| Text | Length |
| Not at all bleak | 16 |
| Like winter cheeks | 18 |
| Like some cheeks or futures | 27 |
| Like pink cheeks | 16 |
| Like flush cheeks | 17 |
| Like cold cheeks | 16 |
| Like an optimist's point of view | 36 |
| Like a promising future | 23 |
| Like a good outlook | 19 |
| Like a cherub's cheeks | 26 |
| Like a bright future | 20 |
| Kind of future | 14 |
| Having a positive outlook | 25 |
| Having a healthy color | 22 |
| Happy-hued | 10 |
| Flushed from the cold, perhaps | 30 |
| Favorable, as an outlook | 24 |
| Far from bleak | 14 |
| Erubescent | 10 |
| Bright; optimistic | 18 |
| Blushing or flushing | 20 |
| Blushing or blooming | 20 |
| Blooming red | 12 |
| Auspicious, as one's future | 31 |
| All aglow | 9 |
| "Dawn of the ___ fingers ...": The Odyssey | 52 |
| "___-fingered dawn" | 29 |
| "___ fingered dawn" | 29 |
| ''The Ghost of ___ Taylor'' | 43 |
| Tripe | 5 |
| Deterioration | 13 |
| Turn rancid | 11 |
| Become compost | 14 |
| Go to seed | 10 |
| Fall into decay | 15 |
| Degenerate badly | 16 |
| Blatherskite | 12 |
| Undergo decomposition | 21 |
| Undergo decay | 13 |
| Trumpery | 8 |
| Go bad, as fruit | 16 |
| Form compost | 12 |
| Turn into compost | 17 |
| Stay forever, as in jail | 24 |
| Spoilage | 8 |
| Putrify | 7 |
| Nonsense, to a Brit | 19 |
| Go to waste | 11 |
| Become rancid | 13 |
| Tommy follower? | 15 |
| Spoil, as food | 14 |
| Sit in a dump | 13 |
| Root problem? | 13 |
| Pure baloney | 12 |
| It befalls fallen fruit | 23 |
| Hogwash! | 8 |
| Eyewash | 7 |
| Buncombe | 8 |
| British baloney | 15 |
| Bosh! | 5 |
| Become decayed | 14 |
| What some things do to raise a stink | 36 |
| Turn bad, as meat | 17 |
| Start to smell, maybe | 21 |
| Rubbish! | 8 |
| Go to waste, in a way | 21 |
| Go to the dogs | 14 |
| Go bad, as a plum | 17 |
| Get rancid | 10 |
| Disintegration | 14 |
| Brit's baloney | 18 |
| Bilge | 5 |
| Become rancid, in a way | 23 |
| Word after tommy | 16 |
| What Sponge's "Pinata" will do | 44 |
| Turn to compost | 15 |
| Tommy's follower? | 21 |
| Tommy follower | 14 |
| Tommy chaser | 12 |
| Stuff and nonsense! | 19 |
| Start to stink, say | 19 |
| Start making a stink? | 21 |
| Spoilage added to the seven longest Across answers | 50 |
| Sometimes dry item | 18 |
| Smell up the fridge, say | 24 |
| Root problem | 12 |
| Putrefaction | 12 |
| Problem in old wood | 19 |
| Problem affecting old lumber | 28 |
| Piffle or twaddle | 17 |
| Pacer that places | 17 |
| Nonsense, in London | 19 |
| Ludicrous comments | 18 |
| Home inspection find | 20 |
| Grow rancid | 11 |
| Go rancid | 9 |
| Go foul? | 8 |
| Go bad, as food | 15 |
| Go bad, as a pear | 17 |
| Get sour | 8 |
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