The New York Times Crossword

TODAY: ‘CLUE’: THE MOVIE (1017)

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 this puzzle occurred to him when he stumbled across an old poster for the movie ‘‘Clue’’ and thought, Hmm, that could work for a puzzle title. — W.S.

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 cofounded 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

97 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

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

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