It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But, as Julius Caesar said when he received a carved marble bust in his own image, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Today's tribute puzzle by Byron Walden (answers) reminds us that being recently deceased is a great way to get a crossword published in your honor. Oh, you also have to be famous, so it turns out to be harder than you might imagine. Sydney Carton (who never got an NYT puzzle tribute) made the ultimate sacrifice at the end of A Tale of Two Cities and as he said on his way up to the guillotine, "it is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done." If you can read that last sentence without hearing the voice of Ronald Colman, you've never seen the 1935 film.
Whatever you think of Mr. Heston's politics, you have to give him credit for his gift to his cruciverbal eulogist. Ten Commandments and Planet of the Apes each have exactly fifteen letters. That must have been a delightful discovery for Mr. Walden.
There were two nice examples of indirection today. ENDORA was clued not as Samantha's mother, but as Tabitha's grandmother. ARI Fleischer, not normally thought of as an author, get's clued as "Taking Heat memoirist." He certainly did take some heat. Man, what a tough job he had. Can you even imagine?