NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
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
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