0614-20 NY Times Crossword 14 Jun 20, Sunday

Constructed by: Randolph Ross
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: Making Arrangements

Themed answers come in pairs, with one being a clever anagram of the other:

  • 23A Sign at a chemical plant: “This facility is ___ — ___” (with 114-Across) : CONTAMINATED
  • 114A See 23-Across : NO ADMITTANCE
  • 31A Question to an English teacher: “Why did Poe write his poem “___”? Answer: “___?” (with 98-Across) : A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
  • 98A See 31-Across : WHAT AM I? A MIND READER?
  • 45A We can tell the boss’s assistant is a ___ because he always ___ (with 87-Across) : SYCOPHANT
  • 87A See 45-Across : ACTS PHONY
  • 50A My weight increases when traveling because ___ during ___ (with 84-Across) : I AM NOT ACTIVE
  • 84A See 50-Across : VACATION TIME
  • 64A Someone who is ___ years old now will be ___ in six years (with 68-Across) : FORTY-FIVE
  • 68A See 64-Across : OVER FIFTY

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 19m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8 “Pet” with green “fur” : CHIA

Chia is a flowering plant in the mint family. Chia seeds are an excellent food source and are often added to breakfast cereals and energy bars. There is also the famous Chia Pet, an invention of a San Francisco company. Chia Pets are terra-cotta figurines to which are applied moistened chia seeds. The seeds sprout and the seedlings become the “fur” of the Chia Pet.

20 Handkerchief, in British slang : NOSE RAG

A kerchief is a triangular or square piece of cloth used as a covering for the head. So, a handkerchief (“hand-kerchief”) is a square piece of cloth held in the hand and used for personal hygiene.

21 Disney+ alternative : HULU

Hulu is a video-on-demand service. Although competing directly with Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hulu’s primary focus is the streaming of television shows rather than movies.

22 Turkey piece? : ANATOLIA

Asia Minor is also known as Anatolia. It is the geographic part of Asia that protrudes out into the west, towards Europe, and is roughly equivalent to modern-day Turkey.

25 Lists of grievances : LITANIES

We use the term “litany” in general speech to describe a sizable series of items. This meaning comes from the older religious use of the same term, to describe a series of prayers that usually involves a repeated response from the congregation.

26 It ends in Nov. : DST

Daylight saving time (DST)

42 Scheming sergeant of old TV : BILKO

Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko was played by Phil Silvers in his TV show that aired in the fifties. “The Phil Silvers Show” was hugely successful in reruns in Britain and Ireland, even more so than over here in the US. Master Sergeant Bilko is routinely referred to as the lower-ranking Sergeant Bilko by viewers, and even by those airing the show in reruns.

45 We can tell the boss’s assistant is a ___ because he always ___ (with 87-Across) : SYCOPHANT

A sycophant is a selfish person, one who flatters. The term comes from the Greek “sykophantes” which originally meant “one who shows the fig”. This phrase described a vulgar gesture made with the thumb and two fingers.

54 Scrabble three-pointers : EMS

The game of Scrabble has been around since 1938, the invention of an architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts determined how many tiles of each letter, and the point value of each tile, by analyzing letter distributions in publications like “The New York Times”.

55 Indescribable religious ideal : TAO

The name of the Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Taoism signifies the true nature of the world.

57 Ice pads? : IGLOOS

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

61 Dandy, on Downing Street : TOFF

“Toff” is a disparaging British term that is used for a well-dressed gentleman of the upper class.

London’s famous Downing Street is home to the official residences of the Prime Minister (Number 10) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Number 11). The street was built in the late 17th century by Sir George Downing, hence the name.

71 Small truck maker : TONKA

The toy manufacturer today known as Tonka started out as a manufacturer of garden implements in Mound, Minnesota in 1946. By 1955, toys had become the main product line for the company. At that time the owners decided to change the company name and opted for “Tonka”, a Dakota Sioux word meaning “great, big”.

75 To boot : ALSO

The noun “boot” was used once to describe something of advantage in trying to accomplish a goal. This obsolete term really only exists in the adverb “to boot” meaning “in addition, over and above”, literally “to advantage”.

76 Some cymbals : HI-HATS

In a drum kit, a hi-hat is a pairing of cymbals that sits on a stand and is played by using a foot pedal. The top cymbal is raised and lowered by the foot, hence creating a crashing sound.

