Tuesday, September 1, 2026, Derek Hinsey

 

Good Tuesday Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee here (yes, you read that correctly) pinch hitting for our witty and insightful Hahtoolah with the recap of a Tuesday puzzle.  That's twice in one week for this blogger bringing new meaning to semi-retirement.  I know that you all will miss, among other things, the wonderful cartoons that Hahtoolah finds, sorts through, chooses and shares with us but I will try to make up for that lack somehow.

In this, his LAT debut, constructor Derek Hinsey has riffed on a theme where the compound word answers to the five themed-clues can each be split into two parts (duh, M.M, that's why they call them compound words).  Each of those now-separated words can be combined with the word POINT to form a common expression.  Let's start with the reveal:

58 Across:  Slam dunk's value, or what 16-, 23-, 34-, 36-, and 49-Across have: TWO POINTS.  A basketball reference that is used here, instead, to indicate that each answer contains two "pointed" references.

Here are the five places where the gimmick is employed:

16 Across:  Major multistate lottery: POWERBALL.  POWERPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. It was originally released in 1987.  A BALL Point is, of course, a type of pen.

23 Across:  Opening bid: STARTING PRICE.  The STARTING point is when/where to begin and the PRICE point denotes the niche in the market price-wise (the price point of a Cadillac, for example, places it in competition with other luxury vehicles.

34 Across:  Final part of a chess match: END GAME.  The END point is where, well, something stops and GAME point is a sports reference for what might turn out to be the final play of a game.

36 Across:  Florida home of the Harry S. Truman Little White House: KEY WEST.  A KEY point is the gist of the matter and WEST Point is the U.S. military academy.

49. Cool way to keep food fresh?: FLASH FREEZING.  FLASH FREEZING is a rapid freezing process that uses cryogenic temperatures, such as liquid nitrogen at −196 °C (−320.8 °F), to quickly freeze an object for food and tissue preservation. A FLASH point the origin of a conflagration (physical or intellectual) and the FREEZING point is where water turns to ice.

This is how the completed grid appears:

Here are the more numerous non-themed clues and answers:

Across:

1. "Furthermore ... ": PLUS.  Hand up for first thinking of ALSO which we then got at 65 Across.

5. Moral transgressions: SINS.  Everyone knows Las Vegas is SIN City but are you familiar with Den City?  Mass over volume.

9. Picnic race bag: SACK.

13. + or - particles: IONS.  I went online and ordered some atoms but received IONS  instead.  They replaced them free of charge.

14. Need ibuprofen, say: ACHE.

15. Stash: CACHE.  The juxtaposition with ACHE is interesting.  Should CACHE be pronounced like CAKE?

18. Salsa ingredient: ONION.

19. Music genre with Jamaican roots: SKA.  A genre with which most regular solvers are quite familiar. . . at least in name.

20. Japanese currency: YEN.

21. Began gradually: EASED IN.

26. __ Allen furniture: ETHAN.  All You Might Wish To Know

28. Dog's warning sound: SNARL.

29. Animation frame: CEL.  Back in the day when cartoons were hand drawn the movement was achieved by drawing and then photographing a series of individual, slightly altered hand painted CELs.  Now it's all computer generated.

30. Sharp-witted: KEEN.

31. Short time?: SEC.  Shortened form of SECond

32. Break a fast: EAT.  Sometimes you can get two points on a fast break.

40. Buckeyes' sch.: OSU.

41. Way cool: RAD.  80's slang.  Bitchen.  Far out.  Groovy.  Boss.

42. __ vera: ALOE.  A plant that seems to thrive in our puzzles

43. Six-pack muscles: ABS.  ABdominal MuscleS

46. "Jurassic World" actor Chris: PRATT.  Thanks, perps.

48. Demon: FIEND.

52. Let go: RELEASE.  Ever hear Eddie Izzard riff on this guy's name?

53. Meh, slangily: MID.  New to this solver but it does make sense.

54. Viper in 43-Down: ASP.  How's your ASP been? (a skier's joke).

57. Volunteer's phrase: I WILL.

61. Long for: COVET.  As in "Thou shall not COVET."

62. Door fastener: HASP.

63. Important cards in solitaire: ACES.  Important in many card games.

64. Santa __: hot California winds: ANAS.  Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry winds that blow from inland desert areas across coastal Southern California, often bringing hot, dry conditions and very low humidity.

