RACK ’EM UP BY ENRIQUE HENESTROZA ANGUIANO AND MATTHEW STOCK, EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano of Oakland, Calif., is a data scientist. Matthew Stock of Gainesville, Fla., is a master’s student in school counseling. They met through the online indie crossword community as fans of each other’s puzzle blogs. This puzzle was constructed entirely over email, but as Matthew writes, “We’re long overdue for a video call!” Note: Once filled in, the contents of the six shaded squares will spell a word associated with this puzzle’s theme.
ACROSS
1 New dog owner’s purchase
6 Dog-adoption grp. 11 Pop group with an “army”
14 Setting for “Heidi” 18 “We’re not standin’ in their way!”
19 Pepper grinder?
20 Put to work
21 Word with good or blood
22 Extra lives or additional gems, for a freemium game 24 [Gasp!]
26 Pastoral setting? 27 “Who am I? Twofour-six-oh-____!”
(“Les Misérables” lyric) 28 Cracker shape 29 “____-Olution”
(2002 rap album) 30 Avoided a tag, in a way 31 “The kids these days have gotten way better than me” 35 Two-million-year-old discovery in 2022 in the frozen soil of Greenland 36 Cereal bit 37 Something to butter up
38 Text communication inits.
41 Shaggy hairstyle 42 File-creating command
44 Actress Thompson 48 Former minor-league team that played at Aloha Stadium
51 Spot for food and craft beer
53 Opt
54 Significant stretch 55 Crane look-alike
57 “Do you really see me that way?”
58 Range rover … or something to do in a Range Rover
59 Craft that uses drafts 63 What a cracker might crack
64 Something for the rest of the military? 65 Scrabble bonus seen six times in this puzzle 70 “The Chase” channel 72 Was published
73 In which “Ciamar a tha thu?” means
“How are you?”
74 Booped body parts 77 Member of the fam 78 Count for a jury
80 I, in German
81 Slip past
82 Product lines? 84 Something delivered by Jake Tapper or Anderson Cooper 89 Kofi of the U.N.
90 Pan feature
91 Yank
92 When repeated,
[“Is this thing on?”] 93 Battle royale 96 Nickname next to a heart emoji, perhaps 97 Cyrillic letter pronounced like the “zz” of “pizza”
98 “The English
Patient” actress
104 Attenuated
108 “South,” in Hanoi
109 Place to chill, paradoxically
110 Home of the Hockey Hall of Fame: Abbr.
111 Device that works with Carplay
113 Single guy?
115 Executive’s acumen 117 Apt domain for basketball’s King James 118 Scanning inits.
119 Something to believe in
120 Didn’t just assume 121 Part of the body to slap
122 Queen ____
123 To be, in Spanish 124 Easily irritated
DOWN
1 Film-archive bits 2 Kidney-related
3 Maker of the
Flashback console 4 Lukewarm
5 Birds with deep booming calls
6 “Better Call Saul” channel
7 Very sexy
8 Texas city that’s home to Frito-lay
9 Lawyer’s bundle of work 10 “____ you not entertained?”
11 “Au contraire!” 12 Cannon fodder, at times
13 Appear that one may 14 Urgent time to start gathering tax documents: Abbr. 15 Tiktok star Gray 16 B.Y.U.’S city
17 Scatter about 21 “Here’s the thing … ” 23 A group of them is called a “crash” 25 Texter’s reaction button
28 Post
32 Syrupy covering for ham
33 Protagonist in “2001: A Space Odyssey” 34 Crockpot filler
35 ____ Mendeleev, creator of the periodic table 38 “____ All That”
(1990s teen comedy) 39 Soda-shop order 40 Vegetable often eaten without utensils 42 Aviculture : bird :: heliciculture : ____ 43 Campfire remains 45 Out-of-this-world outfit
46 Rikishi compete in it 47 Slightly
49 Taiwanese tech giant 50 Pink-furred cat in “Garfield”
51 Antipasto dish of tomatoes on grilled bread 52 Campus military org. 56 Make more meaningful 60 B.S., for one
61 Letter that rhymes with the letters before and after it
62 Direction giver’s suggestion: Abbr.
66 Jab
67 Tony winner Renée ____ Goldsberry 68 High-strung
69 Coin collection 70 Enclosed rhyme scheme
71 Cereal bit
75 Poet St. Vincent Millay 76 Creep out, perhaps 78 Counterpart of “been there”
79 Sgt. or cpl.
83 Engine parts
85 Bigwig
86 Coup d’____
87 Time when most people are asleep
88 One birthed in Perth 90 Shrug or wave 94 Sekhmet, the
Egyptian goddess of war, takes the form of one 95 Place in a crypt 98 Announce one’s presence, in a way 99 Invisible household hazard
100 “My luck’s bound to turn around!”
101 Adorable sort
102 Beginning stage
103 Crete’s highest point, for short
104 The ones nearby 105 Indicates “Out of my way!”
106 Miniature map
107 High-maintenance, say
112 Exam with “calculator” and “no calculator” math sections 114 G.I.’S rations
115 Dating inits.
116 Negative Boolean operator