Dined
with a Droid
(o\\aka Partook with Artoo)
by Chris Morse
The
top clues all are for the center of a word that can be terminally
deleted. Below are all the clues for the full words.
Reading down both you get:
_ame for female
sheep
_ecent in comparison
with Result and placeholder
NEWER
(aka result) is the answer
{placeholder}
A(ERAT)E
M(ASTI)C
E(CLIPS)E
F(LATTE)N
O(RIEN)T
R(APT)I
F(LORI)N
E(ROTI)C
M(ERIN)O
A(CRONY)M
L(APSU)P
E(STRAD)A
S(INGE)R
H(AMAT)I
E(ARLES)S
E(SKIM)O
P(ASTER)N