0628-20 NY Times Crossword 28 Jun 20, Sunday

Constructed by: Jon Schneider & Anderson Wang
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: Power-Ups

Themed answers are in pairs, with one answer looking like the EXPONENT of the other (as in math) in the grid. So, each answer is in the format ANSWER1 TO THE ANSWER2:

  • 70A Mathematical concepts suggested eight times in this puzzle : EXPONENTS
  • 30A With 25-Across, get as much approval from an audience as possible : PLAY (TO THE) …
  • 25A See 30-Across : … GALLERY
  • 33A With 29-Across, like a deer in headlights : ROOTED (TO THE) …
  • 29A See 33-Across : … SPOT
  • 50A With 47-Across, not change anyone’s mind, say : PREACH (TO THE) …
  • 47A See 50-Across : … CHOIR
  • 53A With 48-Across, stops wasting time : CUTS (TO THE) …
  • 48A See 53-Across : … CHASE
  • 90A With 85-Across, uncomfortably accurate : CLOSE (TO THE) …
  • 85A See 90-Across : … BONE
  • 92A With 88-Across, sacrificed : THREW (TO THE) …
  • 88A See 92-Across : … WOLVES
  • 113A With 107-Across, bad sort of competition : RACE (TO THE) …
  • 107A See 113-Across : … BOTTOM
  • 116A With 112-Across, “Your misfortune is nothing special” : WELCOME (TO THE) …
  • 112A See 116-Across : … CLUB

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 23m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

12 Savory jelly : ASPIC

Aspic is a dish in which the main ingredients are served in a gelatin made from meat stock. “Aspic” is a French word meaning “jelly”

19 Mollycoddle : COSSET

To cosset is to pamper. The verb comes from the noun “cosset”, which was once used for a lamb that was brought up as a pet.

To mollycoddle is to be overprotective. Back in the mid-1700s, “mollycoddle” was an insulting term used to describe a man who was weak and effeminate.

21 Slacker role for Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski” : THE DUDE

“The Big Lebowski” is a 1998 comedy directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Jeff Bridges in the title role. The film’s script is loosely based on the Raymond Chandler novel “The Big Sleep”. I thought “The Big Lebowski” was just “okay” though …

23 Spelman College graduate, e.g. : ALUMNA

Spelman College is a women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia that was founded as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in 1881. Spelman is part of the Atlanta University Center, along with the nearby all-male Morehouse College, with which Spelman has a long-standing relationship.

24 “___ is an emotion in motion”: Mae West : SEX

Comic actress Mae West can be quoted so easily, as she had so many great lines delivered so well. Here are a few:

  • When I’m good, I’m very good. When I’m bad, I’m better.
  • When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.
  • I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.
  • Marriage is a great institution, but I’m not ready for an institution yet.
  • I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
  • Why don’t you come on up and see me sometime — when I’ve got nothin’ on but the radio.
  • It’s better to be looked over than overlooked.
  • To err is human, but it feels divine.
  • I like my clothes to be tight enough to show I’m a woman, but loose enough to show I’m a lady.
  • I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.
  • Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

29 See 33-Across : … SPOT
33 With 29-Across, like a deer in headlights : ROOTED (TO THE) …

There may be some truth to the idea that a deer can freeze when “caught in the headlights” of a car. This is because the anatomy of a deer’s eye, like many animals, is such that its night vision is very effective. That extra night sensitivity can be a disadvantage when a deer is suddenly illuminated by a strong light like that from a headlamp. Such illumination can be blinding and perhaps bewildering, causing the deer to freeze.

32 Dalmatians, e.g. : SLAVS

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, with most of its area falling in modern-day Croatia.

35 N.Y.C.’s first subway line : IRT

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the original private operator of the New York Subway when it opened in 1904. The city took over ownership of the system in 1940, but the lines originally operated by the IRT are still known by the IRT moniker.

36 Singer Mann : AIMEE

Aimee Mann is a rock singer and guitarist from Virginia. Mann is married to Michael Penn, the brother of actor Sean Penn.

38 Michelangelo masterpiece : PIETA

The Pietà is a representation of the Virgin Mary holding in her arms the dead body of her son Jesus. The most famous Pietà is undoubtedly the sculpted rendition by Michelangelo that is located in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. That particular sculpture is thought to be the only work that Michelangelo signed. In some depictions of the Pietà, Mary and her son are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament. Such depictions are known as Lamentations.

