NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
Ashish Vengsarkar, of Scotch Plains, N.J., is the head of Optical Networking Technologies at Google. Besides puzzles, he enjoys playing raga and table tennis. (He and I have a longstanding annual rivalry in the latter.) The seed entry of this puzzle was 10-Down, which came to Ashish while he was at the dentist’s. The symmetrical pairing of 36- and 40-Down (a favorite artist of his during college) was fortuitous. — W.S. ACROSS
1 Art of riding and
training a horse
9 ‘‘Mea culpa’’
14 Campania’s capital 20 Put in other words 21 Bob Marley’s ‘‘____
You Be Loved’’
22 Mark in the World
Golf Hall of Fame 23 Lacking selfassurance
24 Onus for a magician’s disappearing act? 26 Study of how gels
gel?
28 All together
29 Little, to a Scot
30 η
31 Fizzle (out)
33 Miscellaneous task 37 Irish writer Behan 39 Increased, with
‘‘up’’
44 Actress Polo
45 Pablo Neruda’s
‘‘____ to Wine’’
47 They’ll put you head and shoulders above everyone else
49 Constellation almost above the North Pole
50 Autobiography subtitled ‘‘The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Wasshotbythe Taliban’’
Red card
54 ____ Khan, prime minister of
Pakistan beginning in 2018
55 Sports broadcast feature
56 Angry Wisconsin
sports fans?
59 Fire sign?
61 Like n, where n = 2k
(and ‘‘k’’ is a whole number)
62 Unagi, at a sushi
bar
63 President Bartlet of
‘‘The West Wing’’
64 Singer Astley
66 Total-itarian?
69 Law enforcement,
slangily
71 Tajikistan, e.g., once: Abbr.
73 ‘‘How was ____ know?’’
75 Loll
77 Many a marble bust
80 Getting ‘‘Amscray!’’
under control?
85 Like yoga
instructors
87 Greet the day
88 One of the Earps
89 –
91 Bathroom-cabinet
item
92 Certain bridge
positions
94 Mceachern a.k.a. the ‘‘Voice of
Poker’’
95 Cake topper
96 Wealthiest professional sports org.
98 Abrogates 100 Party animal?
102 Reveals
104 Reply to an
oversharer
105 One in a hundred:
Abbr.
106 Parrot
110 Power of a cowboy’s shoe?
116 Odysseus’ wife whispers sweet nothings? 119 Bliss
120 With wisdom
121 In a sense, colloquially
122 Activity for some pen pals
123 Port on the Black Sea
124 Colorful food fish
125 Giveaways during some pledge drives
DOWN
1 What the doctor
ordered
2 Where Johnny Cash
shot a man, in song 3 Bruins legend Phil,
to fans
4 ‘‘Cut it out!’’ 5 Pronounced with
authority
6 Twitter handle
starter
7 Davis of ‘‘Thelma &
Louise’’
8 Icelandic saga
9 Chicken ____ (discontinued fastfood snack)
10 Dramatic accusation at a dentist’s office?
11 Stickers 12 City council representative: Abbr.
13 Onetime White
House inits.
14 Lunchtime liaison
15 Bands you might
listen to in the car?
16 Salt’s musical partner
17 Where ‘‘khop jai’’
means ‘‘thank you’’
18 God who ‘‘loosens the limbs and weakens the mind,’’ per Hesiod
19 Call at home
25 Not gross
27 Île be there?
31 ____ paneer (dish with
puréed spinach)
32 Way in
33 ‘‘The Adventures of Milo and ____’’ (1989 film)
34 Cyber Monday
offerings
35 She might take care
of a kid on sick day 36 Rock star who wrote the poetry collection ‘‘The American Night’’
37 Contradict
38 ‘‘Mon ____!’’
40 36-Down’s anagrammatic nickname
41 ‘‘Gay’’ city in a Cole
Porter song
42 Hallmark.com
purchase
43 Opposite of ‘‘takes
off ’’
46 Something to leave
to beavers?
48 Precipitous
51 Grammynominated D.J. Steve 52 Thomas ____ Edison 57 Join with rings
58 Smudge
60 Vaper’s purchase
65 Neighborhood where you might get kimchi, for short
67 Goddess of the dawn 68 Obama chief of staff
Emanuel
70 Campaign pros
71 ____ Gilbert, co-developer of a Covid-19 vaccine 72 Smile with one’s eyes, per a modern coinage
74 Long past
76 Some fencing swords 78 Something to play
fetch with
79 ‘‘Well, golly!’’
80 Biting
81 Spongy toys
82 Resets to zero, as a
scale
83 ____://
84 John Winston ____
Lennon 86 Professor ’iggins
90 Eaglelike?
93 Appetizers filled with
potatoes and peas
97 One of the Jacksons 99 Word following
English or green
101 Kind of wonder?
103 Cred
105 Campaign (for)
106 Itself: Lat.
107 World’s oldest
alcoholic beverage
No. 0718 108 Pulitzer-winning playwright from Independence, Kan. 109 Seriously annoys,
with ‘‘off ’’
110 Tora ____,
Afghanistan
111 Not overlooked
112 Defendant’s plea, for
short
113 Determination
114 Fork point
115 Storied caldron stirrers 117 Spanish ‘‘that’’
118 Admit (to)