Vowelless Crossword, Friday, 1/4 (NY Sun)

NYS 20:52

Frank Longo's Friday New York Sun puzzle is entitled, "Vwllss Crsswrd," and all the vowels have been omitted from the answers. None of the answers include a Y, so there's no need to ponder whether Y counts as a consonant or vowel.

Let's look at how fancy this 62-entry baby is. Quadruple-stacked 15-letter entries at the top and bottom! Another 15 across the middle!

I confess that I Googled three times—once to confirm that I had the right title in mind for the George Clooney sequel, once to look up the Broadway director (Broadway is not my bag), and once to look up the cruise company. (If it's not Royal Caribbean, Carnival, or Princess, what else could it be? Oh, one I've never heard of. Gotcha.) And I did stop the Across Lite timer a few times, for a break or for Googling, so really, my time's longer than what's posted above. But the posted time is about 2.5 times longer than last Saturday's NYT themeless by Klahn, so yeah, this puppy's a killer. I suspect the clues would have felt pretty tough even if I knew how many letters the answer really had (with vowels).

If you've got the answers filled in but the alphabet soup of consonants doesn't always make sense, I've got my answers listed below (use your mouse to highlight the text). If you filled in the vowels another way, feel free to share your answers.

Across

1. best live-action short film
16. German short-haired pointer
17. sets the record straight
18. trip cancellation insurance
19. airiest
20. pigeon
21. misperception
29. surprises
31. mutual agreements
33. ties in
34. transcendental meditation
38. total
39. detention center
40. brine-cured
43. dermatological
44. bunt
45. Debbie
47. Return of the Killer Tomatoes
57. Orlando International Airport
58. went in the right direction
59. assistant administrators

Down

1. Big East
2. Sartre
3. "Time's up!"
4. lunatic
5. Vishnu
6. Chirac
7. treacle
8. natural
9. shed a tear
10. hoarseness
11. radiation treatment
12. tapers
13. fingerprinting
14. loathings
15. morticians
21. Mamet
22. Easter
23. plant nutrients
24. orgiastic
25. circular definition
26. apeman
27. tended
28. intonated
30. episodical
32. stainer
35. Altima
36. attic
37. neural
40. Abe Burrows
41. Orient Lines
42. "I doubt that"
46. abhorred
48. andante
49. "King me!"
50. Lithuania
51. lean-tos
52. ruled out
53. terrier
54. impact
55. traitor
56. steins