40 Sunset Boulevard sight : PALM TREE

The Los Angeles thoroughfare Sunset Boulevard is 22 miles long, stretching from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. The most famous part of Sunset Boulevard is the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, a 1½-mile stretch that is home to high-end boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs.

42 Utah mountain range : WASATCH

The Wasatch Range is at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and runs through Utah. “Wasatch” is a Ute word meaning “mountain pass”.

52 Forest of Fangorn resident, in fiction : ENT

Fangorn Forest is a location in the fictional world of Middle-earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Notably, it is the home of the Ents, a race of beings who closely resemble trees.

63 Default consequence : REPO

Repossession (repo)

69 Iraqi port city : BASRA

It’s quite a coincidence that the Iraqi city of Basra has a name that is an anagram of “Arabs”, isn’t it? Basra also features in the H. G. Wells science-fiction tale “The Shape of Things to Come”. Written in 1933, the storyline predicts a global conflict (WWII) that breaks out in 1940 lasting for ten years, after which chaos reigns as no victor emerges. Following worldwide plague, a benevolent dictatorship takes charge and the world moves towards a serene utopia. In time, the dictators are overthrown and peacefully retired, and the people of the Earth live happily ever after, all citizens of one global state with its capital in Basra in the Middle East.

70 Mathematical concepts suggested eight times in this puzzle : EXPONENTS

The exponent of a number is the power to which it is raised, perhaps “2” for a square or “3” for a cube.

75 One of the Seven Dwarfs : SNEEZY

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

  • Doc (the leader of the group)
  • Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
  • Happy
  • Sleepy
  • Bashful
  • Sneezy
  • Dopey

77 Yeats’s “The Lake ___ of Innisfree” : ISLE

Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 for “inspired poetry” that gave “expression to a whole nation”. Yeats was Ireland’s first Nobel laureate.

78 Bad place for a fly, in a saying : OINTMENT

Our expression “a fly in the ointment” is used when we come across some relatively minor snag that is a hindrance to completing something. We started using the expression in the 1700s, and it refers to some lines in the Bible; Ecclesiastes 10:1:

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour

80 Showy shrub : AZALEA

Azaleas are very toxic to horses, sheep and goats, but strangely enough cause no problem for cats or dogs. And if you go to Korea, you might come across “Tug Yonju”, which is azalea wine made from the plant’s blossoms. Azaleas are usually grown as shrubs, but are also seen as small trees, and often indoors.

86 Flat-topped cap : TAM

A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap traditionally worn by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”) but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of the Robert Burns poem “Tam O’Shanter”.

94 Place that processes ore : SMELTER

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).

96 Eponym of the world’s largest church : ST PETER

The Basilica of St. Peter in Rome was built during the late Renaissance and has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, capable of holding 60,000 people. There is a popular misconception that St. Peter’s is the cathedral of Rome. It isn’t, and instead is a papal basilica. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral church of Rome.

103 State whose capital is Dispur : ASSAM

Assam is a state in the far northeast of India, and just south of the Himalayas. Assam is noted for its tea, as well as its silk.

105 Drum that can be played with a brush : SNARE

Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (snares) stretching across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.

109 Cleans, as a deck : SWABS

“Swabbie” (also “swabby, swab, swabber”) is a slang term meaning “sailor” that we’ve been using since the late 1700s. A swab was originally a member of the crew assigned to the swabbing (mopping) of the ship’s decks.

115 “Freak on a Leash” metal band : KORN

Korn is an alternative metal band from Bakersfield, California. The band’s name is derived from a fan suggestion of “Corn”. The suggested name was considered too bland and so was prettied up to Korn, with the letter “r” capitalized and written backwards.

119 List ender : ET ALIA

“Et alii” (et al.) is the equivalent of “et cetera” (etc.), with “et cetera” being used in place of a list of objects, and “et alii” used for a list of names. In fact, “et al.” can stand for “et alii” (a group of males, or males and females), “et aliae” (a group of women) and “et alia” (a group of neuter nouns, or a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

127 Lively French dance popular in the Baroque era : GAVOTTE

The gavotte was originally a folk dance that came from southeastern France where it was named for the Gavot people who performed the dance. The gavotte became more mainstream in the Baroque period in the French court and so composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach began including gavottes in their instrumental suites.

