NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Drops the ball big-time 8 Home to about 60% of

the world’s population 12 One with a whistle … who sometimes 1-Across?

15 Soccer superstar

Cristiano

16 Sporty car roof option 17 Genre of Death Cab for

Cutie

18 Tot’s mount

20 Cold War jet

21 Cover, as tasks 22 Connecticut Ivy

Leaguer

23 Willy Wonka prop 24 Practically forever

25 Jim Beam competitor 28 Gun

29 Auction action 30 Thinks the world of 31 Hard to swallow, in a

way

34 Shake a leg, in

Shakespeare 35 Chinese poultry dish

marinated in wine 40 ___-fi

41 Torments

43 Residents of ancient

Minos

47 PC key

48 Windy City rail system,

in brief

49 1980 boxing film for which De Niro won Best Actor

51 Criticize harshly 53 “Couldn’t agree more!” 54 Name, as a price

55 ___ bear

56 Flat refusals

57 They’re always ready for a good time … or a description of 18-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across? 61 Tree creature of Middleearth

62 Brothers Grimm villain 63 Legislative bodies 64 Marx’s “___ Kapital” 65 Cherry or walnut 66 Recliner feature

DOWN

1 Remark from one having cold feet, perhaps

2 Bit of unfinished business

3 Cursory appraisal 4 Rouse

5 Pita pocket cuts, e.g. 6 Passport fig.

7 Dress (up), quaintly 8 Island like Kiritimati 9 Jazz piano style played by Fats Waller and Mary Lou Williams

10 Siri’s platform

11 Copy

12 Fresh take on a classic, perhaps

13 Slim Shady, by another name

14 Some old-timers

19 Eric ___, 1980 Olympic speed skating gold medalist

23 Streaming sites? 24 Cardinals’ home, in

stats

25 Illusionist’s skill

26 Part of a casual layered

look

27 College city in upstate

New York

29 Blues legend with a

guitar named Lucille 32 Hoffman who played

Captain Hook

33 Early quinoa cultivator 36 Like chewable calcium,

often

37 Place for a concert or

lecture

38 Get really serious really

quickly

39 Pitching statistic?

42 Rode the bench 43 Stretched to get a

better look, say

44 ___ Quimby, Beverly

Cleary heroine 45 Discharges

46 Pizzeria chain 50 Formal “you,”

in Spanish

51 Sound of spring? 52 Former L.A. Laker

Odom

55 Banjo spot, in song

57 “Right in the kisser!” 58 Fourth word in the “Star

Wars” prologue 59 Communication method in much of the 2021 film “CODA,” for short

60 Bygone Mach 1 breaker,

in brief