Sometimes the times and tides of fortune swing in your favor. Sorry, that metaphor was more mixed than Hilaria Baldwin’s accent. When I created the puzzle, and had Baldwin and Geena clued in the bottom left corner, I was thinking of Alec, not Hilaria/Hillary, and the recently deceased Maitlands from Beetlejuice. Then the media firestorm took off, and so I made the change. The title of the puzzle is from the movie Beetlejuice; the handbook for the recently deceased advises the Maitlands that living people tend to ignore the strange and unusual. That is probably true; there’s no other explanation for how Hilaria Baldwin managed to pass as a Spaniard all these years.
The grid:
The answers, explained:
ACROSS
1A: ZESTY – Z&Y (Coordinates, as in z and y axis) around EST (Eastern Standard Time, NYC’s fall and winter)
4A: SCHOLARLY – S (small) + CH (tech ending) + OL (on line start ups) + ARLY (almost entirely too soon – early)
9A: ARUGULA – the primary, or first, letters of Anthropomorphic Raccoon Unlikely Guardian, Unusually Lovable Avenger, referring to Rocket Raccoon, a character in Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers. Rocket is the British word for Arugula.
10A: REPAIRS – REP (congresswoman) + AIRS (publicizes)
11A: OVA – a lot of (N)OVA – lox
12A: GENIAL – ALE mixed with GIN
13A: GOBI – I (one) + BOG (quagmire), contrarily, or backwards
15A: STARTING – STING (smart) about ART (creative endeavors)
16A: BODEGA – AGED (Elderly) + OB (person who helps with deliveries) returned, or turned around
19A: BAKERY – BAKER (QB Mayfield) + Y (Play’s completion)
20A: PASTICHE – filling of antiPASTI CHEf
23A: LOGO – LOG (record) + O(zero)
25A: URGENT – UR, as in old or original, GENT – Adam
26A: ALASKANS – foremost, or first letters, of Ancestral Primate Entities
28A: WEEKEND – KEN (Barbie’s boyfriend) in WEED (cannabis) cloud – WEE KEN D
29A: IRON MAN – IRAN (Middle Eastern country) takes ON + M(Mutant leader) = IR ON M AN
30A: NEATFREAK – KAREN and FATE anagrammed, or fused together
31A: ELDER – EL (the in Spanish) + DER (Communist, or Red, overturned, or backward).
Down
1D: ZEALOUS – ALO (Iberian introduction) in ZEUS (Greek divinity)
2D: SCUBA TANK – NAB A STUCK tangled, or anagrammed
3D: YOUNGSTERS – wild, or anagrammed OYSTERS surround overturned, or backwards GNU = YO UNG STERS
4D: STAGNANT – STAG and ANT (animals) around N (basin’s end).
5D: HARHAR – RAH RAH (cheer) going up, or backwards
6D: LOPE – ELOPE without the initial e (ecstasy)
7D: RHINO – RH (Rhesus factor) + IN + O (blood type)
8D: YESHIVA – YES (Alright) + HI (hello) + VA (Virginia)
14D: POSTITNOTE – I TEST ON TOP no longer confused, or anagrammed
17D: EXCLAIMED – EX (former partner) + CLAIMED (medical organization, or anagrammed)
18D: MAVERICK – AVER (Attest to the fact that) + MICK (Jagger) on the outside = M AVER ICK
19D: BALDWIN – BALD (outright) + WIN (victory)
21D: ELEANOR – LEAN (lo-fat meat, or middle) + ROE (caviar upscale, or backwards) = E LEAN OR
22D: BRIDGE – B (Bomber, as in B-52) over RIDGE (mountain range)
24D:GEENA – tamper with, or anagram, A GENE
27D – LEAF – double definition – look through/foliage