The New York Times Crossword Puzzle

ACROSS

1 Skunk’s defense 5 High school

exam, for short 9 Reddish-purple

salad ingredient 13 Apple TV+

alternative 14 Shakespeare villain who says “I am not what I am”

15 Literature

Nobelist Alice 16 They’re long for

an underdog 17 Steffi with seven

Wimbledon titles 18 Church choir

accompaniment 19 Temp job? 22 ___/her

pronouns 24 Prevailed 25 Necklace that can be made with kukui nuts 26 Prefix with liberal or conservative 27 Union job? 31 Ones potentially contacted in “first contact” 32 Vowel sound at the end of 15and 26-Across 33 “La Vie en Rose”

singer Edith 34 End of a hairy

limb

35 Watery or papery 39 Yiddish “Yikes!” 42 Have ambitions

(to)

44 Flex job?

47 It sells, it’s said 48 MSNBC

competitor 49 Chaired

50 Like the opening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 51 Dream job?

55 It travels at nearly 300 million meters per second 56 Apple Store

offerings 57 Story of one’s

life?

60 “Music is powered by ___”: Yo-Yo Ma 61 Olympian’s

sword

62 Fuzzy bit of car

décor 63 Literature Nobelist Morrison 64 Some lab liquids 65 Like Scotch

DOWN

1 “Well, well,

well!”

2 Fizzling

firework 3 Encyclopedia volumes vis-à-vis Wikipedia, e.g. 4 Deceptive trick 5 Old-fashioned message carriers

6 South Asian

wrap

7 Petri dish filler 8 Coming up next 9 Small town 10 Driving force? 11 One might take

off a few marks 12 Spanish for

“foolish”

15 What may be

heard in a herd 20 Exact lookalike 21 Slim and trim 22 Give this for that 23 Lead-in to pad 28 Clear up, as ski

goggles 29 Works in a

theater

30 Likely to offend,

in brief

34 George Eliot and George Orwell, for two

36 Really prosper 37 ___ Man, one of

the Avengers 38 Wonkish sort 40 America’s Cup

vessels 41 Bottleful in un

ristorante

42 It was once the world’s fourthlargest lake 43 Sch. system with campuses in Buffalo and Binghamton 44 Affirmative reply to “Understand?” 45 Earth’s most abundant element

46 Bullet with a trail 47 Bad break in

bowling

52 Spiced tea 53 Scruff of the

neck

54 Many a cocktail

mixer

58 “Rocks” in a

cocktail

59 Big name in

online talks