STRETCHING EXERCISES

Jeremy Newton, of Austin, Texas, is a software engineer who makes mobile games. Titles he has worked on include Crosswords With Friends, Zynga Poker, Dragon Academy and many others. He has been a puzzle enthusiast since he was a child, when a grandmother got him hooked on Jumble. As a crossword constructor, Jeremy says he likes ‘‘wacky themes’’ (as a glance at today’s grid might suggest). This is Jeremy’s 14th Sunday and 21st Times puzzle over all. — W.S. ACROSS

1 Muhammad Ali’s ‘‘Me!

Whee!,’’ e.g.

5 ‘‘S.N.L.’’ alum Hartman

9 Start off on the wrong

foot, maybe?

13 Contaminate

19 What may be in a

star’s orbit

21 Throw with power

22 Alleviate

23 Sheep’s milk product

that’s often grated

25 Classic name for the land north of England

26 Course taken in

shorts, often

27 ‘‘Ya don’t say!’’

28 765-foot-long ‘‘water coaster’’ on Disney cruises

30 Countertenor

31 SWAT team or Navy

SEAL group, e.g.

34 Name that sounds like two letters of the alphabet

37 Epitome of

smoothness

39 ‘‘Roots’’ author Haley

40 Shocker, at times

It goes around every hour Gaming novice, slangily

48 Secured skates, with

‘‘up’’

50 Float component

41 & 44 46

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). 51 Act as a blueprint for,

as DNA for proteins

53 Brawled, in the

backwoods

55 ‘‘Howdy, everybody!’’

57 Withstand

58 Fly off the shelves

59 Like bread made from

almond flour

61 ‘‘Oh, hell yes!’’

64 Turn red, say

65 Certain formal duds

66 Nice round number?

67 Bollywood megastar

Aishwarya ____

68 ‘‘My dear man’’

71 Grammy category won multiple times by Kendrick Lamar

77 Racy selfie posted for likes on social media, in modern lingo

80 Not a problem

81 Kennel club category

82 Makeup table

83 ‘‘Dead serious!’’

85 ‘‘And, uh, that about

covers it’’

86 Supporting role

87 New students at Princeton or Yale in 1969

88 There’s a famous ‘‘half’’ one in Yosemite National Park

90 Vessel protected by

Hera

91 Uninteresting

92 Encouraging cry

94 Bottom

96 Saves, with ‘‘away’’

98 ‘‘Ain’t dead ____!’’ 99 They often come to professors with excuses

102 Hoodwink

104 Get snake eyes, say

107 Lacking experience

108 Aligns, in a wood

shop

112 Set straight

113 Oscar winner for his role as a Mexican narc in ‘‘Traffic’’

117 Price to pay,

informally

118 Major piece

119 Miniature for a

World War II buff

120 Were running

mates?

121 Quite a jerk

122 Make an appearance

123 Recess for prayer

DOWN

1 Verve

2 It’s 50/50

3 ‘‘That kinda stuff’’:

Abbr.

4 Buckaroos

5 Mint

6 Fictional pilot with the line ‘‘You like me because I’m a scoundrel’’

7 ‘‘Here ____ again’’

8 Milk for un café

9 Onetime MTV reality series filmed near Hollywood

10 Recall regretfully

11 Auditing org.

12 Courtroom statements

13 Bone to pick 14 Lighter than lite

15 Word after soul or

solid

16 ‘‘You, too?!’’ playfully

17 Smart

18 Wood that’s resistant

to warping

20 Mountain chain that stretches from Kazakhstan to the Arctic

24 Do a waving motion

by the ocean, say

29 ‘‘That proves it’’

32 Shade similar to

verdigris

33 Distinguish oneself

34 Positioned to win

35 Shared with for quick

feedback

36 Cut into

38 Region with a Unification Flag for sporting events

41 Pen pa?

42 Just hanging out

43 It really blows

45 Knucklehead

47 Flinch (at)

49 Ending for a dean’s

address

50 Cable network with movies like ‘‘Sharktopus’’ and ‘‘Mansquito’’

52 Least klutzy

54 Made a boo-boo

55 ‘‘I won’t ____ it!’’

56 Pending

58 Risqué communiqué

60 Ancient home to

Priam’s Treasure

62 Out of practice 63 Quick refresher

68 Visibly scornful

69 Cold that just won’t

go away?

70 Superpopular

71 Gooey spread

72 Where gymnast Simone Biles won four golds

73 One-celled organism

74 Enter unannounced,

in a way

75 Photog’s setting 76 Name of the girl on ‘‘Game of Thrones’’ who said ‘‘A girl has no name’’

77 Spot between

programs, e.g.

78 Beehive material

79 Annual May race,

informally

84 One of three characters in ‘‘M*A*S*H’’

85 Ones behind the

scenes

87 Consider, with ‘‘on’’ 89 High-priority item

92 Vocalist’s asset

93 Directly criticized on

Twitter with an ‘‘@’’

95 Gillette razor name

97 Literature Nobelist

Bellow

99 Bit of faulty logic

100 Sandwich supposedly named after low-income New Orleans workers

101 Begins a triathlon 103 Like the clue for

103-Down?

104 Teased incessantly

105 Kind of cavity

106 Hard vehicle to park

109 Telenovela, e.g.

110 Some drink

dispensers

111 Extend (out)

114 Org. with lots of

money to waste?

115 Order member

116 ‘‘Ver-r-ry

interesting!’’