128 Big name in nail polish : ESSIE

Essie Cosmetics is a company that was founded by Essie Weingarten, and which is now owned by L’Oreal. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth II will only wear Essie’s Ballet Slippers color nail polish. Well, that’s what Wikipedia claims …

129 Rug rats : TYKES

“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902, but for centuries before that a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

130 Brand whose sales skyrocketed after the release of “E.T.” : REESE’S

In the 1982 movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, young Elliott lures E.T. into his house by leaving a trail of Reese’s Pieces candy. Such was the success of the film, that Hershey saw a significant and enduring increase in sales of Reese’s Pieces. Apparently, producers first sought permission to use M&M’s in the scene, but Mars, Incorporated refused.

Down

1 Person who’s being used : CAT’S PAW

The use of the term “cat’s-paw” to describe a dupe derives from an old folk tale in which a monkey tricks a cat into pawing chestnuts from a fire. The monkey gets the chestnuts, and the cat gets a burnt paw.

2 Sister of Laertes : OPHELIA

In William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Ophelia is courted by Hamlet, the man himself. Ophelia is the daughter of nobleman Polonius. She dies …

In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, Laertes is the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. It is Laertes who kills Hamlet using a poisoned sword..

3 They’re scored from 1 to 5 : AP EXAMS

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers college-level courses to kids who are still in high school (HS). After being tested at the end of an AP course, successful students receive credits that count towards a college degree.

4 What’s found at one end of a rainbow : RED

“Roy G. Biv” can be used as a mnemonic for the colors in a rainbow:

  • Red
  • Orange
  • Yellow
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Indigo
  • Violet

6 Sources of Norse mythology : EDDAS

The “Poetic Edda” and “Prose Edda” are two ancient works that are the source for much of Norse mythology. Both Eddas were written in the 13th century in Iceland.

9 Ukr., e.g., once : SSR

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”.

11 Kind of cuisine that’s often eaten with one’s hands : ETHIOPIAN

Ethiopia is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation on the continent (after Nigeria) and, with 90 million inhabitants, the most populous landlocked country in the world. Most anthropologists believe that our Homo sapiens species evolved in the region now called Ethiopia, and from there set out to populate the planet.

13 ___ vide (culinary technique) : SOUS

“Sous-vide” is a cooking method in which the food is sealed in plastic bags and very slowly steamed in a water bath. The term “sous-vide” is French for “under vacuum”.

16 Idle gossip : CHATTER

Our word “gossip” comes from the Old English “godsibb” meaning “godparent”. The term was then used for women friends who attended a birth, and then for anyone engaging in idle talk.

20 Actor Dev of “Lion” : PATEL

Dev Patel is an actor from Harrow in England. Patel is best known for playing the lead in the hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. He also stars in a lovely 2012 film called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” alongside an incredible cast that included Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson. Patel also had a regular role in the marvelous HBO drama series called “The Newsroom”.

“Lion” is a 2016 film based on the autobiographical book “A Long Way Home” by Saroo Brierley. Brierley is an Indian-born Australian who was accidentally separated from his mother when he was 5 years old, ending up stranded on a train that took the young boy nearly 1,500 km from his home. The excellent film adaptation stars Dev Patel as the older Brierley, who searches for his birth-family. Excellent movie …

34 Run-___ (hip-hop trio) : DMC

Run-DMC was a hip hop group from Queens, New York. The trio took its name from two of the group’s members: Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.

37 Alternative to an ellipsis : ETC

An ellipsis is a series of dots (usually three) used to indicate an omission in some text. The term comes from the Greek word “élleipsis”, which means “omission”.

39 Some clickbait articles : TOP-TEN LISTS

Clickbait is trickery used by website designers to entice a reader to click on a particular link. That link may be a disguised ad, so that the website owner gets some income from the advertiser.

41 Potentially risky thing to drop in a relationship : THE L BOMB

That would be “love”.

