This Week’s Puzzle

ACROSS

• 1. “___ ever notice…” (observational comic’s lead-in)
• 6. Generations of major leaguers
• 11. Early tie
• 13. Combination wager
• 14. “The loudest taste on earth” snack item
• 15. Go-___
• 16. Hurler Hershiser
• 17. Va. neighbor
• 19. Not go straight
• 20. Deli item
• 22. Actress Scala
• 23. ESPN sports columnist who coined the Ewing Theory
• 26. “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” speaker
• 28. Stern
• 29. Epoch
• 30. Ankles
• 31. Slangy turndown
• 32. Señor’s emphatic yes
• 33. Unlikely to bite
• 37. Square, e.g.
• 39. Drops off
• 41. Having the same reach
• 42. Sarge, e.g.
• 43. Has to have
• 44. Vermont ski resort

DOWN

• 1. Dumb cluck
• 2. “___ out?”: dealer’s query
• 3. Brooklynese “yonder”
• 4. Cooler dweller
• 5. Cockpit dial: Abbr.
• 6. Downsizer
• 7. Midback muscle, for short
• 8. Eight-sided figures
• 9. Womb-related
• 10. It bites
• 12. Pain-relief ad term
• 13. Classless society supporter
• 18. Lear alternatives
• 21. Others, to Ovid
• 23. Mining passage
• 24. “Please help ___ this…?”
• 25. Activist, often
• 26. Accra resident
• 27. Food Network star
• 32. Princes, e.g.
• 34. Old record label
• 35. Cat call
• 36. Edward Cullen’s mom in Twilight
• 38. Pan, e.g.
• 40. Red Sox, on scoreboards