| Saxophonist-composer Jimmy, known for his big-band arrangements for Benny Goodman and Count | 91 |
| What happened, perhaps, after "Tower Heist" failed to be nominated for Best Picture? | 94 |
| Russian peasants (and the highest-scoring opening word in Scrabble--it's worth 128 points) | 94 |
| "Lady Marmalade" singer with Pink, Lil' Kim, and Christina Aguilera | 81 |
| eHarmony employee's credo? (Elvis Costello / Toots & the Maytals) | 73 |
| Mariah Carey song title that completes the lyric "I'd give ___ to have just one more night with you" | 114 |
| Parody song with the lyric "I always eat too much and throw up" | 73 |
| "Keep on whispering in ___" (line from "What I Like About You") | 83 |
| "I'd rather be on ___ than be emperor of the world" (George Washington) | 85 |
| "This inflammatory joint disease I'm suffering from couldn't be more perfect, Mr. Mineo"? | 107 |
| "What will break if I break up with you?" response, for a thuggish couple? | 84 |
| Derided 2005 Black Eyed Peas song that mentions "lovely lady lumps" | 77 |
| 2005 Black Eyed Peas hit that Pitchfork called "so monumentally vacuous, slapped together and tossed-off that it truly tests the definition of 'song.'" | 169 |
| "You Are ___," tune from "The Broadway Melody of 1936" | 74 |
| "Date ___" (MTV matchmaking show involving a mediating parent) | 72 |
| Start of a bumper sticker that may end with one's favorite (usually expensive) vehicle | 90 |
| Gollum line from "The Two Towers" that was the only 21st-century quote on AFI's 2005 list of 100 movie quotes from 100 years | 138 |
| Pianist known for her arrangement of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" | 80 |
| 1979 new wave classic that begins "Oh my little pretty one, pretty one" | 81 |
| 1970 #1 hit that was later found to be a ripoff of "He's So Fine" | 79 |
| John Zorn's avant jazz outfit named after an early ABC police drama series | 78 |
| Subscription-based journalism site that bills itself as "the program with nothing to hide" | 100 |
| A. "Les Troyens" B. "Pelléas et Melisande" C. "La Mer" D. "Faust" | 108 |
| Start of a brainteaser whose answer appears in order, from top to bottom, in this puzzle's circled squares | 110 |
| Soft leather used in wallets, whose name derives from a place in California | 75 |
| Statistician who on Election Day 2012 gave Obama a 91.6% chance of victory | 74 |
| "Famous" company that sponsors an annual hot dog eating contest | 73 |
| Chris Rock "SNL" character with "the only 15-minute show on TV" | 83 |
| Ship created by Jule Verne for “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” | 78 |
| Contract in which the parties promise to keep proprietary information secret: abbr. | 83 |
| Making out ... or a hint to this puzzle's four hidden articles of clothing | 78 |
| Biography by James Fenimore Cooper with the alternate title "A Life Before the Mast" | 94 |
| Composer of the one-act operas "Bertha" and "The Robbers" | 77 |
| Unit used to jokingly describe celery, since it requires more energy to eat it than it contains | 95 |
| Unit used regarding celery, since it requires more energy to eat it than it contains | 84 |
| Who said "I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth" | 74 |
| Space traveler whose first five letters, spelled backward, are oddly appropriate | 80 |
| Rocker Case who tweeted "If a dude called me a 'cougar' I'd be more likely to kill him bare-handed and shit him out in front of his parents than fuck him" | 176 |
| Alt.country singer Case whose "The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You" comes out tomorrow | 142 |
| Chic scientists love these Day-Glo accessories for Special Forces troops... | 75 |
| 1993 Brian Eno album named for an oil extracted from the flower of an orange tree | 81 |
| White House press secretary who once hosted "Saturday Night Live" | 75 |
| Busker's take-home after paying for a street performance license, say? | 74 |
| Charles Van Doren vis-Ã -vis the game show "Twenty-One"? [1976, 1989, 1985] | 87 |
| ybaB eman taht yltnecer emaceb yrev ralupop, yllaicepse htiw lacilegnave snaitsirhC | 83 |
| Baby moniker that became wildly popular in the 2000s (hint: read it backwards) | 78 |
| Anagrammatic girls' name given to eight babies in 1999, and 4,457 in 2005 | 77 |
| Donald Sutherland line in "The Dirty Dozen," cued by "Madison City, Missouri, sir" | 102 |
| Pop trio with the 1964 hit "Bread and Butter," with "the" | 77 |
