Monday November 10, 2025 Michael Hobin

  

Happy Monday, everyone! sumdaze here with Michael Hobin's second LAT puzzle. His first one was published on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. 

Theme:                   

Here are today's themed clues and answers:

17 Across. Superhero nemesis, often: EVIL GENIUS.  

I thought of Gru from the Despicable Me movies.
He is a supervillain. Is that the same thing?

24 Across. Massive dark spots in outer space: BLACK HOLES.  NASA's Black Hole Basics

38 Across. Place for a "No Trespassing" sign: PRIVATE PROPERTY.  

49 Across. William S. Burroughs work: NAKED LUNCH.  goodreads link

The reveal:  

62 Across. Unexpectedly enlightening, and what can be found at the starts of 17-, 24-, 38-, and 49-Across: EYE-OPENING.

Each of the OPENING (first) words of the themed answers can be placed in front of the word EYE to create an in-the-language phrase. In doing so we now have:  EVIL EYE, BLACK EYE, PRIVATE EYE and NAKED EYE. (For the last one, think, "Visible to the NAKED EYE".) 

Works for me!

Let's take a look at what else Michael has for us:

Across:

1. __ rug: small carpet: AREA.  Two weeks ago I posted a Dear Modern video about Feng Shui. This time he teaches us about AREA rugs (2:48 min.):  

5. "Cool!": NIFTY.  Nifty is an informal word that means "very good". Merriam-Webster says it was first used as an adjective in 1865.  

10. St. Louis landmark: ARCH.

14. Player's set of cards: HAND.  I liked this less-common definition of HAND.

15. Peter of "The Maltese Falcon": LORRE.  [1904 - 1964]

(l. to r.)  Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet

16. Spotlight moment in a concert: SOLO.

19. Antlered deer: STAG.

20. Radio, TV, newspapers, etc.: MEDIA.

21. RR stops: STNS.  Railroad and Stations

23. Passports, e.g.: IDs.

28. Tapioca source: CASSAVA.  

Tapioca comes from the roots.

31. Brewery kilns: OASTS.  They are buildings used for drying the hops. They have cone-shaped tops.  

34. Athletic gp. for the Blue Devils: ACC.  Duke University is one of a group of schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

35. Egg cells: OVA.

37. "That is perfect!": LOVE IT.  

If we change the I to a T, we'd have Lovett, as in Lyle. Here is his 1988 song, Give Back My Heart. 

42. Move to a different folder, e.g.: REFILE.

43. Schoolyard game: TAG.  I recently learned that "Touch And Go" is a backronym. 

44. Suffix with percent: -ILE.  Percent and percentile are easily confused. In the example below, Sam's test scores earn him a 70%. Because his scores are better than most of his classmates, he ranks in the 82nd percentile of his class.  

45. Last Supper question from Judas: IS IT I.

46. Beards similar to Vandykes: GOATEES.  Sometimes people confuse a GOATEE with a Vandyke beard. A Vandyke includes a mustache that is not connected to the chin beard. A true GOATEE is just the hair on the chin, with no mustache at all.  

Uncle Sam sported a GOATEE but Dick Van Dyke did not.

53. Number of players in Connect Four: TWO.  It is an elaborate tic-tac-toe-ish game.  

55. New York canal: ERIE.

56. Virtuous: MORAL.

60. Partake of: HAVE.  Think "food".

65. Celebrates birthdays: AGES.     and     63-Down. Having celebrated many birthdays: OLD.    

Today is the Marine Corps' 250th birthday.
Happy Birthday, Marines!

66. Large member of the violin family: CELLO.  Are you curious what modern day cello music sounds like? This song is off of Clarice Jensen's new album released last month. Clarice also collaborated with Taylor Swift on two of Taylor's albums.  her website 

Unity     ~     Clarice Jensen     ~     2025

67. Dollop: GLOB.

68. Swollen mark: WELT.

69. Swap: TRADE.

70. Email folder: SENT.  

Down:

1. Throat-clearing sound: AHEM.  

2. Glowing review: RAVE.

3. Oklahoma home of Vance Air Force Base: ENID.  

4. Goes off script: AD-LIBS.

5. Div. for the Phillies: NLE.  The Phillies won the National League East division this year.  

6. Lithium-__ battery: ION.

7. Pat down at a security checkpoint: FRISK.  

"down pat"  LOVE IT!

