Friday, Oct 30th, 2026 ~ Patti Varol

 AMERICA'S MOST HAUNTED

Wanted Dead, or . . . Undead~?

We have a Halloween-themed puzzle a day early; I was unaware that we would have a similar theme yesterday, as I wrote today's blog earlier in the week, but solve the rest of the week's puzzles as they come out . . . The LA Times editor, Patti Varol, is back again with a crossword that takes common in-language phrases and gives them a trick-or-treat-ment . . . 🙄 Five themers, including a grid-spanner, totalling 61 squares, that become "creepy" puns in a timely fashion.  A solid Friday construction, maybe more names than I would care for, but I did some historical research, and found even our host & crossword master C.C. has "bemoaned" them - on Halloween, no less.  Huh.  Standard grid, no circles, no outliers, a Twurd, and thirteen names - we have a Friday the 13th coming in November.  The themers, no reveal;

17. Suggestion at the start of a Halloween decoration workshop?: MAKE-A-WITCH - Make-A-Wish; I don't have a tree in my front yard, or I'd put one of these up . . .

Here's how to make "witch crash witch craft"  🙄 

23. Expectation during a Halloween concert?: RHYTHM AND BOOS - Rhythm & Blues

Atlanta Rhythm Section - "Spooky" - but they weren't the original band

Bminor, same key as Hotel Cali- . . .

36. Apparition who only appears on Halloween in the Golden State?: CALIFORNIA GHOST - I had ghoul first - as in Califronia girl, but no, it's the California Coast, which I see is currently threatened

Ghost,  "Faith" 🠟

49. Got separated from a spooky friend at a Halloween party?: LOST ONE'S GHOUL - Lost One's Cool - the "nameless Ghouls" are the members of the Swedish rock band Ghost, behind "Papa Emeritus V".  Now for a song about that vampire from Transylvania . . . not the Muppet, the other one

Nosferatu, off "Spectres", from Blue Öyster Cult

59. "My Halloween monster costume is so disappointing!"?: I DON'T SCARE - "I. Don't. Care."

"We're Ready to Believe You"

Buuuuuut Waaaaaait There's Mooooooan~!

ACROSS:

1. Oodles: ALOT - A Twurd to start us off

5. Mattress material: FOAM - I do the Downs first, had perps

9. Tablet downloads: APPs

13. Kidney-related: RENAL - my dad had a kidney transplant, so I heard this word ALOT growing up

15. Red inside, maybe: RARE

16. Victory lap speed: TROT 

19. Depend (on): RELY

20. Sugar suffix: OSE - fructose, sucralose ( OK, that's fake sugar ), etc.

21. Shoreline shaper: TIDE - The King Tide is the threat to the west coast

22. Yaz's team from 1961 to 1983: BOSOX - abbr for abbr - Carl Yastrzemski, played for the Boston Red Sox - not a baseball fan, but I knew this name, #1

27. Athletic honor: ESPY - The award given out by ESPN, the sports network; I see our favorite crossword WNBA player made the list . . .

28. Horn of Africa nation: ERITREA - Geo name #2

31. Omnia vincit __: AMOR - Latin, "love conquers all"

34. "Right on!": "AMEN~!"

These Halloween tights are right on

35. Dragon boat steerer: OAR - Chinese "ship", but when I punched "Dragon Boat" into Google, I get more Chinese restaurants than rowers; more here

41. Meadow mouthful: CUD - cow candy - alliteration 😜

42. Turn off the security cameras for, maybe: ABET

43. Iowa college town: AMES - Geo name #3

44. Accessory that may match cuff links: TIE CLIP

46. Sportages and Tellurides: KIAs - autos

54. Copious: AMPLE

56. Covent Garden solo: ARIA - yada yada four letter solo~?  ARIA - more about the centre here

57. Cold-sounding commercial prefix: SNO - Sno-cone, sno-caps, sno-balls, etc.

58. Rich soil: LOAM - AND - 53. Windborne sediment: LOESS - Both good for wine-making, it seems

62. Dough for pupusas: MASA

The website

63. Alaskan gold rush town: NOME - Geo name #4

64. __ fun at: POKES - hard to see the 'plural'

