NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Michael Lieberman, of Washington, D.C., is an attorney at Fairmark Partners, a consumer-protection firm. This is his ninth Times crossword in two years. It started when the Billy Joel title “We Didn’t Start the Fire” morphed in his head to “ennui didn’t start the fire.” That didn’t make much sense, but it did make him laugh. He went searching for other such transformations to build a puzzle around. — W.S.
ACROSS
1 Opportunities
for singles
7 Marbled savory snack from China
13 A boatload
17 ‘‘Keep Ya Head Up’’ rapper, informally
20 Home of the
W.N.B.A.’s Wings 21 Talk and talk
and talk and talk 22 On the deep
23 Poorly
24 Why the party’s about to get less hip?
26 Maker of the
Switch console
28 Cremation receptacles
29 Service that’s not good?
30 ‘‘The ____ Company’’ (Frans Hals portrait)
32 Pie-crust
ingredient
33 Army award attribute
35 Realtor’s exclamation about a primary bathroom?
39 Actress Moriarty
of ‘‘The Boys’’
40 ‘‘My package arrived!’’
42 Landing info, in brief
43 Sorrowful sound 44 ‘‘Not gonna ____
...’’
45 Other: Sp.
46 Structure on the
continental shelf 48 Take (down)
49 How Shamu acknowledged the crowd’s appreciation?
52 Go from 60 to 0, say
54 Grp. regulating
global commerce 57 Got by just fine 58 Some N.F.L.
linemen, in brief
60 Where someone might fiddle with your dance moves?
62 Flat-topped
military hat
64 Ocean State sch. 66 Takes the stage 69 Man’s name that spells a fruit backward
70 ‘‘Prepare for a sword fight, McKellen, Fleming and all other namesakes out there!’’?
75 Uncurbed enthusiasm
76 Injury from a
fistfight
77 Byproduct of
burning tobacco 78 Bread maker? 79 Casino do-overs 81 Like many lifeguards
83 Crews
86 Neurodegenerative
disease,forshort 87 1990s fitness fad 90 Dish cooked to smooth things over after a fight? 95 Cable channel with the comedy/ drama ‘‘Sistas’’ 96 TV that’s trash,
e.g.
98 Pops
99 High point of a
trip to Europe? 100 The old you? 102 It’s full of hot air 103 One small bite 105 Word with bus
or whistle
106 What students in a karate class are often doing? 109 Spiny sea
creatures
111 Flatbread made
with atta
112 Charge for a tutor 113 Business-card
abbr.
115 Hang ominously 116 Place for a lamp 118 Challenge for a
court jester? 123 ‘‘That’s ____’’ (‘‘You
may proceed’’) 124 ____ film
125 North African stew, or the dish it’s cooked in 126 Intimidating in a
cool way
127 Flavor enhancer,
for short
128 Counterpart of -ful 129 Wears down 130 Contents of a
corn maze
DOWN
1 Freeware
annoyances
2 Where you might order nopales or esquites 3 Less clear, as a
memory
4 Support group with a hyphen in its name
5 Ankle bones
6 About 5 o’clock,
compass-wise
7 Daly of ‘‘Cagney & Lacey’’ 8 Singer-actress Kitt
9 ‘‘Yo te ____’’ 10 The Tasmanian one has been extinct since the 19th century
11 ‘‘Capisce?’’
12 Like wind power vis-à-vis natural gas
13 Something a parent might tell you to watch
14 God who was said to be in love with his sister while still in the womb(!)
15 Core position 16 Took a load off
17 Thing to bash at a bash 18 Buzz about space? 19 Thickheads 25 State symbol of Massachusetts
27 ‘‘Middlemarch’’ novelist, 1871 31 Showing signs of life
33 Commanding position
34 Located, to a builder
36 Herman Melville’s second novel
37 ‘‘That’s odd’’
38 Act
unprofessionally?
41 Channel
45 How you might walk after getting great news
47 ‘‘Hey, I had it first!’’
48 Comedian-actor Ken of ‘‘The Hangover’’ films 50 Skewer
51 Pinkish-red shade 53 It moves one
step at a time
54 ‘‘Ain’t I a ____?’’ (Sojourner Truth speech) 55 Between, poetically 56 Lead-in to a sale
price
59 Lacking emotional
toughness
61 Remove from
Zillow, say
62 Show submission,
in a way
63 ‘‘Jumpin’
Jehoshaphat!’’ 65 Still competing 67 Tour de France
stage 68 Envelops
70 Pound who wrote ‘‘In a Station of the Metro’’
71 C sharp equivalent 72 Slowly move (in) 73 Sends unwanted
texts to, maybe 74 Utterances of
agreement
80 Totally loved
82 Present at birth 84 What’s so flippin’
easy to cook with? 85 Dinner at which
‘‘Dayenu’’ is sung 88 Fried pastries popular in New Orleans
89 Baby that rarely
sleeps at night 91 Kind of high-fat,
low-carb diet
92 Unlike π
93 Business magnate who is a Stanford University dropout
94 Actor Omar
95 Electronic toy with a blue ‘‘pull’’ handle
97 ‘‘On Juneteenth’’ author ____ Gordon-Reed 100 Some beachwear 101 Show-off
102 Mournful peals 104 Play opener
105 Rhimes with an eponymous production company 106 Pummel
107 Infuse (with) 108 Joy of TV
110 Sole connector? 114 Potato peeler
targets
117 Patella neighbor,
in brief
119 One may get in the way of a collaboration 120 Purge (of)
121 Abbr. in a birth
announcement 122 Site used by
NASA, in brief