The New York Times Crossword

TODAY: NO RUSE (0718)

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 ¥ç

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 Was Shot by the Taliban’’

53 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 a 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 Grammy-nominated 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 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)