AZ, BY, CX Etcetera

      AZ
 
"Absolute zero's one
get-go,* albeit a
bleak,"  
     specs A-
lexis,** who's married with
children and swears, "Yeah: I’m
Greek.”
   
     * Possibly the so-called 

Great Get-Go, often confused 

with the Big Bang.
     ** Zorba.
 
     BY
 
     "Be your-
self! (HO* whom else would you
be…?" asks (rhetoric'lly)
Boris.** 
     "To be
anyone else might cause
Mother*** some serious
tsoris."
 
     * Russian Cyrillics for 'but' and
pronounced (roughly) 'noh.'
     * Yeltsin    

     *** Mother Russia.
 
      CX
 
     "Con-
temn xenophobes! Contemn,"
Rhumba King Cugat* re-
peats.  
     (Just as
he would be treated, each
stranger this vir bonus**
treats.)
  
     * Xavier (a reverso: cf XC below.)
     ** What the good man does is 

always right – or so (someplace) 

suggest the Brothers Grimm.
 
     DW
 
     “Do with-
out! Pledge thy pounds to the
poor," warbles Dionne* (sweet
song bird),  
     tho’ 'tis
Bacharach (Burt) who will 
soon teach her right word from
wrong word.
 
     * Warwick
 
     EV  
 
     "’Every 
valley exalted shall
be; every rough place made
plain’:   
     I shall
dance thee that text," Edward*
vows, "in a Balanchine
vein."
 
     * Villella
 
     FU  
 
     "I’m fed
up! UFOs, UR-
Ls, UXBs..." fumes our
Felix.*
     "In the
end, all they yield is some
abecedarial 
helix."
 
     * Unger
 
     GT 
 
     "Gin and
tonic plus juice of one 
lime: pour the lot over 
ice..." 
      prescribes 
Gene.* "Good advice," echoes
Gene.** "One innocuous
vice!"
 
     * Tierney   

     ** Tunney 
 
     HS
 
     Hunting
snarks is a task for which
Harry is thoroughly
fit.
     “Harry
who…?” you may ask. “Harry
Shearer,” says I. (Holy
shit!)
 
     IR
 
     "I, 
Robot, rest my
case," in tones Rum-
polean...
     roars I-
rene.* "I'd rap it,
were I Rock 'n' 
Rollean."
 
     * Ryan
 
     JQ
 
     "John
Quincey ain't the 
seventh Chief Ex-
ec," corrects Jo-
se*...
     "He's
sixth, post James Mon-
roe…but what the
heck! (More: what the
hey!!)
 
     * Quintero 
 
     KP  
 
"Key personnel…? Kevin…?
Paul…? Rajon…? Ray…?" Kendrick*
wonders.
     Then Perk's
traded, which trade shall yet
prove one of Beantown’s worst 
blunders.
 
     * Perkins
 
     LO
 
     Leigh/O-
livier, Lunt/Fontaine.
Which duo's dropp’d from the
list... 
     of great 
thespian pairs…? Jolie/ 
Pitt…? LOL! (Won't be 
miss’d.)
 
     MN
 
     "Mach'a-
vellian, not to say
cynical: 'twas just her 
way..." 
     muses
Mike,* as he pegs one-time
partner, the late Elaine 
May.
 
     * Nichols
 
     NM 
 
     "Not
much!" mutters Norman,* when
asked if he liked married 
life. 
      "Good when
naked, but less good when 
dead: much depends on the
wife."
 
     * Mailer
 
     OL  
 
     Ozy-
mandias: "Look on my
burg, Mr. Big, and des-
pair!"…?
     Nope! Or-
lando*: "Give ear to my
music...or not: I don't
care."
 
     * Lasso
 
     PK
 
Pre-kindergarteners…?
Percy Kilbride…? Phyllis
Kirk…?
     Seems, at
best, and anachronist’s
nightmare. (At worst, it’s
berserk.)
 
     QJ
 
     “Quince
jam…? Nope: quince jam session:
five each of trumpets, trom-
bones,
     pairs of
altos and tenors, one
bari,” suggests Quincy
Jones.
 
     RI
 
     “I
did it for LOVE, in a
pop-arty, hard-edgy
style, and
    I would
do it again – if less
well were I Robert Rhode
Island.*”
 
     * I.e., not Robert Indiana
 
     SH
     “Sal He-
patica: that’s what I
need,” Stephen Hawking re-
marks.
     “Sarah
Huckabee boosts it for
hunting of quarks – those, or
snarks.”
 
     TG
 
     “Thank
God!” cries The Grinch. “I’m re-
lieved there’s to be no re-
prisal.”
     “’Thank’ a-
gain, creature mine. If you
play, you must pay,” warns Ted
Geisel.
 
     UF
 
    “Two
thirds of a UFO…?
Better than none,” observes
Ugo.*
    “If one
rides offers, I’ll take a
rain check. I know: why don’t
you go.”

    * Foscolo
 
     VE, WD
 
     William
Demarest, Victor Em-
Manuel (not in that
order),
     having
given their goods to the
poor, promptly head for the
border.
 
     XC
    
     De
Jesus Ximenes, born
Claudio, judge in East
Timor,
     is a-
shamed of his parents:
he’d hoped that his ol' dad could
be more.
 
     YB
 
     Yul
Brynner is not Yogi
Bear. Of that fact I am
sure.
     To in-
sist Yul is not Yogi
Berra…? A bit prema-
ture.
 
     ZA
 
     Deni
Avdija, NBA
forward and scion of
Zufer,
     allows
sports fans who follow such
stuff to observe, “Look: a
twofer!”