NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Set of pictures at a dentist’s

6 Crow’s sound 9 Reprieves

15 Event for meeting new people

16 “I love,” to Cato 17 Perfect world

18 “The one thing that’s clear to me …” 20 Picked

21 Appear

22 “Smoking or ___?” 23 Boxing achievements, in brief

24 Distant

29 Narrow water passage 32 “___ day now …” 33 Villainous count in the Lemony Snicket books 35 Obama’s successor 36 Jason’s ship

37 Pull off perfectly 38 Many millennia 39 Police operation … or, when read another way, what a grammarian would like to do to 18-, 24-, 52- and 65-Across?

43 Day-___ paint 44 Japanese soup 46 Boaters’ implements 47 Some woodwinds 49 Lose traction on the

road

50 Vietnamese soup 51 What Google’s Ngram program tracks, for word usage 52 Narrative connector 56 Peach pit or walnut 57 Greedy one 58 Peach or walnut 62 Cuba’s capital 65 “What do you think of …?” 67 Unscripted comedy, informally

68 Mimic

69 Watch over

70 Blue state? 71 Fluorescent bulb alternative, for short 72 Novices

DOWN

1 Dec. celebration

2 Tick off

3 What car wheels turn

on

4 Polite affirmative

5 ___ Lanka

6 Group of books that an educated person is supposed to be familiar with

7 In the company of 8 Blow away

9 Jealous words of congratulations 10 Cultural spirit

11 “You can’t joke about that yet”

12 FedEx rival 13 Thanksgiving dessert

14 ___ Juan,

Puerto Rico 19 Problem with a shoelace 23 Dance in which one partner might hold a rose between his teeth 25 One might apply gloss to them

26 Things for sale 27 Old-fashioned wine holder

28 Unsuccessful 29 Thorny parts of roses 30 Group of three 31 Enters hurriedly 34 Often-unheeded

advice from dentists 36 Ohio city that was once the Rubber Capital of the World

40 Liable to tip over,

maybe

41 Expressed amazement 42 Labourite’s opponent,

in British politics 45 “Most likely …”

48 Big electronics chain 51 License plates

53 Choir member 54 “Fingers crossed!” 55 Planted, as discord 59 Sound to fear in the

savanna

60 Currency with a “€” symbol

61 When planes are due to take off, for short 62 That guy

63 “What ___, chopped

liver?”

64 Biden and Pence, in

brief

65 Actor Holbrook 66 10%-er: Abbr.