November 1, 2025

Title: BUT FIRST, COFFEE

Constructor: Stella Zawistowski

Editor: Amanda Rafkin


Theme synopsis:
  • MUD WRESTLING (20A: Messy contact sport)
  • JOE COCKER (37A: "Feelin' Alright" singer)
  • JAVA APPLETS (59A: Programs that run in browsers)
BUT FIRST, COFFEE: The FIRST word of each theme answer is a synonym for COFFEE: MUD, JOE, and JAVA.

What I learned from today's puzzle:
  • LUCHA (15A: ___ libra) LUCHA libra is a type of professional wrestling that originated in Mexico. It is characterized by the colorful masks worn by the wrestlers and the use of high-flying aerial techniques. 
  • BALI (10D: Ubud's island) Ubud is a town in BALI, Indonesia. Ubud is a popular tourist destination. It's estimated that over three million tourists visit Ubud each year, drawn by shopping opportunities, resorts, museums, yoga, and zoos.
  • DEE (46D: "Survivor" winner Valladares) DEE Valladares was the winner of the 45th season of Survivor, which was filmed in April and May 2023 and aired later that year. DEE Valladares will return for the 50th season of Survivor, which will feature contestants returning from previous seasons. The season was filmed this past summer and is scheduled to air in Spring 2026.
Random thoughts and interesting things:
  • TUBA (1A: Instrument whose name means "trumpet" in Latin) This is a fun and amusing musical instrument fact.
  • ANDS (17A: Some "Conjunction Junction" conjunctions) I have previously written about the Schoolhouse Rock song, "Conjunction Junction." "I've got AND, but, and or, / they'll get you pretty far."
  • ARIEL (18A: Modern Family" actress Winter) Modern Family is a mockumentary TV series following the lives of three families. It originally aired for 11 seasons from 2009-2020. ARIEL Winter plays the role of Alex Dunphy.
  • TIA (26A: Aunt in a familia) The use of the Spanish word for family in the clue alerts solvers the answer will be the Spanish word TIA.
  • JOE COCKER (37A: "Feelin' Alright" singer) "Feelin' Alright" is the first track on JOE COCKER's 1969 debut album, With a Little Help from My Friends.
  • UMA (57A: "___ Thurman" (Fall Out Boy song)) As you might expect from the song's title, the lyrics of Fall Out Boy's 2015 song, "UMA Thurman," celebrate actor UMA Thurman. The song references a scene in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, in which UMA Thurman's character, Mia Wallace, dances with John Travolta's character, Vincent Vega. UMA Thurman is a fan of Fall Out Boy, and she gave them permission to use her name.
  • EAR (64A: One might be a good listener?) The use of the word "might" in the clue made me chuckle. Some EARs are, at times, not good listeners.
  • SYD (67A: "The Bear" sous-chef) The Bear is a TV series about Carmy Berzatto – portrayed by Jeremy Allen White – a chef from New York City who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his family's Italian beef sandwich shop, The Beef. Ayo Edebiri portrays sous-chef Sydney "SYD" Adamu.
  • TEA (1D: Second-most widely consumed drink in the world) It would be perfect for the purposes of this puzzle if the FIRST-most widely consumed drink in the world was COFFEE. But no, it's water. COFFEE comes in fourth, behind TEA in second and fruit juice in third.
  • PURR (6D: "Keep petting me, human!") My cat, Willow, just gave me this PURR-ing message while I was writing this. She definitely thinks petting the cat is more important than writing.
A calico cat is held in someone's arms.

  • DYE (13D: Go green?) Not "go green" as in be eco-conscious, but literally DYE something (hair, perhaps) green.
  • GRE (23D: Test taken in college, for short) The GRE is the Graduate Record Examinations. The GRE is used in the admissions process for many graduate schools in the U.S. and Canada. Therefore, college students who are considering graduate school often take the GRE.
  • PERSONALLY (31D: "Don't take it ___!") If someone tells me, "Don't take it PERSONALLY!" ... I'm almost always going to take it PERSONALLY.
  • EMU (45D: Fast-running bird) An EMU can run at speeds just over 30 miles per hour. That is indeed fast, although an ostrich is even faster and can obtain speeds of 40 miles per hour.
  • DUMP (49D: Garbage disposal spot) My first thought here was "sink." This is a nicely tricky clue, because it's not referring to a [Garbage disposal spot], but to a [Garbage disposal spot].
  • TAU (62D: Letter after sigma) TAU is the 19th letter of the 24-letter Greek alphabet. It follows sigma and precedes upsilon.
  • A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
    • ERAS (14A: Word on a lot of Taylor Swift tour merch)
    • GNOME (23A: Garden statue that might have a beard)
    • CAPE (42A: Accessory for Supergirl)
Even though I don't drink COFFEE, I enjoy a synonym theme, so this puzzle was a nice way to start the day. It reminded me of a puzzle from last year – with a completely different theme – titled "At Last! Coffee!" Thank you, Stella, for this excellent puzzle.


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