Today’s slightly enlarged puzzle (22×22 squares) features some starred answers that, at first glance, don’t appear to fit their clues. 60A: [*Secure again] appears to be REF, which doesn’t make sense. There are also a handful of diagonal synonyms for “quick” and “quickly” in the grid that connect with those starred answers. You start with the starred entries as normal, then continue by moving up those diagonal “quick” words.

• 28A: [*Trailer phrase] is COMING SOON, with the diagonal SOON.
• 42A: [*Just like that] is ALL AT ONCE, with the diagonal AT ONCE.
• 60A: [*Secure again] is REFASTEN. It starts with RE, continues with the diagonal FAST, then finishes with EN in the 41A entry.
• 86A: [*Per earlier comments] is AS STATED. Start with AS, continue with the diagonal STAT, then finish with ED in the 74A entry.
• 105A: [*Bits of wordplay such as “'You look great in those clothes,' she said fittingly”] is TOM SWIFTIES. Start with TOM, continue with the diagonal SWIFT, then finish with IES in the 84A entry.
• 117A: [*Opponents of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000 NBA Finals] is INDIANA PACERS. Start with INDIAN, continue with the diagonal APACE, then finish with RS in the 93A entry.

• 5A: [This is serious!] is STERN. Exclamation points in clues serve an interesting function that’s a little bit different than other punctuation marks. A question mark in a clue is a signal for a pun or wordplay of some kind, where you twist the meaning of a word in the clue to get an answer that you may not expect. An exclamation point, however, is usually meant as a command for you to take the clue literally. For instance, [Beat it!] is a command in regular speech for telling someone to leave, but in crosswords, that might be a clue for the answer DRUM. In today’s clue, you just have to take the clue at its most literal meaning by finding a synonym of “serious.”
• 26A: ["___ for You” (docu-comedy starring comedian Fielder)] is NATHAN. I became familiar with this series, and Nathan Fielder’s newer docu-comedy series, “The Rehearsal” just last year when a friend showed me some episodes. It’s real-life cringe humor and some of the results are hilarious. Here’s a clip from one of the episodes about how he helps a real estate agent rebrand by convincing her to become the “ghost realtor.”
• 41A: [Number of blots in the Rorschach inkblot test] is TEN. Count this as a fact I did not know until I wrote this puzzle.
• 62A: [Ernie ___ Signature (South African wine)] is ELS. I also didn’t know Ernie Els owned his own winery until now.
• 8D: [Another name for Spikeball, a game where you hit a ball into a circular trampoline-like object] is ROUNDNET. I have seen people playing this game in the park, but never knew what its name was.
• 14D: [Song that Senators hear while at work] is O CANADA. That would be the Ottawa Senators of the NHL.
• 101D: [Video game in which a Nintendo character tosses capsules into a medicinal bottle] is “DR. MARIO.” It’s similar to “Tetris” but it has a medical motif. I never played the original game but became aware of Dr. Mario as a character when I unlocked him in “Super Smash Bros. Brawl.”
• 102D: [Subjects of critique for the abolitionists Angela Davis and Mariame Kaba] is PRISONS. I realize that Twitter isn’t always the healthiest space one can visit online, but Mariame Kaba is one of the most insightful voices on it, in my opinion. She posts at the account @prisonculture, which is often locked, but I’d recommend following her there if you get the chance. She’s also the author of the book “We Do This 'Til We Free Us.” She talked with Jeremy Scahill at the Intercept about that book here.