82 What might be broken by doing a flip? : TIE

The two sides of a coin are known as the “obverse” and the “reverse”. The obverse is commonly referred to as “heads”, as it often depicts someone’s head. The reverse is commonly called “tails”, as it is the opposite of “heads”.

91 Light measurement : LUMEN

The lumen is a measure of the amount of visible light emitted by a source.

92 Scores : A LOT

Our verb “to score” meaning “to tally”, comes from the Old Norse “skor”, which is a “mark, notch”. It is likely that items such as livestock were counted by placing a notch in a stick for each set of twenty, hence our use of the noun “score” to mean “twenty”.

93 Prefix with puncture : ACU-

Acupressure and acupuncture are related alternative medical techniques. Both aim to clear blockages in the flow of life energy through the body’s meridians. The treatment is given by stimulating “acupoints” in the body, by applying pressure in the case of acupressure, and by applying needles in the case of acupuncture.

94 Creator of the identity eiπ + 1 = 0 : EULER

Leonhard Euler was a brilliant Swiss mathematician and physicist, and a pioneer in the fields of logarithms and graph theory. Euler’s eyesight deteriorated during his working life, and eventually became almost totally blind.

96 “Dallas” family : EWINGS

The TV soap “Dallas” revolved around the Ewing family. The show that ran for 13 years was originally intended as a five-part mini-series, with the main characters being newlyweds Bobby and Pam Ewing. But, the devious character in the piece, Bobby’s brother J. R. Ewing, became so popular with audiences that the series was extended with J. R. at the center of the story.

105 Music played on a sitar : RAGA

Raga isn’t really a genre of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners). Western rock music with a heavy Indian influence might be called raga rock.

106 Ollie’s foil, in old films : STAN

Stan Laurel was an English comic actor (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson), who made a great career for himself in Hollywood. Laurel ended up at the Hal Roach studio directing films, intent on pursuing a career in writing and directing. However, he was a sometime actor and was asked to step in when another comic actor, Oliver Hardy, was injured and couldn’t perform. Laurel and Hardy started to share a stage together during that time and when it was clear they worked so well together, their partnership was born. Oh, and the oft-quoted story that Clint Eastwood is the son of Stan Laurel … that’s just an urban myth.

107 ___ Marbles (classical Greek sculptures) : ELGIN

A frieze is an architectural feature found in many Roman and Greek buildings. Inside a room, frieze is the name given to the upper part of the wall, between the picture rail and the crown molding. Outside of a room, the term frieze is the name given to any extended decoration that is positioned above eye level. Perhaps the most famous frieze comes from the Parthenon in Athens. Over a third of this highly decorated feature was removed from Athens and taken to London in the early 1800s by the Earl of Elgin, where they remain on display in the British Museum. These famous “Elgin Marbles” are subject of much controversy as the legality of the removal is in dispute.

108 Opposite of nord : SUD

In French, “nord” (north) is opposite to “sud” (south).

119 One of Zoe’s best friends on “Sesame Street” : ELMO

The muppet called Zoe is a young orange monster that appears on “Sesame Street”. Zoe is best friends with Elmo. She is a great lover of ballet and always appears wearing a tutu.

120 Thistlelike plants : TEASELS

“Teasel” is a common name given to plants in the genus dipsacus. The name comes from an Old English word meaning “to tease”. This derivation probably comes from the use of the dried plant heads in the textile industry “to tease” (raise up) the nap on woolen cloth.

Down

4 The puck stops here : NET

Before wooden and rubber pucks were introduced in the late 1800s, ice hockey was played with balls. The first rubber pucks were made by cutting down rubber balls into the shape of discs.

5 Oddly, it’s not the biggest size at Starbucks : GRANDE

Starbucks introduced us to coffee drinks in a whole range of volumes:

  • Demi … 3 fl oz
  • Short … 8 fl oz
  • Tall … 12 fl oz
  • Grande … 16 fl oz (Italian for “large”)
  • Venti … 20 fl oz (Italian for “twenty”)
  • Trenta … 30 fl oz (Italian for “thirty”)

6 Broncobusters, e.g. : TAMERS

A bronco (also “bronc”) is a horse that is untamed. In Mexican Spanish “bronco” is a word for “horse”, and in the original Spanish “bronco” means “rough, rude”.

7 Pointed arch : OGIVE

An ogive is a rounded, tapered end of an object. A classic ogive is the tip of a bullet or a rocket. The ogival or pointed arch is a defining feature in Gothic architecture.

9 QB’s cry : HUT!

The quarterback (QB) starts each play in football with a snap (also called a “hike”). He announces to his teammates the exact moment of the snap by calling out signals, usually including the word “hut” one or more times in a prearranged sequence.