| What presidential term limits mercifully ensure, and each of this puzzle's theme answers "receives" | 113 |
| Sonnet whose fourth line begins "A mighty woman with a torch," with "The" | 93 |
| What Fido's recently purchased tether gave him (with "a")? | 72 |
| Failed school curriculum that was the subject of the 1973 book "Why Johnny Can't Add" | 99 |
| ... HIT A RA(W)(N)(E)RVE, ARE (W)(E)(N)OT ME(N)(W)(E) ARE DEVO, and SPOK(E)(N)(W)ORD | 84 |
| Things employed to show the passage of time à la "Citizen Kane" | 76 |
| Gizmo often with five balls that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy | 81 |
| Physical principle whose equation explains the changes in this puzzle's theme entries | 89 |
| Shake-up in the global balance of power ... and a hint to the circled letters | 77 |
| Magazine with the recurring heading "Onward and Upward With the Arts," with "The" | 101 |
| Team with which Yogi Berra and Willie Mays both ended their playing careers | 75 |
| "... and while the royal subjects now debated who would be ___ in line to the throne ..." | 99 |
| Gridiron players who make "snap" judgments ... or a hint to the puzzle theme | 86 |
| "You'll have to solve this puzzle on your own, I'm not going to help" | 87 |
| Star of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "As Good As It Gets" | 90 |
| Rapper who was the first artist to have seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time | 95 |
| Critically acclaimed Scottish actor Williamson who died in the Netherlands | 74 |
| Age at which Gerald Ford, the longest-lived U.S. President, died in 2006 | 72 |
| Good day sir, I am Joseph Komalo, son of a ___. I wish to transfer 1,594,976 ZAR ($14.9. million USD) direct to you account | 123 |
| Greek prince ___ Cassadine, longtime "General Hospital" character | 75 |
| 16 of these are hidden in the answer grid, each reading left, right, up, down or diagonally in an unbroken straight line | 120 |
| 30 ... (when completed, a Hitchcock movie)(with ''The'') | 72 |
| What the plastic surgeon created after I asked to look like the author of "Delta of Venus"? | 101 |
| 1939 Greta Garbo Best Picture nominee (it lost to "Gone With the Wind") | 81 |
| "I'm returning these toy fighters-they're really lousy!" | 74 |
| Sue Ann __, Betty White's role on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" | 75 |
| trickyman: y0 im not a cr00k / uspubl200mil : cough bs / trickyman: ok i give up | 81 |
| Louis ___ (trial lawyer and author of "My Life in Court," 1962) | 73 |
| They got back together to tour with 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men in 2013, for short | 81 |
| Boy band that reunited in 2008 with the album "Summertime," for short | 79 |
| 1990s boy band accused of lip syncing by people who were obviously just jealous, for short | 90 |
| Nearly circular shape used as the floor plan for most Bahá'i temples | 75 |
| Rectangular devices with a D-pad and the buttons A, B, START, and SELECT | 72 |
| "Mr. Webster isn't home, he's compiling his dictionary"? | 74 |
| Clapton "Don't want ___. Just another reason for another lie" | 75 |
| Response to "Tom!" in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" | 72 |
| Celebrity chef Matsuhisa who had cameos in "Casino" and "Goldmember" | 88 |
| Lois Lane player of early TV, whose first name is a hint to this puzzle's theme | 83 |
| "I don't have the right equipment to make coffee this morning :( #___"? | 85 |
| “And I could barely keep my eyes open in Economics, where the topic of the day was ___” | 95 |
| "If you can't behave on this tour, I swear you'll be sorry!"? | 79 |
| Argument that doesn't exist until created for political gain, in modern-day slang | 85 |
| New slogan for a California city trying to advertise its wild playground basketball games? | 90 |
| Country that recently "built 500 objects contributable to raising the level of modernization," per its website | 120 |
| Fictional parrot type featured in Monty Python's "dead parrot sketch" | 83 |
| Hardly a model of perfection, and a hint to how this puzzle's theme puns are derived | 88 |
| Metaphorical talk show area of which each of the theme entries steers clear | 75 |
| Familiar five-word phrase that means "Excuses are unacceptable!" | 74 |
| French prophet whose predictions are often shoehorned into describing modern events | 83 |
| "I can see you on a cold day and you're like a cloud...I'm impressed..." | 90 |
| Finding from the "fifths" taken from this puzzle's theme answers | 78 |