📰

Same Difference

October 19, 2025

By Daniel Grinberg • 140 Clues

Across Clues

1. Huge success → SMASH

6. Seal, say → CLOSE

11. From the beginning → ANEW

15. ___ sequencing (lab technique) → DNA

18. Lively Bohemian dances → POLKAS

20. Alternative to a tissue, informally → HANKY

21. Bit in a hippie's necklace → LOVEBEAD

23. Poker declaration → IRAISE

24. Remove, as a ribbon → UNTIE

25. Share confidences with → OPENUPTO

26. Business traveler's convenience → COMPANYCARD

28. Divisions on a map → COUNTRIES

29. Brian ___, songwriter who popularized the term "generative music" → ENO

30. Second volume → BOOKII

31. 😂😂😂 → ROFL

32. Broadband inits. → DSL

33. Fights back tears? → DARNS

34. Michelle Obama, to Princeton → ALUM

36. Indulge (in) → PARTAKE

40. National Arab American Heritage Month → APRIL

43. Place to hang at home? → CLOSET

45. Oppressive political regime, so to speak, with "the" → SYSTEM

46. Have an ominous presence → LOOMLARGE

50. Sound of a joke going over one's head → WHOOSH

52. Giant Middle-earth creature → ENT

53. Arched recess → APSE

54. Person I truly am → REALME

56. "Hey!" from on high → UPHERE

59. Word with pack or rug → RAT

60. Senior, informally → OLDSTER

61. Org. that confiscates liquids → TSA

62. Knocked out of the park → ACED

65. Pop culture hit about dystopian technology → MRROBOTO

67. Former parent of NBC → RCA

69. Eliminators of some teams → PLAYOFFS

72. Corn chip with a "Fuego" flavor → TAKI

73. In the vein of → ALA

75. Smallish batteries → AACELLS

77. Rapper ___ Milli → FLO

78. Get involved → STEPIN

80. Perceptive → SHREWD

81. Hawaiian shindig → LUAU

82. Clothes for a doze, in brief → PJS

85. Native of the Delaware Valley → LENAPE

87. Pursuers of utopian goals → IDEALISTS

89. Coffees that aren't single-origin → BLENDS

92. Self-admiring sort → EGOIST

94. Major Ukrainian seaport → ODESA

95. Sisterly → SORORAL

97. Sneaky plot → RUSE

98. Pilgrims in Saudi Arabia → HAJIS

101. Ear-related prefix → OTO

102. Not fully open → AJAR

104. Hybrid pastry → CRONUT

106. P, to Pericles → RHO

109. Injection associated with a certain toxin → ANTIVENOM

112. Annoyances for ticket holders → TRAINDELAYS

114. Palm Springs or Puerto Vallarta, notably → GAYMECCA

115. Brown songbirds → WRENS

116. Tale-telling brothers → GRIMMS

117. Turned up → APPEARED

118. "Strike up the band!" → HITIT

119. Neighbor of a Saudi → YEMENI

120. Nickname for Rachel → RAE

121. Verbally expresses disdain → TUTS

122. Warning signs → OMENS

123. Tightly packed → DENSE

Down Clues

1. Food enlivener → SPICE

2. Hardly a genius → MORON

3. Home to a chapel with the Texas flag flying beside it → ALAMO

4. Spotify button → SKIP

5. Loves, loves, loves the occasion → HASABALL

6. Hurls → CHUCKS

7. Feature of a Hawaiian house → LANAI

8. Being prosecuted → ONTRIAL

9. Go downhill fast, say → SKID

10. ___ candy → EYE

11. Chilly → ALOOF

12. Orange juice preference → NOPULP

13. With no one ahead or behind → EVEN

14. Lost all liquid resources → WENTDRY

15. Remove hair from → DEPILATE

16. Main antagonist on HBO's "Euphoria" → NATE

17. Clamors → ADOS

19. Mexicali mister → SENOR

22. Ruptures → BURSTS

27. Over there, poetically → YON

28. Openly reveal one's sexuality → COMEOUT

31. Process for would-be Greeks → RUSH

33. It's over a quarter of a quarter → DIME

35. Features of the names of many Apple products → LOWERCASEIS

37. N.Y.C. stadium eponym → ASHE

38. Doll of a guy? → KEN

39. Vitals checker, in brief → EMT

40. Interrupter of dreams, maybe → ALARM

41. Genre for Keith Haring → POPART

42. Political platforms? → ROSTRA

43. Saxon's foe → CELT

44. Competitive athlete's goal, perhaps → TOPSPEED

47. Guthrie who sang "Alice's Restaurant" → ARLO

48. Bureaucratic barriers → REDTAPE

49. Fuel source → GASOLINE

51. "Care to dance?" → SHALLWE

55. Sea, to Seurat → MER

57. They may be caught in the summer → RAYS

58. Prefix with sphere → ECO

60. Tribute in the Tribune, say → OBIT

63. Flow out → EFFUSE

64. Keys above C's → DFLATS

66. Blesses → OKS

68. "That feels ama-a-azing!" → AAH

70. Alan with six Emmys → ALDA

71. Composer who led the U.S. Marine Band → SOUSA

74. Canniest, for instance → ANAGRAM

76. Artist's feedback session, informally → CRIT

79. Olaf's creator in "Frozen" → ELSA

81. Tops → LIDS

82. Channel supported by pledge drives → PBS

83. "Jenny From the Block" singer, to fans → JLO

84. Immune cell variation → SEROTYPE

86. Flow (out) → POUR

88. Hung around idly → LOITERED

90. "Sorry, I'm unavailable!" → NOTIME

91. Tried to convey → DROVEAT

93. Hide → SECRETE

96. Surgical instrument → LANCET

98. Lifts with a pulley → HOISTS

99. "Dear ___" (greeting in an old advice column) → ANN

100. Overly fault-finding → JUDGY

103. "The Grapes of Wrath" family → JOADS

105. Entered quickly → RANIN

106. Food traditionally eaten with chopsticks → RAMEN

107. Songs on Sundays → HYMNS

108. Actor Davis who delivered Malcolm X's eulogy → OSSIE

109. Gelatinous thickener → AGAR

110. ___ Valley → NAPA

111. Shade lighter than cappuccino → ECRU

112. Decorative auto upgrade → TRIM

113. Mojito garnish → LIME

115. 50,000-watt clear-channel radio station in Iowa → WHO