The New York Times crossword puzzle
Across 1 Any old person,
so to speak 6 French
connections 9 Top 12 Super13 Mischievous 15 Cooper
preceder 16 Party spreads 17 Like triple plays 18 Radio button 19 Chat room overseers, for short 20 Low camera
perspective 22 Slept with 24 Command and
control 25 Part of
52-Across 26 “Surely not
me?” 27 Yank’s opposite 29 Budding 31 Band with the 1988 #1 hit “Need You Tonight” 33 Eyesore 35 Currency that features architecture, not portraiture 36 “Birthday” or “mother’s maiden name,” e.g. 39 Bandleader who became a 1950s sitcom star 42 General ___
chicken 43 Desert royal 47 Capital in sight of Kilimanjaro 49 Percussive
dance 51 Post-surgery
place 52 Buster of rock 53 Mad rush 55 Judge of
1980s-’90s TV 57 “Officially …” 60 Leader Castro 61 Athletic shoe
brand 62 ___ Field 63 What an endangered animal may get 65 Depend 66 Goddess in a chariot drawn by peacocks 67 ___ acid 68 Field ration, for short 69 Fifth on an eight-part scale 70 Cause of a stuffed-up nose
Down 1 Get ready to
play 2 Make the
scapegoat for 3 German Expressionist who was blacklisted by the Nazis 4 Title judge of a 1995 sci-fi film 5 The P.L.O.’s
Arafat 6 You can’t stop
humming it 7 “East of Eden” family name 8 What a tech specialist might ask you to send 9 Constraint 10 Conflagration 11 Dunces 14 2003 OutKast hit that was #1 for nine weeks 15 Dallas player,
for short 21 German steel
center 22 Fat meas. 23 Blue state majority, for short 28 Books that may depict dragons, unicorns and griffins 30 Reply to a bit
of cleverness 32 Ship’s pole 34 Renaissance
fair props 37 Mercury, in
alchemy 38 “___ the
light!” 39 Provider of underground entertainment? 40 Trampled 41 Latex-like glove
material 44 Detail 45 Smallest NATO member by population 46 Sci-fi play
of 1921 48 Tree with
burs 50 Outcast 54 Hip again 56 “Star Wars”
queen 58 Scotland’s Firth of ___ 59 After-dinner drink 64 Peter out,
as a trail