go on.” It speaks to continuity, legacy, and probably something they shared deeply as a family.

Karen, Paul and son David had the first
"Family Puzzle" in the NYT on 5/22/22

Across:

1. Studies: GAZES AT

8. Google Play download: APP GAME - This one is said to be the most downloaded APP GAME with over 3 billion downloads.

15. Woodcutter in a tale told by Scheherazade: ALI BABA.

16. Went by yacht: CRUISED.

17. Navel brass?: BELLY BUTTON RING - Karen supplied a very gettable grid spanner.

19. Patisserie treat: ECLAIR.

20. Cocktail whose color comes from grenadine: PINK LADY.

21. Winter hrs. for most of western Indiana: EST.

22. Relieve (of): DIVEST.

23. "Milk" director Gus Van __: SANT - You may have to blow up the image to see Gus's name below the title.

25. Sector: ZONE.

26. Not discourteous: CIVIL - CIVIL discourse is as desirable as it is rare

30. The CW predecessor: UPN - United Paramount Network

31. "Ooh, burn!": ZING - I stuck with DING too long

32. "The Tale of __ Puddle-Duck": JEMIMA - You can get this 1908 first edition for $650.00

33. Winless racehorses: MAIDENS.

35. Apple cultivar that dates to American colonial times: WINESAP - Some say WINESAP apples came to America as seeds from Europe and some say they are native to our country.

36. Euchre kin: ECARTE - Here it is as an APP GAME

37. Oscilloscope display: WAVE - This Heathkit oscilloscope is the very one I used in my physics classroom for years.

38. Sch. in Athens: UGA - The University of Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, GA names their mascot UGA

39. Sparked again: RELIT - Grilling in a wind might require this action

40. Connection point: NODE.

41. Barbaro's role in "A Complete Unknown": BAEZ - Monica Barbaro played Joan BAEZ in this biopic about Bob Dylan.

Joan Baez. Monica Barbaro

42. Pyle player: NABORS.

44. Berkeley, familiarly: CAL.

45. Kodai Senga's signature pitch: FORK BALL - The pitch is thrown with fingers forming a fork around the ball

48. Yoga pose that alternates between arching and rounding the spine: CAT COW.

51. Beyoncé challenge in the song "Energy": EVERYBODY ON MUTE. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

53. Shows some major respect?: SALUTES.

54. Mythical hunter transformed into a stag: ACTAEON ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Google this gruesome story if you must.

55. Cunning: SLYNESS.

56. Lunar event: MOONSET - Today the Moon will rise at about 6:00 am and set at about 7:30 pm. The Moon is in the Waning Crescent phase and will be so close to the Sun that it will be invisible for all practical purposes.

Down:

1. Kapler who was NL Manager of the Year in 2021: GABE.

2. Obi-Wan player: ALEC - Sir ALEC Guiness played the role in the 1977 Star Wars but said this about it

3. Microgeneration of the 1990s: ZILLENNIAL - The group that spans the gap between Millenial and Gen Z.

4. Marketing method: EBLAST - An EBLAST (email blast) is a one-time mass email sent to a large group of recipients simultaneously, often t promote, announce or inform

5. "Just tell me!": SAY IT.

6. Dict. tag: ABBR.

7. __ cross: TAU.

8. On the move: ACTIVE.

9. Tending (to): PRONE.

10. Anticonformist subculture: PUNK SCENE.

11. Some brunch dates: GIRL -TIME.

12. China setting: ASIA.

13. Make better: MEND.

14. Anxious: EDGY.

18. Halloween prank: T-PING - A leaf blower and toilet paper is a great demo of Bernoulli's Principle

22. Puts on: DONS.

23. Ancient region between the Tigris and Euphrates: SUMER.

24. Quickly: APACE.

25. Niche mag: ZINE - A magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter”.