0815-21 NY Times Crossword 15 Aug 21, Sunday

Constructed by: Aimee Lucido & Ella Dershowitz
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme Think Twice

Themed answers each include a number, and if we DOUBLE that number we get a common phrase. Also, those numbers CROSS the number TWO in the grid:

  • 69A Betray … or a hint to four answers in this puzzle : DOUBLE-CROSS
  • 27A Duplicitous : TWO-FACED
  • 52A #$%& and @%¢! : FOUR-LETTER WORDS
  • 85A Pushing up daisies : SIX-FEET UNDER
  • 113A What the beleaguered are behind : EIGHT BALL

Bill’s time: 24m 03s

Bill’s errors: 2

LOLZ (LOLS)
ZAGAT (Sagat!!!)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Most Times Square signage : ADS

Times Square in New York City isn’t a square at all, but rather a triangle. When the New York Times newspaper opened new headquarters in the area in 1904, the city agreed to the name “Times Square”, changing it from Longacre Square.

19 Samoan capital : APIA

Apia is the capital city, and in fact the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely. Apia is also known as the home of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, for the last four years of his life.

27 Duplicitous : TWO-FACED

To be duplicitous is to be deceitful. “Duplicitous” comes from the Greek “duplex” meaning “twofold”. The idea is that someone who is deceitful is twofold in his or her conduct.

30 ___ dress : PROM

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

33 Ukr. or Lith., formerly : SSR

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe that was a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English, we often call the country “the Ukraine”, but I am told that we should just say “Ukraine”.

The nation of Lithuania is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) sitting on the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius, and 16 miles north of Vilnius is a point that is officially recognized as the geographic center of Europe.

34 Places for development : UTERI

“Uterus” (plural “uteri”) is the Latin word for “womb”.

38 Actress Merrill : DINA

Dina Merrill was in 22 movies, including two of my favorites: “Desk Set” with Tracy & Hepburn, and “Operation Petticoat” with Cary Grant. Merrill also carried some sway in the business world. Until 2007, she was on the compensation committee of Lehman Brothers, the merry band that approved all those big bonuses.

40 Genre for BTS or Blackpink : K-POP

K-pop (Korean pop) is a genre of music from South Korea that emerged in the early nineties. It’s a bit beyond me …

43 Added to the staff? : NOTATED

The sets of five horizontal lines and four spaces that are used in musical notation are known as staves. The singular of “staves” is “staff” in American English, but “stave” in British English.

49 Aquafina : PepsiCo :: ___ : Coca-Cola : DASANI

Dasani is a Coca-Cola brand of bottled water. Dasani is simply filtered tap water with some trace minerals added.

Aquafina is a Pepsico brand of bottled water. Aquafina is just plain old municipal water that has been purified.

52 #$%& and @%¢! : FOUR-LETTER WORDS

It seems that many swear words have four letters, and are usually monosyllabic. This led to the term “four-letter word” being used as a euphemism for a curse word, starting in the early twentieth century.

58 “Deck the Halls” contraction : ‘TIS

The music for the Christmas song “Deck the Halls” is a traditional Welsh tune that dates back to the 16th century. The same tune was used by Mozart for a violin and piano duet. The lyrics with which we are familiar (other than the “f-la-la”) are American in origin, and were recorded in the 19th century.

“’Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la!”

59 Symbol on the Connecticut state quarter : OAK

The oak depicted on the Connecticut quarter is the Charter Oak. The tree earned its name from the legend that the original Royal Charter for the colony was hidden in a cavity of the tree for a while. The tree no longer exists, as it went down in a storm in the early 1800s.

66 Racial justice movement since 2013, in brief : BLM

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of African-American youth Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Three civil rights activists, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, originated the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

68 Word in many font names : SANS

Serifs are details on the ends of characters in some typefaces. Typefaces without serifs are known as sans-serif, using the French word “sans” meaning “without” and “serif” from the Dutch “schreef” meaning “line”. Some people say that serif fonts are easier to read on paper, whereas sans-serif fonts work better on a computer screen. I’m not so sure though …

75 Some $200 Monopoly properties, in brief : RRS

The four railroad (RR) properties in the Monopoly board game are:

  • Reading Railroad
  • Pennsylvania Railroad
  • B&O Railroad
  • Short Line

76 Set of 50 on the Argo, in myth : OARS

In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts set sail on the Argo from the city of Iolcos in search of the Golden Fleece. Jason’s vessel was called the “Argo” in honor of the ship’s builder, a man named Argus.

