NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Prepare to speak,

say 16 Nurse 17 Not now 18 Puts somebody

out 19 FICA fig. 20 ___ corde (piano

direction) 21 Ganders, e.g. 22 “Bummer” 25 President’s first name on “The West Wing” 26 Slicker go-with 29 With 35-Down,

slightly stale 30 Choice for bow

making 33 Inexperienced 34 Their contents have yet to be dealt with 36 Tenor Vickers 37 Defense

Department dept. 38 She played Detective Sasha Monroe on “Third Watch” 39 Greetings 40 Dummy in “Stage

Door Canteen” 41 Cellphone feature,

informally 42 Fr. religious title 43 Hotel waiter? 46 Florida preserve? 52 Keen insight, with

“the” 53 Peak performance

in 1953? 54 Focus of HGTV’s

“House Hunters” DOWN 1 Philistine 2 “August: Osage County” playwright Tracy 3 Westphalian city 4 Looking down on? 5 DVD-___ 6 Snack since 1912 7 Fish with iridescent blue stripes 8 Automaker Bugatti 9 German boys 10 The old you? 11 Snack since 1900 12 Named names,

maybe 13 Crazy quilts 14 “Look ___ now!” 15 Alternative to

cafés 22 Raid target 23 Top 10 hit for Eminem or 3 Doors Down 24 Eponymous

German physicist 25 Aerosmith’s titular

gun carrier 26 Gandhi opposed it 27 ___, amas, amat 28 Crime writer

Rankin 29 China shop

purchase 30 Intro to biology? 31 Business bigwig

Blavatnik 32 Composition of

Accent seasoning 35 See 29-Across 39 Big name in

oratorios 40 Scottish island that’s home to Fingal’s Cave 41 First stabber of

Caesar 42 1930 tariff act

co-sponsor 43 Joe, for one 44 “___ of Rock ’n’ Roll” (1976 Ringo Starr hit) 45 Propensities 46 “Hug ___” (Shel

Silverstein poem) 47 Exhibit upward

mobility? 48 Some paddle

wielders, briefly 49 Propose in a

meeting 50 Bass line? 51 Romance novelist

___ Leigh