BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Last period of the Mesozoic era, occurring between the Jurassic and Tertiary periods ( 10) 5 Port city on the River Danube in NE Serbia; capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina ( 4,3) 10 Long twisting constellation of the southern hemisphere whose brightest star is Achernar ( 8) 11 Smallest island country in the world, in the SW Pacific just south of the equator ( 5) 12 Second- longest river of France, rising 30 kilometres northwest of Dijon and emptying into the English Channel near Le Havre ( 5) 13 and 27 Across Socialist President of France succeeded by Emmanuel Macron in 2017 ( 8,8) 14 Milton ___, Ugandan statesman; Prime Minister 1962– 6 and President 1966– 71 and 1980– 5 ( 5) 15 Town of NW Germany said to have been visited by a legendary Pied Piper in 1284 ( 7) 18 Daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, and sister of Ismene, Eteocles and Polynices ( 8) 20 Popular type of Japanese animated film pioneered by animator Osamu Tezuka in the 1960s ( 5) 22 Any of the eight living species of mammal comprising the family Ursidae, in the order Carnivora ( 4) 23 Edible part of a grain or pulse other than wheat ground to a powder ( 4) 24 Professional shark hunter played by Robert Shaw in the 1975 film Jaws ( 5) 27 See 13 29 Stalk of a leaf, by which the blade ( lamina) is attached to the stem ( 7) 31 Large Japanese dog of the spitz type officially declared a national treasure in 1931 ( 5) 32 1987 science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger ( 8) 34 1941 animated Disney film remade in live action by Tim Burton in 2019 ( 5) 35 King of Crete in Greek mythology for whom Daedalus built the Labyrinth to contain the Minotaur ( 5) 36 3021- year historical period during which the events of J R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings took place ( 5,3) 37 Member of an ancient people living south of the Dead Sea in biblical times, said to be descended from Esau ( 7) 38 Actress who plays Carol Young in the 2020 romantic drama film After We Collided ( 5,5)
DOWN
1 Capital of the Hunan province of SE China, on the lower reaches of the Xiang River ( 8) 2 Sulphur- containing amino acid important in the metabolism of fats, first discovered in ox bile in 1827 ( 7) 3 Omission of a sound or syllable in a word, as when over becomes o’er or it is becomes ‘ tis ( 7) 4 Twentieth letter of the Greek alphabet, transliterated into English as ‘ y’ or ‘ u’ ( 7) 6 Pseudonym of British novelist Marie Louise de la Ramée ( 1839– 1908); Under Two Flags ( 1867), A Dog of Flanders ( 1872) etc. ( 5) 7 Capital of the Dominican Republic, known from 1936 to 1961 as Ciudad Trujillo ( 5,7) 8 ‘ If you can meet with triumph and ___/ And treat those two impostors just the same’ ( Rudyard Kipling ‘ If—’ ( 1910) ( 8) 9 Nickname for a Yeoman Warder or Yeoman of the Guard at the Tower of London, in use since the 17th century ( 9) 16 Peruvian statesman who served as interim President between 10 and 15 November 2020 ( 6,6) 17 Mutant played by Shawn Ashmore in four films of the X- Men film franchise between 2000 and 2014 ( 6) 19 In physics and mechanics, a force that imparts rotation to a body to which it is applied ( 6) 21 Love interest of the comic- book hero Flash Gordon, played by Melody Anderson in a 1980 film ( 4,5) 25 Dried and smoked jalapeño chilli pepper used in Mexican cuisine, especially in salsas; from Nahuatl ( 8) 26 Two- terminal electrical component that becomes a potentiometer when a third terminal is added ( 8) 28 Slender long- tailed cat breed typically having slanting blue eyes and pale fur with dark points ( 7) 29 Word derived from, or having the same root as, another, e. g. just/ justice, wise/ wisdom etc. ( 7) 30 Person without religious belief, or whose religion is not that of the majority; from Latin, ‘ unfaithful’ ( 7) 33 In anatomy, a region of the body containing a system of organs or tissues serving a particular function ( 5)