79 Insurance giant bailed out in 2008 : AIG

“AIG” is an initialism used by the American International Group, a giant insurance corporation. After repeated bailouts by American taxpayers starting in 2008, the company made some serious PR blunders by spending large amounts of money on executive entertainment and middle management rewards. These included a $444,000 California retreat, an $86,000 hunting trip in England, and a $343,000 getaway to a luxury resort in Phoenix. Poor judgment, I’d say …

80 Word before cap or pop : ICE-

The polar ice cap at the north of our planet is floating pack ice in the Arctic Ocean. The southern polar ice cap is an ice sheet that covers the landmass known as Antarctica. About 70% of all the freshwater on Earth is held in the southern polar ice cap.

The term “ice pop” has largely been supplanted in the US by “popsicle”, as the Popsicle brand of ice pop became so popular. We still use “ice pop” in Ireland, and in the UK the same thing is called an “ice lolly”, and in Australia it’s an “ice block”.

81 Awesomest bud : BFF

Best friend forever (BFF)

82 Spirit in Arabian myth : JINN

The “genie” in the bottle takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

83 Arizona county or its seat : YUMA

The city and county of Yuma, Arizona take their name from the Quechan (aka “Yuma”) Native American tribe that inhabited the area.

85 Pushing up daisies : SIX FEET UNDER

The phrase “six feet under” means “dead and buried”. Six feet is the traditional depth of a grave.

90 Neighbor of Mozambique : MALAWI

Malawi is in southeast Africa and is one of the least-developed countries in the world. The Malawi population has a low life expectancy and a high infant mortality rate. HIV/AIDS is a major killer. The British colonized the area in 1891, at which point it was called Nyasaland. Malawi became independent in 1964.

Mozambique is a nation in the southwest of Africa on the Indian Ocean. It was a Portuguese colony for centuries, gaining independence in 1975. The country was named for the Island of Mozambique, which lies a few miles off the coast.

92 Nonwriting credentials for Conan Doyle and Chekhov, informally : MDS

According to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his character Sherlock Holmes was based on a Dr. Joseph Bell for whom Doyle worked in Edinburgh. That said, Bell actually wrote a letter to Doyle in which he said “you are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it”.

Anton Chekhov was a Russian writer of short stories and a playwright, as well as a physician. He wrote four classic plays that are often performed all around the world, namely “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”. All the time Chekhov was writing, he continued to practice medicine. He is quoted as saying “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.”

95 Artificial habitat : BIODOME

A biodome is an enclosed ecological system, and usually a man-made structure. I visited one of the more famous biodomes a few years ago, namely Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona. The Arizona facility was built as a closed-system experiment and used during the nineties as home to two small teams of people for extended periods. Both experiments ran into problems. The first group confronted insufficient generation of food and oxygen. The second group generated sufficient food, but oxygen eventually had to be injected into the habitat.

97 Abolitionist Lucretia : MOTT

Lucretia Coffin Mott (what a name!) was an American Quaker, and an advocate for women’s rights. Mott has been called the first American “feminist”. Her first job was teaching in the Quaker school in which she was educated. There she learned that her salary was to be one third of that paid to the males with the same job (she married one of the male teachers!). That injustice initiated her interest in women’s rights.

98 The avant-garde “artists” Congo and Pierre Brassau : APES

Someone or something described as avant-garde is especially innovative. “Avant-garde” is French for “advance guard”.

100 Hedy of the 2017 documentary “Bombshell” : LAMARR

Hedy Lamarr was an American actress who was actually born in Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used to this day in wireless communication. Impressive …

103 Kind of chip : NACHO

The dish known as “nachos” was supposedly created by the maître d’ at a restaurant called the Victory Club in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The name of the maître d’ was Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya.

108 “The Raven” writer’s inits. : EAP

“The Raven” is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe that tells of a student who has lost the love of his life, Lenore. A raven enters the student’s bedchamber and perches on a bust of Pallas. The raven can talk, to the student’s surprise, but says nothing but the word “nevermore” (“quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”). As the student questions all aspects of his life, the raven taunts him with the same comment, “nevermore”. Finally, the student decides that his soul is trapped beneath the raven’s shadow and shall be lifted “nevermore”.

110 Big believer in the freedom of assembly? : IKEA

The IKEA furniture chain was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17-years-old. IKEA is an acronym standing for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

118 Be up for some biking? : POP A WHEELIE

To pop a wheelie is to lift the front wheels of a vehicle off the ground by accelerating rapidly with the rear wheels.

120 Fast runners : HARES

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

127 “As You Like It” forest : ARDEN

The Forest of Arden is the setting for Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”. Even though there is a Forest of Arden surrounding Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-on-Avon, as the play is set in France one has to assume that the “As You Like It” Arden is an anglicization of the forested “Ardennes” region that stretches from Belgium into France.

