| Playoff series finale ... or an apt title for this puzzle considering the number and length of its theme entries | 112 |
| 1964 Berne best seller (and a hint to seven other answers in this puzzle) | 73 |
| Repetitive Brooklyn rockers with the 2008 album "Saint Dymphna" | 73 |
| "Sleight of hand" used when solving trigonometry problems in groups? | 78 |
| Q: "What do you see lots of at Jerry's family reunions?" A: "___" | 89 |
| Hoe or rake (like one might use to tend plants after losing one's job) | 74 |
| Ordinary ... or what the beginning of the answer to each starred clue is? | 73 |
| Midwestern city that's the title of a song in "The Music Man" | 75 |
| 1997 sci-fi film with the tagline "There is no gene for the human spirit" | 83 |
| Spanish architect celebrated by the Alan Parsons Project's last album | 73 |
| "I mean, isn't she worth, like, a ___ dollars?" (line from the pilot of "Will & Grace") | 115 |
| Group that performs "White & Nerdy" by "Weird Al" Yankovic? | 83 |
| "Gosh!" (or, based on the starts of starred answers, one who is expert at solving this puzzle's theme?) | 117 |
| 1939 retiree who said "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" | 99 |
| Family doctor's specialty, or the short-term experience you'll get solving this puzzle? | 95 |
| "The process by which trademark rights are diminished or lost as a result of common use in the marketplace" - Wikipedia | 129 |
| Hall of Fame football player nicknamed "The Grand Old Man" who played for a record 26 seasons | 103 |
| "Bernie & ___" (parody of a children's show on "Family Guy") | 88 |
| Blitzen's seating instruction to his sleigh driver? (No dark forces at work here!) | 86 |
| "You of Out Kick a ___" (what you hear when you spin a standard backwards) | 84 |
| "Let's ___" (Grammy-winning suggestion from the Black Eyed Peas) | 78 |
| "So you never know — next time we take a trip across the country we might even ___" | 100 |
| Like people in a group hug, presumably (and a group hug involving Tributes #7, #8, and #11) | 91 |
| Q: "What were you doing at the lumber yard, Tarzan?" A: "___" | 81 |
| It "is no problem. You just have to live long enough": Groucho Marx | 77 |
| Theme #3 (Nahnahnahnah nah-nah nah-nah ... nahnahnahnah nah-hah nah ...) | 72 |
| Movie good guys responsible for the circled squares in eight long puzzle answers | 80 |
| Jokey alternative spelling for "fish" widely attributed to George Bernard Shaw | 88 |
| A scarab beetle with a heart-shaped mark on its wing covers was named after this adventurer | 91 |
| Paul from "American Splendor," one of Salon.com's 10 Best Movies of 2003 | 86 |
| Acme product intended for recreational use (not for dropping bombs on roadrunners), from "Zipping Along," 1953 | 120 |
| The Rock of ___ (after translation, "The Rock of the Rock of Tariq") | 78 |
| Oxford American Dictionary's 2012 word of the year, and the key to this puzzle's theme | 94 |
| Rap hit with the refrain "Got my mind on my money and my money on my mind" | 84 |
| Where a "Gilligan's Island" sex symbol moved after striking it rich? | 82 |
| The "she" in the lyric "And when she passes, I smile" | 73 |
| 1964 hit with the lyric "she looks straight ahead, not at me," with "The" | 93 |
| On second thought, make it a goofball comedy: "The Good Earth..." | 75 |
| Food that "did fall on the Israelites most gently, vexing those burdened with meathead pride" (Exodus 17:17)? | 119 |
| "If my book doesn't get published, I'll be ___," said the parapsychology professor | 100 |
| "The White Album" song with several references to other Beatles recordings | 84 |
| Newly-introduced element that alters the situation in a significant way, in modern lingo | 88 |
| Group whose album "St. Elsewhere" was #2 on Spin Magazine's 40 Best Albums of 2006 | 96 |
| Name for the tech support counter in many Apple stores, which is probably something of an overstatement | 103 |
| Descriptor for some gospels that are part of the New Testament apocrypha, that comes from the Greek word for "knowledge" | 130 |
| "I'm returning these pet accessories-they're quite holey" | 75 |
| Civil War movie that spawned a video game voted "Flat Out Worst" by GameSpot | 86 |
| It states "as a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1" | 129 |
| Partake in a voluntary economic strike to protest the amount given to the government | 84 |
| Overachievers, and a hint to a word that can precede both words of the starred answers | 86 |