8. Verified fact: TRUTH.

9. Binary type of question: YES/NO.

10. Donkey: ASS.

11. One that takes turns making dinner?: ROTISSERIE.  This clue had a little misdirection with the meaning of turns.  

12. Dressed (in): CLAD.

13. Leaves none for others: HOGS.  

18. Fundraising fete: GALA.

22. Sailboat with one mast: SLOOP.  

Sloop John B     ~     The Beach Boys     ~     1966

This song was adapted from an old Bahamian folk song.

25. "Let's put it to __": "Show of hands": A VOTE.  Speaking of 32-Down TITLE, this answer reminds me of Charles Grodin's memoir, It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here. In this case, the "you" is the indefinite article. Oh, well, sometimes that is what it takes to make a grid work.

26. Spelunking site: CAVE.  

27. Roof projection: EAVE.  

28. __ pants: calf-length garment: CAPRI.

29. Agricultural measures: ACRES.

30. Work of fiction considered for a Hugo or Nebula Award: SCI-FI NOVEL.  Stellar fill!

The Hugo Awards are annual literary awards for the best science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year. They are voted on by fans. The Nebula Awards recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the U.S. They are voted on by writers. The 1965 book Dune is an example of a book that won both awards.

32. Book name: TITLE.  25 Beautiful Unique Book Titles  What would you add to this list?

33. Eyelid sores: STYES.  Easter Egg Alert!

36. Tending (to): APT.  

37. Enter one's user name and password: LOG ON.

39. "La Dolce __": VITA.  Translation:  The Sweet Life. The quotation marks indicate it is a title. Wiki says it is a 1960 film by Federico Fellini. Here is the trailer. It looks like a wild ride!  

40. Similar: ALIKE.

41. Prego competitor: RAGU.  Both are spaghetti sauces.  

47. Maker of rocket-powered roller skates, in cartoons: ACME.  

48. Suits found on many a beach bum?: THONGS.  

50. Not hunched over: ERECT.

51. Renovation project enthusiast, casually: DIYer.

52. "Futurama" captain with one eye and purple hair: LEELA.  The first L could be troublesome here for solvers unfamiliar with both this character and the W. S. Burroughs book. The show's title tells us to expect nontraditional names so any guess from A to Z is possible for _EELA. Fortunately, the book title narrows it down a bit. The letters B, H, L, and P all had potential for _UNCH.   

Leela of Futurama

53. Spring melt: THAW.

54. Salary: WAGE.

57. Agitate: RILE.

58. Short story writer?: ANON.  The question mark indicates wordplay. On the surface, it looks like the clue is asking for the author of a short story. However, in this case short refers to a shortened form of the word ANONymous. Fun! 

59. Pride parade inits.: LGBT.

61. Ballpark fig.: EST.  figure and ESTimate ... not umpire

64. American writer Edgar Allan __: POE.  

The grid:  

👁 cannot believe we are finished. Looking forward to reading your comments below!

Notes from C.C.:

 

Happy 79th birthday to Husker Gary's loving wife Joann and her twin sister Joyce. Here they're with their mom Martha, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 100. 

 

 

 

Sunday, November 9, 2025 ~ Zhouqin Burnikel

Theme: "Academic Circles"

Or, as 77a indicates:
77. End-of-term cry, and an alternate title for this puzzle: SCHOOLS OUT.

Hi All!
Today, C.C. graces us with another Sunday puzzle. This time, she splits SCHOOLS on the OUTside of each theme answer and then circles them to provide what they call in Academic Circles, um, well, just that -- academies in circles. Let's study them:

XKCD

Oh, sorry, C.C.'s Academic Circles:

24. Seeking a seat: RUNNING FOR OFFICE. Houston's own Rice University.

38. Explains something in simple terms: BREAKS IT DOWN. Brown University.

55. "Roman Holiday" star: AUDREY HEPBURN. Auburn University.

Hepburn & Peck in the 1953 Classic.
 It was her debut.

81. Auto-erased item on a hard drive: TEMPORARY FILE. Temple University.

98. Connecticut state song: YANKEE DOODLE. Yale.

114. Fluffy brunch item baked in a skillet: DUTCH BABY PANCAKE. Duke University.
 

I had to Google the Dutch Baby variety.

3. "Oh boy, that's uncomfortable": HOW AWKWARD. Howard University.

