The New York Times crossword puzzle

Across

1 Hero of Philadelphia 7 IG-11 on “The Mandalorian,” e.g. 12 Stereotypically arcane subject 14 Wry comment on a sorry situation 15 Decline 16 One temporarily donning a cap 17 Spent 18 Decked out 19 “Between the World and Me” author, 2015 21 Frequently flooded land 22 Team that infamously blew a 28-3 Super Bowl lead they had late in the third quarter: Abbr. 23 Doctor’s office, maybe 24 Piece of the pie?

26 Standard of comparison 28 Lock holder? 29 Sharp feeling 30 Smear 31 Shell, maybe 34 Little ball of fur 38 ___ change 39 Makes clean … or less clean 40 Rigmarole 41 Buck, boomer, jack, flyer or jill, informally 42 One might carry a torch 44 Like some brows and berets 45 Longtime Sacha Baron Cohen persona 47 Was on 48 Turns over 49 Bit of encouragement for someone’s success 52 “Decision time!” 53 Spike in activity on a sports field? 54 Absolutely trounced

Down

1 Dog … or a type of dog 2 Dos y dos y dos y dos 3 America’s first historically Black sorority, in brief

4 Set the wheels in motion 5 Continuously improve, in tech-speak 6 Subject of a family feud, maybe 7 Lead-in to belief 8 Certain mouthpiece attachment 9 Not with “them” 10 Frosty air? 11 De-frosting? 12 Queens, e.g.

13 Lines in an application? 14 Setting of a 1945 conference 15 Natural cover 19 Holding up the line for? 20 Workers with talent 23 Angles 25 Color that comes from the Latin for “red” 27 Earthshattering 28 Glossy alternative 30 Makes out 31 Material that artists get all fired up about? 32 Amphibian that Ogden Nash once rhymed with “bottle”

33 “Little Women” actress Ronan 34 Milan ___, author of 1984’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” 35 Openness 36 Parting word 37 Little ’uns 39 Singing style with AfricanAmerican roots 43 Say “Ta-da!,” say 44 Excited, with “up” 46 Actress Rowlands 48 Natural recess 50 Many a 31Down piece 51 Banh ___ (sticky rice cake)

Our final themed deal for this week is based on an idea from a friend. Against four hearts, the defense led the spade king, then shifted to the diamond nine. Put yourself in declarer’s position. Should you cover? In which hand should you win the trick, and what should you do next?

This is a trick question, of course! You should let the diamond nine hold. With the important honors in hearts and clubs all but marked on your left, your best chance of avoiding two club losers is to endplay West, and you must first eliminate diamonds.

You should not mind losing a diamond trick, even if the queen is onside, as long as you can keep East off play. East should overtake the diamond nine with his 10 in an effort to obtain the lead. But if he ducks, so do you, and West is left on play.

On a diamond continuation, which is best for the defense, you win in hand, play the heart ace, lead a diamond to the ace and exit with a second trump.

West must either lead a spade, allowing you to use the spade queen as a home for your slow club loser, or lead around into your club tenace. Either way, you avoid a club loser altogether.

Here, the purpose of the holdup was to ensure that East, the danger hand who could break up the endplay by shifting to clubs, would not gain the lead in diamonds. While East might have seen through your plan, it is by no means obvious that he could afford to expend the diamond 10 here. ANSWER: You have too much for a direct three hearts, so it is between a pragmatic four hearts and the slower, more scientific route of double followed by three hearts. Since the latter approach leaves three notrump in the game, which may be high enough opposite a bust, I would double, hoping they do not compete at once to four spades!