Thursday, October 9, 2025, Dan Caprera

Theme:  Tousled topknots. 

Some messy buns are truly casual, and others are carefully calculated, like the lovely coiffure pictured above.  Today's puzzle constructor has at least a couple dozen crossword puzzles under his belt, including six in the L.A. Times.  And he's a funny guy!  Dan Caprera:  Writer. Comic. Barrel-Aged to Perfection.  More at DanCaprera.com.

Today Dan has deliberately messed up some BUNS, scrambling them in the theme answers.

17-Across. *Vessel secretly ridden by Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark": GERMAN SUB.  The movie Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981.  I don't remember many details from 44 years ago!  Perpendicular entries saved the day for me.

Indiana Jones and the U-Boat in the Marvel Comics adaptation

24-Across. *Hank Aaron's record 2,297: RUNS BATTED IN.  Wow!  That's a lot!  Famous baseball batter, not too hard to guess the statistic category.

1976 Topps trading card

39-Across. *Ursine critter with a distinctive orange patch on its chest: SUN BEAR.  This arboreal bear is found in tropical forests of Southeast Asia.

Sun Bear

50-Across. *Don't pull any shenanigans: MEAN BUSINESS.  Be determined and firm.

"I look like I mean business, and, by golly, I do!"

61. Casual updos, or what can be found in the answers to the starred clues?: MESSY BUNS.  An updo is a hairstyle in which the hair is swept up and fastened away from the face and neck.

Before the rage for messy buns, there were more formal buns:

Not being much of a hair hopper, I'll jump right into the rest of the clues and answers.

Across:

1. Distracted boyfriend and Surprised Pikachu: MEMES.  Folks put their own text to these popular images.

"Distracted boyfriend"

"Surprised Pikachu"

6. Giants slugger Mel: OTT.  Another famous batter.

9. Grows faint: DIMS.

13. Glorify: EXALT.

14. __ Beta Kappa: PHI.  The oldest academic honor society in the United States, founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

15. Waiting, as champagne: ON ICE.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Saw: MAXIM.

20. Brief fight: SET TO.

21. "X" and "Pearl" actress Goth: MIA.  Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth (born 1993) is an English actress.  DNK.

Mia Goth

23. Loan option, for short: REFI.  Short for refinance.

24. [Theme clue]

27. Divine: FORESEE.  Divine as an intransitive verb.  Per Merriam-Webster:  to seek to predict future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the interpretation of omens or by the aid of supernatural powers : to practice divination : prophesy

30. Clothing line: SEAM.

31. Instrument commonly made from African blackwood: OBOE.

32. Prefix with net or com: INTER.

35. Abate: EBB.  Abate is to decrease in force or intensity.  Ebb (as a verb) is to fall from a higher to a lower level.

38. Gym unit: REP.  Short for repetition, as gym is short for gymnasium.

39. [Theme clue]

41. Couple: DUO.

42. Go green, perhaps: DYE.

43. Shredded __: WHEAT.

44. Euro forerunner: LIRA.  Lira was the basic monetary unit of Italy, until replaced by the euro in 2002.

45. Actress Remini: LEAH.  Actress Leah Remini, know for roles on sitcoms The King of Queens and Kevin Can Wait, wrote a book about her upbringing in the Church of Scientology and produced an Emmy Award winnning documentary series on the same subject.

Leah Remini

47. LeBron James and Steph Curry, by birth: OHIOANS.  LeBron plays basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers, and Steph for the (San Francisco) Golden State Warriors.  Steph's father also played on an NBA team.  LeBron's father was a criminal and not involved in his life, but LeBron moved into the home of a youth football coach who introduced him to basketball at age nine.  Sometimes the road is crooked.  

50. [Theme clue]

54. "Let There Be Rock" band: AC/DC.

55. Laid low: HID.

56. Rizzo of "Midnight Cowboy": RATSO.  Dustin Hoffman played "Ratso" Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, the 1969 film that is the only X-rated film ever to win an Academy Award.  It won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy

59. Musical endings: CODAS.

61. [Theme clue]

64. Woeful words: ELEGY.

65. Flock sound: BAA.

66. Emma Roberts, to Julia Roberts: NIECE.  Emma Roberts has played a number of roles in horror films and has a reputation as a scream queen.

Emma Roberts' hair color is in a constant state of flux.

67. Really ticks off: IRES.

68. PC key near Z: ALT.

69. City east of the Great Salt Lake: OGDEN.


Down:

1. "Family Guy" daughter: MEG.