Well, what do you non circle-haters think? Pretty neat, eh?
There's only one thing to do before moving onto the fill and that's introduce Detroit's Vincent Furnier:

Alice Cooper's Schools Out

Across:

1. Org. on workplace posters: OSHA. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

5. Sweet-toothed crawlers: ANTS.

9. Financial resources: MEANS.

14. Clubs for chips: IRONS. Golf. Woods to drive; IRONS for chip shots. And that's all I know. HG?

19. More than expected: ALOT.

20. Adversaries: FOES.

21. Group of eight: OCTET.

22. Unaccustomed to: NEW AT.

23. Mike of "Dirty Jobs": ROWE. Did you also know Rowe sang with the Baltimore Opera? I read it on the internet.

24. [See: Theme]

27. Pacific coast barkers: SEA LIONS.

Going Pro?

29. __ Estados Unidos: LOS. Translation: The United States.

30. Feeling of gloom: PALL.

31. Hard-to-split wood: ELM.

32. Comes out on top: WINS.

33. Not trans or enby: CIS.

34. Unsubstantiated: TENUOUS.

36. Staged: FAKED.

38. [See: Theme]

41. Playful growl: RAWR.

42. Yukon gold rush region: KLONDIKE.

What would you do?

43. Uses a sieve: SIFTS.

47. 401(k) alternatives: IRAs. Individual Retirement Accounts.

48. De-iced?: NEAT. Cute.

49. State flower of New Mexico: YUCCA.

Eatable?

53. Pucker-inducing: TART.

54. The Blue Jays, on sports crawls: TOR. Toronto, Canada.

If you know, you know.

55. [See: Theme]

59. GameCube successor: WII. One year, Santa brought a Wii for the girls. We played games all of Christmas break and then almost never again :-(.

Nintendo's Wii

60. Burned, in a way: ON DISC. Remember burning your data to CD?

62. "The Pioneer Woman" host Drummond: REE.

My copy of Dinnertime.

63. Bearing: DEMEANOR.

65. Scolding sounds: TSKS.

67. Tossed dish: SALAD.

A caprese I "tossed" together

70. Herring kin: SHAD.

71. Harmless fib: WHITE LIE.

75. Angry growl: GRR.

76. Time-honored maxim: OLD SAW. From One Word A Day: "The "saw" in old saw comes from the Old English word sagu, meaning "saying, speech, story, or report." This is related to Old Norse saga and Old High German saga - all stemming from the Proto-Germanic sagō ("saying, report")." Read more.

80. House Stark patriarch: NED. Game of Thrones reference [thanks Google!]

81. [See: Theme]

86. Exec overseeing accounts: CFO. Chief Financial Officer.

87. Healing ointment: BALM. Myrrh is a balm...

Monty Python's "Life of Brian" Manger Scene

89. Spacious hotel offering: SUITE.

90. Core constituency: BASE.

91. "Get outta here!": SHOO.

92. Starting lineup: A TEAM.

94. Crude structures: OIL WELLS. Cute.

97. Spot for solar panels: ROOF.

98. [See: Theme]

102. Hilarious sorts: RIOTS.

103. Leaves high and dry: MAROONS.

104. Calendar divs.: WKS. Weeks.

105. Noble above a viscount: EARL.

106. High euchre card: ACE.

108. Classical closing: CODA.

109. Copa Mundial cheer: OLE.

110. Products that help prevent chapping: LIP MASKS. For the uninitiated: "Lip masks and lip 87a [balms] are both formulated to hydrate your lips, however lip masks are generally thicker and more intensive than a lip 87a." [Google again]

114. [See: Theme]

118. Wind like a snake: COIL.

119. Solo: ALONE.

120. Anne of fashion: KLEIN. Nee Hanna Golofsky (3 AUG 1923 - 19 MAR 1974)

121. __-Ball: SKEE.

History here.

122. "Shogun" streaming service: HULU.

123. Lightheaded?: BLOND. Cute.

124. Put in stitches: SEWED. Also cute.

125. Leaves in hot water: TEAS. Hat Trick!

126. Really small matter: ATOM.

Down:

1. Steering implements on dragon boats: OARS. Every Fall, the community just north of me has a dragon boat race.

The Woodlands' Dragon Boat Race

2. Blackthorn berry: SLOE. Flavors the SLOE gin in the fizz.

3. [See: Theme]

4. Drawing rooms?: ATELIERS. WikiP says "An atelier (French: [atəlje]) is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect."

5. Picked hairstyles: AFROS.

6. Plus or minus: NOUN.

7. Change for a 20, maybe: TENS.

8. ID with hyphens: SSN.

9. Snowboard cousin: MONOSKI. So it's a snowboard but with your feet side-by-side(?)

A Monoski.

10. Heart charts, briefly: ECGS.

11. Org. concerned with traffic: ATF. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

12. Virtual animal such as Xweetok: NEO-PET. I'll just let the internet explain what a Xweetok is. Here's an image for the TL;DR:

Xweetoks

13. Leave high and dry: STRAND.

14. Tributary streams: INFLOWS.

15. Penalty caller: REF.

16. Injuries, to a tot: OWIES.

17. Salt, in a chem lab: NACL. Na (Sodium) + Cl (Chloride) = salt.

Salt's Crystalline Structure 

18. Thorn's spot: STEM.

25. "Odyssey" prequel: ILIAD.

26. "Be a Revolution" author Ijeoma: OLUO.

Her WikiP

28. Neither Rep. nor Dem.: IND. An Independent is neither a Republican nor a Democrat.

33. Part of CDC: CENTERS. Centers for Disease Control (and Prevention).

34. Traffic jam: TIE UP.

35. Newton or tesla: UNIT.

36. Corn chip: FRITO.

37. "The West Wing" creator Sorkin: AARON.

His WikiP

38. Ran in the wash: BLED.

39. Crowd noise: ROAR.

40. "The __ Boat Song": classic Scottish ballad that opens "Outlander": SKYE.

42. Oft-cracked joints: KNUCKLES.

44. Babe in the woods: FAWN.

45. Destiny's Child, for one: TRIO.

46. Mix: STIR.

50. Chem. in some dispensary products: CBD. Cannabidiol derived from hemp.

51. Sticks in a pool hall: CUES.

52. Tank top openings: ARM HOLES.

55. Good thing to have: ASSET.

56. Vote in favor: YEA.

57. "Hey Arnold!" bully: HELGA.

Helga G Pataki

58. Writer Zora __ Hurston: NEALE.

Neale's WikiP

61. Hairy Addams cousin: ITT.

64. Contribute: ADD.

66. Shang-Chi player Liu: SIMU.

Simu's WikiP

68. Flight board abbr.: ARR. Arrival.

69. Signs of drought: DRY BEDS.

71. Org. for the Fever: WNBA. Indiana's Women's National Basketball Association team.

72. Preliminary race: HEAT.

73. Doing nothing: IDLE.

74. Prefix with dermis: EPI. Skin.

77. [See: Theme]

78. Underway: AFOOT. "Come, Watson, come!' [Holmes] cried. 'The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!'"

79. Dog sounds: WOOFS. What the dog says when asked, "Where do the solar panels go?"

82. Great Plains Natives: OTOES.

83. Tara of "Sharknado": REID.

Tara's WikiP

84. Leaf-peeping season: FALL.

85. Archipelago part: ISLE.

88. Guatemala native: MAYA.

91. Hot sauce served with pho: SRIRACHA. A buddy loves this stuff and puts it on everything. Yes, even ice cream.
 

93. Moved in step: MARCHED.

95. Area prone to flooding: LOW LAND.

96. No longer asleep: WOKEN.

99. Gaming greenhorn: NOOB. Typed n00b; the opposite of 1337.

100. Some classic cameras: KODAKS.

101. Make possible: ENABLE.

102. Sheep with horns: RAM.

103. "Same here!": ME TOO.

105. Swords with bell guards: EPEES.

106. Tiny amount: A DAB.

107. Cherry-pick: CULL.

109. Mayberry boy: OPIE. Ron Howard but y'all knew that.

110. Michigan, for one: LAKE.

111. Store with a Swedish food market: IKEA.

112. Metric weight: KILO.

113. Urban renewal target: SLUM.

115. "Inside Politics" channel: CNN.

116. Wood used in cabinetry: YEW.

117. Duluth winter hrs.: CST. Central Standard Time

The Grid:

The Grid

My $0.02:

WO: HaLGA @57d
ESPs: ATELIERS, OLUO, DUTCH BABY (but I inked DUKE from just the K in IKEA :-))
Fav: ROOF crossing WOOF 'cuz of the implicit dog joke.

There you have it folks. Have a great Sunday and, for those of you in the path of the Polar Vortex, stay warm tonight!*

Cheers, -T
*Forecast where I am: Today is in the 70's; tomorrow I'll wake to 38F.