THE FINAL FRONTIER

Rich Katz, of Park City, Utah, does freelance work in corporate restructuring, with a focus on financially challenged companies. He started solving crosswords about five years ago and quickly graduated to making them. This is his New York Times debut. The starting point for its theme was 116-Across. Rich’s love of puns is evidenced by his email address, which includes the Spanish ricos and gatos. — W.S.

ACROSS

1 Visitor-center handouts

5 Crew supervisor on a

merchant ship

10 QB Patrick who was

2018’s N.F.L. M.V.P.

17 Like a pub crawler’s

breath, perhaps

18 *Embarrassing pants

mishap?

20 Set apart

21 Relative of ‘‘ciao’’

22 ‘‘I never met a ____ I

didn’t like’’: Garfield

23 Like some tans

24 *Shipper of British

toilets?

26 Something you might use just for the halibut?

27 ____ Plaines, Ill.

28 Hill worker

29 Modern-day

groundskeeper?

30 Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall and Amy Schumer, for the 2022 Oscars

31 Divides into sectors

33 5-Down, in Spanish

34 ‘‘I’m not impressed’’

35 Some sci-fi effects

37 Fast line at the

airport, informally

41 Small figures?

44 *Big fight for a Disney heroine from Polynesia?

47 Some track-and-field

races

48 ‘‘They tell me . . . ’’

50 Impulsive sorts?

51 Spanish gentlemen

52 Standing at the ready

54 Affectionate attention,

for short

55 Neither blows it nor

crushes it

56 Grabs lunch, say

59 Word with cane or

cone

61 As a friend, in French

64 ‘‘That hits the spot!’’

65 Voyage by rocket . . . or a feature of the answers to the 12 starred clues?

68 U-Haul offering

69 One rounded up in a

roundup

72 A car that won’t start is a common one in horror films

73 Ties again

76 Pulitzer-winning

novelist Lurie

78 Extreme vexation

80 Alliance

81 Symptom of burnout

83 Take up a notch

86 Singer Abdul

87 Keg attachment

88 *Shortage of slime?

90 Appear

91 ‘‘Is that a

challenge?!’’

92 Part of E.S.L.: Abbr.

93 Voice of dissent

94 Scratch (out)

96 Film brand

98 Seoul singers?

99 Component of some

high-tech dog collars

103 Kind of card sold in many international airports

106 Metric for a Met, for

short

107 Diane Sawyer’s real

first name

109 *Rest spot for a

tabby?

110 Angry and impatient

112 Parent who’s fluent in emojis and modern slang, maybe

114 ‘‘Your ____ ran over my dogma’’ (classic dad joke)

115 Sovereign’s singular

116 *Brew that’s both

bitter and fruity?

117 Tiny arachnids

118 Cries feebly

119 Do some barbering

on

120 Language of the

Emerald Isle

DOWN

1 French wine region

2 Series of trade

discounts?

3 Portmanteau

invitations

4 Website overseers, in

brief

5 Image on a postcard

from Yellowstone

6 Western Hemisphere

treaty grp.

7 *Painting of potatoes,

e.g.?

8 Exhorts

9 ____-Down (what this

is)

10 Botch

11 *Main course featuring Egyptian snake meat?

12 Street smarts

13 Portuguese greeting

14 ‘‘S.N.L.’’ alumna

Rudolph

15 Boarding school where tailcoats are part of the dress code

16 On its way

17 Show some reluctance

18 Item tossed into a fire at the end of ‘‘Citizen Kane’’

19 Buddy

25 ‘‘Va-va-____!’’

30 Set of options

31 Acne spot, informally

32 Brawl site in old

westerns

34 West of Hollywood

35 Agree

36 ____ Goose, cousin of

Donald Duck

38 *Iditarod, for one?

39 Bourbon alternative

40 The start of

something?

41 Byproduct of

composting

42 ‘‘Wow, super!’’

43 *Staging of a narc

sting?

45 How a parent serving as the tooth fairy might walk

46 Supported

49 Stephen of ‘‘The

Crying Game’’

51 Anguish following a

dance marathon

53 N.F.L. positions that sound like a fastfood chain

55 ‘‘I’m sorry, ____, I’m afraid I can’t do that’’ (line from HAL in ‘‘2001’’) 57 Mountain lake

58 Green prefix

60 Fish with a long snout

62 Layer beneath the

earth’s crust

63 Something made off

the cuff?

66 Closing words

67 Office PC setup

70 One-percenters

71 Frustrating process

74 Noted speedway

sponsor 75 What a beehive is

made of

77 *Terrific messenger at

Hogwarts?

79 *Friend in a

competition?

81 Furbys or fidget

spinners, e.g.

82 In the manner of

83 Many millenniums

84 Small batteries

85 ‘‘Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you ____!’’: Dr. Seuss 88 Lead-in to X, Y or Z

89 Substance

95 Sign unlikely to have been written by the person it is attached to

97 Hill workers

98 Swell

99 Hindu embodiment

of virtue

100 Stolen treats in ‘‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’’

101 Mann of music

102 Mardi ____

103 Knights and

noblemen

104 Privy to

105 Request for

permission

107 TV screen option, for

short

108 Chits

109 Manage

111 Dallas hoopster, for

short

113 Lotta money