SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
Avery Gee Katz, of Santa Clara, Calif., is a user-experience designer at a software company. She comes from a puzzle-loving family — the first crossword she ever made was a Father’s Day present for her dad. A diligent constructor, she worked and reworked this puzzle for months, ultimately ending up with 19 versions of the grid. You’re solving No. 16!
ACROSS
1 Depicts unfairly 6 Monitor
11 Fruits exchanged on Chinese New Year 18 “Moo, Baa, ____!” (classic children’s book) 20 Egg, in Spanish 21 Where to find signs with circles, squares and diamonds
22 “My only request … ” 24 Young’s partner in accounting
25 Original host of MTV’s “Total Request Live” 26 Stay cool
28 Bit of body art
30 They come in twice a day
31 Metal ring that holds a pencil’s eraser
32 Title Disney character of 1998
34 Overhaul
35 Tourist destination in Baja California Sur 38 Band shirts? 40 Letter-shaped construction piece 41 Zoomed, perhaps 42 Beam at a bar
43 Dr. ____, talk-show host with the catchphrase “Get some” 44 Test for an M.A. seeker 47 Hit the gas
49 Lady Gaga vis-à-vis Billie Eilish, e.g. 52 Multipurpose tool for a mountaineer 54 Fixed
56 Dal ingredients 57 Note in the B major scale
58 Programming language used in government and banking 60 Triple ____
61 Cloud nine, so to speak 62 No more than 66 Formula 1 tour stop since 2023, informally 68 O.C.’s region 70 Negative contraction 71 “Sounds right to me” 73 Boy band that went on hiatus in 2023 for army service
75 No fan
77 “____ in the Rain” 78 Camper’s vessel 80 Struck
85 Fried chicken, cornbread, collard greens, etc.
86 Property at an intersection
88 Actor Pascal of “The Last of Us” 89 Author Rand 90 Pulitzer-winning author Jennifer 92 Fair-hiring inits.
93 Like some kisses 95 Wart-covered critter 96 Digital “container” associated with Bitcoin 98 Dystopian classic whose title comes from “The Tempest”
100 Metonym for the U.S. Congress, with “the” 103 Stuck
104 Tarot card featuring a howling wolf
105 Mountain nymph 107 Waterproofing material
108 Picture book with characters like Odlaw, Wizard Whitebeard and Woof
112 Batter-fried bento dish
114 Part of a princess costume
116 Nike and others 117 Palm-tree product used in skin care
118 Statistical calculation 119 Safe investment options, informally 120 Secret option? 121 Factory ____
122 “Barbie” director Gerwig
DOWN
1 Hunk of meat 2 Vegetable with a “dinosaur” variety
3 Civil rights activist Baker 4 Suspense-building words
5 Schedules
6 Ride
7 Mysterious glows 8 Focus for a pitching scout?
9 Rx chain
10 Jet setting 11 Prominent figure at the Academy Awards 12 Studio behind “Bringing Up Baby” 13 More informal version of 70-Across 14 Low points
15 School group
16 Fished with traps, perhaps
17 Parental authority 19 Spiritual hermitage 23 Core
27 Certain streaming library
29 Push notifications, e.g. 32 They’re kept under wraps
33 “Kidding!”
35 Things to stub out, for short
36 Have a side in common 37 Actor Eric
38 Starts to fall
39 Trawl for personal information
42 _____ O’Malley Dillon of the Biden White House 44 Clock innards
45 ____ to go
46 Many an attendee of Gertrude
Stein’s Paris salons 48 Start of a winning row 50 Go on and on about 51 “The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems,” per Homer Simpson
53 Celebrity chef Roy 55 Group of witches 57 Two-family dwelling 59 Frequent antagonist of Winnie-the-Pooh 61 Have something 62 Home to the University of Montana 63 Enlighten
64 Kept going and going 65 Breakfast brand with a rhyming slogan 67 Refused to answer questions
69 One buying a stuffed mouse, perhaps
72 Van Halen’s contract once had one that specified no brown M&M’s 74 Olympic event since 1968
76 Good or bad name, for short
78 Against
79 Not against
81 It might come with a plunger
82 What squiggly lines can represent 83 Russia’s ____ Mountains
84 Maiden name of an 1860s first lady
86 What can symbolize 50 87 Was thick (with) 91 Spot for recess on a rainy day
94 Like some short tennis matches
96 Keep rhythm with, in a way
97 Al ____, discus thrower in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame 98 1995 blockbuster with numerous historical inaccuracies 99 Blowing away 100 Drink often served with marshmallows 101 ____ Joliot-Curie, chemist daughter of Marie
102 Primate that exists only on the world’s fifth-largest island 104 Pang
106 Daft Punk and
Outkast, for two
108 Polemology is the study of them
109 Word on some yogurt labels
110 Bug-bite preventer 111 Greek peak
113 Where Simone Biles won four golds
115 Source of much U.S. immigration in the 1840s: Abbr.