| Mountaintop castle in "Game of Thrones" where Tyrion was imprisoned | 77 |
| Mountaintop castle in "A Game of Thrones," with "the" | 73 |
| Motown star who wrote the lyrics for and sang "The Tears of a Clown" | 78 |
| Mother Goose offerings, or in a different sense, this puzzle's title | 72 |
| Most-distributed publication in the world, with over twice as many copies as The Bible | 86 |
| Most successful recording artist of the 1990s, per "Billboard" | 72 |
| Most recent player to win MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and Finals MVP in one season | 78 |
| Most prone to play "Grand Theft Auto V" and eatDoritos all day | 72 |
| Most of the characters in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" | 78 |
| Most of "The Taming of the Shrew" characters, geographically speaking | 79 |
| Most likely to go way too far, for example to get drunk and expose one's ass and then shake it in people's faces | 120 |
| Most likely place you'd find REASSESSES in a themeless crossword grid | 73 |
| Morrissey video compilation that translates to "Listen, Steven" | 73 |
| Morrissey album featuring "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" | 83 |
| Morricone who scored "The Thing" and "A Fistful of Dollars" | 79 |
| Morning co-host Kelly who was on "All My Children" for 12 years | 73 |
| Morissette song that, by failing to give examples of things that are its title, becomes said title | 98 |
| Morgan who is "too sleepy and self-centered to ever hurt another person," per Tina Fey | 96 |
| Moreno who was the second actress to win an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony | 80 |
| Moorish ___ (kind of fish that Willem Dafoe's Gill is, in "Finding Nemo") | 87 |
| Moon that the second Death Star orbited in "Return of the Jedi" | 73 |
| Monthly release [the American Values Club xword is at avxwords.com - subscribe now] | 83 |
| Month that "Peanuts" and the Model T debuted (not the same year) | 74 |
| Monogram of the author of "At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends" | 72 |
| Monogram of the author of "A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House" | 85 |
| Monogram of Peter Parker's publisher boss, in "Spider-Man" | 72 |
| Monogram of a one-time New York governor who became Gerald Ford's vice president | 84 |
| Monkees hit composed by Neil Diamond which was later covered by Smash Mouth | 75 |
| Money from a shark scattered in order in seven of this puzzle's answers | 75 |
| Money ... or a hint to how six crossings in this puzzle are to be represented, superimposing one letter over another | 116 |
| Molecule that sends amino acids to ribosomes ... and a hint to the theme of this puzzle | 87 |
| Molecule key for studying evolutionary relationships between species: Abbr. | 75 |
| Mohawked actor whose voice was in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" | 79 |
| Modest Mouse "The ocean breathes salty, won't you carry ___?" | 75 |
| Modern-day monarch who addresses her nation on Christmas annually, for short | 76 |
| Modern-day locale of the place where the Santa Maria ran aground in 1492 | 72 |
| Modern dance music that supposedly mixes two genres that I'd be hard-pressed to differentiate, myself | 105 |
| Model who co-wrote the children's book "What Are You Hungry For?" | 79 |
| Model train company that REFUSES to face accusations that their faulty tracks endanger millions of imaginary tiny conductors? | 125 |
| Model namechecked along with Linda and Christy in RuPaul's "Supermodel" | 85 |
| Mockingjay holding an arrow in a circle for "The Hunger Games," e.g. | 78 |
| Mock rock band with the albums "Smell The Glove" and "Shark Sandwich" | 89 |
| Mo. with very few holidays, though looks like it's got National Ice Cream Sandwich Day | 90 |
| Mo. in which chemistry nerds celebrate Mole Day (between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, precisely) | 88 |
| Mnemonic that figures into each theme entry's "color shift" (from top to bottom) | 94 |
| MMA fighter John (don't know if he's related to baseball player Mel) | 76 |
| Mizrahi who groped Scarlett Johansson's breast at the 2006 Golden Globes | 76 |
| Mixed martial arts fighter Rolling Stone called "The King of the Web Brawlers" | 88 |
| Mixed martial arts co. that recently aired its first event on national television | 81 |
| Mixed drink #2: A video-game themed communiqué (tequila, citrus juice, liqueur, and salt) | 92 |
