NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
Caitlin Reid, of Santa Ana, Calif., is the mother of two boys and two girls, ages 4 to 11. Like Margaret Farrar, the first crossword editor of The Times — who was also a busy mother — Caitlin does most of her puzzle work after the rest of the family has gone to bed. That’s when things quiet down. Caitlin is a classically trained pianist who plays at her local church. Her favorite crosswords to make are themeless ones, like today’s, that feature long, fresh, lively vocabulary and lots of humor and playfulness in the clues. This is Caitlin’s ninth crossword for the paper, including a collaboration last Sunday. — W.S.
ACROSS
1 Round number?
7 Pick a card, any card 11 Hoops
16 Piano keys
18 Quick study
20 Quick studies
22 Line delivered in
costume
23 Source of a trendy
health juice
24 Alternative to tarot
cards
26 Opportunity to hit 27 Hearing aid?
29 Hole-making tools 30 Hill worker
31 Split
32 Small bird with
complex songs
33 He was told to ‘‘take a sad song and make it better’’
34 ‘‘Smackdown’’ org. 37 Upper limit
38 Olympic figure
skater Johnny
39 Make more
pleasant
41 First attempt
44 Attire
45 In key
46 ‘‘The ____ Locker,’’ 2009 Best Picture winner
47 Declare
48 ‘‘Surely you don’t think it could be me?!’’
49 Bank, at times
51 Hayek of Hollywood 52 Some movie extras 55 Acts like money
grows on trees
57 Tool for a difficult
crossword, say
58 Added water to, as
a sauce
60 Family secret,
perhaps
62 In lock step (with) 64 Seasonal song with
lyrics in Latin
66 Sacrament of holy matrimony and others
67 Throughway, e.g. 69 Fashion expert
Gunn
70 It’s sedimentary,
my dear
71 Seemingly forever 72 Filmmaker Gerwig 73 Info on an
invitation
75 Command, as
influence
76 ‘‘Don’t worry about
it’’
78 Brown or blacken 79 Hole in the ground 80 ____ card
81 Shaded
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).
82 Went over the
limit, say
83 Where to find the
radius
84 ____ Lipa, Grammy
winning pop artist 87 ‘‘Big Little
Lies’’ co-star of Witherspoon and Kidman
88 Barely afloat?
91 Buzz in the morning 93 Place you may go
just for kicks?
94 Mail lady on ‘‘Pee
wee’s Playhouse’’ 95 Occasion to stay
up late
97 Some surfing
destinations
99 You are here
100 Pounds
101 He made a pact
with the Devil
102 Makes blue, say 103 One of three for
‘‘Mississippi’’
DOWN
1 Brand of breath spray 2 Arthurian isle
3 Decay, as wood
4 ‘‘____ words were
never spoken’’
5 Voice, as grievances 6 Potter of children’s
literature
7 Ambitious
8 Proverbial tortoise
or hare, e.g.
9 Poses
Branch of the U.N. in 2020 news
11 Soda factory worker 12 1989 Tom Hanks black comedy, with ‘‘The’’
13 Math measurement 14 Aspiring D.A.’S exam 15 Tennis do-over
17 Result of eating the poisoned apple in ‘‘Snow White’’ Quickly go from success to failure Mudbug, by another name
21 Easy target
22 Many a dare, in
hindsight
25 Bring down
28 Part of a high chair 29 Boring things
33 Hera’s Roman
counterpart
34 ‘‘Don’t you trust
me?’’
35 Heat of the
moment?
36 First name in jazz 37 Quagmire
38 Mom jeans have a
high one
39 Picturesque time
for a walk
40 Goes out on a limb 41 Tapered hairstyle 42 Act of omission . . .
or of a commission 43 Four for a 4x400,
say
44 Pluto, e.g.
10 18 19 45 Pint-size and then
some
48 ____ mortal
50 Central
51 Bird-feeder bit
53 They’re on the case,
in slang
54 Garrulous
56 Like a pearl-clutcher 59 Discourage
61 Abbr. on a
cornerstone 63 What skies do before
a storm
65 Worrisome beach
sighting
66 Pro ____
68 Email status
72 Food connoisseur
74 ____ a clue (was lost) 75 Scaredy-cat
77 Frozen dessert 78 Golfer Jordan who won the 2015 U.S. Open
79 Republican politico
Reince
82 Hybrid bottoms
83 Spot seller, in brief 84 Keto adherent, e.g. 85 Prepare to deplane 86 Andre who won the 1994 and 1999 U.S. Opens 87 Curses
88 Piece of the pie
89 ‘‘That smarts!’’
90 De-e-eluxe
91 ____ breve (cut time) 92 Beach ball?
93 Do a veterinarian’s
job on
95 Beach lotion abbr. 96 Rare color?
98 Texter’s ‘‘I can’t
believe this’’