The New York Times Crossword

TODAY: SOFT OPTIONS (0410)

Byron Walden, a math and computer-science professor at Santa Clara University, is a regular crossword contributor to The Times. He says the idea for this puzzle started with the title. ‘‘I learned the phrase ‘soft option’ from the 1980s Pet Shop Boys hit ‘West End Girls,’ ’’ and everything sprang from there. Byron packs his grids with fresh vocabulary, like 20A, 35A, 53A, 70A, 86A, 105A, 51D and 61D, none of which have ever appeared in a Times crossword before. — W.S. ACROSS

1 Hearten

7 ‘‘. . . and it

flopped’’ 11 Attack with

snowballs, say 15 Graceful bird 19 Crossword

header

20 Clearer in

hindsight? 22 ____ Winans, 12-time Grammywinning gospel singer

23 Apollo 11 landing

spot

25 Eligible receiver? 26 Quickly maturing security, for short

27 Helps

28 Flying terrors of

myth

29 With 42-Down, Oscars category from 1963 to 2019 30 Misfortunes 31 Semicircular

recess

32 Items used by barkeepers, barbecuers and blacksmiths 34 Wackadoodle 35 Enhanced tape format released in 1987

37 Beat poet

Cassady 38 Spewed forcefully 40 Take off the

board

43 À la ____ (spitroasted)

47 Spree 48 Black-____

albatross 49 Knee-jerk

response 50 Remove cargo

from 53 Describing the

32-Down’s image 55 Milk source 56 Impends 57 Inscribed with some ancient characters 58 Whirling toon,

familiarly

59 Order, in a way 60 Nonfiction films,

informally 61 Metaphor from

an hourglass 64 ‘‘Come ____!’’ 65 This: Sp. 66 Sitcom planet of the ’70s and ’80s

67 Animal life 68 Pondered

69 It’s probably over

your head

70 One star, typically 73 Relentless gogetters

74 Carl XVI ____ (king of Sweden beginning in 1973)

76 Little bump 77 Eve’s third son 78 Soccer chant 79 ____ 3000, half of the hip-hop duo Outkast 80 Persuade with

patter

84 A majority 86 Offensive football

positions

88 Ruby of ‘‘The Jackie Robinson Story’’

89 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, with ‘‘The’’ 94 Talk Like a Pirate

Day outbursts 95 Dormer section 96 Turn aside 97 Actress Amanda 98 Taking a bow at

the symphony? 99 Waif

100 ‘‘A warehouse of facts, with poet and ____ in joint ownership’’ (‘‘The Devil’s Dictionary’’ definition for ‘‘imagination’’) 101 Its motto is ‘‘Agriculture and Commerce’’ 104 Opposite of exo105 Woe for a

speeder 106 ____ Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state 107 Bit of ‘‘kit chat’’

108 1974 spoof with the tagline ‘‘Would you buy a used secret from these men?’’ 109 Bits of machinery 110 Latin phrase meaning ‘‘based on forecasts’’

DOWN

1 Having legs

2 Cool shade 3 Weakness 4 Sledge, wedge,

etc.

5 Sports org. with the Pittsburgh Maulers and Philadelphia Stars

6 SFO setting:

Abbr.

7 Sang hosannas

to

8 Car part the Brits

call a ‘‘wing’’ 9 Heading for commonly sought info

10 Capote nickname 11 ____ light 12 Sweeping works 13 Reveals

14 Don’t give up 15 Intellectual

movement 16 Tyke

17 Performing well

on

18 Candy with two flavors in one box

21 Flexible cutters 24 Kid Cudi or Lil Baby, e.g. 29 Fixed look 31 Enveloping atmospheres 32 Pope Pius XII called it ‘‘a holy thing perhaps like nothing else’’ 33 Odor-fighting spray brand 35 Parts of some brackets 36 ‘‘Yankee Doodle’’ has 16 of them

39 Entertainers with

bright futures 41 Partner of poivre 42 See 29-Across 44 Juice regimen 45 Like épées vis-àvis foils 46 Stretches out 48 Curve 50 Experience 51 Music genre for Erykah Badu and D’Angelo

52 Many people find

it intolerable 53 About 98% of the

human genome 54 Word meaning ‘‘desire’’ in a classic Sanskrit text

57 ____ avis

61 Big tear-jerker 62 Went under 63 Word with fine or

signature 68 Hands, in slang 71 1980s White

House nickname 72 Dilute something,

in a way 73 Battery parts? 75 Up in the air 77 Maker of the Ring in ‘‘The Lord of the Rings’’ 80 Surgical instrument with thumbholes 81 Joy who wrote

‘‘Born Free’’ 82 Forgiving

83 Talent for

discernment 85 Mic-check noise 87 Cattle-ranch

identifier

89 ‘‘The Crucible’’

setting 90 Sheepish? 91 ‘‘Swell!’’

92 ‘‘I can do this.

Hit me.’’ 93 Some 10-pointers in Greek Scrabble 95 Dish made from

durum, say 98 Prefix with

futurism

99 Kids of boomers 101 Grads-to-be:

Abbr.

102 Not prescription,

in brief

103 Scottish negative