The New York Times Crossword

Answers below

ACROSS

1 Hot topping for a cone?

5 Practical joke

9 Tricky billiard shot

14 Way off

15 Ensconced in

16 Asian dog breed

17 *Ensign

19 Rich sources of beta carotene

20 Joint

21 One of millions in New Zealand

23 Migration pattern?

24 Lose one’s shirt, say 25 *Emirate

28 Coup planners

30 Ensiform, adj.: Shaped like a ___

31 ___ Valley

34 Singer Williams who founded the Temptations

36 Split up

38 Pre-med pre-req

39 *Arbiter

41 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, e.g. 42 Came to pass

44 Bibliographer’s abbr.

45 Ceremony

46 They’re typically older than seniors

48 One in it for the long haul

50 *Depot

52 Put on a big smile

56 ___ Formosa (barrier island system of Portugal)

57 Figure in I Samuel

58 Issuance from an American embassy, in brief 59 Discombobulated

61 *Begin

64 Meant to be

65 “And so …”

66 Actor Woo-shik of “Parasite”

67 Long hauls

68 Doesn’t stay tight

69 Hankerings

DOWN

1 Scores

2 Underway

3 Steamy stuff

4 Most-grown coffee bean in the world

5 Copacetic

6 Bon ___

7 Exemplar of neatness

8 Barely defeated

9 Launches an attack

10 Going by, in brief

11 Chevy truck since 1998

12 Staple of Trinidadian music

13 Plein-air prop

18 Kelly of morning talk

22 “Time ___ …”

25 Nonreflective, in a way

26 Not too much

27 First part of a triple jump

29 Stole from a burlesque act

31 With 50-Down, annual June sports event

32 It’s never out of tune

33 Anathema to an aesthete

35 Cut down

37 Surpass

39 What some people are dyeing to be?

40 Puckish sort

43 ___ fly

45 Implied right in the First and Fourth Amendments

47 Big star, in Spain

49 If-then-___ (programming construct)

50 See 31-Down

51 Things one might pick up while entering a room

53 Church offering

54 Apply to

55 2024Olympics site

58 Focus of the U.S.A.F.’S Project Blue Book (1952-1969)

60 “Yikes!”

62 Time to remember

63 ___ white