13 Bit of negativity? : ANION

As we all recall from science class, a positive ion is called a cation and a negative ion is an anion. The names “cation” and “anion” come from Greek, with “kation” meaning “going down” and “anion” meaning “going up”.

14 Attendee of the Jellicle Ball, on Broadway : CAT

Jellicle cats are the creation of T. S. Eliot in his unpublished poem “Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats”, with the title being a corruption of “poor little dogs and dear little cats”. Eliot later wrote another poem “The Song of the Jellicles”, which is included in his collection “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”. Famously, this collection was the inspiration for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats”.

15 In-flight info, for short : ETA

A schedule (sked) might show the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of a plane or bus, perhaps.

16 Jackie Robinson, in his only year in the Negro Leagues : MONARCH

The Kansas City Monarchs was the most successful team in the history of baseball’s Negro Leagues. The Monarchs were a founding member of the league and continued to operate up until 1965, making it the longest-running franchise. The Monarchs also sent more players into the major leagues than any other team.

The great Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in baseball’s Major League. When Robinson made his first MLB appearance, for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he did so in front of over 26,000 spectators. Well over half the crowd that day were African-Americans, there to witness the event. Major League Baseball universally retired Robinson’s number 42 in 1997. However, on the annual Jackie Robinson Day, all MLB players on all teams wear #42 in his honor.

18 City south of Florence : SIENA

Siena is a beautiful city in the Tuscany region of Italy. In the center of Siena is the magnificent medieval square called Piazza del Campo, a paved sloping open area made up of nine triangular sections. The square has to be seen to be believed. Twice a year, the famous bareback horse-race called the Palio di Siena is held in the Piazza.

19 Casey with a countdown : KASEM

Not only was Casey Kasem so closely associated with the radio show “American Top 40”, but he was also well known for playing the voice of Shaggy Rogers on the “Scooby-Doo” animated series.

24 Read Across America org. : NEA

Read Across America is a reading initiative launched in 1997 by the National Education Association (NEA) labor union. Part of the initiative was the observance of National Read Across America Day. Said day is observed annually on the school day nearest to March 2nd, a date chosen because it is the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

29 “___ So Unusual,” debut album by Cyndi Lauper : SHE’S

If you’ve ever heard Cyndi Lauper speaking, you’d know that she was from Queens, New York. She is the daughter of divorced parents, and strongly influenced by a supportive mother. Lauper was always a free spirit, and even as a young teen in the mid-sixties she dyed her hair different colors and wore outlandish fashions. She was a young woman who wanted to “find herself”, and to that end she once spent two weeks alone in the woods up in Canada, well, just with her dog.

31 Opposite of après : AVANT

In French, “avant” (before) comes ahead of “après” (after).

32 Collaboratively written page : WIKI

A wiki is a website on which users are allowed to create and edit content themselves. The term “wiki” comes from the name of the first such site, introduced in 1994 and called WikiWikiWeb. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “quick”, and is used because comprehensive content is created very quickly, as there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

33 Popular video-making software : IMOVIE

iMovie is a video editing program published by Apple and distributed free with many of its products.

34 Things proposed by the Greek philosopher Democritus : ATOMS

Democritus was a philosopher in Ancient Greece, a pupil of Leucippus (who founded the Atomist Movement). Fellow philosopher Plato wasn’t a big fan of Democritus, and even tried to get all of his books burned.

36 Sci-fi film f/x : CGI

Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

42 National park with Lake Louise : BANFF

Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada is located high in the Canadian Rockies and is a popular tourist destination. The town of Banff and the surrounding park were given their name in 1884 by then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, George Stephen. He named Banff for his birthplace of Banffshire in Scotland.

44 Old Ford : LTD

There has been a lot of speculation about what the abbreviation “LTD” stands for in the car model known as “Ford LTD”. Many say it is an initialism standing for “Luxury Trim Decor”, and others say that it is short for “limited”. Although the car was produced in Australia with the initialism meaning “Lincoln Type Design”, it seems that “LTD” was originally chosen as just three meaningless letters that sound well together.

