UNIVERSAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS

1 Microwaves

5 Taylor Swift’s “___

Song”

8 Putting into service 13 “Carmen” composer 14 Grabbed a bite 15 Contest with roping 16 Escape the clutches of 17 Hero’s undoing (In this answer, note letters 6-3)

19 Pieces of food for a

dog, say

21 Hyphenated juice brand 22 Seabird with a forked

tail

23 “Ho Hey” band

(... letters 6-3) 26 Email nuisance 27 Really enthusiastic 31 Brewpub acronym 34 Tibetan Buddhist title 37 Bird following a

couple of ducks? 38 Eurasian invasions of the 13th and

14th centuries

(... letters 7-4)

42 VW Beetles, e.g. 43 Annual presidential

speech, briefly 44 Distress signal 45 Paprika’s dad, on

“Blue’s Clues” 47 Middle ___ (Oman’s

region)

50 Sarcastic words of sympathy

(... letters 4-1) 56 Places to relax 59 Fellows 60 Fast-food kitchen

fixtures

61 Chills, or a theme hint 64 Connects deeply 65 Online sales

66 X, in a sorority name 67 Word of admission? 68 Beefy?

69 Like chili, usually 70 Salty drop

DOWN

1 Nothin’

2 Sky blue

3 Travels by foot, in a

way

4 Rise to the challenge 5 Klutz

6 Beehive State resident 7 Fix, as loose laces 8 Underlined address,

often

9 Tap dance without

the tap

10 Waiting for a task 11 Not far

12 Vera Wang garment 13 Optimal

18 Taiwanese laptop

maker

20 Like potatoes that aren’t worth fretting over

24 Apple desktops 25 Spaghetti sauce brand 28 Diana of the

Supremes

29 On the subject of 30 Big name in little

trucks

31 Islamic spiritual

leader 32 Empty bottles, say 33 Six-legged insects 35 (I’ve got milk!)

36 Paid for a poker hand 39 Leather glove material 40 Setting for the 2021 Norwegian film “The Worst Person in the World” 41 Hearty drink 46 Feature of the Great

Pyramid

48 Icy dessert

49 “You have to taste

this!”

51 “My job ... is just ___”

(Ken)

52 Large dried pepper 53 Meddlesome person 54 Menu selection 55 Letters from the Cold

War

56 Distort

57 Crux

58 Trisyllabic berry 62 Sneaky

63 Set that you build