65. Mystery writer?: ANONymous - frequent visitors to the Corner comments section

66. "The Crying Game" writer/director Jordan: NEIL - Friday vague, and I did see the movie, back in 1992; name #5

67. Intervals: GAPS

DOWN:

1. Medieval museum display: ARMOR - When I build my castle, I'll have a suit of armor on display

2. Spot checker?: LEASH - Dog humor, har-har

Cooper-checker

3. Harmonious, in a way: ON KEY - a bit meh.

4. __ kwon do: TAE

5. End of the workweek, for some: FRIDAY - Technically, it's the "start" of my "work" week 😜

6. Like some breakfast bars: OATEN - I made my own granola, but the calories in a tray are outrageous

I divvy it up into 20 squares, 238cals each

7. Part of a circumference: ARC

8. Underwhelmed review: MEH - Friday's puzzles have been 50/50 Yeah/Meh of late

9. Intrinsically: AT ROOT

10. Briefing setting: PRESSROOM - Brief setting = Dressing room

For the ladies

11. See 24-Down: POLO - AND - 24. With 11-Down, "The Fosters" actress: TERI name #s 6 & 7

12. River that made Achilles (mostly) invincible: STYX - dipped all but his "heel", hence the "weak" term

14. Plastered strips: LATHS - Meh in the plural

18. Fraidy-cat: WIMP - fitting clue/answer

22. Sound of spring?: <<BOING>> - Har-har

25. Lovato with the 2025 album "It's Not That Deep": DEMI - name #8; her website

26. City near Anaheim: BREA - west coast, again - I get it - it's the LA Times . . . 😑Geo name #9

29. Smooth sailing: EASE - Dah~!  I tried CALM

30. Newspaper section: ARTS - not op-ed

31. Checkbook no.: ACCT

32. Home of Kahului Airport: MAUI - sounded Hawaiian, tried OAHU to start - Geo name #10

33. Tex-Mex brand: OLD EL PASO - I usually buy their flat-bottom taco shells

34. Echidna snack: ANT - learning moment; did not think of Echidna as an animal, but a place . . . turns out it's another Greek mythology figure, and the mother of Cerberus, for one

37. "F" on a test: FALSE - Five letters, therefore, not "FAIL"

38. Notice in passing?: OBITuary - Standard crossword humor

39. Credit report blot: REPO - A repossession, typically of a vehicle - I own my two cars

40. Leftovers dish: HASH - I toyed with STEW but waited on perps

45. "The Favourite" Oscar winner Olivia: COLMAN - looks like it might be a funny movie; name #11

46. Seed: KERNEL - corn - candy corn

47. Skeptical reply: "IS IT~?"

48. Showing shock: AGASP - Dah~!  Not AGAPE

The Scream

50. With 51-Down, 2019 and 2021 Australian Open winner: NAOMI - AND - 

51. See 50-Down: OSAKA - tennis, a Corner shout-out, and name #12

52. General Assembly fig.: UN REP - United Nations representative - the list, here

54. __ mater: ALMA

55. Bellyache: MOAN - Bark at the Moan . . .

OZZY~!!!

59. Travel stop: INN - How about a stop at "The Stanley Hotel"~?  it's the one from The Shining

60. Generic surname: DOE - lucky #13, didn't hafta be one . . .

61. Horologist's piece: COG - I was thinking astrology, but this is a watchmaker

Splynter

Grid Flow 24.1

Friday, Oct 23rd, 2026 ~ Winston Emmons

UNDERSTAND A BLEAT

🙄

This is Winston's LA Times puzzle #15, and the first one I've had to blog - Chairman Moe had ths last one, here, back in April 2024.  This one kinda fizzled on me; even owning up to a single cell mistake, I found the construction & theme to be bland - in fact, 30D. is not even a unique crossword answer.  The rest of the fill contained little to make me go "RAH~!"; YMMV, but again, I think the editor is more to blame on this one - and not the first time I felt that way this week.  Standard grid, no circles, no outlier letters, far too many proper nouns ( names ) & "foreign"clues, and the same count of 3LW to 5LWs.  The Across themers and Down reveal:

18. Gospel music?: PRAISE BEAT - "Praise Be" being the base phrase; the addition of the "A T" does not really result in a 'punny' or 'alternate' themer, IMHO

The Yellow & Black attack of

Christian rockers Stryper, "To Hell with 9A."

30. Really, really sticky situation?: HONEY COMBAT - Honeycomb, a better redefining themer

46. Brag obnoxiously after winning a swabbing contest?: MOP AND GLOAT - Mop & Glo, the floor cleaning product

That'll work . . .

59. Generous Volkswagen promotion?: FREE PASSAT - Free Pass - I have a "free" VW Jetta in my backyard if you'll give me $1500 to get rid of it . . . 😜

48. "Finally!," or what can be found in 18-, 30-, 46-, and 59-Across: AT LAST - The theme answers all end with the additional letters A & T, or "at, last".  I see Mr. Emmons was able to slide "ETTA" into the grid as well "@" 31D.

But@ Wait@ There's@ More@~!

ACROSS:

1. "Ring out the thousand __ of old": Tennyson: WARS - no clue, tough way to start a puzzle - the poem

5. Hat holders: PEGS

9. Figure in a Faustian bargain: SATAN - A.K.A. Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles

14. Name on a former lake in Central Asia: ARAL - Geo name #1, even if it's a crossword staple

15. Sandwich title: EARL - the Earl of Sandwich, credited with the "invention" of the meat-between-bread fare that now bears his name . . . and name(ish)

Wiki backs it up

16. __ keyboard: EMOJI - I do the Downs first, had E - - - I, so I got it, but didn't really "get it"

All I can say is 😝 or maybe 😖

17. Hayworth of "The Strawberry Blonde": RITA - name #2

20. Slogans: MOTTOS - If Nike came out with crossword apparel, the slogan would be "Just Clue It" 🙄

22. Ring topper: STONE

23. Screening org.: TSA - Transportation Security Administration

24. Chart-topper: HIT

26. High cloud: CIRRUS - made my "TRES" at 28D. wrong

34. Fiver: ABE - seen this before in crosswords; money, not moniker, but still, name (ish)

Hey, that's not Abe . . .

35. Uncomfortably honest: TOO REAL

36. Pulitzer winner James: AGEE - Popular in crosswords, still name #3

37. African language family: BANTU - "foreign" fill, first of many . . .

40. __ Atleos: big name in ATMs: NCR - Dah~!  Didn't get my "ta-DA~!", could not find my mistake - I had ECR, yet I am familiar with this company, as they made cash registers, initially - in fact that's what "N C R" stands for - National Cash Register - the history

41. Oscar, but not Big Bird: AWARD - two Muppets, one trophy - very clever clue / answer

42. Vicinity: AREA

43. Tenor Pavarotti: LUCIANO - Italian, name #4

45. Molecule in some vaccines: RNA

50. Gymnast Olga with four Olympic gold medals: KORBUT - Belarusian, name #5

52. 128 oz.: GALLon

53. Colorado Plateau Native: UTE - Indigenous, name (ish)

54. Model/actress Kate: UPTON - American Michigander, name #6

That's hubby Justin Verlander, retired WS-winning baseball pitcher

57. Mortar's partner: PESTLE

63. Panache: ÉLAN - Frawnche

64. Mexican meat: CARNE - Español

65. Period after Shrove Tuesday: LENT - Christian 😉

66. Toy (with): MESS

67. Break the rules: CHEAT - not a themer, as in Che AT . . .🙄

68. Eight, in combinations: OCTO

69. Minuscule: ITTY - AND - 49D. Minuscule: TEENSY - straight clecho

DOWN:

1. Affection: WARMTH - another great single-syllable fill

2. Oratorio solo: ARIOSO - Italian 

3. Material for some patio furniture: RATTAN - South Asian 

4. Board on some patio furniture: SLAT - Not a "sl AT" themer, either . . . 🙄

5. Gatorade owner: PEPSICO - Twice (25D.) this month that a "Pepsi" phrase has made the crossword

6. Orecchiette shape: EAR - Italian again, for "little ears" - nailed it, but knew it from doing crosswords

7. Foie __: GRAS - Frawnche again, heard of it, never actually knew it translates as "fatty liver"

The image's connected website

8. Buttonhole, e.g.: SLIT - SLAT & SLIT in the same grid

9. Veto on movie night: "SEEN IT."

10. Cautionary color: AMBER

11. Spot for a metti: TOE - South Asian Indian, learning moment - the Wiki

12. Two-time WNBA Finals MVP Wilson: A'JA - name #7, coulda been clued as a Steely Dan album

13. Picky criticism: NIT - I had a fair number of  name "nits" in this grid today

19. Golden St. region: SoCal - Southern California - I am East coast, so this did not come readily to mind, but this song did after it filled in - I'd heard it growing up, but would've never guessed the artist

Albert Hammond

21. "Silly goose!": "OH YOU~!" - Oh, Twurd~!

25. Distraught: TORN UP - Dah~!  I simply did not see the option of the past tense version of this phrase, and I blanked on the crossing ECR not being correct - I'll take the one-cell hit on this one . . .

27. Sitar piece: RAGA - Asian Indian - You don't want to go raga . . . 

28. Very, informally: ÜBER - German - Dah~!  I tried TRES

29. Pomegranate bit: SEED

31. "__ Is Betta Than Evvah!": 1976 album: ETTA - an Easter Egg.  Etta James, crossword staple, and the singer associated with the muscial number that my future ex-wife chose for our wedding herself.  It's certainly a "numb-er" for me - thus, I am not a fan of the "theme"; I wanted "Leather & Lace" which was 'dismissed', but my brother snuck it in during his best man speech.   Name #8

32. Home of the Kaaba: MECCA - Arabic, Kaaba = 'cube', geo name #9

33. Revealing to all: BARING

36. Missing GI: AWOL - Absent WithOut Leave

37. Flavorful part of a cinnamon tree: BARK

38. View from the Uffizi: ARNO - No clue this was an art gallery; Italian again, geo name #10

Bottom center

39. Proximate: NEAR

41. Measurement given in degrees: ANGLE

43. Led Zeppelin's "Whole __ Love": LOTTA - Whole lotta yes, please~!  

Here's a cool story from Rick Beato's YouTube channel

about the recording of the track

44. Fit in with: ADAPT TO - Yeah, but Meh~?

46. Sesame Street denizen: MUPPET - see 41A

47. Current source: OUTLET

51. Lake __ Vista, Florida: BUENA - Español again, geo name #11

55. Capital west of Stockholm: OSLO - attempted obscurity, still got it, still Scandinavian, geo name #12

56. Fraction of a min.: NSEC - SEC was too short, filled it in and waited on perps

58. Big rig: SEMI

59. TV monitor: FCC - I almost went with CRT, but this is the "overseer" kind of monitor

60. Cheer syllable: "RAH~!" - I'm going with "MEH."

61. Poetic preposition: ERE

62. Pantry pest: ANT - we had ANT MAN on Tuesday

Splynter

Grid Flow 32.7

Friday, Oct 16th, 2026 ~ Yijing Chen

"A Minor" COMPOSITION in "B#"

The Circle of FIFTHS - A minor = C major: C = "B#" - get it~?

