[magus]

 
Bridges of Los Angeles County    JEFF
Shooting Starr  BELLE
Cry that's a laugh backwards   RAH
Slaw and fries   SIDES [as in "sides of beef"?]
Lewis or Lois colleague   CLARK
Henri's conclusion?   ETTA [Henrietta]
Concert finle?    INA [the musical insturment]
Look like a wolf    LEER [don't hear wolf as lecher much anymore, or lecher for that matter --- is there any current word for the guy?  "creep"?]
Theme:
Queen LATIFAH has three musical words in 7 letters.  Good observation!

 
Sunrise direction, in Stuttgart   OST


 
I forgot to post this yesterday --- and it's such a good one!

[phil_m99]

The story behind Merl Reagle's Wednesday puzzle
A lot of people noticed that the fill in Merl's puzzle yesterday was, well, not as smooth as they might expect. A Roman numeral at 1-Down? E-TAIL and A NET? OST and ACADS? Some baseball player we don't all know?


A man in Philadelphia had gotten in touch with Merl, since Merl's Sunday puzzle runs in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The man's wife CLARA (1-Across) is a big fan of crosswords and she has been battling a tough cancer. The man hoped that a newspaper might run a puzzle with a theme devoted to Clara. That, Merl explained, was not possible

[magus]

Thanks, Phil, for that insight.  I enjoyed the puzzle more than most even without knowing its special meaning.  Thanks also to Rich Norris.