The New York Times Crossword

ACROSS

1 Book after II Chronicles

5 Stone on a set 9 Heat almost to the point of boiling 14 Bad person to trust

15 Close at hand 16 Actress Shire of “Rocky”

17 *Large container for cinnamon or coriander?

19 Sign up for, as a contest

20 Good qualities 21 *Gist of a Dear John letter?

23 Able is he and he is Elba

25 Depend (on) 26 Number for

John Tyler (or Alexander Hamilton)

28 Tiny matter?

30 Place back on the market, say

34 Not yet up 36 Laundry unit

38 Pot starter

39 *Play matchmaker? 42 Lose steam

43 Cookie in a Dairy Queen Blizzard 44 Perfect

45 Seasonal workers in red suits 47 Recovers some yards? 49 Deal that protects company secrets, for short 50 Midmonth date 52 Boneless steakhouse order 54 *Tinkling racket on a windy day? 58 Jog the memory of

61 Positive Instagram responses

62 Change a map of southern England? … or, when parsed differently, what you need to do to the answers to the starred clues 64 Unconcealed

65 Grp. that Qatar left in 2019

66 Rapper Wyclef 67 Pick on, in a way 68 On deck

69 Analogy words

DOWN

1 Woman’s name that’s also the first four letters of a Central American country name

2 Closes, as a fly 3 Kellogg’s cereal with a purple box 4 Followed a curved path

5 Breaks off a relationship 6 Lead-in to maid or man 7 Viciously attack 8 Brink’s truck feature

9 1980s TV role for Brosnan

10 Game with Lollipop Woods and Gumdrop Mountains

11 Kind of sax 12 Lender’s security 13 Have the courage 18 Online financial company

22 “Il Trovatore” composer

24 Like some panels and flares 26 Dust-ups

27 “___ Holmes” (streaming film about Sherlock’s sister) 29 Earthworm hunters

31 Deal sweeteners 32 Stand in good ___ 33 Automaker with a Cybertruck 35 Kitchen counters? 37 Standoffish

40 Gave a shot, say 41 Designed with passageways 46 “___ Fideles” 48 To the point 51 “Simple” nursery rhyme character 53 Nontext component of a text

54 Form lumps

55 Bee complex 56 Retail giant whose first store opened in Älmhult, Sweden

57 “Uh-uh”

59 Lacking clutter 60 Foe of Mr. Bond 63 Cause trouble for