SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD | WITH EASE
Garrett Chalfin, 18, is a senior at Riverdale Country School in New York City. Next year, he’ll begin studying philosophy at the University of Chicago. This past June, after chancing upon this puzzle’s theme idea, he stayed up until 4 a.m. thinking of examples. He finished the puzzle while at summer camp, demonstrating to his co-counselors how to fill a crossword grid. — W.S.
Across
1 Warming periods 6 Activates, as yeast 12 Chatter
15 Great Britain, geographically
19 “My ____ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” 1992 hit by En Vogue
20 Not a big Mac?
21 Nail, as a test
22 “I am not a glutton — I am an explorer of ____”: Erma Bombeck
23 Kitchen at a barbecue restaurant?
25 Potentially adoptable pup
27 Misfit
28 Result of a 1960s Haight-ashbury shopping spree?
30 It’s in your blood 31 Play parts
33 Ones coming “home” at homecoming 34 Quick-moving
36 Corp. shake-ups 37 Host
38 Highly visible belly button?
40 Up to, informally 42 Actress Fisher of “Now You See Me”
46 Curious in the extreme 47 Streamlet
48 Good friend who won’t stop snooping?
51 The first one was built in 1925 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
53 What to add to “Iraq” to make it adjectival 54 Subwoofer sound 55 Jhumpa ____, author of the Pulitzer-winning “Interpreter of Maladies” 56 Take a load off
58 Some cameras, in brief 60 SETI subjects 62 Language in which “puzzle” is “pid sa” 63 Burnable media 66 Prenuptial agreement? 69 “Geaux Tigers!” sch. 70 Be an agent for 71 Feature of Sylvester’s speech
72 Comedian Rudolph 73 Taiwanese president ____ Ing-wen 75 Skateboard tricks 77 Went 90, say
79 ____ Tac (mint) 81 Throat bug
85 Long anecdote from a complainer?
87 Italian mount 88 Astronomer Sagan 89 Takes a load off
90 One with an underground colony 91 Tinker Bell or Puck? 94 Fruit-based dessert … or a possible description of its flavor
97 “Sorry to say, you guessed wrong”
99 What many clocks and card games have
100 Whence feng shui
102 Skiing areas
103 Didn’t give forever 104 Bad person for a gambler to make bets with?
106 Plant with purple-pink flowers
109 Rustic abode
110 Acolyte with a bad temper?
114 Part of Q.E.D.
115 Cozy stopover
116 Nueva York, por ejemplo
117 Word with code or rehearsal
118 Cozy spots
119 It appears blue as a result of Rayleigh scattering
120 Chimes and dimes vis-à-vis this clue’s answer 121 Difficult to climb, in a way
Down
1 Trio with the 1995 No. 1 hit “Waterfalls”
2 Jolly laugh
3 Passionate
4 Fragrant medicinal plant also called colicroot 5 Most snarky
6 Finish second 7 Something to hang your hat on
8 Elect
9 Plains tribe
10 Not to go
11 Bugging people, perhaps
12 Displays of shock 13 Start to play?
14 Put on no pretensions 15 “Fine by me”
16 Sin city
17 Commits piracy 18 Avant-garde
24 “My name is Prince, and I am ____” (Prince lyric)
26 Proficient
29 Sauces made with basil and pine nuts 31 Songs to be played at a concert
32 Slinky, e.g. 34 Sales-promotion acronym
35 Hoot
36 Downfall
37 Shifty
38 “The Office” role 39 Gives a grand speech 41 It’s up for debate 43 Alternative to sparkling
44 Turkish money 45 Letters found in a so-called “supervocalic” word
48 “Yuck!”
49 Spots on a Rorschach card
50 They don’t require much study
52 Stahl of “60 Minutes” 54 I’m toast!
57 Like chicken cordon bleu, originally
59 British sailor, in slang 61 One who’s rolling in money
63 Is exultant
64 City of 16+ million straddling the Yamuna River
65 7-10, e.g., in bowling 67 Big name in printing 68 Plants used in wickerwork furniture 74 “Worth a try”
76 Gut feelings
78 Bit of hype, informally 80 Scoop
82 Worry for a speakeasy 83 Slips up
84 Layer
86 Parlor offering, for short
87 Language in which “puzzle” is “puzal”
91 “Is that understood?” 92 “Is that understood?” 93 State of uneasiness, informally
95 Seton who wrote “Dragonwyck”
96 Prayer leaders
98 Hang around
100 Taking out the trash, for one
101 Navajo dwelling
102 One of the Corleones 103 Interlocking bricks 104 Made a case
105 Word that may come from a pen
106 ____ Park, home to the University of Chicago 107 One-on-one Olympics event
108 “All ____!” 111 Farm structure
112 Top part of Scotland? 113 “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” feeling