New York Times Crossword Puzzle
POLITICAL PUN-DITRY No. 1217
ACROSS
1 Whiskered bottom-dweller
7 Workout focus, informally
13 Tube traveler?
17 BOGO or YOLO
19 Ten-spot
20 Like Jabba the Hutt
21 The club’s bouncer earned a living ...
23 Subjects of some
cautionary tales
24 Things with keys
25 Org. overseeing workers’ well-being
26 Treatment site
27 Insurance giant acquired by CVS in 2018
28 Bump on a log, say
30 The fashion magazine’s editor focused on fasteners in her . . .
35 Hubbub
38 The Coyotes, on N.H.L. scoreboards 39 Leader of a flock
40 The veterinarian specialized in mending . . .
45 Most wan
48 Wrath
49 Obnoxious sort
50 Seaside retreat?
53 Event that might have ‘‘mutton busting’’
54 Japanese maker of watches and mobile phones
57 ‘‘Little ol’ me?’’
58 Online command denoted by an arrow inside a cloud
61 ‘‘____ Day Will Come’’ (1963 No. 1 hit)
62 The sound engineer was obsessed with the . . .
67 Big name in filters
69 Unagi or anago
70 Family on TV’s ‘‘Smallville’’
71 The groundskeeper spent years studying . . .
78 Besson who directed ‘‘The Fifth Element’’
79 Food critic’s asset
80 Ex-Giant Manning
81 Extreme lethargy
85 Inner self, in Jungian philosophy
88 Business-card abbr.
89 Instrument heard at the conclusion of ‘‘Bohemian Rhapsody’’
91 Courtroom affirmation
92 French term of endearment
94 The weary general sat in his ...
100 Orange sources
103 Item of clothing patented by Mary Phelps Jacob in 1914
104 Niche
105 The carpenter measured twice for the ideal ...
111 Emmy winner Aduba
112 It’s done in barrels
113 Salted ____ (margarita option)
114 Natural hairstyles, informally
116 Green region on a Risk board
119 Swelters
120 The paid escort was fined for ...
125 Stave off
126 How subway cars are packed during rush hour
127 Place of birth, education, work history, etc.
128 What a haggler hopes to pay
129 Exchanged words?
130 Like some rehab
DOWN
1 Polite term of address
2 Where Carol Burnett studied theater arts, for short
3 ‘‘Just happen to’’ mention some famous people
4 Eat
5 Director Lee
6 An eye for an aye, say?
7 Low island
8 Hole puncher
9 19-Down for a cleanup hitter
10 Kirsten of 1995’s ‘‘Jumanji’’
11 Summer cooler
12 ____ Baiul, Olympic figureskating gold medalist
13 Musical feature in ‘‘Swan Lake’’ and ‘‘Peter and the Wolf’’
14 Went trekking, say
15 Hwy. that runs from Key West to Maine
16 Flat earth?
18 Whiskey ingredient
19 See 9-Down
20 One way to wish
22 P, to Plato
29 Physique, slangily
31 Beverage brand with antioxidants
32 Something with a preview in a social media post
33 Up to
34 AOL, e.g.
35 ____ Stic (pen brand)
36 Name hidden in ‘‘I smell a rat’’
37 Coat for a cookout
41 Plot device for many a soap opera
42 Eccentric
43 Relative of Camembert
44 Lead-in to service or sacrifice
46 Dr. who wrote: ‘‘I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells’’
47 Rent
51 Customer-service ‘‘assistant,’’ at times
52 Cry of frustration
55 Goddess depicted at the foot of
King Tut’s coffin
56 Goes (for)
58 ‘‘I’m at your disposal’’
59 Game divided into periods
called chukkers
60 Hockey fake
63 Virgil at the O.K. Corral
64 Kick back
65 Brooding bunch
66 Strongly suspecting
67 Singer Mars
68 Velodrome vehicles
71 ____ rock, genre for T. Rex
72 Kind of milk
73 Encouraging shout
74 Soft powder
75 Fifth-brightest star in the night sky
76 Race in H. G. Wells’s
‘‘The Time Machine’’
77 Chinese dynasty
82 Where one might store sheet music
83 So-called ‘‘All-Father’’ of myth
84 Golf champ McIlroy
86 Salts
87 In and between
90 The Vitamin Shoppe competitor
93 ‘‘____ had it!’’
95 Obliques, e.g.
96 Reason to remove metal accessories
97 Butter bit
98 Grand finale?
99 Things indicated by
yellow signage
101 Company acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020
102 Having needles, as a cactus
105 Secret clique
106 Southwestern syrup source
107 Muscat native
108 Dicey
109 Foe in the Elder Scrolls video games
110 Neophyte, informally
115 Small cut
117 Analogy words
118 ‘‘Pronto!’’
121 Winter hrs. in Chi-Town
122 Undershirt, maybe
123 Tired
124 Melted mess