Hey all you hep cats! Hope you’ve been shedding your bebop chops, cuz I got a burnin’ puzzle for ya!

Weird jazz slang aside, this puzzle exists chiefly as an excuse to get 37-Across into a grid (spoilery link for the uninitiated). It lies somewhere in the limbo zone between themed and themeless crosswords, so even if you’re not among the heppest of cats, there should be plenty of fill to like here.

In other news, this past Saturday was my second New York Times crossword, a collab with pro puzzler Paolo Pasco! It was so great to hear everyone’s feedback on the puzzle, especially the one guy on Wordplay who called me evil. And be sure to check out Paolo’s site Grids These Days—the puzzles he posts there are consistently clever and hilarious!

But first, solve this crossword, think about jazz, and listen to this song while you’re at it: