Puzzle

 ACROSS

  1 Back's partner

  6 Comedian Silverman

 11 ___ excellence

 14 Clued in

 15 Kagan on the high bench

 16 Flexible blackjack card

 17 *African American activist who wrote "Are Prisons Obsolete?" (see letters 5 to 7)

 19 Iraq war subj.

 20 Competitor of Vogue

 21 Nickname for golfer Palmer

 23 Dive, maybe

 26 *"Eat local" movement (5 to 7)

 30 What a Ph.D. hopeful defends

 32 Rollover plan

 33 Baby buggy for Brits

 34 Racetrack bet

 35 Huffy state

 36 Charged particles

 37 *Sarcastic question for Captain Obvious (4 to 8)

 40 Bake sale grps.

 42 Mexico-to-Cuba direccion

 43 Ad infinitum

 46 Most Stuf cookie

 47 ___ chi

 48 Brief summary

 49 *Japanese drama form (5 to 7)

 52 Grass in a roll

 53 Delight

 54 Roadside stops

 56 "Aw, jeez!"

 57 Stereotypical family peacekeeper, and a literal feature of the starred answers

 64 No longer fresh

 65 LGBTQ+ parade, affectionately

 66 Ancient Greek region

 67 Lil ___ X ("Rodeo" rapper)

 68 Sends an iMessage, e.g.

 69 Misplaces

DOWN



  1 Org. that regulates drones

  2 Dominate, informally

  3 Kind of doll

  4 Walnut or willow

  5 Low flame?

  6 Passover meal

  7 In the manner of

  8 Gun, as a V6

  9 Alex and ___ (jewelry chain)

 10 Starts doing

 11 They may give you C-notes for instruments

 12 Soccer club in an Italian fashion city

 13 Cashes in, as arcade tickets

 18 "Pity"

 22 Soccer great Megan

 23 "Incidentally," in IMs

 24 "Eureka!"

 25 Some Jamaican groups

 27 Little details

 28 Hackneyed

 29 One may be taken before a term

 31 Shows to the door

 35 "What a shame!"

 38 Himalayan cryptid

 39 Safe way to solve a crossword

 40 "Gotta Catch 'Em All" sloganeer

 41 Syllables sung while skipping, perhaps

 44 Sgt., e.g.

 45 Palindromic flop

 48 Proactiv target

 50 Neat and tidy

 51 "Frasier" brother

 55 "Scat, bad cat!"

 58 Miffed feeling

 59 Social reformer Dorothea

 60 Banned insecticide

 61 ___ and outs

 62 Whopper

 63 Prosecutors, for short

Solution