| 100% | IALWAYSTHOUGHTI | 15 | With 37- and 60-Across, a musing |
| 83% | IWONDERWHERETHE | 15 | With 37- and 38-Across, a musing |
| 67% | SIGNONTHE | 9 | With 60-Across, ink a contract ... or a feature of 17-, 25- and 37-Across |
| 66% | IFYOUCHOKE | 10 | With 37- and 67-Across, a question |
| 65% | HOWTOWINFRIENDS | 15 | With 37- and 61-Across, a 1936 title |
| 65% | EVERYSPRING | 11 | With 37- and 64-Across, a seasonal observation |
| 65% | PASTPERFORMANCE | 15 | With 37- and 57-Across, a common warning |
| 61% | LETITSNOW | 9 | With 37-Across and 37-Across, a holiday song |
| 60% | DONTBEGIN | 9 | With 40- and 60-Across, a cautionary message |
| 59% | THEYLIVED | 9 | With 37-Across, and 59-Across, a familiar finale |
| 58% | SECRET | 6 | With 37-Across, Election Day practice ... and a hint to this puzzle's theme |
| 58% | DARK | 4 | With 37-Across, fall of Rome aftermath, and a hint to the puzzle theme |
| 56% | ODDS | 4 | With 37- Across and 44-Down, miscellany |
| 56% | HEAD | 4 | With 37-Across, hair accessory ... or a literal hint to 19-, 27-, 47- and 56-Across |
| 56% | WHEELOF | 7 | With 37-Across, card in a tarot deck, and a hint to each circled letter set |
| 56% | YOUR | 4 | With 37- and 39-Across, book and TV series on human evolution, and a hint to the circled letters |
| 55% | TILTA | 5 | With 37-Across, spinning amusement ride, and a hint to this puzzle's design and circled letters |
| 55% | DELLA | 5 | With 37-Across, "Touched by an Angel" actress who played a landlady on "Chico and the Man" |
| 55% | MAIL | 4 | With 37-Across, perform perfunctorily … or a hint to the ends of 16-, 25-, 41- and 55-Across |
| 54% | FASHION | 7 | With 37-Across, up on the latest trends, and a fitting description of the answers to the starred clues? |
| 54% | XXXXXX | 6 | Muse with a globe and compass |
| 53% | MEDICAL | 7 | With 37 Across, health-care jobs of 19 and 49 Across |
| 53% | EXCUSEMEOFFICER | 15 | With 38- and 60-Across, what the man caught taking a dip in the reservoir said |
| 52% | BANANA | 6 | With 37-Across, some ice cream confections … or a hint to the second, fifth, eleventh and fourteenth rows of this puzzle |
| 52% | ADDAMS | 6 | With 27-Across and 37-Across, Anjelica Huston/Raúl Juliá film with a first Thanksgiving reenactment scene |
| 52% | ERATO | 5 | Muse with a wreath of myrtle and roses |
| 52% | BORNWITHA | 9 | With 37- and 50-Across, privileged |
| 51% | BUTDOCTOR | 9 | With 14 and 19 Across, punchline of a joke about a clown |
| 50% | CROSSWORDPUZZLE | 15 | With 37- and 56-Across, what this is |
| 49% | WHATA | 5 | With 15 and 20 Across, a 1967 song sung by Louis Armstrong in "Good Morning, Vietnam" |