NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Singer Del Rey 5 Giant walking combat vehicle in “Star Wars” films 9 Stuffs

14 Not just

occasionally

15 Blue shade 16 Without backup 17 Poppycock 18 Release, as a song,

in modern lingo 19 “OK, you win” 20 Something directly following a penultimate position — that is to say, diametrically opposed to a primary one 23 Gracefully send

away

24 Passing comment? 25 Girl group with the 1999 #1 album “Fanmail”

26 90s, say

31 Lie in the sun 34 Likeanoven 36 Demographic figure 37 “Bullet” in a food

fight

38 Female kangaroo 39 Golden blades that may be tenderly chew’d by equine or bovine beings 44 None of it is good,

as the saying goes 45 One committing insurance fraud, maybe 46 Prospector’s find 48 ___ Halles (central food market in Paris, once)

BABY BLUES

BALDO

B.C.

BEETLE BAILEY

BLONDIE

DUSTIN 49 It may end with a reality check 53 The cat’s meow, baby. Dig? 57 Follower of pigs or cows

58 Be plentiful

59 In perpetuity 60 Country sound 61 Black-and-white swimmer 62 Name meaning “born again” 63 Shipment

64 Actor Damon 65 Till section

DOWN

1 Drink from a machine

2 Colorful kind of shirt 3 Common congestion points 4 Figure skater, for one

5 With more of the same sort

6 Donna ___, 2014 Pulitzer winner for “The Goldfinch” 7 Confess openly 8 Mistakke, of a sort?

9 Agreed to tie the knot

10 North African capital

11 Work

12 “That most odious and antisocial of all passions”: John Stuart Mill 13 Date

21 Pioneering I.S.P. 22 Four-star

26 Wiped out 27 Human rights

lawyer Clooney 28 Number two 29 What crystal jellies

do when disturbed 30 Views

31 ___ Men (one-hit wonder group of 2000)

32 Food thickener 33 Janitor’s janglers 35 Decides

40 Not doing a darn

thing

41 Cry toward the end

of a list

42 Source of some

omega-3s

43 It may be rolled out

for exercise 44 Competitor of

21-Down 47 Cartoonist Chast 49 Tape recorder

button

50 Torn asunder

51 TV producer

Chaiken 52 Funerary

burners

53 Classic name in

audio equipment 54 Shakespeare character who says “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is / To have a thankless child!” 55 Model in a science

classroom 56 Computing

prefix

57 Alternative to an

ellipsis