Crossword No. 690: Fast Food Nations

ACROSS

1 Mercury portrayer of 2018

6 Sambuca sample

9 Ethan in Glass Onion 14 Stroll

15 Fish pond swimmer

16 Felt that workout later 17 World leader whose delegation had a huge KFC order delivered to its Moscow hotel during a state visit on March 20

19 R.L. who writes Goosebumps books 20 Laudatory poetry

21 “Let’s see how your new shirt looks!” 23 Choose to participate 25 “Quit acting up!” 26 German number

27 Nickels and dimes, say 29 Vaper’s item 32 Fashionable Anna 33 Rhames who portrayed Don King

34 Functionality

35 100 percent

36 When this university won the national football title in 2019, President Trump greeted the team at the White House with silver trays of Burger King, Wendy’s, and Domino’s food

39 Not to be trusted, casually

40 Witty Bill

42 Q5 automaker 43 Vietnamese celebration 44 OPEC member

45 Cut into small cubes 47 Besides that

48 Rick and Robert, for two 50 Verne who created Captain Nemo

52 Tree with large leaves 54 Spelling seen on TV screens

55 Cuban dance genre 56 Former Russian leader who did a 1998 ad for Pizza Hut featuring his granddaughter

61 Dental floss brand 62 Sheared female

63 Two after Leo

64 Grows smaller, as the moon

65 Crafty

66 Bar seat

DOWN

1 Upper limit, casually

2 Montreal pal

3 Fourth after FDR

4 George known for his 1779-83 defense of Gibraltar

5 Political theorist Ibram X. ___

6 Pair usually parallel 7 Charged particle

8 Pal of Charlie Brown 9 “___ mañana”

10 Players eligible for an NFL game

11 Sen. Ted Cruz was criticized in 2018 for naming this fast food chain’s burgers as his favorite, since his state of Texas has none of its restaurants

12 Casino game

13 Ancient paradise 18 Crossword solver’s preference, often 22 Hesitating syllables 23 Of the eye

24 SNL great who in a 1992 sketch played Bill Clinton taking bites of patrons’ food at a McDonald’s

25 Former North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s personal chef was once dispatched to Beijing to buy him a bag of these 26 “I couldn’t agree more” 28 It’s six before seven 30 “Sounds about right” 31 Beau ___ (noble act) 33 Item with an eject button

34 College, in German slang

37 Seek damages from

38 Far from steady work 41 Even-tempered

45 Chip’s target

46 Since way back when 47 Bring forth, as a reply 49 Spills a secret

51 Eurasian mountain range

52 Bird metaphorically eaten

53 Surrounding atmosphere

54 Low heart or club, say 57 Hooting creature

58 The Last of Us airer 59 Suffix with ranch

60 Kilmer in Top Gun: Maverick