THE BEST
OF YOUR LIFE
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GIFT WRAPPED
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42 PC messages
47 Phone sound
48 Medieval conquerers
50 Rice in a bookstore
51 Hard to climb
53 Colorful adjective
55 Had a yen
57 Pack of pups
58 Hole in your head?
61 In-law intro
62 Mag features, often
63 Words of experience
69 Frost piece
70 Michael Corleone’s
strong-arm bodyguard
(anagram of NAILER)
71 It’s tress-related
75 Riyadh residents
77 Powerful quality
80 Big string?
81 Harvest grain
82 In front of a meter
83 Newark’s county
84 Sot’s woe
85 Tire features
ACROSS
1 Emulated an emcee
7 Hosp. units?
10 The Oracle of
15 Punctual
16 Closed
17 Sherpa’s country
18 Type of treatment
20 For all to hear
21 “Strange” prefix
NOTE TO SOLVERS Six related gifts are “wrapped”
(that is, hidden) inside the grid’s long answers. What
sort of person is the intended recipient of all six gifts?
22 Riga’s country
24 Give the twice-over?
25 MI T student
29 de deux
32 Freedom, for short
33 Al or Bobby of racing
34 Quakers?
36 Letter sign-off
40 Chipmunk duo
DOWN
1 Act meant to dupe
2 Formerly
3 Amaze
4 one’s tongue
5 Down Under denizen
6 Room to relax in
7 Water park feature
8 Hard pitch to hit
9 Big mug
10 hunch
1 1 Rapped fruits?
12 Orbital point
13 Moving van, e.g.
14 Birch-family tree
16 Holiday tree topper
19 A Woods wood, e.g.
23 Flu symptom
26 Arm bone
27 Contrary contraction
28 Concerning
29 Treaties
30 Like (very fast)
31 Back of the book?
35 Fencer’s buy
36 1967 hit, “Kind of ”
37 Composer Erik
38 Oxlike antelope
39 Sink or swim, e.g.
41 “Rats!”
43 Fountain order
44 Baker or Bryant
45 Tattooed
46 Creepy looks
49 Athenian lawgiver
52 In addition to
54 Carlin radio routine:
“Wonderful ”
56 Safety org.
58 Sleep sounds
59 Noble aims
60 Like Jack
61 LP-playing problem
63 Quickly
64 Prayer start
65 Not reached, as goals
66 Singer Horne et al.
67 Faucet woe
68 “ am I?”
72 Singer Paul
73 Rubbed out?
74 Cincinnati team
76 Boston team, briefly
78 Choose
79 Cigarette ingredient
Select one item from the “dinner table” on the left and one item from the “sundries table” on the right to form a two-word
combination that rhymes with a third common item, as clued below. For example, SAND / STUFFING sounds like “handcuffing,”
which is a “police officer’s procedure.” Either word (from left or right) may come first. Each of the items is used only once.
HOLIDAY RHYME TIME
ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHI BIRMINGHAM
CLUES
POLICE OFFICER’S PROCEDURE
BRASS INSTRUMENT
BEACH PARTY
SMOKED-MEAT SNACK
LUCY’S LANDLORD
TALL CITY BUILDING
CLASSIC BLAZER COLOR
ELECTRICIAN’S CLIPPERS
FOR EVEN
MORE FUN…
Play new crossword and jigsaw puzzles
daily online at aarp.org/games.
