NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Breaded and topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella, for short

5 “Holy mackerel!”

9 Instrument played by indie rock’s Sufjan Stevens

13 Black-and-white item in a sleeve

14 V.I.P. on base

15 Winter bugs

16 With 26-Across, game that uses a blindfold

18 Part of the food pyramid

19 Gardening tool

20 Fruit in the William Carlos Williams poem “This Is Just to Say”

22 Edward Snowden’s former employer, in brief

23 Black History Mo.

26 See 16-Across

29 “Why?”

31 Puts up

32 Bird that had no natural predators until humans arrived

33 Tick (off)

35 Babe Zaharias was the first woman to compete on its tour, in brief

36 Item exchanged in a so-called “yankee swap”

41 John Lewis was born here: Abbr.

42 Org. that oversees O.T.C.S

43 Campaign expense

45 Get situated

48 Pacify

50 Frequent reveler, or a hint to 16-/26and 36-Across

53 Hit the slopes

54 “___ be my pleasure”

55 Lots

56 Hearty laugh

58 Tidy

60 Cartoonist suggested by this puzzle’s theme

65 Brand in the ice cream aisle

66 Aches (for)

67 Words after a gasp

68 Its underside might be covered in gum

69 The first cloned mammals

70 Yarn

DOWN

1 Dad

2 “Midsommar” director Aster

3 ___ faire (historical re-enactment event, for short)

4 Fly-by-night type?

5 Fuel up, in a way

6 Visual in an annual report

7 Nimble

8 Hornswoggle

9 Toggle option

10 Artist’s starting place

11 Get-go

12 Guest ___, what The New York Times calls op-eds

14 What an asterisk might suggest

17 Centaur’s foot

21 Transform

23 Repeated string in a chain letter subject line

24 Website with articles like “10 Surprising Ways to Use Mayonnaise Around Your Home”

25 Things best kept under one’s hat?

27 Data structure with a root node 28 Undo

30 Half of a half-bathroom

34 Tiny toymaker

37 Tucker who had her first hit in 1972 and won her first Grammys in 2020

38 Cheese used in Babybels

39 Fruits whose seeds can act as a substitute for black peppercorns 40 Something to do

44 Latin gods

45 Shared one’s views

46 For all ages, as a video game

47 Tell

49 Also

51 At all, in dialect

52 Combined

57 Pretzel, basically

59 Shaming syllable

61 Drug dosages: Abbr.

62 Light bulb moment sound

63 Show with the recurring character Target Lady, in brief

64 “Piggy”