New York Times Crossword BECAUSE I SAID SO!
Katie Hale is a stay-at-home mom and an assistant crossword editor in London. This is her fifth Sunday Times crossword since 2021. She works on puzzles when her girls, 6 and 9, are in school or after they’ve gone to bed. “I like to try and come up with themes during times when I might otherwise be mindlessly staring at my phone, like on the bus,” she says. “I think the moments when I’m out in the world, hearing other people talk, but not directly to me, are the best times to find inspiration.” — W.S.
ACROSS 1 Fish-tank
buildup
6 Bog product
10 P.M. times
14 Suisse peak
18 Disney film with a
titular heroine
19 Pricing word
20 Christmas color
for Elvis
21 Pork cut
22 Mechanic’s go-to parenting phrase?
26 Painter whose
motifs include ants and eggs
27 Give the nod
28 “Check it out for
yourself”
29 Mauna ____
31 French liver
33 Some remote
power sources
35 Up to 11 meters for a pterodactyl
37 Personal trainer’s go-to parenting phrase?
43 Like some
restrictions
44 Stephen King’s first published novel
45 Your and my
relative?
46 Roof overhang
48 Horror star
Chaney
49 In the past
50 Affectionate
greeting
51 Arid
52 Small building
block
55 Conductor’s go-to parenting phrase?
63 Liquor in
tiramisù
64 TV drama with spinoffs set in Hawaii and New Orleans
65 Cornerstone
abbr.
66 Eightfold
69 Animal working
in the D.M.V. in “Zootopia” 72 Texas politician
Beto
74 It’s a drag
75 Singer James
77 Share
accommodations 79 Mathematician’s go-to parenting phrase?
86 Emmy-winning
Ward
87 Lemon ____
88 Insult
89 Hosp. area
90 Clean Air Act org. 92 “Star Wars” order 93 Word seen at the end of many Jean-Luc Godard movies
94 From where
97 From the get-go 100 Air traffic controller’s go-to parenting phrase?
103 Accepts the facts 105 Her pronoun
partner
106 Farmyard
mamas
107 2003 Will Ferrell
movie
108 Spooky
110 Lacking the
resources
113 Not out of the
running
117 Librarian’s go-to parenting phrase?
121 Google
____ (Zoom alternative)
122 Chemical
suffixes
123 Backless shoe 124 Maybe one,
maybe both
125 GPS calculations, in brief
126 “I did it!”
127 Jabbers
128 Jen ____, 202122 White House press secretary
DOWN 1 Surrounded by
2 Tragic showgirl of
song 3 Chutzpah
4 Like PETA
5 ____ de vie
6 Gift for writing
7 Noshes
8 Feel that gym
session
9 What something might appear out of or disappear into
10 Epitome of
simplicity
11 Guam’s features a sailboat and palm tree
12 “The Burden of
Proof” author
13 Like many
resorts
14 Ingredient in homemade hand sanitizer
15 Reed of the Velvet Underground
16 Sellers franchise,
with “The”
17 Charm
23 Poker option
24 Solo
25 Baroque painter
Guido
30 ____ port in a
storm
32 Nail-polish brand with a “Tickle My France-y” shade
34 Part of a homemade Halloween costume
36 Animal that turns white in the winter
37 Large number
38 “I am not what I
am” speaker
39 Pioneering sci-fi film that was snubbed for the Best Visual Effects Oscar for its use of computers
40 Road-trip
determination
41 Decade in which many in Gen Z were born 42 Main ingredient
in poi
47 Kind of diagram 50 In this matter
51 Arose
53 City on the Irtysh
River
54 Parcel (out)
56 Elementary particle named for a Greek letter 57 Called a strike,
say
58 Like some potato chips and language
59 Part of NATO:
Abbr.
60 Jardins d’enfants, par exemple
61 Tech-and-culture magazine since 1993
62 Has left the
office, e.g.
66 Jay-Z and Kanye West song that samples
“Try a Little Tenderness”
67 Pigeon coop
68 What a bad dancer is said to
have
70 Large number
71 ____ Ledbetter,
a.k.a. Lead Belly 73 Newswire co.
76 A4 automaker
78 “____ it!”
(informal challenge)
80 Rock used to make ultramarine
81 Pretentious
82 Snack cakes with
creamy swirls
83 It might be changed or made up
84 “Look!” in Latin 85 Took to court
91 Miscreant’s
record, maybe
92 Like a clear
night
93 Rival you kind of
like
94 “That’s
amazing!”
95 Color
classification
96 Naval Academy
grads
97 Basic personal
information
98 “Spill it!”
99 Flow slowly
101 “Not gonna
happen!”
102 Counts (on)
104 Tropical vine
109 “Brown ____
Girl”
111 Pool shade
112 Kind of discount 114 Nothin’
115 Words of
reassurance
116 Actress Garr
118 Hot spot in
England?
119 Airport inits.
120 Dance with a
paradiddle step
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