NY Times Puzzle No. 1021

ACROSS

1 Stores with

fixed costs?

12 What might be sought before a major decision

14 1998 rap hit by Big Pun (feat. Joe)

16 Shortcut, of a

sort

17 Like many

attics

18 N.C.A.A. women’s basketball champs of

2023, for short

19 Settled

20 Modern way to

pay

21 ___ Domino

22 Son of, in Hebrew

23 Ships 25 Chick with multiple Grammys

26 World Trade ___ (fixture of Hong Kong or Toronto)

27 Trading off?

30 Least robustlooking

31 “Get it?”

32 Cancels

33 Word often accompanied by an arrow

34 Haka dance

performers

35 Home, spun?

38 A bunch

39 Astronaut Cooper, informally

40 Cocktail fruta

41 Corp. debut

24 Some beach

fliers 42

Kind of badge

43

Coastal formations

44 Reprimand to one who spoke too soon

47 Nonessential,

as spending

48 “I HAVE to have this — whatever it costs”

DOWN

1 Curb, as

spending

2 Sparkle

3 Sample, say

4 ___ Radcliffe, pioneer in Gothic fiction

5 1781 Mozart

opera seria

6 Jeffersonian design at the heart of the University of Virginia

7 Some

contractions

8 Aware of,

informally

9 Sole

10 ___ mater

11 Vegan coffee

order

12 Lacking

creativity

13 Ones who build their homes bit by bit

14 One crossing

the line?

15 Autumn hue

20 Cusp

PUZZLE BY KELLY MORENUS

21

Many Laplanders

23 More irritated

24 Ibram X. ___, author of “How to Be an Antiracist”

25 Concerns for a

linguist

26 City with the oldest metro system in Africa

27 Blinker

28

Tech support? 29 “Shut your pie

hole!”

30 Feature of a Craftsman home

32 Magazine that originated the words “payola” and “striptease”

34 Post-___

35 Bleak

36 “Man has no greater ___ than himself”: Petrarch

37

Foundation

39 Mystery, e.g.

40 Ones going through a stage

42 Bandmate of

Keith and Brian

43 Country duo

Brooks & ___

45 Inspection org.

46 Joey of children’s literature