NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

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 45 Ancient work that

1 Syllables when you describes the sacred

forget the words tree Yggdrasil

4 The universe has an 46 Trendy home gym estimated 1,082 of purchase them 50 Top Gun

9 ‘‘A mouse!’’ 55 Baseball family

name much seen in

12 Beyoncé chart-topper

crosswords ‘‘Single ____ (Put a

Ring on It)’’ 56 Jerkface

18 Simile center 59 Tightly affixed

19 ____ Lawrence 60 Parrot’s sound

College 61 Insurance department 20 Magazine co-founded 63 ‘‘____ for me, thanks’’ in 1945 by Hélène 64 Big no-nos Gordon Lazareff 66 Letters From Iwo

22 Similar-sounding Jima phrase, such as ‘‘I 67 The Imitation Game scream’’ for 69 The Fifth Element ‘‘ice cream’’ 73 Perfectly comfortable 23 Field of Dreams 75 1930s migrant to

26 Guys and Dolls California

27 Lucrative and 76 Spirits

undemanding 77 Sesh on Reddit

28 Ingredient in 80 Speed reader? a McDonald’s 81 Gave, as gossip McFlurry

83 Trimmed parts of

29 Seasonal winds green beans

31 Fictional brand of 84 A Man for All Seasons rocket-powered 87 Matricidal figure of roller skates Greek myth

32 ‘‘Cross my heart!’’ 89 Golden-rule word

35 Fam girl 90 Spanish ‘‘Listen!’’

36 Sounds of doubt 91 Dostoyevsky’s Prince 38 Star Trek Myshkin, so the

40 Woodworker’s tool book title declares

42 Some tourist spots in 93 Cause for switching San Francisco positions

97 Scent of a Woman

43 Tax pro, for short

104 ‘‘____ you decent?’’ Online subscriptions: Today’s 105 ____ Toy Barn (‘‘Toy

puzzle and more Story 2’’ locale)

than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords 106 Small things that

($39.95 a year). 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 pinnedon 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 chocolateand-toffee 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