| Non-fiction bestseller that was fact-checked by Associated Press five days before it was released | 97 |
| Celebrity couple nickname #5: Kate Hudson's mother and a "Meet the Fockers" father | 96 |
| 1969 song with the lyric "Once there was a way to get back homeward" | 78 |
| Nickname for the lead singer of Aerosmith, who keeps spilling glittery paint on himself? | 88 |
| "...but he decided on life instead, with time off for my stupendously ___" | 84 |
| 1959 novella that begins "The first time I saw Brenda she asked me to hold her glasses" | 97 |
| Pop punk band with the 2002 triple-platinum album "The Young and the Hopeless" | 88 |
| Strip that accompanied Sunday "Dixie Dugan" comics in the 1930s | 73 |
| 1990 Ray Liotta film with the tagline "Three Decades of Life in the Mafia" | 84 |
| Celebrity couple nickname #2: "Roseanne" co-star and "Cheers" actor | 87 |
| Proper sort ... or a cry upon solving each of this puzzle's theme answers? | 78 |
| If one were to ___, one would discover that they have 8 million articles in 253 languages | 89 |
| "Tarnsman of ___" (sci-fi book that launched an ongoing series) | 73 |
| Writer who Ali G. mistook for Clinton's vice president in an interview | 74 |
| Drama about an anonymous soldier who blogs about juicy military scandals? | 73 |
| "But why is she blogging in every episode?" (highly literal TV title #1) | 82 |
| "It builds strong bones, but who cares in this dark, dark world..." | 77 |
| Halloween costume that includes big ears, dark clothing and a bunch of charts? | 78 |
| Oft-riffed-on ad slogan since 1993 (California [dairy product] Processor Board) | 79 |
| "We ain't ___ badges!" ("Treasure of the Sierra Madre" line) | 84 |
| "The whole of ___ consists in the art of being honest": Jefferson | 75 |
| Position held by Dirk Kempthorne before becoming George W. Bush's final interior secretary | 94 |
| It's easy to do if you're hungry, hard if it's late and the shops have closed | 89 |
| Assistant D.A. who joined McKenzie Brackman in season 4 after a brief stint as a judge (126 episodes) | 101 |
| Sequel to a 2013 3D film in which Manny Pacquiao spars in space? (Happy New Year to adolescent Jesus!) | 102 |
| Nickname for Nantucket, because of its frequent fog, with "the" | 73 |
| Boxing champ portrayed in the biopic "Somebody Up There Likes Me" | 75 |
| Agreement reached in Philadelphia on June 29, 1787 (with "The") | 73 |
| Eugenia Washington (co-founder of the Daughters of the American Revolution), to George Washington | 97 |
| "There is a very fine line between loving life and being ___ for it" (Maya Angelou) | 93 |
| Copies of "Our Man in Havana," "The Quiet American" and "The End of the Affair"? | 110 |
| Go to this Vermont area to hike the Long Trail that was the inspiration for the Appalachian Trail | 97 |
| "On the radio, Creedence Clearwater Revival sang '___' ..." | 77 |
| Connecticut town nicknamed "The Submarine Capital of the World" | 73 |
| He said "I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury" | 76 |
| He said "Here's to our wives and girlfriends ... may they never meet!" | 84 |
| "I'm a bit leery of dogs - it's unsettling to enter a yard and hear some ___ at me ..." | 105 |
| While working as a waiter, he annoyed a character only known as Fat Blue | 72 |
| Bonjour cockzilla, want to ___? Woman scream at this more than luxury present | 77 |
| Ones whose names are spelled by this puzzle's circled letters ... with representatives of two realms "wrestling" for supremacy | 140 |
| Network where "The Newlywed Game" will feature its first gay couple in 2009 | 85 |
| Cable channel that airs reruns of "Press Your Luck," for short | 72 |
| 1982 best seller subtitled "And Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality," with "The" | 104 |
| "The ___ and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality" (1982 best seller) | 89 |
| Garden outside Jerusalem that was the scene of the agony and betrayal of Jesus | 78 |
| Term borrowed from a board game to describe an easy means of escape from a bad situation | 88 |
| Genuine designer shades (and the department store was charging twice as much!) | 78 |
| Character in Chesterton's "What's Wrong With the World" | 73 |
| Alec who starred in "The Ladykillers" and "The Prisoner" | 76 |
| Fictional private detective on NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion" | 77 |