Catherine Deneuve, The Last Metro, 1980 Saturday, April 25, 2009 Puzzle by Brad Wilber, edited by Will Shortz What would crossword puzzles do without the little guys, you know, the ever-popular YMA and her sisters AMY, MAY, MAE and RAE, or ELO, ENO, ONO and OONA? LEX, REX and TEX? These names get more than their fifteen minutes of fame in crossword puzzles simply because they are inadvertently formed by other words across or down -- whereupon it is the chore of the crossword constructor to disguise them as something else. Today we have VAL disguised as VAL-de-Marne, France, along with his lady friends, ENID and OPAL. However, this Saturday crossword features a geniune parade of people -- ABIE BABY; ANDRES; EELERS; EL CID; ERI; EULER; FRED EBB; FDR; HENRY VIII; ISAAC; KANIN; RON HOWARD; MAE WEST (39D. Who said “I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure”); MOZART (21D. “The Impresario” composer); NIOBE; OAKIE; ODDS MAKER; SCIPIO; SISLEY; TUTSI; WITS. As they all RODE BY (2D. Passed, as in a parade), there were also people in the clues -- ARUBA (16A. Setting of Queen Beatrix Airport); CELIBATE (36D. Like many clerics); SANDALS (14D. Wear for Peppermint Patty); THE LAST METRO (38A. 1980 Truffaut film that won 10 César awards); and uh, maybe WASHBOARD ABS (31A. Desirable trunk feature)? Remaining non-people entries of length -- ASSONANCE; BUNDT PAN; DRAINS OFF; SHORES UP; STEP CLASS. Mid-size -- BRAINY; DROP IT; ETHICS; GO WILD; KEEN ON; LA NINA; MELDED; ODIOUS; PEBBLY; RELIES; THE PITS (38D. Something dreadful). Five letters -- HOTEL; RINSE; SPEED; STROP; SWANK; TAKEN; TUBAS; TYSON. The leftovers -- BASE, BIZ, ENID (20A. City founded during the Cherokee Strip land run), HAS, HOLD, IBEG, IHS (4D. Christian trigram), LEA, NAPA, NHL, NOME, OPAL (30A. It has a play of colors), PER, RARE, SATE, SYNC, TBA, URAL. Ah!…who doesn‘t love a parade?
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