The New York Times Crossword

1 Classic MTV show that launched a film franchise 8 Common recyclable

15 Firm, in a way

16 “Fifty Shades of Grey,” e.g. 17 Certain fair fare 18 Involving crystals and incense, say

19 “I just knew it!”

20 Cause of death in the Sherlock Holmes novel “The Sign of the Four”

22 “___ Meets Godzilla” (classic film short)

25 Ending with slug or gab 26 Break

29 Part of the Constitution establishing the executive branch

32 Where I-80 crosses the Missouri River 34 Narrative through multiple TV episodes

37 Caught

38 Sighting from a crow’s-nest 39 Con

41 Lift at a resort

42 Do a favor for 44 Numerical trio

46 Rude one in an audience 47 Diagram at a business meeting 48 Disseminate

49 “Then again …,” in texts 51 Ankle bones 55 Protagonist in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” 58 Mary ___ Evans, real name of George Eliot

59 Big name in online dating 62 “Sure, makes sense” 65 Video game controller that uses gesture recognition 66 Johannes Gutenberg, for one 67 Voice actor for Carl in “Up” 68 Witchcraft … or what each block of three black squares in this puzzle represents?

DOWN

1 ___ deGrom, two-time Cy Young Award winner (2018 and 2019)

2 Hello or goodbye 3 Obsolescent storage device 4 “Jeopardy!” genius Jennings 5 “Then what happened …?” 6 What red might mean 7 ___ lily

8 Dojo master 9 Black-and-white stack 10 “___ Abbey”

11 Slightly

12 Smoke

13 Number one starter 14 House call? 21 Lifesaving prosthetic 23 Subpar performance? 24 Like the planet Hoth in “The Empire Strikes Back” 26 Classic leading lady honored on both U.S. and Swedish postage

27 Leading

28 Father 30 Delinquent

31 Be off base 33 Powdered green tea leaves

34 Sorts who might wipe their mouths with their sleeves 35 Off-limits

36 Turned up just a little 37 Distort 40 ___-Magnon (early human) 43 Company with a great deal of advertising?

45 Not just think

47 Hay, say

50 Opposite of original

52 One with dreads, maybe 53 Nasty look

54 Like neon

55 Doesn’t remember the words, say

56 “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” org. 57 Prefix with watt

59 Be short

60 Josh

61 Its HQ contains a sculpture with a still-unsolved coded message

63 Title reportedly turned down by Stephen Hawking

64 Sign