‘CLUE’: THE MOVIE
Brandon Koppy works for a digital ad agency in Austin, Tex. He started solving crosswords about 20 years ago in college, like those in The Onion and New York Times reprints in the student paper. He got serious about constructing around 2018. The theme for
ACROSS 1 Syllables when you forget the words
4 The universe has an estimated 1,082 of them
9 “A mouse!”
12 Beyoncé charttopper “Single ____ (Put a Ring
on It)”
18 Simile center
19 ____ Lawrence
College
20 Magazine co-founded in 1945 by Hélène Gordon Lazareff 22 Similar-sounding phrase, such as “I scream” for “ice cream”
23 Field of Dreams 26 Guys and Dolls 27 Lucrative and
undemanding
28 Ingredient in a McDonald’s McFlurry
29 Seasonal winds 31 Fictional brand of rocket-powered roller skates
32 “Cross my
heart!”
35 Fam girl
36 Sounds of doubt 38 Star Trek
40 Woodworker’s
tool
42 Some tourist spots in San Francisco
43 Tax pro, for short 45 Ancient work that describes the sacred tree Yggdrasil
46 Trendy home
gym purchase
50 Top Gun
55 Baseball family name much seen in crosswords
56 Jerkface
59 Tightly affixed
60 Parrot’s sound
61 Insurance
department
63 “____ for me,
thanks”
64 Big no-nos 66 Letters From Iwo
Jima
67 The Imitation
Game
69 The Fifth Element 73 Perfectly
comfortable
75 1930s migrant to
California
76 Spirits
77 Sesh on Reddit 80 Speed reader?
81 Gave, as gossip 83 Trimmed parts of
green beans
84 A Man for All
Seasons
87 Matricidal figure
of Greek myth
89 Golden-rule word 90 Spanish “Listen!” 91 Dostoyevsky’s Prince Myshkin, so the book title declares
93 Cause for switching positions
Scent of a Woman
104 “____ you
decent?”
105 ____ Toy Barn (“Toy Story 2” locale)
106 Small things that
you pluck
107 Breakout band for Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, familiarly
108 Overlie
111 Mad magazine cartoonist Drucker
112 Get the juices
flowing?
113 Wayne’s World 114 Space Jam
118 Gene variant
119 Denominator in the velocity formula
120 Beam for train
tracks
121 Fragrant ring
122 Candy with the slogan “Not sorry”
123 Skosh
124 Main artery
125 Panic button, of
a sort
97
DOWN
1 Pet that should come with a lint roller?
2 Given that
3 Exasperated
parent’s retort
4 Flue-like
5 Confucian
philosophy
6 Singer Rita
7 “Floating terror”
of the sea
8 Many social
media users
9 Donkey with a
pinned-on tail
10 Two in a million? 11 “The Kiss”
painter
12 Successfully
uses a password 13 Melodious
14 Place to develop
one’s chops
15 Innate
16 Part of a makeup
test?
17 Texting tech,
briefly
21 “____ es!” (“That’s right!”: Sp.)
24 “Clueless”
protagonist
25 Accept eagerly,
with “at”
30 Org. with an annual Codebreaker Challenge
32 Double-crossed
and half-baked 33 Embarrassing
public episode
34 Restless
desire
37 Luxurious
39 Product for one who wonders, “Am I expecting?”
40 Increased into something much more valuable
41 Spy novelist
Deighton
44 Weave off the
shoulder?
46 Get ready for
vacation
47 Civil rights
activist Baker 48 It may be
forgiven
49 Mystic’s
board
50 4x World Series
winner Martinez 51 [more info below] 52 Ice cream
containers
53 ____ compensation (subject of modern debate) 54 Spanish
marinade
57 Drawer of shorts,
e.g.
58 Cutthroat
mentality
62 Cardinal’s hat, in
Britain
65 Tender areas
67 Pop in the fridge 68 Hershey’s chocolate-andtoffee bar
70 Diatribe
71 Quaint sign
word
72 Noun-making
suffix
74 Fumble for
words
76 Dodos
77 City that replaced Lagos as Nigeria’s capital
78 Cameo
79 Predatory insect living in woodpiles
82 French fabric
85 Caramel or hot
fudge, basically 86 Euphemistic
exclamation
88 Ike’s domain in
W.W.II
91 Reason the physicist stayed in bed?
92 “The Shape of
Water” director 94 Natasha ____, Boris’s partner against Rocky and Bullwinkle
95 Some water-park
rides
96 Olympics symbol for Madrid’s country
No. 1017
98 Sang along when you forgot the words
99 Ingredient in
healing gel
100 Latte art
medium
101 Arch support
102 Bill killers
103 Utopian
106 Like a birthday
cake, pre-party 109 “____ All That”
(1999 film)
110 Frequently,
quaintly
112 Lugosi of horror
films
113 Fish with an
elongated jaw 115 Singer
Sumac
116 Describe in a
negative way
117 Toke
Answer To Last Week’s Puzzle:
Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes. com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).