65. "Furthermore ... ": ALSO.  See ALSO 1 Across.

66. Small salamander: NEWT.

Down:

1. Domino spots: PIPS.  By definition.

2. "Check this out": LOOK.

3. Like dirty dishes: UNWASHED.

4. NNW opposite: SSE.  A direction/navigation reference.

5. Curved fencing sword: SABER.

6. "Down in front!": I CANT SEE.

7. Anaheim Ducks' org.: NHL.  National Hockey League

8. Gomez of "Only Murders in the Building": SELENA.

9. More rational: SANER.

10. Not basic, in chemistry: ACIDIC.

11. Beef grade below prime: CHOICE.

12. Animal shelter shelter: KENNEL.

15. Dress up at a fan convention: COSPLAY.  From COStume

17. Olympic swimmer Lochte: RYAN.

22. "I was thinking the same thing": AGREED.

24. Dramatic ballroom dance: TANGO.

25. LLC alternative: INC.  Forms of business organizations.

26. __ out a win: EKE.

27. Square root of 100: TEN.

31. Blue cartoon characters: SMURFS.

33. Creator of Finn and Sawyer: TWAIN.

35. Parking lot surface: ASPHALT.

36. Supermodel who is a contributing editor for British Vogue: KATE MOSS.

37. Refinement: ELEGANCE.

38. Anderson Cooper, to Gloria Vanderbilt: SON.

39. Apple TV's "__ Lasso": TED.

41. GPS suggestion: RTE.  RouTE

43. Continent with the most countries: AFRICA.  There are 54 countries in Africa according to the United Nations.

44. Tried to cool down, as hot soup: BLEW ON.

45. DNA sample source: SALIVA.  SWAB was too short.

47. Soul legend Franklin: ARETHA.

48. Classic dog name: FIDO.  

The name FIDO comes from the Latin word "fidus," meaning "faithful." It became widely associated with dogs due to President Abraham Lincoln's pet dog, Fido, who was well-known during his time.

50. 1990s tennis star Monica: SELES.

51. Zilch: ZIPPO.  Slangy

55. Hearty meal: STEW.

56. Quiet "Hey!": PSST.  A summons frequently heard in our puzzles.

59. "The __-Mart Effect": 2006 economics book: WAL.

60. Bond novelist Fleming: IAN.

Well, there are only two more points to make today . . .

__________________________________________

That's Manatee, M. Manatee
MM Out

Monday, August 31, 2026, Justin Werfel

Theme:  Idiot box

How does today's constructor, Justin Werfel, find time for TV?  When he's not publishing crossword puzzles -- at least 27 so far, including two in the LA Times -- he is skiing, diving, juggling, storytelling, glassblowing, blacksmithing, writing, mountain unicyling, and -- oh, yeah -- running a robotics lab at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  I am not worthy to review his puzzle, and yet, here I am.  Check him out at: people.seas.harvard.edu/~jkwerfel/

Justin Werfel, homo extraordinarius

In case you missed it while solving, Justin kindly provided a key to the theme here:

72-Across. Screen found in many a living room, or what 16-, 29-, 49-, and 63-Across can be called: TV SET.  Indeed, each of the theme entries is a SET in which the first word begins with T, and the second word begins with V.

16-Across. Avian scavengers with red heads: TURKEY VULTURES.

29-Across. Demo release: TRIAL VERSION.

49-Across. Paperwork for leisure travelers: TOURIST VISAS.

63-Across. Part of speech that requires a direct object: TRANSITIVE VERB.

The theme entries are symmetrically placed in the grid.  Yours truly is a sucker for symmetry.  There are exceptional solvers among us who like a hidden theme that comes as a delightful surprise when revealed, but I appreciate a theme that is plain to see, and that helps with the solving process, so this one was right up my alley.  Or on my TV wavelength.  Let's see what other shows are on ....

Across:

1. Confess (to): ADMIT.

6. __ at the moon: HOWL.

10. 23-Down fig.: POL.  A member of the SENATE (answer to 23-Down) is a POLitician -- abbreviated in the answer because of the abbreviation in the clue.

13. Extract, as minerals from soil: LEACH.  When water (or another liquid) passes through a material, chemical substances may leach out.  I have always thought of this in terms of a natural process, like rain washing minerals out of soil, but in industry and chemistry, people may deliberately extract substances by leaching.  

14. Gobi Desert continent: ASIA.  A vast, cold desert in southern Mongolia and northern China.

But it's a dry cold ... !

15. Egg cells: OVA.

16. [Theme clue]

19. Tread the boards: ACT.  This idiom for acting comes from walking on the floorboards of the stage.

20. Feathery neckwear: BOA.

21. Smitten Kitchen blogger Perelman: DEB.  Deb Perelman's food blog, Smitten Kitchen, is 16 years old, and has generated several print cookbooks along with a good deal of press (all of it under this blogger's radar).  Deb's NYC kitchen is only 80 square feet, which presents challenges, but also suggests that you can probably achieve her results in your kitchen, too.

Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen

22. Some QB protectors: RTS.  Some quarterback protectors are Right Tackles.  Football aficionados, please discuss.

24. Neatens up text boxes, say: REALIGNS.  I don't know about you, but I sometimes have to add a text box to an Adobe PDF, and after composing the contents, I take a moment to align it with other text blocks on the page.  If you have managed to avoid this particular task, the answer might not have come as quickly.

27. Hangry plea: FEED ME.  Have we all encountered the word "hangry," a blend of "hungry" and "angry"?  We have probably all encountered a hangry person, who is irritable because they are hungry.

29. [Theme entry]

31. Secretly included on an email: BCCED.  Abbreviations look weird when conjugated as verbs!  Merriam-Webster prefers BCC'D.  (For blind carbon copied -- an anachronism preserved in email.)

34. Pop singer Carly __ Jepsen: RAE.  Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer/songwriter who came into the public eye when she placed third on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007.  Her first hit song was "Call Me Maybe" in 2012.

35. "The Incredibles" supersuit designer Mode: EDNA.  In Pixar's animated Incredibles movies, the character Edna Mode designs costumes for superheroes.  For instance, a superhero who can turn invisible needs a suit that turns invisible along with her.  And no capes!  Edna considers them dangerous; costumes should not get sucked into jet engines or caught in elevators.

Edna Mode

36. Portuguese phone greeting: ALO.

37. Health retreat: SPA.

40. Recipe amt.: TSP.  I searched "tsp" at SmittenKitchen.com and found 717 results.  The abbreviation for teaspoon is common in recipes.

42. Addams cousin: ITT.  The fictional Addams Family was created by cartoonist Charles Addams, and originally appeared in a series of 150 single panel comics, many of which were published in The New Yorker between 1938 and 1988.  Actors portrayed the characters in a live action television series in 1964-65, and then in various films and animated series.  The very hairy cousin Itt debuted in a cartoon in 1963, before the TV producers changed his name from It to Itt.

The New Yorker, October 12, 1963
"This is It speaking."

43. Gambling town near Tahoe: RENO.

45. One of eight on an octopus: ARM.

47. Supple: LITHE.

49. [Theme clue]

53. Nonprofit journalism agcy.: AP NEWS.  The Associated Press is a not-for-profit agency headquartered in New York City.  It operates as a cooperative association, producing news reports distributed to its members, which include newspapers and radio and TV broadcasters.

54. Most civil: POLITEST.  Two syllable adjectives usually take "most" in the superlative -- i.e. MOST POLITE -- but POLITEST appears to be blessed by Merriam-Webster.  They like "civilest," too!

58. Rotten: BAD.  POLITEST isn't the BADDEST word we've seen in a grid.

59. 20-vol. lexicon: OED.  I wonder what the Oxford English Dictionary says about POLITEST?  I don't have an online subscription and can't tell.  Long ago, I owned the two volume, micro print edition that came with a big magnifying glass.  I sometimes miss that set.

61. Karate rank: DAN.  Kyu ranks are student level, and the belts are various colors.  Dan ranks are all black belts, and are refined by: 1st Dan (Shodan): Junior black belt; 2nd Dan (Nidan): Second-degree black belt; 3rd Dan (Sandan): Third-degree black belt; 4th to 10th Dan (Yondan to Judan): High-level expert and master ranks.

62. Dallas City Hall architect I.M. __: PEI.  I. M. Pei (1917-2019) was born in China and moved to the United States to attend college.  He became a highly productive and distinguished modern architect with major buildings in the United States and abroad.  Unfortunately, Dallas City Hall, opened in 1978, is under consideration for demolition due to the high cost of deferred maintenance.   

Dallas City Hall

63. [Theme clue]

67. Enter a race: RUN.

68. Benefit: GAIN.

69. Baking tool with holes: SIEVE.  This simple mesh tool helps break up lumps in flour.

sieve

70. Actress Adams of "The Muppets": AMY.  Amy Adams achieved stardom in 2007's Enchanted, and went on to act in many more films and plays, portraying Lois Lane in DC Extended Universe superhero movies.  She played a primary school teacher in The Muppets (2011).

I remember being Enchanted by the 2007 film.

71. Fairy tale opening: ONCE.

72. [Theme clue]

Down:

1. "I do" location: ALTAR.

2. Card with two pips: DEUCE.  A playing card with two pips has the value of two and is called a deuce, from the French "deux" which comes from the Latin "duo."

Deuces

3. "Knives Out" protagonist: MARTA.  In the 2019 film Knives Out, Ana de Armas plays Marta Cabrera, the nurse of a wealthy mystery novelist who dies under suspicious circumstances on the night of his big birthday party.

Stunning beauty as plain Jane.

4. "Grody!": ICK.  Oh, didn't we love the word "grody" in the 1980s!  It is said to have started in 1960s surf culture as a clipped form of "grotesque," and then surged in pop culture thanks to Moon Unit Zappa's 1982 song "Valley Girl."  Immortal words from that track:

Like, my mother, like, makes me do the dishes

It's, like, so gross, like, all the stuff, like, sticks to the plates

And it's like, it's like somebody else's food, y'know

It's like grody, grody to the max

I'm sure, it's, like, really nauseating

Like, barf out

Gag me with a spoon, gross

I am sure, totally

5. Hitchcock film with nonhuman villains: THE BIRDS.  Things that terrified audiences in 1963 seem tame today.

Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

6. Capital of Cuba: HAVANA.

7. Columbus sch.: OSU.  Ohio State University.

8. Untamed: WILD.

9. Penalties for missing due dates: LATE FEES.  From library books to credit card payments, you've got to pay on time to avoid late fees.  They encourage us to act in a timely manner.

10. __ favor: "please," in Spanish: POR.  The English "please" comes from Latin placere, to be acceptable -- e.g. "if it please you" -- while the Spanish "por favor" means "by way of a favor."

11. Indulged too much: OVERDID IT.  And this is how we learn our limits.

You can only party so hearty.

12. May, in June: LAST MONTH.

17. Bear who steals "pic-a-nic" baskets: YOGI.  The animated Yogi Bear was introduced as a supporting character on The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958, and got his own show in 1961.  

18. __ Eats: DoorDash rival: UBER.  Food delivery services that boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and have remained popular.

23. Upper house of Congress: SENATE.

25. Cell service initials: LTE.  Long Term Evolution is a standard for wireless communication for cellular devices.

26. High-end camera, for short: SLR.  A single-lens reflex camera uses a mirror and prism system to allow photographers to view through the lens and see what will be captured.  These days, mirrorless cameras are higher-end than SLRs.

28. Language ending: ESE.  Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese ... English sometimes adds "ese" to a place name, based on the Latin "ensis," "belonging to a place."   We use these forms to refer not just to the language of a place, but also to the people who live there.

30. Large cask: VAT.

31. Running tally of drinks at a pub: BAR TAB.

32. Pharaoh played by Elizabeth Taylor: CLEOPATRA.  Cleopatra was the last pharoah of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.  With her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire.

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

33. Puzzle: CONUNDRUM.

38. Collects $200 in Monopoly: PASSES GO.  Parker Brothers published the first edition of this board game in 1935.

39. Class with easels: ART.

41. Least fancy: PLAINEST.

44. Valuable excavation find: ORE.

46. Team VIP: MVP.  One very important person on a team is the most valuable player.

48. Real or ideal suffix: IST.

50. Cry of victory: I WON.

51. Antiseptic fluid: IODINE.

52. Czech or Pole: SLAV.  Slavs are defined as groups of people who speak Slavic languages.  The three groups of present-day Slavs include: 

- West Slavs (Czechs, Kashubians, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks, and Sorbs);

- East Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians);

- South Slavs (Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Gorani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Pomaks, Serbs, Slovenes and Torbeši).

Did you Czech the list for Poles? 

55. Olympic swords: ÉPÉES.  Olympic fencing uses three types of sword:  the épée, the foil, and the sabre.  Of these, the épée is the largest and heaviest.  Épée and foil are “point thrusting” weapons, while the sabre can both thrust and slash with its blade edge.

Olympic swords and their target areas

56. Start a tennis rally: SERVE.

57. Neighbor of Nepal: TIBET.

60. Gorilla researcher Fossey: DIAN.  American primatologist Dian Fossey devoted her life to the study and conservation of mountain gorillas in Rwanda from 1966 until she was murdered in 1985.

Dian Fossey

64. Indefinite amount: ANY.

65. Nervous twitch: TIC.

66. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" aunt, familiarly: VIV.  Vivian Banks was portrayed by Janet Hubert from 1990 to 1993, and then by Daphne Maxwell Reid from 1993 to 1996.

Will Smith and Janet Hubert on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Here's the grid:

Solvers,

I'll ADMIT to a few names I could not have filled without the help of perpendicular entries:  the Smitten Kitchen blogger DEB Perelman; "The Incredibles" supersuit designer EDNA Mode; "Knives Out" protagonist MARTA Cabrera, and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" aunt VIV.  The karate rank DAN was also unfamiliar.  But I WON because the "perps" were fair!  

How about you?  Did you think this puzzle was for THE BIRDS?  Or were you WILD about it?

Tell us in your PLAINEST yet POLITEST words in the comments!

-- NaomiZ

Sunday, August 30, 2026 ~ Zhouqin Burnikel

"As PER Usual"

As PER C.C., it's Anon T subbing on this final August Sunday. September starts in two days and the weather will begin cooling off enough to get back to weekend biking and after work pickleball.

C.C. has provided us an Insert Three Letters puzzle that turns normal phrases into a A BIT of whimsy. Let's us play...

23. Bonus for never giving up?: PERSEVERANCE PAY. SEVERANCE PAY - your layoff package. The PERSERVERANCE PAY is what you keep getting to stay w/ the company that just laid off 20% of your team.

39. Big spender?: PRODIGAL PERSON. The parable of the PRODIGAL SON who was a spendthrift PERSON.

58. Device that might buzz during a night out?: SOCIAL BEEPER. A SOCIAL BEE lives in a colony. A BEEPER set to silent mode "buzzes" when it vibrates.

83. Elaborately embroidered falsehoods?: GRAND PERJURY. A GRAND JURY will indict a ham sandwich for PERJURY.

101. Green light for a lunar expedition?: MOON PERMISSION. This is my fav. JFK gave PERMISSION for the MOON MISSION at Houston's Rice University.
 

JFK's Moon Challenge

119. People who pack picnic lunches?: HAMPER OPERATORS. A picnic HAMPER is another name for a picnic basket and a HAM is an amateur radio OPERATOR.

32. Special offers at a body shop?: BUMPER DEALS. A BUM DEAL the car's BUMPER.

46. Gathering for chile lovers?: PEPPER RALLY. A PEP RALLY for PEPPERs.

Across:

1. Draw of a dim sum cart: AROMA.

Yum!

6. Space balls?: ORBS.

Another Mel Brooks Classic

10. "Sesame Street" basics: ABCS. I grew up on Sesame Street #GenX

14. Zipper alternative: SNAPS. Fasteners.

19. Mushroom with a pitted cap: MOREL.

Morel Mushrooms

20. Home of the Nazca Lines: PERU. I first read that as lions and was wondering which NCAA school I was looking for :-)

Nazca Lines

21. Coachella aesthetic: BOHO. I assume slang for bohemian.

22. Fit to eat, to Muslims: HALAL. Even if you're not Muslim, Halal Guys is yummy.

23. [See: Theme]

26. __ acid: AMINO.

27. Part of a play: SCENE. Act I, SCENE I opens with a dark and stormy night.  -Snoopy

28. Fusses over, with "on": DOTES.

29. Some contract negotiators: AGENTS.

30. Nursery arrival: BABY.

33. Win the heart of: ENAMOR.

35. Flight board stats: ETDS. Estimated Time of Departure.

37. Quick meeting?: SESH. Oy! Lazy for session. #KidsTheseDays

38. Actor Simu: LIU.
 

Simu Liu

39. [See: Theme]

42. Recliner part: ARM REST. I kept trying to think if there was a word for the lever on the side of a La-Z-Boy that wasn't, um, lever ;-)

44. Ibiza, por ejemplo: ISLA.

There it is.

45. Like draft beer: ON TAP. Anytime I visit a new town, I ask, "Do you have anything local ON TAP?"

47. Totally stoked: HYPED. ampED also fits.

48. UFO engineers: ETS. Extra Terrestrials fly Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon [né Unidentified Flying Objects].

50. Blue-roofed breakfast chain: IHOP. Née International House of Pancakes.

53. Symbol of resistance: OMEGA. Here's how big a nerd I am; I didn't even think uprisings, but went right to ohm.

56. Tick away: ELAPSE.

58. [See: Theme]

61. Kitchen cover-ups: APRONS. Cloche fits for the singular.

63. Just slightly: ABIT.

65. Disc golf obstacle: TREE.

66. Blueprint deet: SPEC.

67. Spearheaded: LED.

68. Actor Sheridan: TYE.

Tye Sheridan

70. Cause for a blessing: ACHOO. Gesundheit.

72. Key below ~: TAB. Hand up if you didn't even need to look at your keyboard.

74. Legal addendum?: ESE. Ha! Legalese - aka legal jargon.

75. Think piece?: IDEA. Oops, I had op-ed

77. "This Is Us" director Ken: OLIN.

Ken Olin

79. Trade show: EXPO.

81. Spoiled: MARRED.

83. [See: Theme]

86. "Buck-a-shuck" delicacy: OYSTER.

88. "Tropic Thunder" actor Nick: NOLTE. A very funny movie (R-LV) with a surprise in the credits.

Nolte is at 1:05

89. Gooey lump: GLOB.

90. Sock end: TOE.

91. Dining hall offerings: MEALS.

94. Swahili for "lion": SIMBA.

Simba is presented - Lion King

96. Washington Spirit player Morgan: ESME.

99. Mollusk often pan-seared: SCALLOP.

101. [See: Theme]

105. Baton Rouge sch.: LSU. Geaux Tigers!

106. Hip-hop's Salt-N-__: PEPA. Female rappers from the late '80's / early 90's.

109. Loads and loads: A TON.

110. Mean: INTEND.

111. Gave the once-over: EYED.

112. Virtual persona: AVATAR. Mine is a gray-shaded "-T" w/ the word "Anonymous" spelled out in the top crossbar.

114. Nonglossy lipstick option: MATTE. Non-glossy anything is MATTE. Or flat. Or eggshell. Or satin. Or, no, that's it... satin is when it starts getting a sheen. It all has to do with how much light is reflected by the (war) paint.

116. Blissful spots: EDENS.

118. Starbucks size: VENTI. I'm the grump that just asks for a large.

119. [See: Theme]

124. Fizzled out: ENDED.

125. Slushy treat: ICEE.

126. Singer India.__: ARIE.

127. Vibe: TENOR.

128. Great balls of fire: STARS.

129. Fuse together: MELD.

130. Give conditionally: LEND.

131. Canary feed: SEEDS.

Tweety popped his SEEDS

Down:

1. Electric violin hookup: AMP. Having AMP here nixes ampED at 47a.

2. Orange sushi topping: ROE.

Yummers!

3. Hockey great Bobby: ORR.

4. Like a bad breakup: MESSY.

5. Sir __ Guinness: ALEC.

6. Anxiety-reducing feature of some tests: OPEN NOTES.

7. Double-check, in a way: REREAD.

8. Garment once called a corselet-gorge: BRA.

9. Optical effects caused by ice crystals: SUNDOGS. A halo caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmosphere. Sundogs typically appear as a pair of subtly colored patches of light, around 22° to the left and right of the Sun [WikiP].

