| ALPHAANDOMEGA | The first and last |
| STANTON | Pitcher Mike who got the win in the first and last games of the 2000 World Series |
| CIRCLETHEWAGONS | Assume a defensive position (and one way to highlight the puzzle theme found in the first and last l |
| KHAN | Genghis and Kublai were the first and last rulers of the Mongol Empire to have this title |
| POSTS | Four uprights supporting the canopy or tester and curtains of an antique style of bed; or, the first and last military bugle calls (5) |
| DICTIONARY | Word of God! It out-pages the bible and will forever have the first and last word! (10) |
| TICTACTOE | Pencil game that hints at this puzzle's theme, found in the first and last letters of 18-, 25- and 4 |
| PANTHEISTS | They worship all the culinary gods presumably with bread from the first and last bakers (10) |
| GRACECARMICHAEL | Using Jennings, her middle name, as part of her pen name, what is the first and last name of the poe |
| ISMAELGUELLEH | What is the first and last name of the president of Djibouti who succeeded his uncle, Hassan Gouled |
| TYRANNICAL | The first and last ministry managed Northern Ireland and didn't finish peace - how oppressive is that? (10) |
| BROKEN | With 49- Across, it keeps repeating itself ... and, based on the first and last letters, an apt description of each answer to a starred clue |
| DECOY | Lure to catch one out last month on the first and last of July (5) |
| BOOKENDS | They keep spines upright ... or the first and last two letters of the starred clues' answers, in two ways? |
| FOREIGNLANGUAGE | What's left when you remove the first and last letters of the answers to starred clues |
| ENDPAPERS | ____ connect the boards of a hardback book to the first and last pages |
| TOPAZ | The first and last letters on the highest stone (5) |
| ARROW | Shape of the first and last letters in the Subway logo |
| ADZ | Tool that contains both the first and last letter of the English alphabet |
| ARIZONA | The first and last American state (7) |