46 Board hire : CEO

Chief executive officer (CEO)

52 Home to Paris : TROY

The ancient city of Troy was located on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. The Trojan War of Greek mythology was precipitated by the elopement of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, with Paris of Troy. The war itself largely consisted of a nine-year siege of Troy by the Greeks. We know most about the final year of that siege, as it is described extensively in Homer’s “Iliad”. The city eventually fell when the Greeks hid soldiers inside the Trojan Horse, which the Trojans brought inside the city’s walls. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts …

In Greek legend, Paris was the son of the King of Troy. Paris eloped with Helen, Queen of Sparta, and this act was a major trigger for the Trojan War. Also, it was Paris who fatally wounded Achilles by shooting him in the heel with an arrow.

53 Breakfast fare from Kellogg’s : EGGOS

Eggo is a line of frozen waffles and related products made by Kellogg’s. When they were introduced in the 1930s, the name “Eggo” was chosen to promote the “egginess” of the batter. “Eggo” replaced “Froffles”, the original name chosen by melding “frozen” and “waffles”.

58 Valentine candy word : LUV

The forerunner to Sweethearts candy was introduced in 1866, with the famous sayings written on the candy tailored for use at weddings. One of the original expressions was, “Married in pink, he will take a drink”. The original candy was a lot bigger, to fit all those words! The smaller, heart-shaped candy hit the shelves in 1901. We’ve been able to buy Sweethearts with the words “Text me” since 2010.

62 Best Buy buy : LED TV

Best Buy is a retailer specializing in the supply of consumer electronics. Best Buy services include the famous “Geek Squad”, a band of technical experts that will help solve your computer and other consumer electronic problems.

64 Kind of acid found in asparagus : FOLIC

Folic acid is also known as vitamin B9. Folic acid occurs in the human body as folate, a substance essential in the synthesis and repair of DNA.

66 Howard Hughes property, once : RKO

The RKO Pictures studio was formed when RCA (RADIO Corporation of America) bought the KEITH-Albee-ORPHEUM theaters (and Joe Kennedy’s Film Booking Offices of America). The RKO initialism then comes from the words “Radio”, “Keith” and “Orpheum”.

Businessman Howard Hughes made a name for himself first as a film producer, and then in the aviation industry. Nowadays, Hughes is perhaps best known for the eccentric behavior that he exhibited late in his life. He was very much an eccentric, and suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and became a germaphobe. Perhaps the most approachable way of gaining insight into the life of Hughes is a viewing of the Martin Scorsese film “The Aviator”, in which Hughes is played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

69 “The Gates of Hell” sculptor : RODIN

Rodin’s famous sculpture known as “The Thinker” has been reproduced many times. Rodin’s original version of “The Thinker” is actually a detail in a much larger work known as “The Gates of Hell”. The original plaster version of “The Gates of Hell” can be seen at the magnificent Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

70 Gambling game : FARO

Faro is a card game somewhat akin to Baccarat that was popular in England and France in the 18th century. Faro made it to the Old West, where it became a favorite of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. The origin of the name “Faro” is unclear. One popular theory is that Faro is a contraction of ‘pharaoh’ given that Egyptian motifs used to be common on playing cards of the period. There’s another theory involving the usual suspects: Irish immigrants and famines …

73 Big Sur home to the human potential movement : ESALEN

Esalen is a retreat centre in Big Sur, California that was opened in 1962. The center is located on the coast, about 50 miles south of Monterey. It takes its name from the Esselen Native American tribe that once lived in the area where the institute is located.

79 Part of an escalator : STAIR

Escalators have an advantage over elevators in that they can move larger numbers of people in the same time frame. They can also be placed in just about the same physical space that would be needed for a regular staircase. Patents for escalator-type devices were first filed in 1859, but the first working model wasn’t built until 1892 by one Jesse Reno. It was erected alongside a pier in Coney Island, New York, with the second escalator being placed at an entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon after, the Otis elevator company purchased the necessary patents and went into the business.

81 Reason for a bad air day? : SMOG

“Smog” is a portmanteau formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s. Several cities around the world have a reputation of being particularly smoggy. For example, the most smog-plagued city in Latin America is Mexico City, which is located in a highland “bowl” that traps industrial and vehicle pollution.

83 Org. with a pet cause? : SPCA

Unlike most developed countries, the US has no umbrella organization with the goal of preventing cruelty to animals. Instead there are independent organizations set up all over the nation using the name SPCA. Having said that, there is an organization called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) that was originally intended to operate across the country, but really it now focuses its efforts in New York City.

85 Product of coagulation : CURD

When milk curdles it separates into two parts, the solid curds and the liquid whey.

90 Arizona county or its seat : YUMA

The city and county of Yuma, Arizona take their name from the Quechan (aka “Yuma”) Native American tribe that inhabited the area.