Meg Griffin      

2. Awkward people to run into, perhaps: EXES.

3. Frutti di __: Italian seafood dish: MARE.  Seafood in Italian is "fruits of the sea."

Fettuccine ai Frutti di Mare

4. One of many in Boston Common: ELM TREE.  The Boston Common is the oldest city park in the United States, established in 1634.  Its Great Elm Tree was destroyed by a storm in 1876, but many others grow there today.

Boston Common

5. Position: STATUS.

6. Black __: OPS.  Black ops, or black operations, refers to secret missions that are hidden from public knowledge, and sometimes even from personnel of the organizing agency.  The CIA is said to conduct black ops to protect national security.

7. Flip (through): THUMB.

8. Leg bone: TIBIA.  The tibia, also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee; it connects the knee with the ankle.

Or, as you may have learned:

The foot bone's connected to the leg bone

The leg bone's connected to the knee bone

The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone

Doin' the skeleton dance

Tibia -- frontal view.

9. Abbey title: DOM.  Monks are called "'Dom,'" an abbreviation of "Dominus" which means "Lord."  Let us all recall fondly Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk whose labors in the vineyard were focused on Champagne.

NaomiZ and DH on pilgrimmage in 2018

10. Covered by one's insurance: IN AREA.  Insurance is often limited to a particular geographic coverage area.

11. Found object art, often: MIXED MEDIA.

12. N.K. Jemisin genre: SCI-FI.  N. K. Jemisin is an American science fiction and fantasy writer.  She is the first African American author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first author to win that award in three consecutive years, and the first to win it for all three novels in a trilogy.  Guess we'd better read her Broken Earth series.  She went on to win a fourth Hugo for Best Novelette, and a fifth for Best Graphic Story.  Wowza.

N. K. Jemisin

16. Key with one sharp: Abbr.: E MIN.  E minor.

18. Zero: NONE.

22. Totally stumped: AT SEA.  Idiomatically, to have lost one's bearings, to be bewildered.

25. River to the English Channel: SEINE.  The Seine originates northwest of Dijon, flows through Paris, and northward into the English Channel at Le Havre.

26. Region: Abbr.: TERR.  Territory.

27. Expedition maker: FORD.  A full-size SUV.

28. Comply: OBEY.

29. Obstacle course component, often: ROPE LADDER.

33. Org. for LeBron James and Steph Curry: NBA.  See 47-Across.

34. Grand __ National Park: TETON.

36. Aloe target: BURN.

37. Fluffy accessories: BOAS.  A boa is a fluffy fashion accessory, worn around the neck like a scarf, and often made of feathers.  Let's go faux for the sake of the birds.  These are pretty costumey anyway.

39. Deckhand: SWAB.  A ship's crew member may be a deckhand, whose duty is to mop or "swab" the deck of the ship, and is therefore called a swab or swabbie.

40. "Totally!": UH HUH.  Yep, I agree with you.

44. Got clobbered: LOST BIG.

46. Coop up: ENCAGE.  Not a word we use every day.  

48. Feminine possessive: HERS.

49. "My vote is to skip it": I SAY NO.  Want to go see the new Superman movie again?  I SAY NO.  DH says yes.  He happily accepted younger son's invitation without mentioning he'd seen it already.

50. Scotch cookie spice: MACE.  Scotch spice cookies are made with molasses, cinnamon, and mace, which is the outer coating of the nutmeg seed.  In 2019, a Reddit user was investigating a murder that occured in their Maine home in the 1930s, and happened upon a contemporary cookie recipe in the course of the investigation.  The cookies have become an internet sensation of sorts, called "murder cookies" because of the source.  Another Reddit user explains, "They're KILLER!"  All news to me.

another item for our crossword picnic

51. Biotech bacteria: E. COLI.  Most Escherichia coli strains are part of the normal microbiota of the gut.  These bacteria are harmless or even beneficial to humans.  Some types cause food poisoning, mostly through fecal-oral transmission.  (Don't eat poop.)  E. coli is easy to grow in a laboratory and is used in biotechnology and microbiology as the host organism for recombinant DNA.

52. Disney lion: SIMBA.  The title character of The Lion King (1994).

Simba as a cub and as an adult lion

53. Perfect: IDEAL.

57. Courted?: SUED.  Took to court.

58. As soon as: ONCE.  I'll be ready once I finish the crossword puzzle, darling!

60. Pt. of GPS: SYS.  Global Positioning System.

62. Convened: SAT.  

63. Capitol fig.: SEN.  A figure you encounter in the capitol might be a senator.

Here's the grid:

I cannot FORESEE what the comments will be.

Will our cruciverbalist crowd EXALT today's puzzle and constructor?

Or will they THUMB their noses if they LOST BIG?

Please weigh in!

-- NaomiZ