UNIVERSAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS

1 Adhesive used with wrapping paper

5 Quick haircut

9 Center of activity

12 Frog sounds

14 Car with a four-ring logo

15 “Eureka!”

16 Without vegetation

17 Crowd doing a sudden performance

19 Location 20 Poker stake

22 Like lox, but not locks

23 One with excellent powers of deduction?

25 Small branch

27 “Dancing Queen” singer, 2018

28 Relative of bedhead

32 Toyed with, as a cat would

35 Get together

37 Liu who played a Ken

38 Russian river

39 Split up

40 “You’re not wrong”

41 Took a tumble

42 High-fat diet

43 Quick inhalations

44 Forges a signature, maybe

46 Hot box?

48 Hawaiian goose

49 Not too often

52 Some spring flowers

55 Becomes compost 57 Songwriter Tori

59 Green flecks on a tart pie

61 Porch ___ (package thief )

63 Imitate

64 Dressing ingredient whose last letter stands for “oil”

65 “Do I ever!”

66 Writing implement

67 Reasonable

68 Russian ruler,

formerly

DOWN

1 Characteristic

2 Blood line?

3 Better than all the rest

4 Apt rhyme for “squeak”

5 Only president to be a Supreme Court justice 6 Be in charge

7 Investigative

journalist Tarbell

8 Square peg in a round hole

9 Scene stealers

10 “Yipes!” 11 Newborn

12 “The Price Is Right” network

13 Drum kit component

18 What perfectionists have, or the tops of 3-, 6- and

21-Down?

21 “Cheers” character played by George Wendt 24 Degree after an M.A.

26 Unit of power

29 Put on ___ (act superior)

30 “No need to wake me!” 31 Wants to forget,

maybe

32 Magic dragon of kid’s

music 33 Neighborhood 34 Stroll

36 Have a meal 39 Comparable (to)

43 Mousse alternative

45 Grabs

47 Scooter whose name is Italian for “wasp”

50 Poker variety, or a Nebraska city

51 Power structure?

52 Give a round of applause

53 Like a yellow banana

54 Foreboding sign

56 Central Plains people

58 Use a needle and thread

60 Actress Noblezada or Longoria

62 QB’s error