The New York Times Crossword

ACROSS

1 Comedian Margaret

4 Do slightly better than

9 Beat by a lot, informally

14 Drink like a cat ... or a place for a cat

15 “Way cool!”

16 Old Testament book between Daniel and Joel

17 Childhood nickname for Darth Vader

18 Edible parts of an ear

20 John Philip ___, “The March King”

22 Looked sleazily

23 Benzoyl peroxide targets

25 See 7-Down

29 _ _ _ or nothing

30 Speak hoarsely

32 Kitchen brand that could be a losing tic-tac-toe line

33 Once-sacred slitherers

36 Author L. Frank ___

38 Second-largest world religion

40 Item smashed before a ship’s maiden voyage

43 High-I.Q. society

44 Activist Parks

45 Regarding

46 Palindromic preposition in poems

47 Meg who played each of the three female leads in “Joe Versus the Volcano”

49 Pig’s pad

51 One-act Oscar Wilde tragedy

53 Basic bicycle trick

57 Former House speaker Nancy 60 Perfect places

61 Slangy question of greeting ... or a hint to 18-, 23-, 40- and 53-Across

65 Foldable part of a Twister game

66 Major blood vessel

67 Docking locales 68 Be in debt

69 Speed ___ (fast driver)

70 Many a pet shelter pet, at one point

71 Formerly known as

DOWN

1 Jewelry fastener

2 Capital of Vietnam

3 Illicit poppy product

4 Ready to respond, as a doctor

5 Prefix with natal 6 Nobles above viscounts

7 With 25-Across, digital magazine with the slogan “Cure ignorance”

8 “Don’t ___ the bear”

9 Humanoid robot who appears in all nine “Star Wars” episodes, informally

10 Pilot and Civic manufacturer

11 One of many for a Swiss Army knife

12 Brooks who has won the four EGOT awards

13 Faux ___

19 Goofs up

21 Involuntary muscle contractions

24 “The Wire” actor Idris

26 Blockheads

27 Praise to the skies

28 Leonardo DiCaprio role in a 1996 Shakespeare adaptation

30 Yammerer’s sentence type

31 Iowa college town

33 High points

34 Comic book superheroine whose name is an anagram of SHARE

35 Group of experts at a discussion

37 Taj Mahal locale

39 Didn’t leave

41 Freshly grated cheese at a trattoria

42 Shindig

48 Alternative to Google Reviews

50 Itty-bitty

52 Decide one will

53 Windshield clearer

54 Common iced tea garnish

55 Amazed

56 Lauder of cosmetics

58 Klutz’s cry

59 Crackle, as a fire

61 Chunk of cash

62 Long-handled garden tool

63 Word before rest or wrestle

64 Certain nest egg, in brief