The New York Times crossword puzzle

No. 1230

Across

1 ___ Wednesday 4 Doing battle 9 Item in a humidor 14 Hotel amenity down the hall 15 1940s-’60s singer Frankie 16 Win by ___ 17 Butter substitute 19 Hereditary background 20 What locomotives and irons may give off 21 Critical, as a situation 23 One getting mostly A’s in school 27 Killer whale 30 King Kong, for one 31 China’s Mao ___-tung 32 Campus bigwig 33 Rainbow shapes 35 Obliterate 39 Beavers’ construction 40 Winning time after time … or where you might find 17-, 23-, 51- or 62-Across 42 Small inlet 43 Asparagus unit 45 Sharpen, as skills 46 Performs like Lil Wayne or Lil’ Kim 47 Baseball stat 49 Suffix with ball 50 “Or ___!” (end of an ultimatum) 51 Shiny kitchen wrap 56 Signifies 57 Obsolescent phone features 61 Rumble in the Jungle setting 62 Wallet alternative 66 Fragrant chemical compound 67 Standard Windows typeface 68 Feather stole 69 Outbuildings with garden tools 70 Gem in an oyster 71 Aardvark’s morsel

Down

1 Goals 2 “Shoo, kitty!” 3 On earth 4 Fort where Davy Crockett died 5 Driveway surface 6 Nintendo console 7 Newswoman Curry 8 Swamp plants 9 Merry-goround 10 Properly arranged 11 Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. ___” 12 Actor Sean of “The Lord of the Rings” 13 Change, as a clock 18 Illustrator Wilson famous for his macabre cartoons 22 Six-time N.L. home run champ Mel 24 Indian bread 25 What the “O” of O magazine stands for 26 Place for a Ping-Pong table

27 6:1 or 7:1, e.g., at a racetrack 28 Harvest 29 Arrived 34 What “ibn” and “ben” mean, in names 36 Asia’s shrunken ___ Sea 37 Doesn’t guzzle 38 Simplicity 40 Spacecrafts circling the earth 41 Jay formerly of late-night TV 44 Like Brink’s trucks 46 Excavation find 48 Suffix with serpent 51 Woodworking tools 52 What a dog-walker holds 53 Bring together 54 Chart often with insets of Alaska and Hawaii 55 Peaceful, picturesque scene 58 Jessica of “Fantastic Four” 59 King of the jungle 60 Small quarrel 63 Metal from a mine 64 Vardalos of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” 65 Serving of corn