This is Yijing Chen's fifth LA Times puzzle - I blogged her debut puzzle here, and today's offering may have led some Cornerites to a Circle of FITs, or even the fifth circle of hell - see 51A.  I however, loved this puzzle - I enjoy the extra challenge of trying to figure out the hidden, underlying meaning of a crossword's theme.  It took me about 8mins over my usual Friday time to finally figure out just the SW corner alone. Once I caught on to the reveal "NOTES" being the musical Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti vocalizations, it was enough to figure out that the theme answers were completely undefinable from the clues themselves - 45A being the most obscure & difficult to parse; I'm not even sure I am 100% correct, but there is no "sourson" word - the closest I could find was soursop - this fruit.  The solution is to take out the duplicate "notes", ( which had to be doubled to match the plural reveal ) and Bob's your uncle.  I am sure this construction is going to cause a fair amount of grumbling, but it's Friday, and it does have a theme, albeit a very cryptic one.  An over-sized 15 x 16 grid, no outlier letters, several names, no Twurds, sixteen 3LWs, and no circles, but perhaps "*" on the themers would have helped, as they coincided with other same-length fills:

17. Female sib: DOSIDOS - SISter, abbr in the clue, abbr in the answer, no relation to the actual fill of do-si-do, the dance step ( and now I see, a strain of marijuana, plus the Girl Scout cookie ); the same non-relation goes for all of the themers . . .

18. Cozy eatery: CAREFREE - CAFE, not the 'care-free' attitude, e.g.

23. Man of La Mancha: SEMI MINOR - SEÑOR, Español for "man" in the Spanish city - which we also learned from last week's clue/answer "Dulcinea" fiasco; filled mostly via perps, and I did not know what the definition of "Semi Minor" was;

the Wiki

38. The complete set: ALFALFA - ALL

45. Big flowerpot: SOURS ON - URN - "loses interest in"; almost impossible to fill in without understanding the theme

57. Extemporizes: LAVA LAMPS - VAMPS - the "musical improvisation" definition.  I have a green one to match my office

67. Low-level laborer: PETITION - PEON, my first thought, but was obviously too short for the eight-letter fill in the grid

69. "Perfect!," or how to make seven answers in this puzzle match their clues?: NO NOTES - D'Oh~! A deer, a female deer - remove the doubled Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So ( and I know it's usually referred to as "SOL" ) -La-Ti-Do pairings, and what's left is a straight explanation for the clue 😁

ACROSS:

1. Barnyard call: MAA - cows go "moo", sheep go "baa", so this must be goats

4. A pop: PER

7. Compels: FORCES

13. Like some pickup-only deals: IN-STORE

15. Prehistoric hand tool: STONE AXE - A uniquie fill

19. "Ferrari" actor Driver: ADAM - name #1

20. Second singer to be honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: SINATRA - and the first singer was~?  Answer at the end, name #2

22. Some laptops: PCs

25. Ernie's "Sing After Me" duet partner: ELMO - Good guess on my part; not BERT - name #3

28. Monument Valley formation: MESA

30. Winter layer: COAT - I was not fooled, didn't go with SNOW, RIME or HOAR

33. __ Nation: Jay-Z's conglomerate: ROC - name (ish)

36. Novelist Quindlen: ANNA - No clue, more here, name #4

40. Approximately: ABOUT

42. Many a K-pop singer: IDOL

44. Starting lineup: A-TEAM

47. Gaelic speaker: CELT

49. Cornerback Bly in the College Football Hall of Fame: DRÉ - No clue, name #5

50. Was gripping?: HELD - Har-har

51. Breathe fire, say: RAGE - the sin of the Fifth Circle of Hell

53. Inhale, maybe: EAT - slang for eating fast

55. Couple: DUAD - Not being DUET caused all sorts of grief 

62. "Thrilla in Manila" boxer: ALI - Crossword staple, name #6

64. Approached bedtime: LATENED - "got late"

66. Wife of Zeus: HERA - name #7

71. Peppers in some mole sauces: POBLANOS - oof.  I didn't know the name of this pepper, and it's a unique fill, so new to any crossword - more here

72. Writer/illustrator who often wrote in anapestic tetrameter: Dr. SEUSS - the rhyming 'pace', depicted as da - da - DUM.  My blogs are written in all-a-puzzle octalmeter . . . name #8

73. Villainous looks: SNEERS -  This fish, my S-i-L calls "Vegas", hovered in the corner of the tank and stared at me the whole time I was down on Long Island . . . 