95 Laura of “Love Actually” : LINNEY

The wonderfully talented actress Laura Linney is a native New Yorker from Manhattan. The performances of hers that I most admire are in “The Truman Show” and “Love Actually” on the big screen, and in “John Adams” and “Ozark” on the small screen.

“Love Actually” is a wonderful British romantic comedy, and a film we watch every Christmas. The movie has a great ensemble cast and was written and directed by Richard Curtis. Curtis was also the man behind “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Notting Hill”. “Love Actually” is very much in the same style as those earlier films.

97 Dressed like for Halloween : WENT AS

All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows’ Eve, better known by the Scottish term “Halloween”.

99 Poker Flat chronicler : HARTE

“The Outcasts of Poker Flat” is a short story by Bret Harte that was first published in 1869. Harte was a storyteller noted for his tales of the American West, even though he himself was from back East, born in Albany, New York.

100 Lead-in to phobia : AGORA-

In early Greece, an agora was a place of assembly. The assemblies held there were often quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a marketplace. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.

101 Key : ISLET

A key (also “cay”) is a low offshore island, as in the Florida “Keys”. Our term in English comes from the Spanish “cayo” meaning “shoal, reef”.

103 Major street through Yale’s campus : ELM

The most common street name in the US is “Second Street”. “First Street” comes in only at number three, and this is because many cities and towns forgo the use of “First” and instead go with “Main” or something more historical in nature. The spooky “Elm Street” appears on the list at number fifteen.

104 Anxiety : AGITA

“Agita” is another name for “acid indigestion”, and more generally for “agitation, anxiety”.

108 Snick and ___ : SNEE

“Snick or snee” is the name given to cut and thrust while fighting with a knife. The phrase is rooted in a pair of Dutch words. The expression gave its name to “snickersnee” (sometimes just “snee”), a term describing a light sword-like knife.

113 Europe’s second-largest country in area, after Russia: Abbr. : UKR

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe that was a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English, we often call the country “the Ukraine”, but I am told that we should say just “Ukraine”.

116 Doc bloc : AMA

The list of American Medical Association (AMA) past-presidents includes William James Mayo (1906-07) and Charles Horace Mayo (1917-18). William and Charles were brothers, and were two founders of the famous Mayo Clinic located in Rochester, Minnesota.

117 Reptile seen in hieroglyphics : ASP

The prefix “hiero-” comes from the Greek word “hieros” meaning sacred or holy. The classic use of the prefix is in the term “hieroglyphics” (meaning “sacred carving”), the writing system that uses symbols and pictures.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Because of : OWING TO
8 “Pet” with green “fur” : CHIA
12 Illegal thing to grab in football : FACE MASK
20 Handkerchief, in British slang : NOSE RAG
21 Disney+ alternative : HULU
22 Turkey piece? : ANATOLIA
23 Sign at a chemical plant: “This facility is ___ — ___” (with 114-Across) : CONTAMINATED
25 Lists of grievances : LITANIES
26 It ends in Nov. : DST
27 “When pigs fly!” : NEVER!
28 Recess retort : IS SO!
30 Moody who wrote “Coming of Age in Mississippi” : ANNE
31 Question to an English teacher: “Why did Poe write his poem “___”? Answer: “___?” (with 98-Across) : A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
36 Ingredients in mulled wine : CLOVES
39 “Everything’s ready on my end” : I’M SET
40 Idiosyncrasy : TIC
41 Rodriguez who starred in “Jane the Virgin” : GINA
42 Scheming sergeant of old TV : BILKO
45 We can tell the boss’s assistant is a ___ because he always ___ (with 87-Across) : SYCOPHANT
50 My weight increases when traveling because ___ during ___ (with 84-Across) : I AM NOT ACTIVE
54 Scrabble three-pointers : EMS
55 Indescribable religious ideal : TAO
56 Status for a library book : RETURNED
57 Ice pads? : IGLOOS
60 Nick’s cousin : DENT
61 Dandy, on Downing Street : TOFF
62 Advantage : LEG UP
63 List makers : DEANS
64 Someone who is ___ years old now will be ___ in six years (with 68-Across) : FORTY-FIVE
68 See 64-Across : OVER FIFTY
71 Small truck maker : TONKA
72 Agrees (with) : SIDES
74 Way to go : ROAD
75 To boot : ALSO
76 Some cymbals : HI-HATS
78 Unlikely candidates for loans : BAD RISKS
82 What might be broken by doing a flip? : TIE
83 Cover some ground : SOD
84 See 50-Across : VACATION TIME
87 See 45-Across : ACTS PHONY
91 Light measurement : LUMEN
92 Scores : A LOT
93 Prefix with puncture : ACU-
94 Creator of the identity eiπ + 1 = 0 : EULER
96 “Dallas” family : EWINGS
98 See 31-Across : WHAT AM I? A MIND READER?
105 Music played on a sitar : RAGA
106 Ollie’s foil, in old films : STAN
107 ___ Marbles (classical Greek sculptures) : ELGIN
108 Opposite of nord : SUD
111 Dictatorial leadership : IRON RULE
114 See 23-Across : NO ADMITTANCE
118 Hit (with) : STRICKEN
119 One of Zoe’s best friends on “Sesame Street” : ELMO
120 Thistlelike plants : TEASELS
121 Some trolleys : TEA CARTS
122 Words said in passing : YEAS
123 “But wait, there’s more!,” e.g. : ADSPEAK