| Mixed drink #1: A friar's riding sport (vodka, cranberry juice, triple sec, and lime) | 89 |
| Mitt's, Michelle's, Herman's, Tim's and Rick's opponent | 75 |
| Mississippi petulantly observes it in tandem with Robert E. Lee's birth | 75 |
| Missed Connection: You gallantly lent me your umbrella during a downpour, then disappeared - my ___! | 100 |
| Miss ___ ("Pee-Wee's Playhouse" character returning to the show's 2010 stage version) | 103 |
| Minor planets whose orbits are farther from the sun than the farthest planet | 76 |
| Minnesota's state fish, and a hint to all 12 border answers in this puzzle | 78 |
| Miniseries whose final episode was the third-most-watched scripted show in U.S. history | 87 |
| Miniseries whose final episode was the 3rd-most-watched show in U.S. history | 76 |
| Minimum number of times each letter of the alphabet appears in this puzzle's solution | 89 |
| Mineral found on Mars in 1998 that suggests the former presence of water | 72 |
| Minced oath coined by Norman Mailer in "The Naked and the Dead" | 73 |
| Milo who played a Supreme Court Chief Justice on "The West Wing" | 74 |
| Miller beer that "tastes great" and is "less filling," according to its ads | 95 |
| Milibtary unit on leavbe this weekend and damnasure gonna take 'vantage of it? | 82 |
| Miley Cyrus movie starring Demi Moore (yes, this is a thing; it shouldn't be, but it is) | 92 |
| Mildly alcoholic Russian drink made from fermented bread (better than it sounds) | 80 |
| Mike ___ ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" boy from Arizona) | 73 |
| Mika Brzezinski's dad who was Carter's national security advisor | 72 |
| Midwestern city that's the title of a song in "The Music Man" | 75 |
| Midwestern city named after a character in Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" | 88 |
| Mideast city that is the capital of the world in H. G. Wells's "The Shape of Things to Come" | 106 |
| Middle infielder who homered for the Mets in his first plate appearances of 2004, 2005, and 2006 | 96 |
| Middle Eastern resident who sounds like something Little Miss Muffet would eat | 78 |
| Mid-1990s look popularized by pale and emaciated models in black-and-white shoots | 81 |
| Michelle who's the greatest action heroine of all time, per Rotten Tomatoes | 79 |
| Michelle ranked #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' "25 Best Action Heroines of All Time" | 90 |
| Michele whose Twitter describes her as a "Streisand Worshiper" | 72 |
| Michelangelo sculpture whose subject is in a pose suggesting drunkenness | 72 |
| Michael who memorized the patterns of the "Press Your Luck" board | 75 |
| Michael who is one of two actors who has been nominated for an Academy Award every decade since the '60s | 108 |
| Michael Jackson "it doesn't matter who's wrong or right" hit | 78 |
| Michael C. ___ (flatware company that provides prizes for many game shows) | 74 |
| Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer who co-hosted "American Gladiators" | 74 |
| Mexican singer Downs who performed on the Oscar-winning "Frida" soundtrack | 84 |
| Mexican cooking ingredients called "flores de calabaza" in Spanish | 76 |
| Metaphorical talk show area of which each of the theme entries steers clear | 75 |
| Metaphorical political term for a system with no purpose other than to sustain itself | 85 |
| Metaphorical philosophical conflict used as an album title by The Police, literally | 83 |
| Metaphor for kinetic grace ... or what this puzzle's six eight-letter answers display? | 90 |
| Message spelled out by punked Harvard fans at the 2004 Harvard-Yale football game | 81 |
| Men's style magazine focusing on "classic elegance" named after a term for a womanizer | 100 |
| Memorable repeated question by the economics teacher (played by Ben Stein) in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" | 118 |
| Memo about museum staff putting mistletoe around Frans's "Laughing Cavalier"? | 91 |
| Member of the inaugural class of inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame | 75 |
| Member of the Green Mountain Boys who helped establish the University of Vermont | 80 |
| Member of the 2007 Women's N.C.A.A. champion basketball team, for short | 75 |
| Member of a duo that "went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat" | 74 |
| Mel Gibson's co-star in "Lethal Weapon 3" and "Ransom" | 78 |
| Meg Ryan's repeated shout in a famous "When Harry Met Sally ..." scene | 84 |