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New York Times, Friday, January 2, 2026

January 03, 2026

By Adam Wagner and Rafael Musa • 68 Clues

Across Clues

1. Havanese greeting → ARF
4. Tolstoy book whose title asks a question → WHATISART
13. Reluctantly stoop → DEIGN
16. They rate up to 350,000 on the Scoville scale → HABANEROS
17. H.S. class for tough life lessons? → APBIO
18. "Just tell me when it's over" → ICANTLOOK
19. Dance move also known as a backslide → MOONWALK
21. Skims, as soup stock → DEFATS
22. Fig. that cannot start with 9 → SSN
23. Org. for The Rock and Brock Lesnar → WWE
24. Tunnel-making machine → BORER
25. Not many → AFEW
27. Windfalls → BOONS
28. Keep coming up → RECUR
30. One might lead to pay back → TAXRETURN
34. Make some introductions, say → EMCEE
35. The Cowboys of the N.C.A.A. → OSU
36. Word from the Lakota for "they dwell" → TEPEE
37. Emotional manipulation tactic → GUILTTRIP
39. Meaty meal → FEAST
40. Attraction on the western side of Carson Range → TAHOE
41. "Oof!" → DAMN
42. Seems less impressive, so to speak → PALES
43. Spray in the kitchen → PAM
44. German stock market index → DAX
47. Cumbrous → CLUNKY
49. One-to-one relationship → MONOGAMY
51. Exchanges blows? → AIRKISSES
53. Up to → UNTIL
54. Eggless bread spread → VEGENAISE
55. "A-a-a-and ___!" (improv show ender) → SCENE
56. High-carb snack → ENERGYBAR
57. May day celebrant → MOM

Down Clues

1. President who wrote "Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it" → ADAMS
2. Default outcomes, perhaps → REPOS
3. Kind of sequence that that proceeds 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... → FIBONACCI
4. Duration → WHILE
5. Modern security threat → HACK
6. Org. with the Rule of Law Initiative → ABA
7. Cylindrical oven → TANDOOR
8. Extremely well-liked? → INTERNETFAMOUS
9. Personal opinion? → SELFESTEEM
10. Hooting and hollering → AROAR
11. Part of an underground network → ROOT
12. Pithy put-downs → TSKS
14. Main ingredient in an aviation cocktail → GIN
15. "I like the sound of that!" → NOWWERETALKING
20. "So adorable!" → AWW
24. Prepare to ship, say → BOXUP
26. Delivery means to a gas station → FUELTANKER
27. Count in the Blues Hall of Fame → BASIE
28. On the ___ (frequently, informally) → REG
29. Bird whose eggs are sometimes a canvas for Aboriginal art → EMU
30. Capotes are flapped at them → TOROS
31. "Let's go, sleepyhead!" → UPANDATEM
32. Booking, for short → RES
33. Server's obstacle → NET
38. "Word on the street is ..." → THEYSAY
41. ___ Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code" → DAN
42. Night of lawlessness in a long-running horror franchise, with "the" → PURGE
43. Try-hard → POSER
45. Kind of acid → AMINO
46. Stem component → XYLEM
47. Capitulate → CAVE
48. Lender's security → LIEN
49. Table outside → MESA
50. Big purveyor of health supplements → GNC
52. Gender-neutral term in a family → SIB