Down

1 Like some music collections : ON CD
2 Courts : WOOS
3 “___ it true …?” : ISN’T
4 The puck stops here : NET
5 Oddly, it’s not the biggest size at Starbucks : GRANDE
6 Broncobusters, e.g. : TAMERS
7 Pointed arch : OGIVE
8 Winning quality : CHARM
9 QB’s cry : HUT!
10 Suffix with percent : -ILE
11 Open-book examinations? : AUDITS
12 Untruth : FALSITY
13 Bit of negativity? : ANION
14 Attendee of the Jellicle Ball, on Broadway : CAT
15 In-flight info, for short : ETA
16 Jackie Robinson, in his only year in the Negro Leagues : MONARCH
17 Dress with a flare : A-LINE
18 City south of Florence : SIENA
19 Casey with a countdown : KASEM
24 Read Across America org. : NEA
29 “___ So Unusual,” debut album by Cyndi Lauper : SHE’S
31 Opposite of après : AVANT
32 Collaboratively written page : WIKI
33 Popular video-making software : IMOVIE
34 Things proposed by the Greek philosopher Democritus : ATOMS
35 Business slumps : DIPS
36 Sci-fi film f/x : CGI
37 Mythomaniac : LIAR
38 “You can count ___” : ON ME
42 National park with Lake Louise : BANFF
43 Sit out on a frozen lake, say : ICE-FISH
44 Old Ford : LTD
46 Board hire : CEO
47 Troubled : ATE AT
48 One tending to 49-Down : NANNY
49 See 48-Down : TOTS
51 “Get ___ here!” : OUTTA
52 Home to Paris : TROY
53 Breakfast fare from Kellogg’s : EGGOS
58 Valentine candy word : LUV
59 Work : OPERATE
60 Absolutely, slangily : DEF
62 Best Buy buy : LED TV
63 Dispatched : DID IN
64 Kind of acid found in asparagus : FOLIC
65 Get-go : ONSET
66 Howard Hughes property, once : RKO
67 Routing word : VIA
69 “The Gates of Hell” sculptor : RODIN
70 Gambling game : FARO
71 “Toodles!” : TA-TA!
73 Big Sur home to the human potential movement : ESALEN
76 Blah : HO-HUM
77 Promising words : I DO
78 Kapow! : BAM!
79 Part of an escalator : STAIR
80 Hot spot for a pot : KILN
81 Reason for a bad air day? : SMOG
83 Org. with a pet cause? : SPCA
85 Product of coagulation : CURD
86 Some toy dolls of the 1980s : ETS
88 Like the Devil : SATANIC
89 Puts in order : NEATENS
90 Arizona county or its seat : YUMA
95 Laura of “Love Actually” : LINNEY
96 Put in a good word? : EDITED
97 Dressed like for Halloween : WENT AS
98 Spot to sample perfume : WRIST
99 Poker Flat chronicler : HARTE
100 Lead-in to phobia : AGORA-
101 Key : ISLET
102 Second takes : REDOS
103 Major street through Yale’s campus : ELM
104 Anxiety : AGITA
108 Snick and ___ : SNEE
109 Sch. with the most N.C.A.A. men’s basketball championships (11) : UCLA
110 Piece of dorm room furniture : DESK
112 Elvis’s longtime label : RCA
113 Europe’s second-largest country in area, after Russia: Abbr. : UKR
115 Encouraging word : OLE!
116 Doc bloc : AMA
117 Reptile seen in hieroglyphics : ASP