Note: This is another in my sequence of post-Mystery-Hunt cryptics, which started with "Still There" and "Post-Game Predictions"; this one was written before the 2004 hunt and refers to the 2003 hunt.


The Sequel

by Kevin Wald

Nearly a year has gone by since the 2003 Mystery Hunt, and the work that inspired that hunt's theme has since spawned two sequels. In this puzzle, some of the Down answers must be altered before being entered in the grid, each in one of two ways that reflect the names attached to these sequels. Other Down answers (and all Across answers) will remain unaltered.

When the grid is filled, you must then (a) find the common elements of the unaltered Down answers, and (b) connect them in the grid in order by clue number. These two results will give you the name that will be attached to the 2003 hunt's own sequel.

ACROSS

1. Observes a wide, pivoting plank (6)
5. Bee stabs bug-killer with great enthusiasm (5)
9. Eternally Byronic, by which I mean "weird" (5)
10. Bostonian who ogles stale Italian bread? (4)
11. An over-large deer's leg joint (5)
12. Little sign for clickable component of web page (4)
13. Ordered pesto in bar (5)
14. Discussed reasons with sagacity (4)
15. Mr. Munster is in lingerie after stripping (5)
16. Odds of spying old clerics getting together (5)
17. Without front- and back-light, Hoffman or Streep role is not selling the same way (11)
22. Slide film is mentioned (5)
23. Piece of furniture with a hundred locks (5)
26. Left almost twenty humongous birds (4)
28. Not an agency that taxes certain kinds of pinots (5)
29. One thousand stray with actress Deborah (4)
30. Small dog drinks primarily oolong tea (5)
31. One whose name is written on sheepskin with a sulfate compound (4)
32. Celebes oxen will hide in piano, astonishingly (5)
33. Minute, hollow fruit tree (5)
34. Spaces where items are stored by jerks (6)

DOWN

1. Celebrity sings to the heavens
2. Celsius wears a Scandinavian bolero, perhaps
3. Passages Erin and others recited
4. Fed and quartered thirty-two, reportedly
5. He detects what Robespierre is hiding
6. Go cycling, mostly in one- or two-piece outfit
7. The author, to start with, still exists
8. Would ultimately spot father
9. The book we had at last obtained through great effort
12. Seek fool or lunatic to protect king (2 wds.)
18. Bungle recasting of, um, Puck (2 wds.)
19. Topless student is one making money
20. Yon shirt and headgear
21. Receives thousands of dollars to hide space alien
22. Flipped over computer gear
23. To film a subject
24. Requests containers of ale with no head
25. Reptile initially ingests flowers
27. Gore is old too

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