The Mercury News

The New York Times Crossword

- WHAT A CHARACTER! By Alex Rosen / Edited by Will Shortz

Alex Rosen is a software engineer living in London. He describes this puzzle as “luck at several different levels’’ that he got the symmetrica­l black squares and asymmetric­al circles to work out right.

ACROSS

1 They come with bouquets

6 Away

11 “____ put our heads together

... ‘’

15 Singer/drummer Collins

19 Cell component

20 Pal, in Peru

21 Put one’s nose where it

doesn’t belong

22 Tilt-a-Whirl, e.g.

23 One arm held up with bent elbow and wrist, in a children’s song

24 Move obliquely

25 Phenomenon such as the tendency to see human forms in inanimate objects

27 Any of the groupings of

circled letters in this puzzle 30 Gin product

31 Incredible bargains

32 “Sorry, Charlie!’’

33 Fits together

34 Savory Chinese snacks

37 Jump over

41 Smoking and swearing, e.g. 44 They await your return, in

brief

45 Have a good cry

46 Syracuse Mets and Worcester

Red Sox, for two

50 “Music’s most maligned genre,’’ per the critic Tom Connick

51 Word with level or lion

52 “Everything happened so

fast!’’

54 Farm female

55 “____ Gone Wrong’’ (2021

film)

57 Brunch beverage

59 One of the brothers on

“Malcolm in the Middle’’

60 Room in Clue

61 Cause of undue anxiety

63 It may be smoked

64 Hogwash

65 Munch, in modern slang

66 “____ 17’’ (W.W. II film)

67 One of two in a jack-o’lantern?

70 Where charity begins, in a

phrase

73 Table part

74 Title for Tussaud: Abbr.

76 “Midsommar’’ director Aster 77 Digs up

78 Carpenter’s wedge

80 Does gentle stretching postexerci­se, with “down’’

82 Amp knob

84 Die like the Wicked Witch of

the West

85 Give zero stars

86 Ne’er-do-wells

88 E.R. inserts

89 By birth

90 Plant said to repel bugs

93 ____ Ryerson, insurance

salesman in “Groundhog Day’’ 94 French pronoun

95 Quarter ____ (when the big

hand is at three)

97 No-longer-current source for

current events

99 Hot, mulled punch traditiona­lly drunk around Christmas 101 Bacteria destroyer

104 French port on the English

Channel

106 Like the Minotaur legend

110 University of Oregon site

112 How to see the image formed

by this puzzle’s circled letters 115 What’s formed by the circled

letters in this puzzle

117 “We’re live!’’ studio sign

118 Ancient land in Asia Minor 119 Domino, e.g.

120 Martinez with a statue outside the Seattle Mariners’ stadium

121 Makes less powerful, in

video-game slang

122 Domino, e.g.

123 “To ... ” things

124 Dino’s tail?

125 Muse of love poetry

126 Arises (from)

DOWN

1 Eastern cicada killers, e.g.

2 Suggestion­s

3 “... said ____ ever’’

4 School

5 Resolves out of court

6 Org. that flew a helicopter on

Mars in 2021

7 Fail to mention

8 Informatio­n, old-style

9 Rounded quarters

10 Without stopping

11 How Alaska ranks first among

the states

12 It’s often left on the table

13 What “vey’’ of “Oy, vey!’’

translates to

14 ____ Games, company

behind Fortnite 15 Rey, to Luke Skywalker

16 Sword handles

17 “Einstein,’’ sarcastica­lly

18 Puts pressure (on)

21 What can make men swear

from men’s wear?

26 “____ pass Go ... ”

28 Leading medal winner at the

Tokyo Olympics

29 Forman who directed “One

Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’’ 35 Farm refrain

36 Weight of a paper clip,

roughly

38 Ancient: Prefix

39 Soul-seller of legend

40 Half-baked?

41 Duck and goose, at times

42 “See ya’’

43 Group dance popularize­d in

the U.S. by Desi Arnaz

45 77-Down is on the most

collected one in U.S. history 47 Epiphany

48 Voice actor Blanc

49 Show with over 1,000 handwritte­n cue cards each week, for short

51 City hazard

52 “My word!’’

53 Pol in the “I am once again

asking ... ” meme

56 City whose police cars are

adorned with a witch logo

58 Card game with a PG-rated

name

60 Boring

62 Purse

65 High degree

68 Not at all popular

69 Messes up 70 x,yandz

71 Chaotic skirmish

72 Fragrant compound

74 Saturn has more than 80 of

them

75 Golf-course machine

77 He performed 636 consecutiv­e sold-out shows in Vegas from 1969 to ’76

78 Burn-prevention meas.

79 The future Henry V, to Falstaff 80 Fight tooth and nail

81 One who consumes a ritual meal to absolve the souls of the dead

83 Bits on book jackets

87 Roc-A-____ Records

91 Part of U.C.L.A.

92 Fashion designer Geoffrey

94 It may run from an emotional

situation

95 [Mwah!]

96 Departed by plane

98 Green vehicle

99 Frank

100 Duke’s org.

101 Pasta topper

102 Like the dog days of summer 103 Acrobatic

105 Make restitutio­n

107 Faint color

108 “Take me ____’’

109 Approaches

111 Where the lacrimal glands

can be found

112 Pasta topper

113 Pump some weights

114 Not exactly

116 Vaccine-approving agcy.

 ?? ??

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