The New York Times Crossword

ACROSS

1 Podcasters’ needs 5 Meaty pasta sauce 9 “Hey, by the way …”

14 Apple with multiple cores 15 Eurasian river 16 Abstain from

17 *Job for a coxswain with rowdy rowers? 20 What’s tolerated by every body? 21 Natural hairstyles 22 Poorly

23 *Review for a soso bakery?

26 2007 Michael Moore documentary about health care 28 “You’ve got ___ nerve!”

29 Melody

30 It’s often in stock 34 Chose a course 37 Dorothy Parker quality

38 *Person who assigns the order of opening presents?

40 “Yes,” in Japanese 41 Check box of last resort

43 Norse protector of humankind 44 Complain querulously 45 Kyrgyzstan mountain range

47 Extremist sects 49 *Completes a superhero transformation? 54 And others too numerous to mention

55 Nary a soul

56 Island nation whose currency is the tala

60 Preschool teacher’s mantra … or a hint to the answers to the starred clues 63 Have a nibble of 64 Brazilian berry 65 She, on the Seine 66 Expression that might accompany a mustache twirl 67 Word repeated in a 1956 Doris Day single

68 Brighter times

DOWN

1 It’s catching 2 “Not sure yet” 3 Something to make or break 4 “Magic that works,” per Vonnegut 5 Runner on the ground?

6 Like an excited crowd

7 Social blunder 8 Marine leader? 9 Small ice cream order

10 Ad _ _ _

11 “Never mind what I just said!”

12 One of the Astaires 13 Caterwauls

18 Cozy corner 19 Romantic attraction, slangily, with “the”

24 Its name means “waterless place” in Mongolian 25 Hype (up) 26 Something to follow, in cards

27 “If so, then …” 29 Number of graduates in the first class at West Point (1802) 31 Poetic frequency 32 Utmost

33 Writer Umberto 35 Buds go in them 36 Dance floor flourish

38 Less sharp, as footage

39 Animal whose brain has the most gray matter of any mammal

42 They’re raised in Chi-town

44 Found innocent 46 Part of, as a plot 48 “_ _ _-daisy!”

49 Tales of daring 50 Frome of fiction 51 Classical coverups

52 Chilling

53 Labor activist Chavez

57 “___ 18” (novel by Leon Uris) 58 Exclusively 59 Wrinkles in time? 61 Its ways are numbered: Abbr. 62 O.S.S. successor