NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Adam Wagner, of Oakland, Calif., is a creative lead at Patreon, the crowdfunding site for content creators. Michael Lieberman is an attorney in Washington, D.C. Rafael Musa, of San Francisco, is a software engineer at Airbnb. They met through crossword posts on Twitter and now play on the same team in a weekly trivia night over Zoom. The idea for this puzzle was Michael’s. Rafael and Adam added to the theme. They all collaborated on the grid and clues. — W.S.
ACROSS
1 Image on the flag of Oakland, Calif., appropriately
5 Country whose capital is an anagram of its former capital 10 Sends 10 texts
in a row to, say 15 Stage partitions? 19 Achings
20 Basic Mediterranean sauce
21 Eagles’ home
22 Pork cut
23 Stick of butter,
geometrically 26 Sesame Street resident who refers to himself in the third person
27 Attentive
28 Change of scenery, in real estate lingo
29 Less involved
31 Seminal 1980 hit by Joy Division
37 Attire for some
queens
39 Subtle flavor, to
a wine taster
40 Accomplishes 41 Barbecue discard 42 White House
staffer
43 What a V-sign
might indicate? 44 Try to hit, as a
piñata
47 ____-Locka, Fla. 50 Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming, among others
53 Lap, maybe 56 Visitors from afar, in brief 57 Hurry, quaintly 58 A matter of course? 59 Works in a gallery
60 ____ Aviv
61 Hit 1998 Eddie Murphy comedy based on books by Hugh Lofting 65 ‘‘An empty set
exists,’’ e.g.
68 Stole
69 It lacks value
70 Leafy salad green 71 Recommit to one’s fitness . . . or what 23-Across depicts literally 74 State south of
Mumbai
75 Perception
76 Goof
77 South, in much of South America
78 Light touch
81 Nickname that’s an anagram of ONLINE
82 What characters in musicals often do...orwhat 31-Across depicts literally
87 ‘‘Discreet Music’’ musician Brian 88 Cars with
clutches
90 Photographer
Goldin
91 Prosecco cousin 92 Big shots they
are not
95 Secular
96 It’s just under a
foot
97 Explorer
Ericson
98 Useful people toknow...or what 50-Across depicts literally 104 What an economy seat is usually short on 105 ‘‘Oh, why not?!’’ 106 Kuwaiti currency 109 Beseech
110 Screen feature that facilitates multitasking . . . or what 61-Across depicts literally 116 Food that’s easy
to get hooked on? 117 Group character 118 Mocking smile 119 The ‘‘garden’’ in Bosch’s ‘‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’’ 120 Old video game
console inits. 121 Excel
122 Swamp plant 123 Lamb, for one
DOWN
1 Banks on TV
2 Lively dance
3 Moon of Saturn found to have a potentially habitable ocean 4 Component of some hormone therapy 5 National Blood Donor Mo. 6 Big inits. in insurance
7 Work enthusiastically and energetically 8 Genetic variant 9 Singer Horan of the boy band One Direction 10 Part of a woodpecker’s diet
11 /
12 Perfume line by
pop star Grande 13 Beauty pageant
since 1952
14 Precursors to
finals
15 Mideast city with an eponymous pepper
16 Share a byline,
maybe
17 Part of a stove 18 [That is so funny!] 24 Off-road option,
for short
25 Spoil
30 ____ Pro (tech
product)
32 Require
33 ‘‘Holy moly!’’
34 Button added to
Twitter in 2022 35 Primo
36 Govt. agency rules 37 Title for food writer Mary Berry
38 Hilarious sort 44 Library section 45 Imperfection,
metaphorically 46 Labor
48 Makes certain
knitting stitches 49 Before: Sp.
51 Group of
gift-givers
52 Cuddle in a way amorously, 54 Magical creature associated with rainbows 55 Tri- one more
time? 59 Rock’s __ Fighters 60 Soccer star ____
Heath 61 Enthusiastic
affirmative 62 Region encompassing most of the Arkansas/ Missouri border 63 Copy, in brief 64 Rap mogul,
familiarly 65 Quick and nimble 66 Noble gas used
in some lasers 67 ‘‘All good’’
68 B’way purchase 72 STEM subject that rhymes with ‘‘stem’’
73 Recover
74 ____ pig
77 Buy time
78 Barely sits still? 79 No pro
80 ‘‘Weekend, here
I come!’’
82 ____ mitzvah (Jewish ceremony for multiple people) 83 84 A Flatten, pop say
85 Having intact tamper an seal, say
86 One might move
fast in stores 89 Loser to Herbert
Hoover in 1928
93 Parts of some military uniforms 94 ____-Caps (candy)
96 Holy place
98 Goofs 99 Aired anew
100 Usesperformanceenhancing drugs
101 Egypt neighbor:
Abbr. 102 103 Say Agcy. advises eating ‘‘ . that . raw ., against say,’’ say 107 cookie ____ (frequent man dough subject in The Onion) 108 Monopoly payment 111 Home of more than one M.L.B. team 112 Whole lot 113 Bring into play 114 Cribbage marker 115 Anger ANSWERS APPEAR ON PAGE 17