43 ___ Woo-shik, co-star of 2019’s “Parasite” : CHOI

“Parasite” is a 2019 comedy thriller movie from South Korea that became the nation’s highest-grossing film of all time. It was also the first movie not filmed in English to win the Oscar for Best Picture. I haven’t seen “Paradise” yet, but I hear great things from friends and family who have …

44 ___ cuisine : HAUTE

“Haute cuisine”, literally “high cooking” in French, is the name given to skillfully and elegantly prepared food, especially if it is in the French style.

46 Sanders who played in a World Series and two Super Bowls : DEION

Deion Sanders is a former NFL footballer, and a former Major League Baseball player. He is the only person to play in a Super Bowl and in a World Series. And, in the 1989 season Sanders became the only person to hit a major league home run and score an NFL touchdown in the same week. While playing, he earned the nicknames “Neon Deion” and “Prime Time Sanders”.

49 Charon’s domain : STYX

The River Styx of Greek mythology was the river that formed the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld (or “Hades”). The souls of the newly dead had to cross the River Styx in a ferry boat piloted by Charon. Traditionally, a coin would be placed in the mouths of the dead “to pay the ferryman”.

54 ___ Bator : ULAN

The name of Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar (formerly anglicized as “Ulan Bator”) translates as “the Red Hero”. The “Red Hero” name was chosen in honor of the country’s national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar. Sükhbaatar fought alongside the Soviet Red Army in the fight for liberation from Chinese occupation.

58 One variety of love : EROS

The name of Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic” meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Eros was referred to in Latin as both “Amor” (meaning “love”) and “Cupid” (meaning “desire”).

60 Broadway’s ___-Fontanne Theater : LUNT

The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is a Broadway theater that originally opened in 1910 as the Globe Theatre, named for the London playhouse used by William Shakespeare. The theater was named in honor of actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1958.

Lynn Fontanne was a British actress who married actor Alfred Lunt in 1922. The couple moved to America after appearing on the New York stage in a Noel Coward play that was regarded as too risque for London’s West End. The Lunts were very successful in the American theater, almost always acting together, and often playing husband and wife.

64 Part of a hammer : PEEN

The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer), but usually it is shaped like a claw (mainly for removing nails).

66 Butter alternative : OLEO

Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

67 “There warn’t no home like a raft …” speaker : FINN

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain was first published in 1884, not here in the US but rather in England. The original launch planned for the US had to be delayed until the following year because some rascal had defaced the plate for one of the illustrations, making an obscene joke. Once the problem was spotted a new plate had to be made, and 30,000 copies already printed had to be reworked to cover up the obscenity.

76 Deviation in flight : YAW

In the world of flight dynamics, three critical angles of rotation are known as pitch, roll and yaw. “Pitch” describes the lift and descent of the nose and tail. “Roll” describes motion around the axis that runs along the length of the airplane. “Yaw” describes rotation of the aircraft around the vertical axis.

82 Title horror film locale : ELM STREET

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is a Wes Craven slasher-horror film that was released in 1984. As I don’t do “slasher” or “horror”, I was surprised to learn that Johnny Depp was in the movie, making his feature film debut.

86 They have your life hanging by a thread : THE FATES

The three Fates of Greek mythology were white-robed deities, and were also called the Moirai. The three Fates were Clotho the spinner, Lachesis the allotter and Atropos the unturnable.

89 Kingdom east of Babylonia : ELAM

The ancient civilization of Elam was located east of Mesopotamia in what is modern-day southwest Iran.

91 Mini-albums, in brief : EPS

An extended-play (EP) record, CD or download contains more music than a single, but less than an LP.

92 Ship with three banks of oars : TRIREME

Triremes were galleys used in the Mediterranean by a number of cultures, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The trireme was so called because there were three rows of oars on each side of the vessel. The term “trireme” comes from the Latin “tres remi” meaning “three-oar”. There was also a less ambitious version of the trireme that had only two banks of oars, and that was known as a bireme.

95 Dead Sea Scrolls sect : ESSENES

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered over a period of years, between 1947 and 1956, in eleven caves on the shores of the Dead Sea. The scrolls are believed to have been written by an ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although this has been called into question recently. Many of the texts are copies of writings from the Hebrew Bible.

97 Envelope abbr. : ENC

Enclosure (enc.)

