THE NYT CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS

1 Onetime Sony rival 8 Off-color

12 Maker of the X6 and Z4

15 Doctors Without Borders, e.g.: Abbr. 18 Deep secret

19 ‘‘____ Dead?’’ (Mark Twain play)

20 Quickly learn one’s lesson?

21 Startling sound 22 Bookworms call dad?

24 South Beach and Paleo, for two

26 Swiss painter Paul 27 Company whose business is picking up? 28 Seedy area?

29 Big Apple media inits.

30 Depletes, with ‘‘up’’ 31 A young Justice Ginsburg chuckles? 36 Signature item 37 Singer Watson, a.k.a.

Tones and I, with the 2019 hit ‘‘Dance Monkey’’

38 Apt name for a lawyer

39 False accusation, informally

40 Fancy Feast alternative

43 One ‘‘R’’ in R&R 46 Hoarse

47 Do core exercises all day, every day?

51 ‘‘____ Brockovich’’ 52 Quick drive 53 Elusive legend 54 Business for Sanders supporters? 57 Holiday dish served with sour cream or applesauce

60 Links grp.

62 Hard to handle, in a way

64 Hunky-dory 66 Response to an order

67 Burger King bingefest? 71 Alma mater for Spike Lee and Donald Glover, for short 72 Logical connector 73 With the greatest of ____

74 ____ golf 75 Sloped-roof support 77 Govt. org. with a forerunner known as the Black Chamber 79 Race units 81 Dinner-table expander

83 Hops-drying oven 84 Supernova in our galaxy?

90 Follower of word or potato

93 ‘‘Gimme ____’’ 94 ____-cat 95 Numerous 97 Symbols in Twitter handles

99 Like ____ of sunshine

100 Anatomical pouch 103 When E.M.T.s bring home the bacon? 108 ‘‘I mean .?.?. ’’ 109 A/C spec

110 Members of the crow family

111 Heavier alternative to a foil

112 Guthrie who performed at Woodstock 113 Cutting edge? 115 Some astronomy Ph.D.s?

119 Longtime Japanese P.M. who stepped down in 2020

120 ‘‘Runnin’?’’ team of N.C.A.A. Division I college basketball 121 Comparable (to) 122 Disciple

123 Tarnish

124 Really good time 125 Capital near the North Sea

126 Prepares (for)

DOWN

1 Prepare for a road trip, perhaps

2 End of a threat 3 Nora Ephron and Sofia Coppola, for two 4 The land down under? 5 Walk-____ 6 Prickly covering of a seed 7 ‘‘____ the only one?’’ 8 Beatles title woman 9 ‘‘____ your request .?.?. ’’ 10 Feature of a classical Greek drama 11 ‘‘You betcha!’’ 12 ‘‘The ____ — is wider than the Sky’’ (start of an Emily Dickinson poem) 13 Bit of fill-in-theblanks fun 14 Subject of intl. treaties 15 Compliant sorts 16 Squalid digs 17 Sports team V.I.P.s 20 Corporate money managers, for short 23 Ancient Egyptians 25 Result of a breast pocket mishap, maybe 28 Ally of the Brat Pack 31 Common baking pear 32 Sacred cross in ancient Egypt 33 Chance to go 34 Preserve, in a way 35 Only Stratego piece with a letter on it 37 Sardine container 41 Studmuffin 42 Absorb, as sauce with bread 44 Give extra consideration, with ‘‘on’’ 45 Idaho, e.g., in dialect 47 Color marker 48 Got hip, with ‘‘up’’ 49 How a door might be slammed 50 Subcontractor in a bathroom remodel 51 Gusto 55 One may be nominated for a Hugo Award 56 Least forward

58 Palindromic farm animal

59 ‘‘We ____ Overcome’’

61 Stubborn sorts

63 It helps in passing 65 Rocker Cobain 68 Japan’s street food mecca

69 Diarist who documented the Great Plague of London 70 Gets lost

76 Eponym of the Detroit Lions field

78 Any Olympian, once

80 Drops an f-bomb, say

82 False fronts 85 Promises, promises! 86 Takes steps

87 ____ avis

88 Coarse farm sound 89 Dangerous move on a busy highway 90 ‘‘Blueberries for ____’’

(kid-lit classic) 91 Legendary password stealer

92 Higher, as ambitions 96 Build-your-own Tex-Mex dish

98 Does a dog trick 101 Declare

102 Where hangers hang

104 They go wherever the wind blows

105 They can be batted and rolled

106 When high school seniors often visit the colleges that accepted them

107 Like binary questions 108 Volt-amperes 113 Attention hog, maybe

114 Galoot

115 Portrait seen on renminbi bills 116 Car-sticker fig. 117 ‘‘Roses ____ red .?.?. ’’

118 Nonsense