“Free Up Space” — another themeless, for these times.

ACROSS

1 Skids laterally

10 Indifferent individual

15 1968 album whose first single was “Think”/”You Send Me” 16 Decoy customer

17 Comic commentator on both the U.S. and Australian versions of “Holey Moley”

18 “O Pioneers!” author Cather 19 Anna Mill/Luke Jones 2018 graphic novel about robotic cities

21 Room 204, at the Roman Holiday Inn?

22 Lying beneath

23 Gp. that supports summer reading

24 ___ kama (imitation crab used in California rolls) 25 One-liner, e.g.

26 Drive out on the prairie? 28 San Francisco Bay structure 29 “Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth” author Rick 31 “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” stuff

32 “Right?”

33 Culatello or Black Forest, e.g.

36 Sponge cake seen on “The Great British Bake-Off” (and named for an Italian city) 37 Streaming service that sounds like a Haitian religion 38 Microsoft hybrid product announced in 2001 41 30-miles-per-hour runners 42 Regional butter substitute (I swear nobody calls it this on the West Coast)

43 “___ Poetica” (Horace work) 44 Lesson at the end 46 Imperfection

47 Leaders of the bunch? 50 Paleontologist’s big find

52 Fake (like with lip-synching or air guitar)

53 Flee, in a way

54 Embarrassed acknowledgement

55 Small, but cute

56 PBS series of programs for athome education

DOWN

1 ___-CoV-2 (virus that causes COVID-19)

2 “Confederacy” of Native

American peoples

3 Explained as false

4 Web-based stock follower, maybe 5 Hobbits’ home, with “The”

6 Red Stripe is one

7 “Splendor in the Grass” Oscar winner William

8 With “The,” Dallas indie-pop group that often has up to 27 members

9 Tiny candy brand with the slogan “Be Both”

10 London-to-Madrid dir.

11 Get set 12 Early carrier tank on the tracks

13 “Fighting” NCAA team

14 His Final Jeopardy response was “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?”

20 Shaw who sang “Puppet on a String” for the U.K. at Eurovision 1967

25 Research ctr. that co-manufactured the Curiosity Rover 27 2021 role for Mayim

29 Go off on

30 Rubbing alcohol variety 32 Small, but cute

33 Focus of much genetic research

34 Flatterer

35 Letters before nus 36 Well-rounded positive makeovers

37 Supervillain who’s queen of the Skrull Empire, in the Marvel Universe

38 Heath bar ingredient 39 Alternative form of a gene 40 Long jump gold medalist Bob 44 Skill demonstrated on the U.K.’s “Countdown” (that isn’t seen much on U.S. game shows)

45 “Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles” reporter April 48 Reporter’s assignment 49 Scattered, as seed

51 WWE wrestler Mysterio