STITCHIN’ TIME BY ROBERT RYAN / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ
Robert Ryan, of London, is an economist for Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority. He lives 10 minutes by foot from the 21-Across. This is his second crossword for The Times; his debut was in March. Having grown up on cryptics, Robert is fond of tricky clues. His favourite (as he would spell it) in this puzzle is 78-Across. ‘‘As long as the clues are fair,
I find hard ones more satisfying as a solver.’’ — W. S.
ACROSS
1 ‘‘It’s not that simple’’
9 Kind of passage
14 When Juliet drinks
the potion
19 Race held annually in
early March
20 Computer expert, for
short
21 Reading can be found
on it
23 Bigamy, legally
speakin’?
25 [I forgot the words
... ]
26 Eau so big?
27 Stellar, as a pitching
outing
28 Pirate fodder, once
30 Right hand
34 Joel’s smuggling partner on HBO’S ‘‘The Last of Us’’
35 Creative types
36 Where copy editors
are workin’?
40 Beefeater, e.g.
42 Certain legal guardian 43 Shade
44 Pitch tents, say
48 Auction unit
49 Loads
50 Heading on a balance
sheet
53 Classic Hasbro toy
that debuted in 1964 54 Lenovo competitor
56 ‘‘Enjoyin’ your meal?’’ or ‘‘I’ll be servin’ you today’’?
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).
59 Super Bowl LVI
winners
60 One can be empty or
veiled
63 Spirit
64 Brussels administrative official, informally
66 Oxford, e.g.
68 ‘‘____ is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it’’: Gillian Flynn
71 France before it was
France
72 Animal that resembles a raccoon more than a bear, despite its name
76 Opposite of da
78 Spell out in Spanish? 82 Crumbly cake topping 83 Reaction to the climax of a heartbreakin’ movie?
87 Equipment used to make ‘‘pizza slices’’ or ‘‘French fries’’
88 Church chorus
90 Styled like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock
91 Sch. near the Getty
Center
94 Cooper’s raw material 95 Outkast, e.g.
97 Gnaw (at)
98 First-time offense, so
to speak
100 Concave bodily
features
102 Statute regulatin’
surrogacy?
104 Big ____
107 2022 horror sci-fi film co-starring Daniel Kaluuya
108 Item on a wish list 109 Japanese fried pork
cutlet
111 World capital closest to ‘‘Null Island’’ (0°N, 0°E)
113 Before, poetically 116 Cause of warming
tropical seas
117 Financin’ Broadway
shows?
123 Seize an opportunity 124 ‘‘Snowy’’ bird
125 All shook up
126 Stood (with)
127 Hiding spot for a
124-Across
128 Fully
DOWN
1 Sharp bark
2 Product typically wrapped in paraffin wax
3 Father
4 Draw
5 Grams in Britain?
6 Beats Electronics co-founder, familiarly
7 Winter Olympics
powerhouse: Abbr.
8 Wednesday eponym
9 Specialty segments
10 Liable to be lost
11 Emits sparks, as a
campfire
12 Stick for a snowman,
say
13 Auto racing champion
Sébastien
14 Yet to be apprehended 15 Some protest activity 16 Bubbles featurin’ comic-book dialogue?
17 Products with screens . . . or a homophone of a type of big screen
18 South African
grassland
22 Mouthing off
24 ‘‘Gotcha’’
29 Not of the cloth
31 Big-box store with a
labyrinthine layout 32 Blackmail
ammunition
33 Furnish with an
income
36 B equivalent
37 Booze
38 Acid-alcohol
compound
39 Entertainers Carvey
and Delany
40 Fencing face-off
41 Fix, as a bow
43 Sister channel of QVC 45 Cracked open
46 N.Y.C. gallery
47 Irritating sort
50 ____ Gawande, bestselling author of ‘‘Being Mortal’’
51 What’s found at the end of ‘‘Citizen Kane’’?
52 Comfy
55 One tendin’ to reply
quickly?
57 Android competitor 58 Georgian and
Edwardian, for two 61 Comprehensive
report?
62 Shade
65 French agreement
67 ‘‘The Simpsons’’
teacher Krabappel 69 Regarded
suspiciously
70 Cause of insomnia in
a fairy tale
72 Surf sound
73 Grammy-nominated
sister of Aretha
74 Yawning
75 Something a P.S.A.
lacks
77 ‘‘Preach!’’
79 Vans Old ____ (classic
sneaker) 80 Heroine of Disney’s ‘‘The Princess and the Frog’’
81 Hastily hung, maybe 84 401(k) alternatives 85 Word with ‘‘at home’’
or ‘‘at all’’
86 Mess (up)
89 Annual indie festival 92 Bread an Italian grandmother might have made?
93 Similar (to) 96 Like all animals in the genus Equus, uniquely
98 Sailor’s rear
99 Diplomatic
agreement
101 Form-al org.? 102 Ribbed
103 Some crossreferences in a research paper, informally
104 ‘‘____ it up!’’
105 Preppy tops
106 Listless feeling 107 Pearl button coating 110 Very, informally
112 Marginally
114 Set of sheets?
115 ‘‘Dónde ____ . . . ?’’ 118 Carbon-dating
determination
119 Game with ‘‘+2’’ and
‘‘+4’’ cards
120 Held session, as a
council
121 ‘‘More or less’’
122 ‘‘Relations’’