The New York Times Crossword

Answers below

ACROSS

1 Formal affirmative

8 Home of the prehistoric Ggantija temples

13 Absolute drivel

15 Longtime TV news colleague of Pelley, Cooper and Whitaker

16 Queso, e.g.

18 Prestigious award established after its founder purportedly read his premature obituary

19 One in a hundred

20 Whoops, e.g.

22 Whence the phoenix

23 Queer identity whose flag is green, white, gray and black, for short

24 Wrote an exposé, say

26 Unreliable news source

27 It has high-end tastes

29 Isn’t finalized

30 One of more than 300 for “S.N.L.”

31 “Sonnets to Orpheus” poet

32 Predispositions

33 Something unoriginal

35 Drain away

36 Had to recant

38 Sign of a sellout

39 What you might get at the gym

40 Network for

15-Across

43 “Dear ___”

45 Singer Marie

46 Singer Michaels

47 For real

49 Stealing from the collection plate, for example

51 Outmaneuver, in a way

52 Covered in ink

53 Fleming who was the first opera singer to perform the national anthem at the Super Bowl (2014)

54 They resemble boas

DOWN

1 State flower of New Mexico

2 Early number?

3 Device used by a court reporter, informally

4 Word with swim or swap

5 _ _ _ nova

6 Question asked outside a bedroom

7 Tin lizzies

8 Competitor of AOL

9 On

10 Windy location of myth?

11 Defunct health technology company that once had a $10 billion valuation

12 So-called

14 Baño feature

17 Identify

21 Occasion when one might choose truth

24 Swimsuit portmanteau

25 Greenish drink

27 “Is anybody home …?”

28 Matches, as watches

29 Instrument that includes ranks and divisions

31 Get back

33 One who grapples, in dialect

34 Tuchuses

35 Borrower’s limit

37 Major export of Ukraine

40 Liturgical chant

41 Kicked off

42 Flight components

44 Team

46 “Ugh!”

48 Beethoven’s fourth?

50 Ignatius ___, figure on Netflix’s “Wednesday”