FEELING POSSESSIVE
John Kugelman, of Gainesville, Va., is a software engineer and musician. This is his third crossword for The Times — all Sundays. Crossword construction and music ‘‘tickle all the same brain cells,’’ he says, as each is ‘‘half-creative and half-technical.’’ He adds: ‘‘Sundays are like the progressive rock of crosswords. I love 20-minute songs and I love 21x21 grids.’’
ACROSS
1 ‘‘No ____, Bob’’
5 Commuting options
10 Thunderstruck
15 Lead-in to cure or cab
19 Peace symbol
20 Absolutely necessary
21 Snack brand with a
hyphen in its name
22 Simoleons
23 Oil futures?
26 The Australia-shaped ‘‘Pride of Australia,’’ for one
27 Pool side
28 Crest
29 Sack
31 Parent’s exhortation
32 Real bind
33 People who might answer ‘‘What’s up?’’ with
‘‘The sky’’
35 Castle moat?
39 ____ Scott-Heron, writer of ‘‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’’
40 Entitled guys?
41 Kind of rating system
in chess
42 Audio option
43 Slangy greeting
45 Sales prospects
48 Smoky tendrils
50 Shoves, to a poker
player
53 Ed of ‘‘Up’’ 54 Daredevil Knievel
55 Sugar and cocoa
content?
57 ____ the Orange
(Syracuse mascot)
58 Scoop, so to speak
60 Braces might fix
them
61 Auto company headquartered in Yokohama
63 Veg-O-Matic maker
64 Over there
65 Humble home
67 Wavy dos
70 International date
line?
72 Bordeaux besties
74 They prevent
accidental scribbles
76 ____ room
79 ‘‘Lights! Camera!
Action!’’?
82 Biblical twin
83 Midas’s downfall
85 Reprimand to a
rubbernecker
86 Peter the Great and
Ivan the Terrible
87 Pale purple
88 N.B.A. analyst Burke
89 Police alerts, for short
91 What goes around the head at Diamond Head
92 Preposterous
94 The ‘‘en’’ in ‘‘enby’’
95 ‘‘And . . . cut!’’?
98 Personal theory that isn’t in the source material 101 Fed. statute that took down the Gambino crime family
102 Mama’s boy
103 Not working, say
104 He literally jumped the shark on ‘‘Happy Days’’
105 85 to 115, typically
109 Skier Lindsey
110 Stock prices?
114 Monthly utility bill:
Abbr.
115 Rapper with seven
posthumous albums
116 Persona
117 Quantum ____
118 Utility figure
119 ‘‘Killers of the
Flower Moon’’ tribe
120 Wears on
121 River swirl
DOWN
1 Some email
attachments
2 Beat handily
3 ‘‘I’m done talking’’
4 Called into question
5 Binary
6 Homebodies?
7 Go after
8 Actual title of ‘‘The
Piña Colada Song’’
9 Drunken state
10 Comet alternative
11 Come down with
12 See 30-Down
13 Pours poorly
14 Pays (up)
15 Noodles and floaties?
16 Chess move with a
French name 17 Render more youthful,
as with C.G.I.
18 Sweden has more than 200,000 of them (of which only 1,000 are inhabited)
24 Sudden contractions
25 God’s first word on
the first day
30 With 12-Down, world champion boxer who retired an undefeated 24-0
32 Put up with
33 Novelist Cather
34 Not authorized
35 Cut
36 Late-night host John
37 Finish behind
38 Breed of cattle
39 Swinger’s attire
43 Hinged fastener
44 ‘‘The Empire of the ____’’ (H.G. Wells short story)
46 Lions or Tigers, on a
scoreboard
47 Theater sign
49 Leaf fossils?
51 Brand whose sales spiked after an appearance on ‘‘Stranger Things’’
52 Portrayer of Bob Newby on ‘‘Stranger Things’’
55 Parade sight
56 Carriers of master
keys, informally
59 ____ blue
62 Garden variety?
64 At 78, she became the oldest artist to have a No. 1 dance hit 66 Inits. on a ‘‘Choice’’
label
68 Indian spice mixture
69 Necessities for
retiring?
71 Org. with the tagline
‘‘No More Victims’’
73 Something furry on
a fir
74 Practices mise en
place
75 ‘‘____ Q’’ (rockabilly
classic) 76 James Bond studio 77 Memorable time 78 Machine learning model that mimics the human brain 80 Company whose misconduct helped spawn the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) 81 Muse with a lyre 84 Record label that famously turned down the Beatles 86 Supercell, e.g., for
short
90 Europeans who speak a non-Indo-European language
93 Can’t not
95 Encouragement at
karaoke night
96 Skin condition
97 Turn on
98 What drones and
anxious parents do
99 ____ Gay 100 Hub
101 Bacardi, por ejemplo
104 Part of a clock
105 Playwright William
106 Call for
107 Mortarboard tosser
108 Catch a glimpse of
111 Many an I.R.S.
employee
112 Witch
113 Coltrane’s instrument