NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Lucy Howard, of Austin, Tex., teaches therapeutic yoga and does internet marketing. She made her first puzzle as an icebreaker for her wedding last year. Ross Trudeau, of Cambridge, Mass., works for a K-12 education nonprofit. They met online last summer. Ross says, “We quickly bonded over our mutual love of crosswords and rock climbing.” They spent many hours together on Zoom making this puzzle. This is Ross’s 37th puzzle for The Times. It is Lucy’s debut. — W.S.

ACROSS

1 Onetime Sony rival 8 Off-color 12 Maker of the X6 and Z4 15 Doctors Without Borders, e.g.: Abbr.

18 Deep secret 19 ‘‘____ Dead?’’ (Mark Twain play) 20 Quickly learn one’s lesson? 21 Startling sound 22 Bookworms call dad?

24 South Beach and Paleo, for two 26 Swiss painter Paul 27 Company whose business is picking up? 28 Seedy area? 29 Big Apple media inits. 30 Depletes, with ‘‘up’’

31 A young Justice Ginsburg chuckles? 36 Signature item 37 Singer Watson, a.k.a. Tones and I, with the 2019 hit ‘‘Dance Monkey’’

38 Apt name for a lawyer 39 False accusation, informally 40 Fancy Feast alternative 43 One ‘‘R’’ in R&R 46 Hoarse

47 Do core exercises all day, every day? 51 ‘‘____ Brockovich’’ 52 Quick drive 53 Elusive legend 54 Business for Sanders supporters? 57 Holiday dish served with sour cream or applesauce 60 Links grp. 62 Hard to handle, in a way 64 Hunky-dory 66 Response to an order 67 Burger King bingefest? 71 Alma mater for Spike Lee and Donald Glover, for short 72 Logical connector 73 With the greatest of ____ 74 ____ golf 75 Sloped-roof support

77 Govt. org. with a forerunner known as the Black Chamber 79 Race units 81 Dinner-table expander 83 Hops-drying oven 84 Supernova in our galaxy? 90 Follower of word or potato 93 ‘‘Gimme ____’’ 94 ____-cat 95 Numerous 97 Symbols in Twitter handles 99 Like ____ of sunshine 100 Anatomical pouch 103 When E.M.T.s bring home the bacon?

108 ‘‘I mean . . . ’’ 109 A/C spec 110 Members of the crow family 111 Heavier alternative to a foil 112 Guthrie who performed at Woodstock 113 Cutting edge? 115 Some astronomy Ph.D.s? 119 Longtime Japanese P.M. who stepped down in 2020 120 ‘‘Runnin’?’’ team of N.C.A.A. Division I college basketball 121 Comparable (to) 122 Disciple 123 Tarnish 124 Really good time 125 Capital near the North Sea 126 Prepares (for)

DOWN 1 Prepare for a road trip, perhaps

2 End of a threat 3 Nora Ephron and Sofia Coppola, for two 4 The land down under? 5 Walk-____ 6 Prickly covering of a seed 7 ‘‘____ the only one?’’ 8 Beatles title woman 9 ‘‘____ your request . . . ’’ 10 Feature of a classical Greek drama

11 ‘‘You betcha!’’ 12 ‘‘The ____ — is wider than the Sky’’ (start of an Emily Dickinson poem)

13 Bit of fill-in-theblanks fun 14 Subject of intl. treaties 15 Compliant sorts 16 Squalid digs 17 Sports team V.I.P.s 20 Corporate money managers, for short 23 Ancient Egyptians 25 Result of a breast pocket mishap, maybe 28 Ally of the Brat Pack 31 Common baking pear 32 Sacred cross in ancient Egypt 33 Chance to go 34 Preserve, in a way 35 Only Stratego piece with a letter on it 37 Sardine container 41 Studmuffin 42 Absorb, as sauce with bread 44 Give extra consideration, with ‘‘on’’ 45 Idaho, e.g., in dialect 47 Color marker 48 Got hip, with ‘‘up’’ 49 How a door might be slammed 50 Subcontractor in a bathroom remodel 51 Gusto

55 One may be nominated for a Hugo Award 56 Least forward 58 Palindromic farm animal 59 ‘‘We ____ Overcome’’ 61 Stubborn sorts 63 It helps in passing 65 Rocker Cobain 68 Japan’s street food mecca 69 Diarist who documented the Great Plague of London 70 Gets lost 76 Eponym of the Detroit Lions field

78 Any Olympian, once 80 Drops an f-bomb, say 82 False fronts 85 Promises, promises! 86 Takes steps 87 ____ avis 88 Coarse farm sound 89 Dangerous move on a busy highway 90 ‘‘Blueberries for ____’’ (kid-lit classic) 91 Legendary password stealer 92 Higher, as ambitions 96 Build-your-own Tex-Mex dish 98 Does a dog trick 101 Declare 102 Where hangers hang

104 They go wherever the wind blows 105 They can be batted and rolled 106 When high school seniors often visit the colleges that accepted them 107 Like binary questions 108 Volt-amperes 113 Attention hog, maybe 114 Galoot 115 Portrait seen on renminbi bills 116 Car-sticker fig. 117 ‘‘Roses ____ red ...’’ 118 Nonsense