UNIVERSAL CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Pale purple shade

6 Pub projectile

10 Drink whose logo has two lizards

14 Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes or Loudly Crying Face

15 Frankenstein’s assistant

16 Opera solo

17 Implied

18 “Star Trek” role for George Takei

19 Final

20 *Country trio with the 2002 hit “These Days”

23 “Abbott Elementary” airer

26 Performing pair

27 Felt hat

28 Anyone born in the 1950s

30 ___ monster (desert lizard)

32 Go bad

33 *Vendors at a weekly market

36 “Taylor Swift: The ___ Tour” (2023 film)

37 Hawaii’s Mauna ___

38 Leave out

42 *Colorful reef dwellers

47 Sweet potato

50 Clickable desktop image

51 Simple shelter

52 Kind of short play

54 Plead

55 Debtor’s letters

56 “Relax!” ... or a advice to a solver who can’t figure out what’s hidden in each starred clue’s answer

60 ___ Mountains (Eurasian range)

61 Lab container

62 “Don’t slouch!”

66 U.S. immigration policy

for “Dreamers”

67 “Anything ___?”

68 Delete

69 Squeezes (out) 70 Avocado pit, e.g.

71 Competitive personality

DOWN

1 Marathon segment

2 Texter’s “I think ...”

3 Parking place

4 Open a little

5 Strong fortress

6 ’70s music genre

7 Water, in Barcelona

8 Tootsie ___

9 Chocolate confection named for a prized underground mushroom

10 Cobb or Caesar

11 One on a soapbox, maybe

12 Cafe

13 Patronizes, as a

12-Down

21 Hang 10, say

22 Shakespearean king

23 Well-qualified

24 Unrefined sort

25 ___-Cola

29 Ship’s sail holder

30 What an athlete might pull

31 Apple on a desk?

34 Iams competitor

35 Couch

39 Bite-size

40 Comparison words

41 You, way back when?

43 Like calorie-dense desserts

44 Four, for Ariana Grande’s vocal range

45 Actor Guinness

46 The 3,955-piece “Home Alone” McCallisters’ house, e.g.

47 “Sup man!”

48 Parka relative

49 Major pest

53 Map book

54 Bundled, as hay

57 Repulsive

58 Soothe

59 Like a poodle’s coat

63 Kind of dance for Savion Glover

64 Employ

65 Little green veggie