Today's puzzle is from Matthew! Be sure to check out Happy Little Puzzles for delightful indie offerings. Happy solving!

Matthew says: "This puzzle is a consonantless crossword-- each entry is a real phrase, but it is only represented in the grid by its vowels (enumerations of the base phrases are given in parentheses at the end of each clue). So, MALAIKA HANDA would appear in the grid as AAIAAA, and the clue would include the enumeration (7, 5). Thanks very very much to Steve Mossberg for test solving this and catching a mistake in the first draft! I hope you enjoy this, and if you don't that's okay too."

Across answers:

• RESCUE MISSION
• ST LOUIS MISSOURI
• MARKETING DIRECTOR
• SEQUOIA TREE
• INAUGURAL ADDRESS
• JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
• UNITED NATIONS

Down answers:

• HEAR NO EVIL
• BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
• RELIGIOUS WRITING
• MISSISSIPPI MUDSLIDE
• DIEGO MARADONA
• HOLD YOUR HEAD UP HIGH
• MIXED METAPHOR