99 Scholarly : ERUDITE

“Erudite” is a lovely-sounding word meaning “learned, well-educated”. The term comes from the Latin verb “erudire” meaning “to educate”, or more literally “to bring out of the rough”.

102 Just peachy : A-OKAY

Our term “A-OK” is supposedly an abbreviation for “A(ll systems are) OK”, and arose at NASA in the sixties during the space program.

104 ___ Pro : MAC

The Mac Pro is the most powerful line of computers made by Apple. The level below the Mac Pro is the iMac, Apple’s all-in-one line of desktops that is most popular. The Mac Mini is Apple’s least powerful desktop, and the smallest. The Mini uses mainly laptop components.

108 Dental covering similar to a crown : ONLAY

“Inlay” is another word for a filling in dentistry. An “onlay” is similar to an inlay. An onlay not only fills a hole in the tooth but it is also built up to replace a missing cusp. It’s sort of halfway between a filling and a crown, I suppose.

110 Water pipe : BONG

A bong is a smaller and more portable version of a hookah, with both being filtration devices for smoking especially tobacco and cannabis. The term “bong” comes from the Thai word “baung” that is used for a wooden pope cut from bamboo.

114 Foe of the Morlocks, in sci-fi : ELOI

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounters in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface. The Morlocks are a domineering race living underground who use the Eloi as food.

116 Major export of Tuscany : WINE

Tuscany is a beautiful region in central Italy, the capital of which is the city of Florence. Tuscany is considered to be the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, which was centered around Florence. It was home to great artistic icons such as Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Galileo and Puccini.

122 Sanctuary : ARK

The term “ark”, when used with reference to Noah, is a translation of the Hebrew word “tebah”. The word “tebah” is also used in the Bible for the basket in which Moses was placed by his mother when she floated him down the Nile. It seems that the word “tebah” doesn’t mean “boat” and nor does it mean “basket”. Rather, a more appropriate translation is “life-preserver” or “life-saver”. So, Noah’s ark was Noah’s life-preserver during the flood.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Not fine : COARSE
7 Expedition : HASTE
12 Savory jelly : ASPIC
17 Tacks on : APPENDS
19 Mollycoddle : COSSET
20 Sight on an English farm : PLOUGH
21 Slacker role for Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski” : THE DUDE
22 Super-enthusiastic : RAH-RAH
23 Spelman College graduate, e.g. : ALUMNA
24 “___ is an emotion in motion”: Mae West : SEX
25 See 30-Across : … GALLERY
27 Morning weather phenomenon : MIST
29 See 33-Across : … SPOT
30 With 25-Across, get as much approval from an audience as possible : PLAY (TO THE) …
32 Dalmatians, e.g. : SLAVS
33 With 29-Across, like a deer in headlights : ROOTED (TO THE) …
35 N.Y.C.’s first subway line : IRT
36 Singer Mann : AIMEE
38 Michelangelo masterpiece : PIETA
40 Sunset Boulevard sight : PALM TREE
42 Utah mountain range : WASATCH
45 What people tend to do when a rush-hour subway train arrives : CROWD IN
47 See 50-Across : … CHOIR
48 See 53-Across : … CHASE
50 With 47-Across, not change anyone’s mind, say : PREACH (TO THE) …
52 Forest of Fangorn resident, in fiction : ENT
53 With 48-Across, stops wasting time : CUTS (TO THE) …
57 Dawn : OUTSET
59 Eternally damned : IN HELL
61 Promptness : ALACRITY
63 Default consequence : REPO
65 Have an influence (on) : RUB OFF
69 Iraqi port city : BASRA
70 Mathematical concepts suggested eight times in this puzzle : EXPONENTS
74 “I’m telling the truth!” : NO LIE!
75 One of the Seven Dwarfs : SNEEZY
77 Yeats’s “The Lake ___ of Innisfree” : ISLE
78 Bad place for a fly, in a saying : OINTMENT
80 Showy shrub : AZALEA
83 Arch supporter : INSOLE
85 See 90-Across : … BONE
86 Flat-topped cap : TAM
88 See 92-Across : … WOLVES
90 With 85-Across, uncomfortably accurate : CLOSE (TO THE) …
92 With 88-Across, sacrificed : THREW (TO THE) …
94 Place that processes ore : SMELTER
96 Eponym of the world’s largest church : ST PETER
101 Some team-bonding trips : RETREATS
103 State whose capital is Dispur : ASSAM
105 Drum that can be played with a brush : SNARE
106 Hypotheticals : IFS
107 See 113-Across : … BOTTOM
109 Cleans, as a deck : SWABS
112 See 116-Across : … CLUB
113 With 107-Across, bad sort of competition : RACE (TO THE) …
115 “Freak on a Leash” metal band : KORN
116 With 112-Across, “Your misfortune is nothing special” : WELCOME (TO THE) …
118 Jocular lead-in to “macation” : EDU-
119 List ender : ET ALIA
121 Abstract artist de Kooning known for her portraits : ELAINE
123 Obsessive cleaner, say : NEATNIK
125 Important faculty for school : MEMORY
126 Brought home : EARNED
127 Lively French dance popular in the Baroque era : GAVOTTE
128 Big name in nail polish : ESSIE
129 Rug rats : TYKES
130 Brand whose sales skyrocketed after the release of “E.T.” : REESE’S

