Puzzle

 ACROSS

  1 Paltry

  5 Way back when

  9 Flat-bottomed cargo vessel

 14 Bregman of the Astros

 15 Give a hand in Vegas

 16 La Scala offering

 17 Mashed potatoes mishap

 18 *Parthenon column style

 20 "So long," in Sevilla

 22 Basic assessment tool

 23 Great horned ___

 24 *Asti Spumante and Madeira

 28 Upholsterer's meas.

 29 Compete

 30 Bureaucratic runaround

 34 Ore's yield

 36 Colorful outback stone

 37 *Fiery-hot chilis

 43 Genesis outcast

 44 "Julius Caesar" garments

 45 Spots for pooped pooches

 49 Jacob, to Isaac

 50 Highest bond rating

 53 *Purple present for a Pisces, perhaps

 56 Claim

 59 Three-year-old muppet

 60 Sudden increase

 61 Overtime, e.g., and a hint to what spans the two words of each starred answer

 65 Visible air pollution

 66 Means of returning a lost pet

 67 Count (on)

 68 Reid of "Sharknado"

 69 Salary increase

 70 NASCAR great Petty

 71 Crack under pressure

DOWN

  1 Ailment

  2 Managed to dodge

  3 Neglectful

  4 World's fairs

  5 Not divisible by two

  6 "The Matrix" hero

  7 Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod

  8 Quack's cure-all

  9 Expanded rapidly, as business

 10 Earth Day mo.

 11 Totally change

 12 Expanded

 13 British aristocrat

 19 Sugar source

 21 Heptagon's side count

 25 Traditional ceremony

 26 Sign of sorrow

 27 Discontinues

 31 Fossey or Goodall subject

 32 Golf course benchmark

 33 Chi-Town trains

 34 Cobra relative of Africa

 35 Builder's site

 37 "I've been ___!"

 38 Ruckus

 39 Baseball base

 40 Small bunch of flowers

 41 Freudian subjects

 42 Is breathless

 46 Materialize

 47 Editor's "scratch this"

 48 Gospel writer

 50 Certain military aviator

 51 Mohair-providing goat

 52 Generational disparity

 54 Sappy

 55 Corrodes

 56 Show signs of waking

 57 Verdi opera that premiered in Cairo

 58 Bigfoot's Asian cousin

 62 Many undergrad degrees

 63 Building wing

 64 Ham on ___ (deli order)

Solution