TODAY’S CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS

1 Smog monitoring grp. 4 Concise 9 Notorious pirate 13 Kitchen utensil 14 Cowboy competition 15 New Zealander 16 Plainly 18 Stage direction

19 Dirty Harry portrayer 20 Homebuyer’s note 22 Most sacred 25 First name in cheesecake 26 Rows 28 Skyscraper part 32 Scotland Yard div. 35 Toe coverers 37 Two-door car

38 -- West of “Batman” 40 Hot 42 Wednesday’s god 43 Fixed a seam 45 Takeoff 47 Novelist Umberto -48 “Messiah” composer 50 Fine violin, briefly 52 Territory 54 Ground 58 Calvin or Rita

62 Deadly snake

63 Rose pest 64 Elixir seeker 67 Bowdoin College locale 68 Kilted musician 69 Obtain 70 Plug away 71 Is entitled to 72 Whichever

DOWN

1 Geologic period

2 Poet -- Neruda

3 Smithy’s block

4 Dietary need 5 Promise to pay

6 Gridiron stats

7 Place of control

8 Seesaws (hyph.) 9 Wallaby or joey

10 Wee bit 11 Remnant 12 Kind of straits

15 Kilo system 17 Put one’s foot -- -21 Tease 23 Iceberg sites 24 Journeys 27 Minor mistakes

29 Type of ranch

30 “Iliad” or “Odyssey” 31 Las Vegas rival 32 Payment option 33 Lightbulb, in comics 34 Early morning

36 F. -Fitzgerald 39 Receiving a special award 41 Time long gone

44 Make fun of

46 Tractor owners 49 Escorted 51 Wee drink 53 Dumbfounded 55 Friend, in Spain

56 Peer Gynt creator 57 Spruce 58 Motor parts 59 October’s stone 60 Buckeye State

61 He directed Marlon 65 EMT technique

66 Roost sitter