UNIVERSAL CROSSWORD

Universal Freestyle 117 by Amie Walker, edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS

1 Swiftie : Taylor Swift ::

___ : Mariah Carey 5 “Laguna Beach”

channel

8 Moved smoothly, as into

one’s DMs

12 Himalayas’ home 13 Hunter constellation 16 Candy ___ (striped treat) 17 Rely (on)

18 Lady Gaga hit with the lyrics “Rah, rah-ah-ahah/Roma, roma-ma” 20 Deep fakes?

22 Group that just goes

through the motions? 23 Pickling juice

25 “That hurt!”

26 “You won’t believe what I’m about to tell you ...”

30 Word before “doll” or

“rug ”

31 Computer available in

seven colors

32 More reasonable

34 Earl ___ tea

36 Course standard? 38 Mushy food

40 Regina Phalange, for

Phoebe Buffay

43 Schism

46 5G predecessor

47 Style seen in between

washes 50 Tempt

51 One living abroad, for

short

52 Cry

56 “None of the above”

category

59 Handbag’s spot at a highend restaurant

61 Roman garment

62 “Oh, really?”

63 Crochet hook and tape

measure, e.g.

64 Privy to

65 James of “The White

Lotus”

66 Forum admin

67 Soft summons

DOWN

1 Pooches that may be

yellow

2 Letters meaning “Don’t

delay!”

3 Small rolls with holes 4 Where custom cupcakes

might be made

5 Group of angry

villagers

6 Import-export

imbalance

7 “Livin’ la ___ Loca” 8 Severely critical 9 Bowling reservation 10 Early Peruvian builder of

Coricancha

11 Consider to be 14 “... but I’ve been wrong

before”

15 “The line starts back

there, friend”

19 Giant robots’ anime

genre

21 Enthusiastic assent in

Italian

24 ___ de plume

26 Assn.

27 Former “American Idol”

judge DioGuardi 28 Paperless greeting

29 Car dealers’ events 33 Kottu ___ (Sri Lankan food made with chopped bread)

35 Doesn’t resist

37 Hit the road alone,

say

39 For each

41 Opposite of obtuse 42 Most achy

44 ___ Me (old candy heart

message)

45 Autocorrect target 48 “Nifty!”

49 Gesture of gratitude 52 Barbecue skewer 53 Sudden silence

54 The “E” in HOMES 55 “Make some ___!”

(“Scooch!”)

57 Divas have big ones 58 Tirade

60 Trippy drug