04.02.07 -- Latin Lover

Puzzle by Richard Hughes

Three 15-letter Latin phrases each stretching completely across the grid, AMOR VINCIT OMNIA (love conquers all), NON COMPOS MENTIS (not of sound mind), PERSONA NON GRATA (an unwelcome person), bracketed at the beginning and end of the puzzle with LATIN and LOVER, with the sad little notation "Shuffles off this mortal coil" as a clue for DIES, which "Latin Lover" Rudolph Valentino did most famously. This grid is PEPPERY with other pseudo-Latin and Latin Lover fill. One could almost join the three phrases into a spurned lover’s lament -- or they could serve as an exercise from Latin 101 for those who love Latin! This is a wonderful little Monday puzzle.

Pictured: 1A, 71A and 28A (Rudolph Valentino Dies), 39A (Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”), 20A ("Amor Victorious" by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio), 57A (Napoleon Bonaparte) -- left click to enlarge images and puzzle .

It’s sad when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son. I can’t allow them to think I would commit murder. They’ll put him away now as I should have years ago. He was always bad and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man. As if I could do anything but just sit and stare like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can’t move a finger and I want to just sit here and be quiet just in case they suspect me. They’re probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of person I am. I’m not even going to swat that fly. I hope they’re watching. They’ll see. They’ll see and they’ll say, “Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly.”