Apologies for the spotty service over the past week or so. I’m traveling right now, and struggling to keep pace with puzzles and blog posts. I should be home shortly, and posting every day again.
1 Terrible twos? : SOPHOMORE SLUMPS
16 Much-viewed showdown of 1975 : THRILLA IN MANILA
17 Classic Jonathan Swift satire : A MODEST PROPOSAL
18 Certain movement supporters : CANES
19 Takes off, with “it” : BOOKS …
20 “The 1619 Project” publisher, for short : NYT
21 Grocery list listing : EGGS
22 What a helicopter might fly out of? : MAPLE
23 Mathematician Weierstrass dubbed the “father of modern analysis” : KARL
24 Happy exclamation : YES!
25 Home of Switzerland’s oldest university : BASEL
26 Nation that moved east of the International Date Line in 1892 and west of it in 2011 : SAMOA
27 Neutral pH : SEVEN
28 “Don’t worry about us!” : WE’RE OK!
29 Quarreled : SPATTED
32 Remark while browsing an old photo album … or “Guilty as charged!” : THAT’S ME
33 Author Susan whom Meryl Streep portrayed in “Adaptation” : ORLEAN
34 Debt notes : CHITS
35 Fertile mixtures : LOAMS
36 Silk ___ (hairstyling method) : PRESS
37 Abbr. in a Car and Driver review : MPG
40 College-level course for H.S. coders : APCS
41 Bad sound from an engine : CLUNK
42 Mother of Cronus and Rhea : GAIA
43 Mens ___ : REA
44 Gradually eliminate, with “out” : PHASE …
45 Some salad veggies : CUKES
46 Extremely hot peppers named for their scythelike tails : CAROLINA REAPERS
49 Hybrid video game genre : ACTION-ADVENTURE
50 Cassette forerunners : REEL-TO-REEL TAPES
Down
1 Voting rights activist Abrams : STACEY
2 Amount of resistance : OHMAGE
3 They go into outlets : PRONGS
4 Prepares for a surprise party : HIDES
5 Cries after un gran gol de fútbol : OLES
6 Org. for the New England Revolution : MLS
7 Like some nondairy milks : OAT-BASED
8 Tear apart : RIP OPEN
9 Register : ENROLL
10 Participate in a joint session? : SMOKE
11 Toddlers’ 26-Down, sometimes : LAPS
12 2018 inductee into the Toy Hall of Fame : UNO
13 Calls incorrectly : MISNAMES
14 Recreation area : PLAYROOM
15 It allows a swimmer to float more easily : SALT LAKE
22 Buff : MAVEN
23 Vehicles in a Nintendo racing game : KARTS
25 Nondominant personalities : BETAS
26 See 11-Down : SEATS
27 Things placed in vases : STEMS
28 Beat in a bake-off? : WHISK
29 One traveling by daylight? : SOLAR CAR
30 Like much 1960s activism : PRO-PEACE
31 Individually, in a way : A LA CARTE
32 “So rude!” : THE NERVE!
34 Intense movement : CRUSADE
36 Two-dimensional : PLANAR
37 Highlighters and such : MAKEUP
38 Karine Jean-___, White House media person beginning in 2022 : PIERRE
39 Inflates the ego of, with “up” : GASSES
41 Fabric whose name may derive from its country of origin : CHINO
42 TV medical reporter Sanjay : GUPTA
44 Scheme : PLOT
45 “___ hurt” : CAN’T
47 ___ stick (frequent Jean-Michel Basquiat medium) : OIL
48 Jangeo, in Korean cuisine : EEL
