New York Times Crossword No. 0421
Tracy Gray lives in Hunt Valley, Md. She and her husband recently retired after 35 years of owning and operating a lawn-and-landscaping business outside Baltimore. This puzzle started with its title, which Tracy then brainstormed themes to fit — the crossword equivalent of putting the cart before the horse.
ACROSS
1 ‘‘We’re doing this!’’
6 Rear ends
14 Mensa prereq
20 Lightweight curtain
fabric
21 Folded brunch fare
22 Tito who wrote
‘‘Oye Como Va’’
23 Song performed three times in ‘‘The Wiz’’
25 Give a kick, say
26 What ‘‘American Airlines’’ means in poker lingo
27 Marty Feldman’s role in ‘‘Young Frankenstein’’
28 Cioppino ingredient
30 Crumbly coffeehouse
confection
31 Container for
movie popcorn
32 ____ Nation (annual
music festival)
33 One place to find a pair of parrots
35 Backless stool
37 DFW stat
38 Riddle-me-____
39 Group with the 2009
hit ‘‘I Gotta Feeling’’
41 Boldness
43 Apple variety whose name sounds like part of a flower
45 Steph Curry and
LeBron James, e.g.
49 ‘‘Yes, cap’n!’’
51 Move quickly
(through)
53 Pinnacle
54 Mérida mister
56 Layering garment
59 Number of Gospels in the New Testament
61 Author Koontz
62 Big ____
63 Fitness enthusiast’s
mantra
66 Old Italian currency
67 The one who got
away?
69 Japanese vegetable
70 Suffering memory
loss
73 Nicholas II was the
last one
74 Start of some
cautionary advice
79 PreCheck org.
80 POTUS’s military title
81 Bird whose first letter
is silent
82 Baby ____
83 Low-lying wetland
85 Real looker
87 List-ending abbr.
89 Mean
91 Rubs the rite way?
93 Surfboard/kayak
hybrid
96 Casey of classic radio
100 Take advantage
of an opportunity
102 Where the buck
might stop?
104 Alex and ____
( jewelry brand)
105 2022 No. 1 hit for
Taylor Swift
108 Snoopy, to Charlie
Brown
109 Actress Campbell of
the ‘‘Scream’’ films
110 N.Y.C. subway inits.
111 Former African country, and its currency
112 Jewish rite for an
8-day-old
114 Weather the storm
115 Sow and hoe
for dough, say
116 F-14 fighter jet
118 You love to see it
122 Fashion designer
Pucci
123 Broke a nationalpark rule
124 Emoticon’s mouth,
for short
125 Apple-processing
plant
126 Church parts vulnerable to lightning
127 Hip spot for a drink?
DOWN
1 ‘‘No food for me,
thanks’’
2 ‘‘Adorbs!’’
3 Angle-measuring
instrument
4 Ransom Eli ____ (pioneering automaker)
5 Opposite of paleo
6 What ‘‘the Hill’’
is a metonym for
7 Recess retort
8 Paint brand
9 Fútbol cheer
10 ‘‘Come ____ the Sea’’ (Thomas Moore poem)
11 Daytona vehicle
12 List-ending abbr.
13 Calm
14 Computer addresses,
for short
15 Cheesy appetizer
with chips
16 Variety of tiny dog
17 Belgian Surrealist
painter James
18 Peach pit
19 Doctrinal belief
24 ‘‘The Good ____’’ (Emmy-winning series)
29 Bread spread
32 ‘‘Still awake?’’
33 Olympian Raisman
34 Zodiac animal
36 ‘‘The View’’ co-host
Joy
39 Emptier
40 Butter cutter
42 Amazon Prime
vehicle
44 Early name
in digital recording
46 Unlikely donors
to the AARP
47 Kinda close
48 Largest of New York’s
Finger Lakes
50 Pennsylvania city that’s home to Gannon University
52 Luau finger food
54 Word with jam or
joint
55 Best animated feature winner of 2021
57 Curved line between
musical notes
58 Hot cocktail
60 It owns the trademark for ‘‘The Greatest Snow on Earth’’
62 ‘‘You ____!’’ 64 Streak on a cheek
65 ____ speak
68 Where to see
the midnight sun
71 Barbenheimer in the
summer of 2023, e.g.
72 Aaron Judge, e.g., in
brief
75 Teeny-tiny
76 When a football may
be snapped
77 Walt Whitman,
notably
78 Fail miserably 81 Preamble start
84 Nutritional fig.
86 Like love on Valentine’s Day, it’s said
88 Bad spot to leave food
unattended
90 Laundry purchase in an orange container
92 Belgrade resident
94 Service center?
95 Tympanostomy
performer, for short 97 Iraqi city on the Tigris
98 ‘‘Mains’’
99 Former TLC reality show set in a Florida tattoo parlor
101 Standards of
behavior
103 O.T.C. part
105 Like the emblem
on Mexico’s flag
106 Two-time Australian
Open winner Osaka
107 Unlikely to make the
first move 109 Like some credit
cards
113 ‘‘Really, though?’’
114 PC shortcut key
115 A little horse
117 Nursery item
119 It merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon
120 With it, in old slang
121 Letters on some
skin-care products