The New York Times Crossword
Erik Agard, 26, became the crossword editor of USA Today in December, the youngest in the paper’s history. He’s also a former national crossword champion and a three-day champion on “Jeopardy!” Last year Erik had 21 crosswords published in The Times, the most of any contributor. — W.S.
Instructions: When this puzzle is finished, change one letter in the last word in the answer to each asterisked clue to name a food. The replacement letters, in order, will spell an appropriate phrase.
ACROSS
1 It got some “Xtra” flavor in 2001 7 San Antonio pro 11 Atkins diet no-no 15 What’s called a cashpoint by Brits 18 Wage ____
19 Add to the team 20 ____ squash 22 One-named singer with the 2014 hit “Chandelier” 23 *Looks that can be difficult to pull off
25 *“It’s 2 a.m. already?!”
27 Half up-front? 28 Tikka masala gowith 29 Gravitate (toward) 31 Singer Morissette 32 Actress de Armas of “Knives Out” 34 “How was ____ know?”
35 Place for speakers 37 Trig function
38 *Data visuals similar to histograms 41 *Swimming hazards in the ocean 44 Crossword-loving detective on “Brooklyn NineNine”
45 ____ Dhabi 46 Celebrations of lives, for short 48 Dance arrangements, familiarly
49 One making frequent pitching changes? 51 Back of the neck 52 It’s spoken in Aberdeen 53 “Who ____ knows?” 54 Elderly
55 “I call dibs!” 56 [I’m mad!] 59 Honor for a play 60 Place in the earth
62 South African currency 63 Operatic showpiece 64 *“Man, that was cheap!” 66 *Holder of the single-game W.N.B.A. scoring record (53 points) 68 Something to do before a deal 69 Super, in slang 70 Lisa who “ate no basil,” in a palindrome 71 Missiles and such 72 Animal in a “Sound of Music” song
73 Big Super Bowl purchase 74 Easy as falling off ____ 75 Nickname for a really thin guy 76 What Mercury and Venus lack 77 Religious observance that’s also a past-tense verb
78 “That ship has sailed” 81 Small-time 83 Cause of red-eye 84 Ate
85 Regret 86 *Diner choice 88 *Something visually arresting 91 Chief
92 Coin with 12 stars on one side 93 Ancient greeting 94 El Misisipi, e.g. 95 Source of some South American wool
98 Get groceries, say 100 Sole
102 Film excerpt 105 *Duplicate, in word processing 107 *Disappear suddenly 110 Long-handled tool 111 One with a track record 112 Spore producer 113 Keys of some songs
114 Loan fig. 115 Political worker 116 “A fickle food,” per Emily Dickinson 117 Superlatively pleasant
DOWN
1 Children’s playroom, often 2 Zen garden accessory 3 Running argument? 4 Frame in a box score 5 Hebrew for “son” 6 ____ Mawr College 7 Sword’s place 8 Almost a score of Mozart compositions 9 Receptacle for ancient Greek votes 10 11-Down and such 11 Small siestas 12 Low-pH 13 Follower of CD 14 La ____ Tar Pits 15 Donkeyish 16 Have a connection with
17 Hordes
21 Org. behind
14 of the 15 most-watched TV broadcasts in U.S. history 24 Capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan 26 They help with printing and pointing 30 Made line changes
33 Body of water greatly shrunk by 1960s Soviet irrigation
36 To the point 38 Howl 39 Opposite of the Latin “odi” 40 Busy as ____ 41 Less green, say
42 Title woman in a No. 1 Beach Boys hit
43 Learn by ____ 47 Score of zero, in slang
50 Ins 52 Pollution portmanteau 56 People who would object to this clue because of it’s punctuation 57 Fixes
58 Issa of “Insecure” 59 “How disastrous!” 60 “No way!” 61 Nonnegotiable things 62 Sound a warning 63 Spanish month that anagrams to a zodiac sign
64 Bit of gum 65 ____-faire 66 Birds on Minnesota state quarters
67 Bad smell 70 “Ugh!”
73 -elect 74 Alarmingly 75 Daytime TV fare 76 Back-to-school time
78 “Well, that’s that!” 79 Follower of 76Down: Abbr. 80 Suffix with election 81 Skater’s leap 82 Candy discard 83 Not to go
86 Ballroom dance from Cuba 87 Sent packing 89 Actress De Carlo of “The Munsters” 90 Out-eat? 96 E.M.T.’s procedure 97 Tiny battery 99 Smoke 101 Welsh form of “John” 103 Goddess pictured with a solar disk above her 104 Excellent, in dated slang 106 Grade-school subj. 108 Shade of green 109 Muslim-American icon