NY Times Puzzle No. 0223

ACROSS

1 Formal

affirmative

8 Home of the prehistoric Ggantija temples

13 Absolute drivel

15 Longtime TV news colleague of Pelley, Cooper and Whitaker

16 Queso, e.g.

18 Prestigious award established after its founder purportedly read his premature obituary

19 One in a

hundred

20 Whoops, e.g.

22 Whence the

phoenix 23 Queer identity whose flag is green, white, gray and black, for short

24 Wrote an

exposé, say

26 Unreliable news

source

27 It has high-end

tastes

29 Isn’t finalized

30 One of more than 300 for “S.N.L.”

31 “Sonnets to

Orpheus” poet

32 Predispositions

33 Something

unoriginal

35 Drain away

36 Had to recant

38 Sign of a sellout

39 What you might

get at the gym

40 Network for

15-Across

43 “Dear ___”

45 Singer Marie

46 Singer Michaels

47 For real

49 Stealing from the collection plate, for example

51 Outmaneuver,

in a way

52 Covered in ink

53 Fleming who was the first opera singer to perform the national anthem at the Super Bowl (2014)

54 They resemble

boas

DOWN

1 State flower of

New Mexico

2 Early number?

3 Device used by a court reporter, informally

4 Word with swim

or swap

5 ___ nova

6 Question asked outside a bedroom

7 Tin lizzies

8

9

Competitor of AOL

On

10 Windy location

of myth?

PUZZLE BY LARRY SNYDER

11 Defunct health technology company that once had a

$10 billion valuation

12 So-called

14 Baño feature

17 Identify

21 Occasion when one might choose truth

24 Swimsuit

portmanteau

25 Greenish drink 27 “Is anybody

home …?”

28 Matches, as

watches

29 Instrument that includes ranks and divisions

31 Get back

33 One who grapples, in dialect

34 Tuchuses

35 Borrower’s

limit 37 Major export of

Ukraine

40 Liturgical chant

41 Kicked off

42 Flight

components

44 Team

46 “Ugh!”

48 Beethoven’s

fourth?

50 Ignatius ___, figure on Netflix’s “Wednesday”