The New York Times crossword puzzle

Across

1 Stick under the bed? 5 Served flawlessly? 9 Play with, as a catnip mouse 14 Off-the-books business, perhaps 16 Olympics venue 17 Shifty type? 18 Lubricate again 19 Words before a deadline 20 Site of a Herculean task 22 Function 23 Sparkly wine cocktail 25 Praises to the heavens 27 Fumble 29 Cog on a wheel 30 ___ crawl33 Mideast federation since 1971, in brief 35Dunderhead 38 Fraternity letter 39 Brand of congestion medication 41 Where wild animals are most likely to see you 42 Old-fashioned “Whoopee!” 44 Capital of Brazil until 1960, informally 45 Refuses to 46 Make broader 48 Desert home to the legendary Mongolian death worm 50 Conservative, in a sense 53 Subject of a fully exposed image? 57 Affirming words 58 Surprise encounter 60 Polite refusal 61 Muppet named after a character in “Midnight Cowboy” 63 How this puzzle’s grid must be rotated in order to read the answers to the starred clues, when written in 17Across 65 Bamboozle 66 1977 Linda Ronstadt hit 67 Word before and after “to,” in a religious phrase 68 Org. endorsing P.P.E. for workers 69 Jean who wrote “Wide Sargasso Sea”

Down

1 Moves quickly, as a cloud 2 Really enjoy 3 In keeping with 4 Video game franchise starring major-league baseballers 5 Shortest path connecting two points on a sphere 6 Surname of father/son actors James and Scott 7 Henry Ford’s sole heir 8 Consider something to be 9 Overly suspicious 10 Word often abbreviated to its middle letter in texts 11 *Like a household with a stay-at-home parent, maybe 12 Sambuca flavoring 13 Padded accounts? 15 “___ see it from my perspective …” 21 *Longtime Mazda catchphrase24 *Annual gathering of superhero fans 26 Member of TV’s Addams Family 28 It comes and goes 30 Last in a series 31 Mer makeup 32 *Babe-in-the-woods quality 34 Where the smallest bones in the body are found 36 Tiny particle 37 Wee ’un 39 Antique tools for pressing clothes 40 Ficus fruit 43 Mighty Patch target 45 Lot in Genesis, e.g. 47 Papal emissary 49 Swindle 50 More or less, in time 51 Señor’s sendoff 52 River deposits 54 N.B.A. Hall-of-Famer Thomas 55 Best-selling 2019 memoir subtitled “A Coming-of-Gender Story” 56 Components of a hard six, in craps 59 Quick bite 62 Last in a series 64 Farm delivery letters