ACROSS

1 Devilish little creatures
5 Suffer
8 In the same way that
14 Butterfly catcher
15 Hush-hush org
16 Not AWOL
17 Meant seriously
19 Destroy, as important documents
20 Do wrong
21 Univ in Blacksburg
23 Parks and ___
24 ___ nous (confidentially)
26 “Pardon me” in Italy
28 Guitarist Clapton, or an infamous name at The Hare
31 Feline siestas
35 Courageous
39 Nixon’s first veep
40 Throng who might instate 41-across
41 It has no rules, as symbolized four times in this puzzle
44 Genetic material
45 Wildly exciting time
47 Writing in a window?
49 LinkedIn listings
52 “It will come ___ surprise…”
53 Vowel-heavy Wordle starter
55 Cajun stew
59 Fleur-de-___
61 Not in touch with reality, in slang
64 Corn unit
65 Location metadata
67 Charlie of the early movies
69 Word after fire or first
70 Conclude
71 A big fan of
72 Loves
73 ___ Rogers
74 “Hey, over here!”

DOWN

1 Occupied, as a lavatory
2 ___ Black
3 Serving size for a beer
4 Orch. section
5 Elsa’s sister
6 “What time ___?”
7 Shoestrings
8 California’s ___ Tree National Park
9 New England sch for the Wildcats
10 Season to jump for?
11 Ripped (apart)
12 “Gimme ___ !”
13 HIV or Hep B
18 Not as good as they say it is
22 XXX x X
25 Court official?
27 Pulling an all-nighter
29 Actor McKellen
30 Hush-hush org
32 Wicked’s “The Wizard ___ “
33 New York’s, Baltimore’s, or Newark’s ___ Station
34 Stylish in 2016
35 Sch whose acronym might be confused for “Backup College”
36 The Big Easy (where Derik Queen now plays for the Pelicans), for short
37 “A guy walks into ___ “
38 Rap’s Dr. ___
42 Nashville-based awards org
43 Possesses
46 Patrick, to a marine biologist
48 “Skip to My ___ “
50 Ruffles have them!
51 Campus org who hosted MatPat this semester
54 Stomach problem
56 Department store department
57 Lures in
58 “… but I could be wrong”
59 ___ Zepplin
60 Carpe diem in 2016
62 “Hmm … I don’t think so”
63 Lord’s partner
65 The only measure that matters
66 Card that can be either high or low
68 It may be glossed over

Image Credits: Trent Bowman