MEOW #65 Matters of the Heart

[Bird Lives]

I forgot about the cat from first look on Wednesday till now and am awaiting confirmation that le chat is at large.
As for the Love Story theme (the theme in this forum, not the music), I will add only that I saw that scene being filmed, just a few yards from where I was living at the time. I couldn't get close enough to hear the dialogue, else I would have know that I was watching history being made. (Full report on Tuesday evening if anyone asks, but it's not much longer than this.)

[vandono]

Politely asking for the full report, whatever the length.

Also..
I've heard from good DrTom that
indeed I've un-sacked the tomcat.

[DrTom]

OK, last of the solvers before I post the answer on the forum:

35 SJMcK
36 Mainemarge
37 johnaldape
38 BrennerTJ
39 vandono
40 Bird Lives

[DrTom]

So, a pretty good week for me all around. I had TWO puzzles, this one and the MMM. Between them there were 88 solvers, so I am delighted.
I don’t think that many people lost heart with this puzzle because it was rather close to a recent (Valentine’s Day) puzzle in its mechanism.

There were 5 answers which are readily associated with the word HEART:
ACHE
OFGOLD
RHYTHM
THROB
ATTACK

Taking the first letter of each in its GRID order gives you AORTA, which was the answer. Several of the medically minded reminded me that the Aorta, being an artery, leads away from the heart, not to it. However, I claimed pathological significance in that the first branches off the Aorta as it leaves the heart are the cardiac arteries, and since that is where ischemic heart disease starts, the prompt holds. Whew, glad I had a way out, otherwise the whole thing might have been in vein!

My thanks to all who solved and all the nice comments you made. I do appreciate everyone's pun comments in out PMs. I often get some great ideas from them, or at least something to drop into a conversation for a GROAN!