Today’s puzzle is not only a debut, but it is also a thoughtful tribute to one of the heroes of the film, OBI WAN KENOBI, played by both ALEC GUINESS in the 1977 original Episode IV of the trilogy (still counting in base George Lucas), and EWAN MCGREGOR in Episode I, which came out 22 years after Episode IV. I will leave you to do the math on that one.

One of the things I liked about this puzzle, other than the subject matter, was how easy it was. There’s nothing like feeling that you’ve gotten twice as many answers with half as much work because most of the theme answers are split in two. Your mileage, of course, may vary. The only pitfall here is that there are quite a lot of three-letter words (24 in this grid), and those tend to act as speed bumps for me while solving. Additionally, it was a bit jarring to have an entry like NOL PROS. in a Wednesday puzzle, especially when the rest of it was so easy, but then again, that’s just spiffy ammunition for my mother when she delivers her annual “Why You Should Have Gone to Law School” speech (followed almost immediately by the “Put on Some Lipstick” lecture).