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Puzzle 8 – Solution – Ignore the Strange and Unusual

Posted on January 31, 2021 by delajeff

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:Β  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.

Rocket Raccoon in the Disney+ Series Civil War Re-enactors of the Galaxy

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

Ken favors legalization

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)Β  over RIDGE (mountain range)

24D:GEENA – tamper with, or anagram, A GENE

Promising Young Women

27D – LEAF – double definition – look through/foliage

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