The New York Times crossword puzzle

Across

1 Fuel efficiency letters

4 They may join in a circle

8 Big-box hardware chain

13 “That’s it!”

14 Model Campbell

16 Cricket fields and badminton racket heads, for two

17 Punishes

19 Interrupt ... or what to do as you enter the answer to the previous clue

20 Aptly named ski town in Utah

21 Stop the clock

23 Compact disc?

25 Hot spot in the afternoon, say

26 I.C.U. specialists 29 Backed financially

31 Prep for surgery ... or what to do as you enter the answer to the previous clue

34 Multiple of one?

36 City whose name is Siouan for “good place to dig potatoes”

37 Primitive kind of diet

41 Subject of job offer negotiations

43 They get high twice a day

44 Actress Munn

46 One of Alcott’s Little Women

48 Workplace with no commute

50 Leave ... or what to do as you enter the answer to the previous clue

55 Constellation next to Ursa Major

56 Prefix with skeleton

58 Hagia ___ (World Heritage Site in Istanbul)

59 Concession stand morsel

63 One of the pounds in a pound cake

64 Brazenly disregarding

66 Flail at home plate ... or what to do as you enter the answer to the previous clue

68 “Heaven forbid!”

69 Pledge drive bags

70 Gold in them thar hills, e.g.

71 Promise

72 Home to the oldest continuously operating university in the Americas

73 Retreat

Down

1 Sophisticated ladies

2 Queen Elizabeth’s husband

3 Prefix with -pod

4 Alex and ___ (jewelry brand)

5 Affiliated group of M.C.s, as for Death Row Records

6 Rum mixer

7 Refine, in a way

8 Plot points?

9 Fallopian tube traveler

10 Something to sleep on with no springs

11 Country’s ___

Young Band

12 Only four-ninths of it is usually shown: Abbr.

15 Lands in the ocean

18 Media journalist David

22 It’s said to be “the art of recognizing when to be big and when not to belittle”

24 Holy Roman emperor beginning in 973

27 Quickly heat up, in a way

28 Yellow Pages section after “Sound Systems”

30 Dramatic tango move

32 Abstract Expressionist Mark

33 News inits. since 1958

35 Snag

37 Four-time Hugo Award winner Frederik

38 Potted ornamental

39 Prom night booking

40 Biblical progenitor

42 “And ___ …”

45 Super-duper

47 Better prepared, perhaps

49 Just be oneself

51 Sport in which you could use some pointers?

52 “Great to hear!”

53 Reckon

54 Secure

57 In first place

60 Psychoanalyst Freud, daughter of Sigmund

61 Marty Feldman’s role in “Young Frankenstein”

62 Big name in Art

Deco

64 N.F.L. threepointers: Abbr.

65 Temperature extreme

67 Sch. 50 miles west of 36-Across