September 17, 2025

Title: All Caps

Constructor: Freddie Cheng

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme synopsis:

• EVERYTHING BAGEL (3D: Roll covered with a wide mix of toppings)
• TOTAL ECLIPSE (7D: Rare astronomical event)
• WHOLE GRAIN BREAD (10D: Fiber-rich sandwich ingredient)

All Caps: The first word – the CAP, in a sense – of each vertical theme answer is a synonym of the word ALL: EVERYTHING, TOTAL, and WHOLE.

What I learned from today's puzzle:

• CHAO (20A: "The Joy Luck Club" actress Rosalind") The Joy Luck Club is a 1993 movie based on Amy Tan's 1989 book of the same name. The Joy Luck Club tells the stories of four immigrant families – four mothers and their daughters – living in San Francisco. This much I knew since I have read the book. I haven't seen the movie, however, so today I learned that Rosalind CHAO portrays Rose Hsu Jordan, one of the daughters.
• NIGERIA (60A: African country home to Calabar Carnival) The Calabar Carnival, also known as Africa's Biggest Street Party, is held annually in NIGERIA. The carnival takes place in December in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, one of NIGERIA's 36 states. This year's Calabar Carnival will be the carnival's 20th anniversary, and the theme is "Traces of Time."

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• GEEKS (1A: Many characters in "The Big Bang Theory") The Big Bang Theory is a TV sitcom that originally aired from 2007 to 2019. Characters on the show include an experimental physicist, a theoretical physicist, an aerospace engineer, and an astrophysicist. I think it's a fair statement to say many of the characters are GEEKS.
• ATTA (6A: Palindromic flour) ATTA is a wholemeal wheat flour. ATTA flour is used to make flatbreads such as roti, chapati, and naan. Because of the high gluten content of ATTA flour, dough made with it is strong and elastic, and can be rolled into thin sheets. As the clue notes, the word ATTA is a palindrome (spelled the same forward and backwards).
• ROAR (14A: Lion's sound) and CAT (26A: Cool ___ (hip person)) My cool CAT, Willow, approves of the saying "cool CAT" and is happy to see mention of her big CAT cousin, the lion. Since Willow is a house cat, she doesn't have the ability to ROAR. That doesn't bother her because she has the ability to purr, something lions and other big CATs can't do.

• NCAA (17A: Org. that awards the Walter Byers Scholarship) The Walter Byers Scholarship is awarded annually to the top female and male student-athletes in NCAA sports. The 2025 recipients of the Walter Byers Scholarship were Mason Nichols, a baseball player at the University of Mississippi and Katelin Isakoff, a swimmer at Tufts University.
• NERD (19A: Bit of candy on a "rope" or in a "cluster") NERDs Rope is a gummy string with a variety of NERD candies attached to the outside. NERDs Gummy Clusters are bite-sized gummy balls coated in NERDs. In 2021, NERDs Gummy Clusters went viral on social media after Kylie Jenner mentioned them on her Instagram account. 
• OLEG (30A: Name hidden in "console gaming") Has anyone seen OLEG? Oh, he's currently immersed in console gaming.
• MILAN (39A: Italian fashion capital) Milan is the second-largest city in Italy, following Rome, the country's capital. As the clue informs us, MILAN is considered the fashion capital of Italy. The city hosts MILAN Fashion Week twice a year, and its fashion quadrangle – the quadrilateral della moda – is home to numerous boutiques and retail stores and is one of fashion's most influential neighborhoods.
• AUNTS (46A: Chen, Ping, Helen and Lily, to Mei in "Turning Red") Turning Red is a 2022 animated movie. Mei, voiced by Rosalie Cheng, is a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl who transforms into a giant red panda when she feels strong emotions. Chen, Ping, Helen, and Lily are the sisters of Mei's mother, making them Mei's AUNTS. This is a fun way to clue the word AUNTS.
• EVEREST (65A: Mountain known locally as Sagarmatha) At a peak elevation of just over 29,031 feet, Mount EVEREST is the highest mountain (above sea level) on Earth. It is part of the Himalayan mountain range, and is located on the border of Nepal and China. In the 1950s and 1960s, Nepal began using the Nepali word, Sagarmāthā, as the mountain's name. Sagarmāthā translates to "goddess of the sky" or "head in the great blue sky."
• GWEN (1D: No Doubt vocalist Stefani) GWEN Stefani is a vocalist and founding member of No Doubt, a band that formed in 1986. No Doubt has won two Grammy awards for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals – in 2003 for "Hey Baby" and 2004 for "Underneath It All."
• KENDO (4D: Japanese martial art with bamboo swords) In Japanese, the word KENDO means "sword way." This modern Japanese martial art began as swordsmanship exercises for samurai warriors. Today KENDO is widely practiced not only in Japan, but in many other countries as well.
• SCALE (15D: Word after "Kinsey" or "Richter") I have previously written about both the Kinsey SCALE (used to represent sexual orientation) and the Richter SCALE (used to measure the strength of earthquakes).
• PEGS (37D: Cribbage and Battleship pieces) I have fond memories associated with the game cribbage. When I was about 10, my Grandma Doris taught me to play cribbage in the back seat of our van. We were on a cross-country family road trip at the time. I took a cribbage board – complete with PEGS – along on the recent road trip my husband and I took. While we didn't play in the car (since one of us was always driving!), we did play multiple games in the evenings. I'm a fan of Battleship as well, though I've never owned the game. (I admit to being a bit conflicted about Battleship, as I really enjoy the gameplay but am not a fan of the warship and combat theme.)
• ONES (52D: Singles at the bar?) The question mark at the end of the clue alerts solvers that the singles in question here are ONES (dollar bills), not single people hanging out at the bar.
• VIVA (53D: "___ Las Vegas!") "VIVA Las Vegas!" is Spanish for "Long live Las Vegas!" The phrase was popularized by the 1964 rock and roll musical movie of the same name starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margaret. The film's theme song, "VIVA Las Vegas," has become a theme song for Las Vegas.
• OAT (56D: Bit of food for a neigh-sayer?) This clue made me chuckle. The spelling of "neigh-sayer" is the hint that this clue is about a horse that eats OATs.
• A few other answers I especially liked:
• EVENING THE SCORE (16A: Avenging a wrongdoing)
• LEGALESE (24A: Technical terms used by an attorney)
• BLING-BLING (42A: Flashy jewelry, in hip-hop culture)

The word CAPS is an indicator that the theme is found in the Down answers. I didn't catch on to that indicator at first, however, wondering if perhaps this was going to be some sort of hat-related theme. It took uncovering EVERYTHING BAGEL to have the "Aha!" moment of realizing EVERYTHING is a synonym of ALL. I do enjoy a synonym theme, and this is a fun one. Thank you, Freddie, for this enjoyable puzzle.