CONSTANT CONSONANTS

Will Nediger, of London, Ontario, is a professional crossword constructor and writer of trivia questions. Since early May he has edited a free weekly online crossword for Spyscape, a spy museum in New York City. Besides an unusual theme and a more wide-open construction than usual, this puzzle has some particularly fresh, imaginative cluing, including 40-Across, 100-Across (which made us smile) and 50-Down. — W.S.

ACROSS

1 Socializes (with) 6 With 20-Across,

fire the whole staff 11 Most exorbitant 19 Showing more craft 20 See 6-Across 21 Artillery

22 With 105-Across, “What walks on four dino legs in the morning, four dino legs at noon and four dino legs in the evening?” and other riddles? 24 Genre for “Rush Hour” and “Lethal Weapon” 25 Oversupplies

26 The band Ben Folds

Five, oddly

27 The “A” of BART 28 Any nonzero number

to the zeroth power 29 “Little Women” sister 30 Pioneering silent director Weber 31 Bitter 33 Shopping binge 35 Says “Quack” instead

of “Buzz”?

39 Like Cinderella’s

stepsisters

40 Like tennis player Anna Smashnova’s name 41 “High-five!” 42 Melodic opera

passages 45 Something a new

parent might take 47 Audio engineer’s

device

51 Tables in an Old West

saloon, e.g.? 55 “My Gal ____” 56 Admirer’s words 57 Source of hand-medowns 58 Unloading sign 60 The stuff of legends 61 Member of the Be Sharps, Homer Simpson’s barbershop quartet 62 Kerfuffle 64 Olympic powerhouse

in boxing 65 Confuse “stem”

with “stern,” e.g. 68 Claude ____, villain in “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” 72 Some Dior dresses 74 Change to the Constitution first proposed in 1921, for short

75 Chess gambit employed by gangster Tony Montana? 78 Separate

80 Invite out for 81 Things that may be

kicked

82 Verse, quaintly 84 English novelist McEwan

85 “Je t’____” 86 Claims that Louis XIV’s palace is better than all the other buildings in France combined? 93 In the middle of, oldstyle 94 Parishioner’s offering 95 Menaces to Indiana Jones

96 Really big show 98 Side in checkers 99 Not tread lightly 100 Advertising claim that usually has a catch

101 Animal with a flexible snout 102 “From my standpoint …” 105 See 22-Across 108 Most brave 109 Increase

110 Start to type? 111 Nickname for the capital of the Peach State

112 KFC order 113 Groups of stars

DOWN

1 Site of a 1920s

renaissance 2 Relative of a guinea pig 3 Last innings, typically 4 Figures out

5 Sign of theatrical

success 6 Subject of a fund-raiser 7 Thelma’s road-trip

partner 8 Currency with a “zone” 9 Tempe sch.

10 Old game console, for

short 11 Nickname 12 Aligned 13 Icelandic literary

work

14 Where a tunnel opens 15 “You’ll ____ for this!” 16 Extra couple of

numbers?

17 Tea treats 18 Mobile home not much seen nowadays 19 Bygone N.Y.C. punk

club 23 Informer

27 “____ longa, vita

brevis”

30 Brings from outside

with great effort

31 A in physics

32 Trig ratios

33 Pack rat

34 User of the Twitter handle @Pontifex 36 Target number

37 It’s a blessing 38 Person who helps with a crash, informally 42 Large wardrobe 43 Finds hilarious,

perhaps 44 Deduce 46 A doctor might check them 48 Together 49 Full-bodied Argentine wines 50 Word often said with a drawn-out “e” sound

51 Took shots 52 Single squat or

crunch

53 Small goofs 54 Craft in a close

encounter 59 54-Down genre 61 ____-compliant 63 Doomed to fail, for short 66 Motorcade head 67 Tender feelings 69 Debonair

70 La-la interval 71 Sierra ____ 72 Friend of Athos and Porthos 73 Smear in print 76 “GoodFellas” co-star 77 Onetime fad item with replacement seeds 79 Culmination 83 Songs to be played at a concert 85 Gives the nod

86 Has because of 87 Portmanteau for a TV addict 88 Inc. relative

89 ____ to go

90 Some deals from dealerships 91 Whiz 92 Church toppers 93 Completely destroy 97 Approximately 99 Hammer part 100 Half-man/half-goat 101 “Toodle-oo!” 103 South, in Brazil 104 Texted question to someone who hasn’t shown up yet 105 Automotive initialism 106 Louis XIV, e.g. 107 Key in a corner