December 28, 2025

Title: LEFTOVERS

Constructor: Sally Hoelscher

Editor: Amie Walker

Theme synopsis:

• HEAD HONCHOS (20A: Big bosses)
• TIME SIGNATURE (37A: 4/4, e.g., in musical notation)
• LOOK WHO IT IS (55A: Comment upon seeing an unexpected person)

LEFTOVERS: The LEFT-most word of each theme answer can be paired with the word OVER: OVERHEAD, OVERTIME, and OVERLOOK.

Random thoughts and interesting things:

• ARCH (1A: St. Louis monument completed in 1965) The Gateway ARCH is located in St. Louis, Missouri on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Fun fact: The ARCH and I are the same age!
• LILO (14A: Stitch's friend who says "'Ohana means family") The 2002 animated movie LILO and Stitch introduced LILO, a six-year-old girl that lives in Hawaii and Stitch, an illegally-made extraterrestrial animal-like creature that is called Experiment 626 until LILO adopts it. Among many other things, LILO teaches Stitch that "'Ohana means family. And family means that nobody gets left behind or forgotten." 
• OPRAH (16A: CEO of Harpo Productions) When OPRAH Winfrey founded a multimedia production company in 1986, she named it Harpo, which is OPRAH spelled backwards. 
• GECKO (19A: Lizard that may chirp or click to communicate) In addition to using vocalizations (chirps, clicks, barks, and hisses) to communicate with each other, GECKOs also communicate using body language (head bobs and tail flicks), and chemical signals (pheromones). 
• HER (23A: "I Can't Breathe" artist) H.E.R. is an acronym for "Having Everything Revealed." H.E.R.'s song, "I Can't Breathe," won a 2021 Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The protest song was a response to the killing of George Floyd, and the music video includes footage of marches protesting police brutality and systemic racism.
• ROAR (64A: Sound a lion can make that a house cat cannot) Because of the physiology involved in how the sounds are produced, members of the cat family can either ROAR or purr, but they can't do both. Big cats such as lions, tiger, jaguars, and leopards can ROAR, but they can't purr. On the other hand, house cats, bobcats, ocelots, cougars, and cheetahs can purr, but they can't ROAR. My cat, Willow, falls into the purr category.

• KNEE (65A: Patella's place) Patella is another name for the KNEEcap. The patella is a flat, roughly triangular bone located on the front of the KNEE joint. When babies are born, their patellas are composed of cartilage. This cartilage changes into bone between three and six years of age.
• OPE (10D: Midwesterner's "Oho!") OPE! As a Midwesterner, I'm happy to get a little regional dialect represented here. 
• HYGGE (21D: Danish concept of cozy contentment) Since the late 20th century, HYGGE has been a core part of Danish culture, and the concept has spread to other parts of the world. HYGGE refers to a psychological state and way of life that embodies coziness and simplicity. Sitting in my recliner in front of the fire with Willow on my lap (often underneath a fleece blanket) exemplifies HYGGE to me.
• OSAKA (22D: Tennis star Naomi) I have previously written about tennis star Naomi OSAKA. 
• STU (30D: R-V connector) The question mark in the clue alerts solvers to expect some wordplay. The clue is not referring to a hitch or a hose that one might connect to an R-V (recreational vehicle). Rather, the answer here is the letters S-T-U, which connects the letter R to the letter V in the alphabet.
• I, TINA (51D: Rock star Turner's autobiography) TINA Turner's 1986 autobiography, I, TINA, was the basis of the 1993 movie, What's Love Got to Do with It, in which Angela Basset played the leading role. The book was co-written by MTV news correspondent Kurt Loder.
• TILES (52D: Scrabble pieces) I was happy to work in a reference to Scrabble, one of my favorite word games.
• ESTES (53D: Opera singer Simon) Simon ESTES is an opera singer. He was inducted into the Opera Hall of Fame as part of their inaugural Class of 2021. Simon ESTES was born in Centerville, Iowa and attended the University of Iowa (my alma mater). One of the perks of living in Iowa is occasionally getting to hear Simon ESTES sing in person. When my son graduated from Iowa State University in 2016, Simon ESTES sang, "Climb Every Mountain" at his graduation ceremony.
• WRAP (58D: "That's a ___" ("We're all done here!")) and BUT (60D: "___ wait, there's more!") I don't know if any solvers will notice this or appreciate it, BUT I definitely amused myself by ending this puzzle with "That's a WRAP" followed immediately by "BUT wait, there's more!"

My approach to generating themes is essentially, "Always be looking for themes," and this is a good example. The idea for this puzzle's theme came to me while I was packaging up LEFTOVERS after supper one night. Thanks to Amanda for helping me refine the theme set. And thanks to Amie for excellent editing. And, of course, thanks to you for solving and for reading the blog.