I'm watchin' you  . . . Creepy

74. With 27-Across, big name in watercraft: SEA - AND - 27A. See 74-Across: DOO.  Their website

75. Therapist's maj.: PSYchology

DOWN:

1. King with a touching story?: MIDAS - the golden touch of mythology - my first thought was ELVIS😜, #9

2. Battery part: ANODE

3. Breakfast tea variety: ASSAM - Dah~!  Not PEKOE

4. Pea sheller's discard: POD

5. Canyon former: EROSION

6. Amber, once: RESIN

7. "Seriously?": "FOR REAL~?" - Rhymes with . . .

8. "Gorilla Warfare" artist Shaquille: O'NEAL - Name #10, but that's who I figured - not too many people named Shaquille - and his "art"

9. NWSL official: REF - abbr for the National Womens' Soccer League; I ventured a guess at something something Sports League . . . enough to take a WAG

10. Didn't ride solo: CARPOOLED

11. Corp. bigwig: EXECutive

12. Goes out with: SEES - Crossword friendly "E"s and "S"s on the edge

14. Retiring: TIMID - Dah~!  Not IN BED, but an obscure definition

15. Shake: SCARE - Friday. Vague.

16. Ink spot, for short: TATtoo - so many ladies at the gym with ink art, but I just don't care for it; to me, it's like graffiti on the Venus De Milo

Yecht - looks "dirty"

21. Digital __: remote tech worker: NOMAD - I have not heard this phrase, but sounds like a great way to work in the 21st century

24. Deep defenses: MOATS - two weeks in a row on Friday

Caerlaverock castle, Scotland

26. MD-to-be's exam: MCAT - Medical College Admission Test

29. Clearance event: SALE

31. Not nearby: AFAR

32. No longer feral: TAME - this guy only gets feral when the FedEx guy pulls up . . .

Told you he was a licker . . .

33. Impetuous: RASH - I went with RUDE, only 25% correct

34. Clarinet kin: OBOE - about the only 'gimme' in the SW

35. "Do my eyes deceive me?": "COULD IT BE~?" - Solid, but tough to suss in the Down position, and no crossings to work with either

37. Totenberg of NPR: NINA - I don't listen, more here.  Name #11

39. Like some flaws: FATAL

41. Linguistic cousin of Hindi: URDU

43. One of a geographic quintet: OCEAN - Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Antarctic & Arctic

46. Formally decrees: ORDAINS - that's the word I could not think of; I was stuck on ORATES

48. Galena, e.g.: LEAD ORE - I knew this, but for some reason, put in IRON - that's these ores

52. Bonny landscapes: GLENS

Aye, she's a bonny lass

54. Sierra Nevada lake: TAHOE - Geo name #12

56. Match point?: ALTAR - And I thought I was being clever with "FLAME" = tip, but this is the wedded bliss kind of point - the "location"

58. Sells: VENDS

59. Came together: MET UP

60. Olive oil maker: PRESS

61. Flip: SASSY - flip, the adjective, not the verb

62. Intro courses?: APPS - Ah.  The restaurant menu appetizers, that is

63. Swimmer Marchand who won four gold medals at Paris 2024: LEON - oof. Friday. Frawnche.  Name #13

65. "__ true!": TOO - I had "TIS" to start

68. __-de-France: Paris's region: ILE - Frawnche #2 - guessed it, put it in, took it out, put it right back in, and I shaked it all about . . . 🙄

70. Govt. cybersecurity monitor: NSA - No. Such. Agency.

Splynter

Grid Flow 29.0

answer to 20A << Bing Crosby >>