The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
SEALED WITH A KISS
Lisa Bunker, of Exeter, N.H., is the author of two novels for young readers — “Zenobia July,” about a trans girl with a troubled past starting over with a new family and school, while tackling a cybermystery; and “Felix Yz,” about a boy fused with an alien facing a risky procedure to separate them. Both were published by Viking. She also represents Exeter in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. This is Lisa’s sixth puzzle for The Times and her first Sunday. — W.S.
ACROSS
1 Percussion instrument
in a marching band
7 Prefix with sexual
10 Prefix with sexual
14 Animals in a pod
19 Start of a playground
taunt
20 Kitchen brand with a
palindromic name
21 What an article may
come with?
22 Drain, as from soil
23 Fatsis who wrote
‘‘Word Freak’’
24 Most feathery, as
clouds
26 ‘‘Thong Song’’ singer,
2000
27 Sharp, in a way
28 Early tie
30 The ones over here
32 In the capacity of
33 Some Ivy Leaguers
34 Born yesterday, so to
speak
36 Calm
38 Comfy slip-on, in brief
39 What an outstretched arm with an open palm can mean
41 Fleet org.
42 It means business
43 Stakes
44 Narrow
46 Group tour vehicle
49 Playground comeback
52 Build up
53 Sci-fi publisher of ‘‘Ender’s Game’’ and ‘‘The Wheel of Time’’
54 Popular beer brand,
briefly
57 With 3-Down, one of
the Avengers
59 ____ smear
61 Reduced
63 Opposite of a standing
order?
64 ‘‘Do me this one favor
. . . ’’
67 French vineyards
68 Prats
69 Contrariwise
71 North African capital
72 Nongendered, as
language: Abbr.
73 Sui ____
74 Kind of dash
76 Best Supporting Actor winner for ‘‘Dallas Buyer’s Club’’
78 Prefix with friendly
79 Rules out?
80 West Coast beer
brand, in brief
81 ‘‘____ ruled the world . . . ’’ 83 : 86 Capital of Yemen 87 Kind of modern office plan
89 Smell of a rose
92 Smell of a rosé
95 ____ Fridays
96 Barrister’s deg.
97 Bench tool
99 Quibble
101 Student’s bonus
points
103 Drawn-out
campaigns
105 When doubled, another name for dorado
106 Call ____ night
107 Eighth letter
109 British tennis champ who invented the sweatband
111 ____ impasse
112 Guardian spirits
114 Especially
116 Soubise sauce is
made from them
118 Greenish-brown
119 ____ cake (dim sum
dish)
120 Suffix with social
121 ‘‘Wheel of Fortune’’
freebies
122 Sharp
123 Label for Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes
124 Latin king
125 Sea lion, for one
DOWN
1 Word with sound or
solar
2 Few
3 See 57-Across
4 Subsequent versions
5 Thurman of ‘‘Kill Bill’’
6 Word before and after
‘‘a’’
7 Turned on
8 Kind of symmetry
9 A pretty capable sort
10 Singer DiFranco
11 Big name in bubbly
12 Small woodland
songbird
13 ‘‘Town square for the global village of tomorrow,’’ per Bill Gates
14 Jimmy of the Daily
Planet
15 L. L. Bean competitor
16 Medieval helmet
17 Exonerate
18 Prime snorkeling
spots
25 Like many stuffed
animals
29 PX shopper
31 The Quran, for one
35 Mango Madness and
Go Bananas, for two
37 Ones initiating
handoffs, for short
39 Some mattresses
40 Indulgence
45 Capital of French
Polynesia
47 Show again
48 Caterer’s container
50 A fine mesh this is!
51 Debussy prelude inspired by a water sprite
54 Outcast
55 Out of focus
56 Surface anew, say
57 Post production
58 Without a doubt
60 Turkish officers
62 Timid sort
63 Instrument in
‘‘O! Susannah’’
64 They’ll be mist
65 Super Bowl of 2022
66 Place with robes and
sweaters
70 Seasick sea serpent of
old cartoons
71 Bank posting
73 Words after throwing
a ball
75 Grams
77 Unbalance
82 Packaging list
84 ‘‘L’chaim!’’
85 (a, b), e.g.
87 Anthem contraction
88 Suit perfectly
90 France from France
91 Singer who founded
Fenty Beauty
92 What ponies express?
93 Field-plowing duo
94 Poem piece
97 Notable point in
geometry
98 U.N. member since
1949: Abbr.
100 Glittery decoration 102 Listing 104 Beau ____ 105 Ones with plenty of reservations 108 Blade brand 110 Days of old 113 Suffix with court or cash 115 Deli supply 117 Surveillance org.