Sundogs

10. Help in a burglary: ABET.

11. Girl who lost her sheep: BO PEEP.

12. Morally pure: CHASTE.

13. Vegan milk option: SOY. More like soy juice.

14. Deep carpet: SHAG.

15. Tells all: NAMES NAMES. Dirty rat!

16. Dress shape: A-LINE.

17. Trousers: PANTS.

18. Wade clumsily: SLOSH. I remember the joy of sloshing through puddles in my yellow goulashes. I didn't have to clean up the mess :-)

24. Zigs or zags: VEERS.

25. Color similar to salmon: CORAL. Turn in your man card if you can see the difference ;-)

29. Org.: ASSN.

30. Yawn-inducing: BLAH. Not Bore :-(

31. Light as can be: AIRY.

32. [See: Theme]

34. Nintendo virtual personae: MIIS. You create a Mii AVATAR on your Wii.

36. Bit of moisture: DROPLET.

39. Intellectual stickler: PEDANT. Well, actually... :-)

40. Secular: LAIC.

41. Great Plains people: OTOE.

43. Settle elsewhere, casually: RELO. RELOcate.

46. [See: Theme]

49. Nokcha or sencha: TEA.

51. __ fade: haircut with shaved sides: HI TOP.

Hi Top

52. Sculling tool: OAR.

54. Noisy migratory birds: GEESE.

55. Curved: ARCED.

57. Mil. mind game: PSYOP. Psychological Operation. Mess w/ the advisary's head.

58. [Not my error]: SIC.

59. None of the above: OTHER.

60. Smiles brightly: BEAMS.

61. Square up: ALIGN.

62. Pascal of "The Last of Us": PEDRO.

Vote for Pedro

64. Folk instrument: BANJO.

Steve Martin

69. Gracefully refined: ELEGANT. [See: Steve above]

71. Clearasil rival: OXY.

73. Gotham City hero: BATMAN.

76. Power source for a warp drive in "Star Trek": ANTIMATTER.

Spock mentions antimatter at 1:08

78. Offline, online: IRL. In Real Life aka Meat Space.

80. "Away from work" letters: OOO. Out Of Office. Could just be WFH that day #ThursdayCallback

82. Casting need: REEL.

84. Promotional sample: DEMO.

85. Lyft alternative: UBER. Rideshares.

87. "You got that right!": YES INDEED.

90. Take for a spin, perhaps: TEST. Do you scare the dealer a bit when you take a test drive? I want to see what the machine will do on a short on-ramp in Houston traffic :->

92. Come up short: LOSE.

93. Tater: SPUD. The Idaho tuber.

95. Hog with tusks: BOAR.

97. Strike down, biblically: SMITE. Old Testament had a lot of smote folks runnin' around.

98. Corundum, for one: MINERAL.

Corundum

100. Hackathon participant: CODER. Or just a hacker :-)

Defcon 34

102. Pulpy refuse: POMACE. Pomace, pumace, or marc is the solid remains of grapes, olives, or other fruit after pressing for juice or oil. It contains the skins, pulp, seeds, and stems of the fruit. [WikiP]

103. Molar cover: ENAMEL. Teeth.

104. Enter via cracks: SEEP IN.

106. Covers a lot of ground?: PAVES. Cute.

107. Special occasion: EVENT.

108. Bear in a bamboo forest: PANDA.

111. Lauder of cosmetics: ESTEE.

113. Lends a hand: AIDS. and ABETs?

115. Pranked with Charmin: TPED. Rollin' the trees.

117. D.C. ballplayers: NATS. The Washington Nationals.

119. "That's the guy!": HIM. Who, me?

120. Minecraft block: ORE.

121. Lowest sudoku number: ONE.

122. Casting need: ROD.

Everyone needs ROD Stewart in their movie, no?

123. Soon-to-be alums: SRS. Seniors ready to graduate get the ask for the alumni fund before getting their diploma. #TrueStory

The Grid:

The Grid

WOs: Bore -> BLAH, op-ed -> Idea
ESPs: SUNDOGS
Fav: OMEGA's clue

Y'all have a great Sunday!

Cheers, -T