NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

Sid Sivakumar is an M.D./Ph.D. student at Washington University in St. Louis, training in biomedical engineering and neuroscience. This is his 17th crossword for The Times. Since the theme material appears mostly in the middle, Sid made the grid’s sides — and especially the corners — quite open, giving them a themeless feel. ‘‘I was very fortunate they turned out so clean and fresh,’’ Sid says. ‘‘I’m usually not so lucky!’’ — W. S.

ACROSS

1 Mess-hall patrons, in

brief

4 Theater backdrop

9 Stressful work?

13 Disorganized stack

17 Home-screen array

19 Port container

20 Clean hands, so to

speak

22 Spill (over)

23 Strict sales

limit, informally

24 Slow-cooked entrees 25 Boos-y drink?

27 Olympic gymnast

Raisman

29 Charge (with)

30 Involves

31 Some kennel

personnel

34 Only U.S. coin that does not explicitly indicate how many cents it’s worth

35 Eschewed pork and

shellfish, say

37 Arena seating sections 38 Perfume ingredient

39 Civil wrong

40 Comedy character who once asked the U.N. secretary general if Disneyland was part of the U.N.

42 Org. whose initials are aptly hidden in ‘‘foreign satellite interception’’

43 Really hurt

44 Orders more of

than necessary

48 Oktoberfest purchase 49 ‘‘Clifford the Big

Red Dog’’ airer

52 ‘‘Gross!’’

53 Excessively

54 Checkout unit

56 Eyeballs, e.g.

60 ‘‘Naw, no way!’’

62 Hindu wedding adornment that’s said to get darker the more the newlyweds love each other

64 Lifesaving mission,

for short

66 Its panhandle abuts

British Columbia

67 Prudent

69 Texas A&M athlete

70 One fast-tracked in

an interview pool

72 Like Loki

73 Absolutely devour

74 Fitting a little tight

75 Home to the Great

Ziggurat of Ur

77 Common jeans feature 78 ‘‘Whoop-de-____’’

79 Subject of 1960s-’70s

addiction research 80 Purges

82 Things that perceptive

people might pick up 86 Picture taker?

88 Sound in ‘‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm’’

89 Windy part of a kite? 90 The ‘‘A’’ of the ACT

UP organization

94 Thunderous sounds 95 Piece of info

97 Body of water

adjoining Korea Bay 100 ____-de-camp

101 Proceeds

103 Putting together

104 Hardly worth

mentioning

106 ID whose first five digits are sometimes ignored

107 Keister

108 Flight segment

111 Demographic group 113 Tiny member of a

swarm

114 Big Ten school that plays home football games at Beaver Stadium

115 Much like

116 What hits the

ground running?

117 Seat in the London

Stock Exchange?

118 At the earliest chance 119 They get high by the

beach

120 Airport screening

inits.

DOWN

1 Winter house-warming

option

2 ‘‘That’s my goal’’

3 Powerlifter’s helper

4 Marine predator often

seen near shorelines 5 First Nations people

6 Best Melodic ____ Performance (Grammy category) 7 ‘‘My concern is . . . ’’

8 Variety used to make

Bordeaux wine

9 Dot on a die

10 Musical artist Yoko

11 Joins those on the

stage

12 Counterparts of eves 13 With 61-Down, like some gossip . . . as represented phonetically by each set of shaded squares? 14 Like a bathroom directly connected to a bedroom

15 Feigns indignation

16 Bug

18 Address

19 Barbecue-grill fill

21 Camp bed

26 Summer Olympics host between London and Tokyo

28 Comics sound when something is snatched

31 Clenched, as teeth

32 Recordholder for most games played in the FIFA World Cup (26) 33 Modern ____

36 Trains above street

level

38 Delivery that can’t

be returned

41 ‘‘Well, don’t wait out

here!’’

43 Goals

45 Sun shield

46 ____-conscious

47 Variety commonly found in jellies and pies

48 Wax figures?

49 Golf-tournament

division

50 President who campaigned on the slogan ‘‘Our best days still lie ahead’’ 51 Real pickle

55 So . . . or a word

following ‘‘so’’

57 Fit for a king

58 Sees red

59 Word before dating

or skating

61 See 13-Down

62 Dance at a luau

63 More open to the

elements

65 Lake-house rental 67 Unnerves

68 Sea hawks 71 Lyft request

73 Lithium-____ battery 76 ‘‘Don’t ____ me . . . ’’ 78 1994 single by Hole whose cover art depicts a miniature wedding dress and veil

81 Real-time PC

exchanges

83 Man, woman and

child, e.g.

84 Little lifter

85 Snore loudly 86 One dropping

amorous hints

87 Trigonometry units 88 B-baller in Big D

91 ‘‘Am I mistaken?’’

92 Turndowns

93 Hot herbal brew

94 Place to pamper

pets that purr

95 Some rivers have

them

96 Variety that shares its name with a Mideast capital

98 Game with big prizes 99 ‘‘I’m not working right now,’’ in email shorthand

101 Believer in Jah

102 Mushroom added to

ramen

105 Org. with the phone number 1-800-TAXFORM

107 Cornmeal cake

109 Info you might send someone when you’re running late 110 Liven (up)

112 Stashed away