The New York Times Crossword
Tom Mccoy is in his third year of a PH.D. program in cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University. His area of research is computational linguistics — in particular, how to get computers to learn language as well as humans do. He got the idea for this puzzle from an undergraduate linguistics class at Yale, remembering a remark by his professor about a certain rarity in English. Tom found just enough examples of it for a Sunday theme, then constructed the grid on his laptop during a long car ride.
ACROSS
1 Short strokes
6 Myriad
10 Habit
14 Pieces of work?
18 End of oyster season 19 Roof part
20 “____ Burr, Sir” (“Hamilton” song) 21 Vault
22 Cruise that specializes in baked alaska, e.g.? 25 Bona ____
26 Kim to Kourtney, or Kourtney to Khloá 27 Alma mater of George Orwell and Henry Fielding 28 Friend ____ friend 29 Quickly go through the seasons, say
30 Tiffany lampshade, e.g. 33 Like ambitious scientists? 37 Basic skate trick 38 “Yikes!”
40 Brewing one’s morning coffee, e.g.
41 Verano, across the Pyránáes
42 Art ____
45 Cause of a shocking Amazon charge? 47 ____-V (“paste” on a PC) 48 Go wrong
49 How everyone on this floor is feeling?
55 Lead-in to -ville in children’s literature
56 Beer, slangily
57 Trim, with “down” 58 Protected, as feet
59 “I saw ____ duck” (classic ambiguous sentence) 60 Long hikes
62 Refuse to admit
64 “My word!”
68 “Our lab studies regular dance moves rather than high-kicking”? 74 Architect Lin 75 Bankroll
76 Fire man?
77 “I see it now”
78 Lean
82 Garden plots
84 Indian title
85 The second “p” in p.p.m. 86 Summary of an easy negotiation? 91 Musician Brian 92 Option in an Edit menu 93 Loire filler
94 Coin in the Potterverse 95 Branch 96 Central region of the Roman Empire
99 Last in a series, perhaps 101 Terse summons
105 What a truck driver puts on before a date? 108 Massive weapon of sci-fi 111 The Oligocene, e.g., in geology
112 Big Apple airport code 113 Several of them could be used in a row
114 Dear
115 “____ nobis pacem” (“Grant us peace”: Lat.) 116 The main food served at Walden Pond?
122 End _ _ _ _
123 Alnico or chromel
124 _ _ _ _ Minor
125 5x5 crosswords, e.g. 126 Pops up in France?
127 Co. heads
128 Rough amts.
129 Seize (from)
DOWN
1 What one does not do when sent to jail
2 Kind of battle
3 Like some customs 4 Word of advice
5 _ _ _ _-mo
6 Quarrel
7 Capital of Punjab 8 State of stability
9 Tie the knot 10 Flavoring for snack peas 11 Galena, e.g.
12 “... ____ a lender be” 13 Purchase for Wile E. Coyote 14 Diminutive
15 Package deliverers of the present day?
16 Fancy gizmos
17 75+ person? 20 Regarding
23 Not many
24 The Phanerozoic, e.g., in geology
29 Words on an invoice 31 Faction 32 Apparently does
34 Mark indelibly
35 Old strings
36 Habitat for a mallow
39 Not go bad
43 & 44 Judge’s mandate 46 Imperfect cube
49 Angle symbol in geometry 50 Having a long face, say 51 Request from
52 Fuss
53 Rough housing 54 Comics character often kicked off a table 55 Impulse
61 Diver’s accouterments 63 Thirst (for) 65 Hogwarts potions professor 66 Was sore
67 MIX, for one
69 Voice role for Beyoncá in 2019’s “The Lion King” 70 Had down
71 Serving at a pancake house 72 French dialect 73 Hastily
79 Shout from a lottery winner 80 Look after
81 _ _ _ _ pool
83 Check out
86 Resting
87 One without a title
88 Do a star turn 89 “Great” place to be
90 GPS suggestions: Abbr. 91 Became less severe 97 Some brick houses
98 On the warpath 100 Leader in yellow journalism and an inspiration for “Citizen Kane” 102 Simple hydrocarbon 103 Native New Zealanders 104 ____ Rutherford, a.k.a. the Father of Nuclear Physics 106 Words to a dejected friend 107 Down
109 Domains
110 Airport grp.
116 The banker in the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” never wears one in the pouring rain (very strange!) 117 Middle-earth quaff 118 Eponymous 2001 No. 1 album
119 Shade
120 Coal industry org.
121 Tree that starts fires?