The New York Times Crossword

ACROSS

1 Modern-day scrapbooks, of a sort 16 Common cybersecurity measure 17 Successfully strike a delicate balance 18 Home of the Kingdom of Dahomey, today 19 Balanced 20 Like a proposal in Congress that has zero chance of passing, in brief 21 ___ Morgenstern, author of “The Night Circus” 22 Heavyweight wrestlers 24 Sign … or signature 25 Org. that employs Hank on “Breaking Bad” 26 Five-time Grammywinning jazz pianist Mccoy ___ 27 Something large often stored upside down 28 Does 29 See eye to eye 30 Auto parts brand owned by GM 33 Party leader? 34 Special coffee shop offerings 35 Sandwich made with a telera roll 36 Shiny button material 37 Europe, Asia and America 38 Some vaccine administrators, in brief 41 The low, low price of 42 Refuses to keep going 43 Handy trick 44 Molecule that can interfere in gene expression 45 Member of an elite force 46 Watercolor, clay and others 47 Academic who works with many different schools, maybe 51 Sierra Nevada offering 52 Mediocre at best

DOWN

1 Place to let sleeping dogs lie 2 Arrival announcement 3 Literary domain of Peter the Magnificent and Susan the Gentle 4 Marketing link 5 ___ vital (life force, from the French) 6 Fire-engine ___ 7 Hearing monitor, for short 8 Rhyming arrangements, e.g. 9 Comic Noah who wrote the autobiographical “Born a Crime” 10 Actress Amanda 11 Many a tournament 12 ___ and ran 13 “Good ___!” 14 Like a dirge 15 Athletic items never purchased individually 22 Aligns 23 Command after an accidental deletion 24 Kind of ray 26 Piña colada topper 27 Goes for 28 One of two Tudor kings 29 Tangle in an office 30 Not what you’d expect 31 Madiba, for Nelson Mandela 32 States 33 Loud bird sound 35 Capital on the Gulf of Finland 37 Words sung on the same notes as “twinkle,” in a different nursery rhyme 38 Branching out from the center 39 Longtime police procedural that ended in 2023, informally 40 Expert with figures? 42 Wood for smoking andouille sausage 43 Philosopher who was a major influence on Marx 45 Hissy 46 One whose distance may be measured by the yard? 48 Division of the Treasury Dept. 49 Black ___ 50 West Coast news inits.