CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS 1 Better protected 6 “Poppycock!” 10 Badlands Natl. Park site 14 Coarse 15 Suspicious of 16 Pup follower? 17 Up for grabs, in a way 18 Lit. intro 19 “Willard” antagonists 20 The joke at the audiologists’ convention __ 23 Solo, say 24 Indian author Santha Rama __ 25 Century-starting year 26 The joke at the chemists’ convention __ 32 Not treat lightly 34 Normandy river 35 “Defending Our Nation. Securing The Future” org. 36 __ swings 37 “POV” airer 38 Extreme degrees 39 “The Trumpet of the Swan” monogram 40 Boxed dozen 42 Vail topper 44 The joke at the firefighters’ convention __ 47 Part of a friskiness metaphor 48 Jersey’s chew 49 “The Simpsons” leisure suit wearer 52 The joke at the cashiers’ convention __ 56 Not even close 57 Lightest meson 58 Ex-TV host Stewart 59 Kick back 60 Required bet 61 “R.U.R.” writer Capek 62 Language that gave us “bard” 63 Old Royale 8’s 64 Gambling aids: Abbr. DOWN

1 Shining target 2 Journey frontman Pineda 3 Mature 4 Henry James biographer 5 Backtalk 6 The Carpenters, e.g. 7 Regarding 8 Mississippi travelers 9 “Meet the Fockers” co-star 10 Channel relative 11 Word John doesn’t want to see? 12 They’re seen in columns 13 Lapidary’s meas. 21 Some flatbreads 22 Nero’s “Behold!” 27 Ref. shelf filler 28 Singer Rihanna’s first name 29 Where a love story may be written 30 Workers’ rights org. 31 Tweed lampooner 32 Drake, maybe 33 Start of a dramatic question 37 Like new snow 38 End to peace? 40 Evita’s man 41 As expected 42 Complacent 43 Grizzly Alaskans? 45 Walk wearing Luvs 46 Dramatic units 50 Principle 51 Dividing range 52 When one __ closes ... 53 Hardly blessed events 54 Till opener 55 Crack up 56 NFL team with a home field bleachers section called the Dawg Pound