The New York Times Crossword

ACROSS

1 “In like a lion, out like a _ _ _” (March adage)

5 Knee stabilizer, in brief

8 Quaff

14 Moises of baseball fame

15 One of the fire signs

16 “Marvelous” TV character 17 Alternative to 2% … with or without the shaded letter 19 Lawn trimmers 20 Scuffle

21 Simpson with an I.Q. of 159

23 Modern lead-in to “-verse”

24 Place to practice martial arts 26 One-named singer with the 2000 hit “Only Time” 28 Tex-Mex dish 31 It may be half of a blackjack … with or without the shaded letter 35 On the briny

36 NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill

38 “Doctor ___” 39 Small stream 40 Vision that’s subject to interpretation 41 Alien conveyances 42 The Golden Bears of the NCAA, familiarly

43 Mediterranean country with 8,500 miles of coastline 44 On a streak? 45 Things that might be raised in court … with or without the shaded letter 47 Bajillions

49 Brand for which Garfield was once a “spokescat” 50 Memo heading 51 Trojan War hero 54 V.A. concern 56 Chardonnay, for one

60 Corkscrew pasta 62 They might eliminate teams … with or without the shaded letter

64 2013 Sheryl Sandberg best seller

65 Big name in outdoor gear 66 Hobbit foes 67 Whoopee cushion, for one

68 Luxury handbag initials

69 Meh

DOWN

1 Streaming hiccups 2 Soothing ingredient

3 Water repellent? 4 Make a mistake while sitting down?

5 Comedian Wong 6 Member of a string quartet

7 Thor’s mischievous brother

8 “Seriously, though?!”

9 ___ dash 10 Sandwich on a sesame seed bun 11 “Gotcha”

12 Muppet that sings “Doin’ the Pigeon” 13 Disney princess who can conjure ice

18 Not worth discussing

22 Airport near Olympia, informally 25 Absolutely incredible

27 Nikkei 225 currency 28 Ridiculous display 29 “Take me ___” 30 Word with shot or mold

31 Gets out of Dodge 32 Not just bad

33 _ _ _ Island (location that’s not really an island)

34 Pharmacy amounts 37 Playground retort 41 Fruit of the Loom product featuring superhero themes 43 ___ Grissom, longtime “CSI” character 46 Wearisome 48 Dionysian party 50 Sits around 51 Guthrie who wrote “Alice’s Restaurant”

52 One of the Coen brothers

53 Slightly

55 Nimble

57 Do for Billy Preston, once 58 Ones ranking below cpls. 59 Canadian gas brand

61 Actress Vardalos 63 Not feel great