By Warren Manners
Across
1 AKA, blank check companies
6 Laughter syllables
9 Auto-loan figs.
13 Eye liner
19 Column footing
20 “Skyfall” actor Rapace
21 Plastics ingredient
22 Feeble
23 The Big ___, starring Bogart
24 “Wowzers!”
25 Place, in legalese
26 1/3 of a K
27 Cream and club, e.g.
28 DOD division
29 Al-tourney-tive #1
31 Research complex in Bethesda, Md.
33 PC key
35 Joint protection?
36 Rich soil deposit
37 PC key
40 Common practice
42 Affect
44 Resolve target
46 Naturally followed
49 Follower of Christ
50 Stuff to the gills
51 Org. for entrepreneurs
54 1997 World Series city
55 Make clear
57 Al-tourney-tive #2
59 A.L. West team, on scoreboards
61 Chablis descriptor
62 Catalogs
63 Lean on
64 Compass dir.
67 Compass dir.
69 Candy cover
71 1
72 Of the essence
75 Draft pick
76 Intensified
78 Gull genus
79 Oenologist’s activity
82 Canal site
83 Norton and Sullivan
84 Bon ___ (Grammy-winning indie band)
85 Bellow and more
86 ___ Hammarskjold, former U.N. secretary general
88 PC key
90 Al-tourney-tive #3
92 Bar offering
94 First, second, third
98 Jeans feature
99 Extremely popular
100 Tight spot
101 Cloud content
103 Came down
104 Temple trademark
106 Antelope variety
107 Rub the right way
108 Jonathan ____, political columnist for The Atlantic
111 The world’s oldest mutual insurer (abbr.)
113 Midsection of midsection
115 Bulky TV screen
117 Al-tourney-tive #4
120 The only one on the pitch who can stop Messi
122 By dint of
126 La ____, major port city of Venezuela
127 Keen
128 96 down homonym
129 Lake south of Leningrad
130 “Given the circumstances…”
131 Mrs. McKinley and others
132 Calgary-to-Moose Jaw dir.
133 Malay wild ox
134 Prime
135 Fit to be tried
136 Born, on society pages
137 Down units
Down
1 Found in 5 down
2 Italian explorer
3 Killed, say
4 Type of break
5 Al-tourney-tive #5
6 Emmett Kelly persona
7 Unabetted
8 “That’s life,” e.g.
9 Glaswegian old
10 Hierophants
11 Reverberate again and again
12 Hailing from Hail
13 ICU tool used to measure alertness
14 Genus of fungi
15 Guerrilla tactic
16 Ammonia compound
17 Some court wear
18 Big servers
30 East Indian hardwood
32 Deerstalker, e.g.
34 Donkey disciples
37 It’s always by your side
38 Chain of Hawaiian islands
39 Counterterrorism org.
41 Joined a union
43 Game with no equipment
45 Hoover and Roosevelt, e.g.
47 Aka Parvati, Gauri, and Devi
48 Dollard-___-Ormeaux, Quebec
50 Was solicitous
51 Prayer site
52 Cadged
53 Adds riders to
56 “… let thy words be ___”: Eccl.
57 Shock of locks
58 Pagan festival
60 Darth Vader’s nickname as a boy
62 Kind of income
64 Doobie’s brother
65 Really go places
66 Legalese adverb
68 Makes complicated
70 Louisville slugger
71 Al-tourney-tive #6
73 Breakers
74 Wound on a wound
77 Put away, in a way
80 Expert in calculating
81 Duke Ellington’s “The ___ from Joe’s”
85 Alone, in Alençon
87 Pod of whales
89 Baseball club
91 Grandiloquence
92 Kerouac’s “Big ___”
93 Plague
95 “How’s it goin’?”
96 128 across homonym
97 Array
100 Topper of 92 across
102 First magazine to put Steve Jobs on its cover
103 Delimited
104 Country with the world’s longest coastline
105 Pass play
108 Riot control agent, for short
109 Laurie vehicle
110 Be of assistance
112 “Babbitt” novelist
114 Laconic
116 Home to Oral Roberts University
118 Famed editorial cartoonist
119 It can follow no one or someone
121 Between engagements
123 Ajman dignitary
124 Cultivate
125 First place?
Solutions may be emailed to puzzles@actuary.org. In order to make the solver list, your solutions must be received by April 1, 2026.
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Solvers: Steve Altschuld, Dean Apps, Todd Dashoff, Charlie DeWeese, Ken Kudrak, Tim Luker, Jim Muza, Ray Niswander, Madhumathi Windon, and Wendy Windsor