Down

1 Novelist Margaret : ATWOOD

Canadian author Margaret Atwood is best known for her novels. However, Atwood also conceived the idea of the LongPen, a remote robotic writing technology. The LongPen allows a user to write remotely in ink via the Internet. Atwood came up with the idea so that she could remotely attend book signings.

4 Gladly, old-style : LIEF

“Lief” means “willingly, gladly”, and is a term that comes from Middle English in the mid-13th century. I think that it is a lovely word …

5 Jazzy James and Jones : ETTAS

“Etta James” was the stage name of celebrated blues and soul singer Jamesetta Hawkins. James’ most famous recording was her 1960 hit “At Last”, which made it into the pop charts. James performed “At Last” at the age of 71 in 2009 on the reality show “Dancing with the Stars”, which was to be her final television appearance. She passed away in 2012.

Etta Jones was a jazz singer who was sometimes known as the “jazz musician’s jazz singer”. Because she has a similar name to Etta James, Jones was often confused with the more famous singer. Jones never really had any huge commercial success though, despite the respect that she engendered within the inner sanctums of the jazz world.

7 Nail polish brand : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.

9 Star man? : ZAGAT

The Zagat Survey is best known for rating restaurants across the major cities of the US, but it also rates things like hotels, nightlife, shopping, airlines and even zoos. The survey was started by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, and back then the survey was simply a collection of New York City restaurant ratings provided by friends of the couple.

10 Half of a ’55 union merger : AFL

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded in 1886, making it one of the first federations of unions in the country. Over time the AFL became dominated by craft unions, unions representing skilled workers of particular disciplines. In the early thirties, John L. Lewis led a movement within the AFL to organize workers by industry, believing this would be more effective for the members. But the craft unions refused to budge, so Lewis set up a rival federation of unions in 1932, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The two federations became bitter rivals for over two decades until finally merging in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO.

14 Playwright Will who was a 2005 Pulitzer finalist : ENO

Will Eno is an American playwright working in Brooklyn, New York. That said, Eno’s plays are mainly produced across the pond in the UK.

15 Crew implement : SCULL

A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell. Crew members who row the boat can be referred to as “oars”. And, a scull is also an oar mounted on the stern of a small boat. It’s all very confusing …

18 Ink holders in pens and squid : SACS

Octopodes and squid have the ability to release a dark pigment into the water as a means of escape. The dark pigment is called cephalopod ink (the squid and octopus belong to the class cephalopoda) and is stored in an ink sac. The dark color is created by melanin, the same substance that acts as a pigment in human skin.

35 Lead-in to call : ROBO-

Robocalls; why can’t they be stopped? Why not, why not …?

44 Wednesday, but not Friday : ADDAMS

Wednesday Addams is the daughter in the television sitcom “The Addams Family”. In the original cartoon strip, members of the Addams family had no given names. The names were introduced for the television show.

46 Accelerator particles : IONS

In a particle accelerator, the particles that are accelerated have to have a charge, and so are ions. The charged ions are subjected to high magnetic fields that propel them around a circular “racetrack”, before being smashed into something, just to see what happens!

48 Some tax breaks : WRITE-OFFS

To an accountant, a write-off is an investment that is unlikely to realize a return. That anticipated return is removed from (“written off”) a company’s balance sheet.

54 Some Hershey candies : ROLOS

Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. Rolo was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

62 Xanax alternative : VALIUM

The generic name for Valium is diazepam. The drug was developed by Dr. Leo Sternbach of Hoffman-La Roche, and approved for use in 1963. This was the second of Dr. Sternbach’s major developments, as he was responsible for the diazepam’s sister drug Librium, that went to market in 1960.

Xanax is a brand name for the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam. It is one of the most commonly misused prescription drugs in the US, with wide acceptance in the illegal recreational drug market.

63 Monthly publication of the National Puzzlers’ League, with “The” : ENIGMA

Our term “enigma” meaning “puzzle, riddle” comes from the Greek “ainigma”, which means the same thing.

65 “The Magic School Bus” was its first fully animated series : PBS

“The Magic School Bus” is a children’s cartoon show that originally aired on PBS in the nineties. The show was based on a series of books of the same name by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.

67 Beach with a girl who “swings so cool” : IPANEMA

Ipanema is a beach community in the south of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The name Ipanema is a local word meaning “bad water”, signifying that the shore is bad for fishing. The beach became famous worldwide following the release of the song “The Girl from Ipanema” in 1962.

