UNIVERSAL CROSSWORD

Absent Tees by Jeffrey Martinovic and William Yuan, edited by David Steinberg

ACROSS

1 Kermit’s greeting 5 Political TV channel 10 Important IDs 14 Unpleasant aroma

15 ___ acid (protein part) 16 Small particle

17 With 4-Down, British

singer of “Poison” 18 Skating venues

19 ___ log (holiday cake) 20 Homer’s utterance 21 *Brewery offerings 23 Aunt, in Mexico 24 Symbol such as Thinking

Face

26 Garden tool

27 It flows in a fountain 29 Packs (down)

31 “Bro,” for “brother” 33 Longtime “PBS NewsHour” anchor

Jim

35 Partake (in)

38 ___ Jima (WWII battle

site)

39 Bench warmer?

43 D&D, e.g.

44 Soft flower part 46 Cinque + uno

47 Feature of many a dog

collar

49 “Go get ’em!”

52 *Handles with skill 54 Experimentation

site 55 Perfect places

56 Candy that is

dispensed

58 Islamic religious text 60 Nemesis

61 Desert lifeline

63 Deer of film

64 “O Canada! ___ home and

native land!” 65 “Winnie-the-Pooh”

author

66 Lazy ___ (kitchen cabinet

feature)

67 They protect 58-Down 68 Elegance

DOWN

1 Large crowd

2 “Once in a blue moon,”

for one

3 *Santa’s hearty

declaration

4 See 17-Across

5 Roman sweetheart 6 Professional forgers? 7 Bean type used in

chili

8 Joints “broken” by

a good deke, in hockey 9 Rudolph’s red feature 10 Declare

11 *It may sweeten the

pot

12 “It’s the truth, I

swear!”

13 Dirty kind of campaign 21 Window in a

schedule

22 Smooth entry to a

pool

25 Baby food container 28 ___ Lee (Taiwanese

filmmaker)

30 Opposite of post32 Grazing ground

33 Back talk

34 Farm mother

36 3.0, maybe, for a B

student

37 Item that a prankster

throws

40 Requested 41 Disentangle ... or a phonetic hint to interpreting the starred clues’ answers

42 Some light brews 45 E-commerce giant 48 Hopeless feeling 50 Number of stars in our

solar system

51 “___ not your fault” 52 Cultivates

53 Electric car brand 54 Hawaiian party

57 Metal whose atomic

number is 30

58 Many NFL stars 59 Author Anais

61 Texter’s “What in the

world?!”

62 Use your eyes