The New York Times Crossword
ACROSS
1 “Excuse me while I light my _ _ _” (Bob Marley lyric)
7 Theater backers?
13 Ho-hum
15 11-sided coin, informally
16 “Damn right!”
18 Not learned
19 Word shortened from a threeword phrase that can be further shortened by dropping its first, fourth and fifth letters
20 Ball game
22 Very much in
23 Narragansett Bay and New York Harbor, for two
24 Broadcast alternative
25 Labor demand?
26 Numbers after a no.
27 “The Swedish Sphinx”
28 Uncanny
29 Coupons, e.g.
31 Embellish something unnecessarily
32 Baby
33 Asian appetizer
34 Locale of van Gogh’s “The Bedroom” paintings
35 Ones calling the shots, in brief?
38 Ending with cyclo
39 Harsh lighting?
40 Acquiescent
41 Routine
42 Component of a Zoom call
43 Dig, say
44 “Tough cookies”
46 Bronze finish, maybe
48 Foolish
49 Skeptical look
50 Takes a little hair off, perhaps
51 Minimal
DOWN
1 Basketball, e.g.
2 Get ready, as concrete
3 Meme creature
4 Key chain
5 She played Bonnie in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde”
6 Giant syllable
7 Common golf mistake
8 It might receive scoops
9 The anchorman in “Anchorman”
10 Rushed
11 Cell division
12 Boil
14 Permit required of old jazz musicians
17 Preoccupations
21 They come full circle
24 Risk for people with braces
25 Key’s partner
27 Word after good or by
28 Weariness, vice and want, in Voltaire’s “Candide”
29 Where most of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are stored
30 ___ Ehrenreich, Han Solo’s portrayer in “Solo: A Star Wars Story”
31 “Knock yourself out!”
32 1909 Nobelist for contributions to the invention of radio
33 Level
35 One getting schooled
36 Goes radioactive?
37 N.S.A. surveillance program that shares its name with an entity in the “Terminator” movies
39 Seconds
40 Supposed subject of Taylor Swift’s “Dear John”
42 Potter’s product
43 Fall behind in the end
45 Popular
47 Swish miss?