70 Part of many a corsage : ORCHID

“Corsage” is a word that we imported from French in the late 15th century and meaning, believe it or not, “body size”. By the early 1800s, a corsage was a bodice, or the body of a woman’s dress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French term “bouquet de corsage” was being used for a “bouquet worn on the bodice”, and this has been shortened simply to “corsage”.

78 High-quality cannabis, in slang : ENDO

“Endo” is a slang term for marijuana that is grown indoors, usually using hydroponics. The prefix “endo-” comes from the Greek “endon” meaning “within, inner”.

84 Spain’s Duchess of ___ : ALBA

María Cayetana de Silva was the 13th Duchess of Alba. She was a favorite subject of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. The duchess is the subject in the famous portraits known as “La maja desnuda” (The Nude Maja) and “La maja vestida” (The Clothed Maja). “Maja” translates from Spanish as “beautiful lady”.

86 Classic novel with the line “You must be the best judge of your own happiness” : EMMA

Jane Austen’s novel “Emma” is the tale of Emma Woodhouse and the wonderful George Knightley. At the end of the story, Emma marries Knightley and her young friend Harriet marries Robert Martin, who had been trying to get Harriet’s attention practically from page one of the novel. Emma interfered in that troubled courtship.

91 Most chiffonlike : AIRIEST

Chiffon is a sheer fabric usually made from silk, cotton, nylon or rayon. The French word “chiffon” is a diminutive of “chiffe” meaning “rag, piece of cloth”.

97 The Supremes’ record label : MOTOWN

Motown Records is a record label that was founded in 1959 in Detroit (aka “Motor City” or “Motown”). The founder of Motown records was Berry Gordy, Jr.

99 Bad temper : SPLEEN

“To vent one’s spleen” means to vent one’s anger, perhaps by shouting and screaming. This expression is rooted in the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that a person’s temperament was dictated by the balance of the body’s four “humors”. The spleen produced the humor known as yellow bile, which was associated with an aggressive and energetic personality.

102 Language in which “kia ora” is a greeting : MAORI

The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are eastern Polynesian in origin and began arriving in New Zealand relatively recently, starting some time in the late 13th century. The word “māori” simply means “normal”, distinguishing mortal humans from spiritual entities. The Māori refer to New Zealand as “Aotearoa”.

113 “A man’s character is his ___”: Heraclitus : FATE

Heraclitus of Ephesus was an ancient Greek philosopher from Ionia. He was sometimes referred to as “Heraclitus the Obscure”. That ancient epithet is borne out today by the fact that only one of his works survives, and even them only in fragmented form. That work is “On Nature”, and comprises three discourses about the universe, politics and ethics, and theology. Why politics and ethics were grouped into one discourse is beyond me …

117 Prof’s degree : PHD

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

119 Post on Insta : PIC

Instagram (often abbreviated to “Insta”) is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular. Instagram started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time of the sale …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Confound : ADDLE
6 Sarcastic internet laughter : LOLZ
10 Most Times Square signage : ADS
13 Performance check : TEST
17 Dark hair and a warm smile, for two : TRAITS
19 Samoan capital : APIA
20 To’s opposite : FRO
21 Full-length : UNCUT
23 Something that bugs criminals? : WIRETAPPING
25 Blabberer : LOUDMOUTH
27 Duplicitous : TWO-FACED
28 Musicianship : EAR
30 ___ dress : PROM
31 Pasture : LEA
32 Signed off on : OK’D
33 Ukr. or Lith., formerly : SSR
34 Places for development : UTERI
36 Corn kernel, e.g. : NIBLET
38 Actress Merrill : DINA
40 Genre for BTS or Blackpink : K-POP
43 Added to the staff? : NOTATED
45 Alerts : NOTIFIES
48 ___ of lies : WEB
49 Aquafina : PepsiCo :: ___ : Coca-Cola : DASANI
52 #$%& and @%¢! : FOUR-LETTER WORDS
55 Practice whose name means, literally, “union” : YOGA
57 Words before “before” : ON OR …
58 “Deck the Halls” contraction : ‘TIS
59 Symbol on the Connecticut state quarter : OAK
60 Stop along the highway : INN
61 Quite : EVER SO
64 Finished brushing one’s teeth, say : SPAT
66 Racial justice movement since 2013, in brief : BLM
67 “Really, though?” : IS IT?
68 Word in many font names : SANS
69 Betray … or a hint to four answers in this puzzle : DOUBLE-CROSS
73 ___ the Cat (fictional feline of children’s books) : PETE
74 Thin incision : SLIT
75 Some $200 Monopoly properties, in brief : RRS
76 Set of 50 on the Argo, in myth : OARS
77 Coaxed (out of) : TEASED
79 Insurance giant bailed out in 2008 : AIG
80 Word before cap or pop : ICE-
81 Awesomest bud : BFF
82 Spirit in Arabian myth : JINN
83 Arizona county or its seat : YUMA
85 Pushing up daisies : SIX FEET UNDER
90 Neighbor of Mozambique : MALAWI
92 Nonwriting credentials for Conan Doyle and Chekhov, informally : MDS
93 Seller’s need : CUSTOMER
95 Artificial habitat : BIODOME
97 Abolitionist Lucretia : MOTT
98 The avant-garde “artists” Congo and Pierre Brassau : APES
100 Hedy of the 2017 documentary “Bombshell” : LAMARR
103 Kind of chip : NACHO
105 Question of perplexion : WHA?
108 “The Raven” writer’s inits. : EAP
109 Like : A LA
110 Big believer in the freedom of assembly? : IKEA
112 Press ___ : KIT
113 What the beleaguered are behind : EIGHT BALL
115 Classic folk story that teaches a lesson of sharing : STONE SOUP
118 Be up for some biking? : POP A WHEELIE
120 Fast runners : HARES
121 Advanced math degree? : NTH
122 Ninny : TWIT
123 Sternutation : SNEEZE
124 Real cutup : RIOT
125 Landscaper’s supply : SOD
126 In the past : ONCE
127 “As You Like It” forest : ARDEN

