the_excerpt() cutting mid sentance

That is interesting. The first listing is a little bit longer and has a more tag. The others don’t. Is it exactly the same loop/code producing all of those post listings?

Yes the loop is identical. I am not doing anything goofy with the excerpt except tacking on the …more tag

There is another difference– the first post does not have that light gray subhead/byline like the others have. Whatever code is adding or removing that may be adjusting (incorrectly it looks like) the excerpt length to compensate.