Down

1 Person who’s being used : CAT’S PAW
2 Sister of Laertes : OPHELIA
3 They’re scored from 1 to 5 : AP EXAMS
4 What’s found at one end of a rainbow : RED
5 Comfy-cozy : SNUG
6 Sources of Norse mythology : EDDAS
7 More throaty : HOARSER
8 Pale : ASHY
9 Ukr., e.g., once : SSR
10 Spanish “I love you” : TE AMO
11 Kind of cuisine that’s often eaten with one’s hands : ETHIOPIAN
12 Tied, in scores : ALL
13 ___ vide (culinary technique) : SOUS
14 Do some heavy lifting : PUMP IRON
15 “Don’t pay attention to that” : IGNORE IT
16 Idle gossip : CHATTER
18 Convince : SELL
19 Cracks : CREVICES
20 Actor Dev of “Lion” : PATEL
26 Lick (up) : LAP
28 Stop the flow of : STANCH
31 House call? : YEA
33 Playful growl : RAWR
34 Run-___ (hip-hop trio) : DMC
37 Alternative to an ellipsis : ETC
39 Some clickbait articles : TOP-TEN LISTS
41 Potentially risky thing to drop in a relationship : THE L BOMB
43 ___ Woo-shik, co-star of 2019’s “Parasite” : CHOI
44 ___ cuisine : HAUTE
46 Sanders who played in a World Series and two Super Bowls : DEION
49 Charon’s domain : STYX
51 Lead-in to self : HER-
53 They might be caught in the rain : CABS
54 ___ Bator : ULAN
55 Stun, in a way : TASE
56 Hard-hit line drive : SCREAMER
58 One variety of love : EROS
60 Broadway’s ___-Fontanne Theater : LUNT
62 Heckle : RAZZ
64 Part of a hammer : PEEN
66 Butter alternative : OLEO
67 “There warn’t no home like a raft …” speaker : FINN
68 Lavish celebration : FETE
71 Hard Italian cheese : PIAVE
72 Level, for one : TOOL
73 Isolated components : SILOS
76 Deviation in flight : YAW
79 Exterminator’s target : NEST
81 Was bested by : LOST TO
82 Title horror film locale : ELM STREET
84 Wrote poorly : SCRAWLED
86 They have your life hanging by a thread : THE FATES
87 They might involve impersonating a dealer : ART SCAMS
89 Kingdom east of Babylonia : ELAM
91 Mini-albums, in brief : EPS
92 Ship with three banks of oars : TRIREME
93 Fly catcher : WEB
95 Dead Sea Scrolls sect : ESSENES
97 Envelope abbr. : ENC
98 Juggling, singing, magic, etc. : TALENTS
99 Scholarly : ERUDITE
100 Tells off : REBUKES
102 Just peachy : A-OKAY
104 ___ Pro : MAC
108 Dental covering similar to a crown : ONLAY
110 Water pipe : BONG
111 Dishonest attack : SMEAR
114 Foe of the Morlocks, in sci-fi : ELOI
116 Major export of Tuscany : WINE
117 Place to hang holiday lights : EAVE
120 Something drawn by a jerk, maybe : IRE
122 Sanctuary : ARK
124 What a digitigrade stands on : TOE