Down

1 Novelist Margaret : ATWOOD
2 Absorb the beauty of, as a scene : DRINK IN
3 Lacked the gumption to : DARED NOT
4 Gladly, old-style : LIEF
5 Jazzy James and Jones : ETTAS
6 First law enforcement org. in the U.S. to hire a female officer (1910) : LAPD
7 Nail polish brand : OPI
8 List of performers : LINEUP
9 Star man? : ZAGAT
10 Half of a ’55 union merger : AFL
11 “That’s enough arguing out of you!” : DROP IT!
12 Lip-puckering : SOUR
13 Things that may be rubbed after din-din : TUMMIES
14 Playwright Will who was a 2005 Pulitzer finalist : ENO
15 Crew implement : SCULL
16 One getting special instruction : TUTEE
18 Ink holders in pens and squid : SACS
22 “Just like ___!” : THAT
24 Like morning people vis-à-vis night owls, around dawn : PERKIER
26 Response to “How bad was it?” : DON’T ASK
29 Extends, in a way : RENEWS
35 Lead-in to call : ROBO-
37 Cause for an onslaught of yearly txts : B’DAY
39 “If the pessimists are right …” : AT WORST …
41 Stroke : PET
42 East: Ger. : OST
44 Wednesday, but not Friday : ADDAMS
46 Accelerator particles : IONS
47 Overwhelm : FLOOD
48 Some tax breaks : WRITE-OFFS
50 Boos and cheers : NOISES
51 Light : IGNITE
53 Latin list ender : ET AL
54 Some Hershey candies : ROLOS
56 Bought in : ANTED
61 Time-consuming assignment to grade : ESSAY
62 Xanax alternative : VALIUM
63 Monthly publication of the National Puzzlers’ League, with “The” : ENIGMA
64 More convinced : SURER
65 “The Magic School Bus” was its first fully animated series : PBS
66 Sound at the end of December, appropriately? : BRR!
67 Beach with a girl who “swings so cool” : IPANEMA
70 Part of many a corsage : ORCHID
71 Bite site : CAFE
72 Job to do : STINT
78 High-quality cannabis, in slang : ENDO
80 “Success!” : IT WORKS!
81 Decorate : BEDECK
82 “I. Can’t. Even.” : JUST. WOW!
84 Spain’s Duchess of ___ : ALBA
86 Classic novel with the line “You must be the best judge of your own happiness” : EMMA
87 Environmental opening : ECO-
88 When repeated, a reproof : TUT
89 Overturned : REPEALED
91 Most chiffonlike : AIRIEST
94 Figure out : REALIZE
96 Not thinking : ON AUTO
97 The Supremes’ record label : MOTOWN
99 Bad temper : SPLEEN
100 Makeup target : LASH
101 Where a “Married at First Sight” contestant meets his or her mate : ALTAR
102 Language in which “kia ora” is a greeting : MAORI
104 Up on : HIP TO
106 Confused responses : HUHS
107 Fight site : ARENA
111 Long runs? : EONS
113 “A man’s character is his ___”: Heraclitus : FATE
114 “Suds” : BEER
116 Prefix with classical : NEO-
117 Prof’s degree : PHD
119 Post on Insta : PIC