ACROSS

1. Puccini heroine

5. Tear

10. Insurance gps.

14. Gershwin biographer David

15. Get to know

16. All ___

17. Scandinavian goddess of fate

18. Afghan or Thai

19. E Coast highway

20. Not conventional

23. Play list

24. Schuss

25. Like a musical staff

28. Youngest March sister

31. Clique

35. The Muse of astronomy

37. Truman's nuclear agcy.

39. Sci-fi ship

40. Cohort of Mr. Green Jeans

44. Prop- or pent- ending

45. Turn black, maybe

46. Wrestling hold

47. Hardly a he-man

50. Trig. function

52. ___-gritty

53. Persian Gulf fed.

55. Outback critters

57. Worldliness

64. Send

65. Flash

66. Shaving lotion brand

67. Christmas

68. Equivocate

69. “___ hollers …”

70. Interstellar dist.

71. Sound from a nest

72. Baker's rackful

DOWN

1. Carte du jour

2. Victor's cry

3. Grand Marquis, for short

4. Undeserving of punishment

5. Poles, e.g.

6. Spanish currency

7. Pour

8. QED middle

9. Heath's “Brokeback Mountain” role

10. Rupture

11. Spy ___ Hari

12. Turgenev's birthplace

13. Fed. stipend

21. Gymnast Comaneci

22. Location of Murrah Building bombing

25. “Star Wars” director

26. Tehran resident

27. Backs of necks

29. Puts together

30. Formal vote

32. Explode

33. Astir

34. Crackers

36. Handouts

38. Larry King employer

41. Big Apple inits.

42. Paganini's birthplace

43. Cooke on TV

48. Evening meal

49. Derisive cry

51. Earn brownie points

54. Pieces of ___

56. Group of eight

57. Close

58. Pinguid

59. Host

60. Neap, e.g.

61. In doubt

62. Will-__-wisp

63. Scottish refusals

64. Word part: Abbr.

solution