LA TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Meet portion, or portion of

meat

4 Film franchise featuring

Lightning McQueen 8 Regarding

13 Portfolio options, for short 15 Perched on

16 Deteriorating

17 “Mrs. Frisby and Rats of __” 18 NYC gallery with a Bell helicopter on display

19 Melted together

20 Dinner roll that provides an

unexpected boost?

23 Pool necessity

24 Had as a regular customer 27 Outlandish stories about

Vietnamese soup?

32 Bulky boats

34 Lithium-__ battery

35 Seized auto

36 Tease mercilessly

37 Valued at one fancy ballpoint?

42 Texter’s “But ... “

43 “Monday Night Football”

commentator Aikman 44 Young man

45 Anklebones

46 Golfers who just need to dance, dance, dance before every drive?

49 Stretching muscle 51 Common Market letters 52 Chophouse order, and an apt

title for this puzzle?

58 Silky fabric

61 The “genu-” in “genuflect” 62 American tennis phenom

Gauff

63 Begins

64 Low-pH stuff

65 Is shy

66 Play area

67 Egg layers

68 After taxes

DOWN

1 Command to a prompter 2 Actress Moriarty who plays

Starlight on “The Boys” 3 PlayStation, for one

4 Strappy top, for short 5 Comprehensive

6 Trevi Fountain city

7 Like Greenland’s population 8 “Zero stars”

9 Edge

10 Sterile work environs

11 Employ

12 “Thank you for coming to my

__ Talk”

14 Azalea, e.g.

21 Park and drive

22 “If I Were a __”: BeyoncŽ ballad 25 Horseracing achievement 26 “Will do, hon”

27 Crochet loop

28 Heckle

29 Seydoux of “No Time to Die” 30 On the facing pg.

31 Compass direcci—n

33 Mails

38 Watering down

39 Tarzan creator’s monogram 40 Also

41 Blood groups

46 AAA job

47 Neo-soul artist Badu 48 Boxer’s favorite store, maybe? 50 Feel

53 “... cut __”: end of a carpentry

maxim

54 Bridle strap

55 Canvas shoe brand

56 Frozen treat brand

57 Station

58 Distress signal

59 Likely (to)

60 Leaves for dim sum