LA TIMES DAILY CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Meet portion, or portion of meat

4 Film franchise featuring Lightning McQueen

8 Regarding 13 Portfolio options, for short

15 Perched on 16 Deteriorating 17 “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of __” 18 NYC gallery with a Bell helicopter on display

19 Melted together 20 Dinner roll that provides an unexpected boost? 23 Pool necessity 24 Had as a regular customer 27 Outlandish stories about Vietnamese soup? 32 Bulky boats 34 Lithium-__ battery

35 Seized auto 36 Tease mercilessly 37 Valued at one fancy ballpoint? 42 Texter’s “But ... “ 43 “Monday Night Football” commentator Aikman

44 Young man 45 Anklebones 46 Golfers who just need to dance, dance, dance before every drive? 49 Stretching muscle 51 Common Market letters

52 Chophouse order, and an apt title for this puzzle? 58 Silky fabric

61 The “genu-” in “genuflect” 62 American tennis phenom Gauff 63 Begins

64 Low-pH stuff

65 Is shy

66 Play area

67 Egg layers 68 After taxes

DOWN

1 Command to a prompter

2 Actress Moriarty who plays Starlight on “The Boys”

3 PlayStation, for one

4 Strappy top, for short 5 Comprehensive 6 Trevi Fountain city

7 Like Greenland’s population

8 “Zero stars” 9 Edge

10 Sterile work environs

11 Employ 12 “Thank you for coming to my __ Talk”

14 Azalea, e.g. 21 Park and drive

22 “If I Were a __”: Beyoncé ballad 25 Horseracing achievement 26 “Will do, hon”

27 Crochet loop 28 Heckle 29 Seydoux of “No Time to Die”

30 On the facing pg.

31 Compass dirección 33 Mails 38 Watering down

39 Tarzan creator’s monogram

40 Also

41 Blood groups

46 AAA job 47 Neo-soul artist Badu

48 Boxer’s favorite store, maybe? 50 Feel 53 “... cut __”: end of a carpentry maxim

54 Bridle strap 55 Canvas shoe brand

56 Frozen treat brand

57 Station 58 Distress signal

59 Likely (to) 60 Leaves for dim sum