November 23, 2025

Title: HIT BOTTOM

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Theme synopsis:

• SNAP CLUTCH (3D: Purse with a click-shut clasp)
• FEELING THE PINCH (5D: Short on money)
• CLIENT BASE (29D: Group of regular customers)

HIT BOTTOM: The last word of each vertical theme answer can be paired with the word HIT: CLUTCH HIT, PINCH HIT, and BASE HIT.

What I learned from today's puzzle:

• ELBA (13D: "Hijack" actor Idris) Hijack is an Apple TV+ series that premiered in 2023. Idris ELBA portrays a corporate business negotiator who finds himself on a hijacked flight from London to Dubai.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• AFRO (4A: Hairstyle for Antonio Madrigal) This is a reference to Disney's 2021 animated movie Encanto, which tells the story of the Madrigals, a multigenerational Colombian family. Antonio Madrigal, who has curly black hair worn in an AFRO, is the youngest member of the family. On his fifth birthday, he is gifted the ability to communicate with animals.
• CALI (22A: Yosemite National Park's state, for short) Yosemite National Park, located in central California (CALI, for short), was established in 1872, becoming the third U.S. National Park (after Yellowstone, in Wyoming, and Sequoia, also in CALI). Highlights of Yosemite National Park are its granite cliffs (including Half Dome and El Capitan), waterfalls, and groves of giant Sequoia trees. My husband and I are on a quest to visit as many U.S. National Parks as we can. Yosemite National Park is one that we've been to, and it is on our "visit again someday" list.
• CHI (29A: Ho ___ Minh City) Ho CHI Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. The city's name, adopted in 1976, honors Ho CHI Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam.
• GENA (46A: "Gloria" actress Rowlands) Gloria is a 1980 crime thriller film about a woman (a gangster's former girlfriend) and a young boy (the son of her neighbors) who are on the run from the mob. GENA Rowlands portrays the title character, a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
• SOHO (70A: Gallery district north of TriBeCa) The NYC neighborhoods of SOHO and TriBeCa both have names derived from their location. The SOHO neighborhood derives its name from being SOuth of HOuston Street. The area is home to a number of art galleries, artists' lofts, and shops. TriBeCa is a shortened version of "Triangle Below Canal Street." The neighborhood is bordered by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Chambers Street. Those four streets form a quadrilateral rather than a triangle, but hey, that's what imagination is for.
• ACNE (10D: What an LED facial might treat) LED facials are based on the idea that different colors of light have different effects on the skin. Blue light may be used to treat ACNE, for example, while red light may be used to reverse signs of aging such as wrinkles. 
• ALS (20D: Critic Hilton) Hilton ALS is a staff writer and theater critic for The New Yorker and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University. In 2017, Hilton ALS was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for criticism "for bold and original reviews that strove to put stage dramas within a real-world cultural context, particularly the shifting landscape of gender, sexuality and race."
• GAMER (25D: Roblox fan, e.g.) Roblox is an online platform for GAMERs. It allows users to program games, as well as to play games created by other users.
• ID TAG (31D: Pet collar attachment) My cat, Willow, is hiding her face today, because she knows I'm going to tell you that she refuses to wear a collar and ID TAG. She has been lectured on the importance of an ID TAG, even for an indoor cat, but to no avail. We used to try and keep a collar on her. Inevitably we would find it on the floor somewhere after she'd manage to get it off. Back on it would go, until several years ago the collar once again disappeared ... and we have never found it. We have redone the flooring in our entire house since then, requiring everything to be moved, but still no collar to be found. We've given up. Fortunately, they did chip her when we adopted her from the animal shelter, so she does carry an ID TAG of sorts inside of her.

• MAE (33D: "Parenthood" actress Whitman) The TV series Parenthood, based on the 1989 movie of the same name, is the story of the Braverman family - an older couple, their four children, and their families. MAE Whitman plays the role of Amber Holt.
• SIS (43D: Tamera, to Tia, for short) I have previously written about Tia Mowry and her SIS, Tamera Mowry.
• MAKO (50D: Torpedo-shaped shark) MAKO sharks are a genus of sharks of which there are two living species, the longfin MAKO shark, and the more common shortfin MAKO shark. Several extinct species of MAKO shark have been identified from fossil evidence. These torpedo-shaped sharks can swim at speeds up to 46 miles per hour.
• A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
• TURN SIGNAL (63A: Car's "I'm going to change lanes" indicator)
• ALEXA (26D: Voice with an Echo)
• NAT GEO (49D: Mag whose cover has a yellow border)

The word BOTTOM in a puzzle's title is a good hint that the theme might be found in the Down answers. That is indeed the case here. I suspected a synonym theme at first, but eventually realized this is a "word with" theme. It was FEELING THE PINCH that provided the "Aha!" moment. My familiarity with baseball came in handy today to identify these HITs. Thank you, Zhouqin, for this enjoyable puzzle.