Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: August 11, 2018

My time: 23:42.  Woo!  That's slow, these days!

--

This one by Ryan McCarty is a themeless, with some deucedly troublesome fill.  I had the most trouble with the southwest corner, where the suspiciously unword-like ALTERANT ("causing change") lies atop the non-famous Falls of New York, GLEN Falls ("Hometown USA!"), and under GET, clued as "trick" (as in, "I got him with this scam.")

Kudos for fitting in ADIEU, ADIEU ("repetitive farewell from 'The Sound of Music'").  And right across from LIEU, too. 

ALGA is, it seems obviously now, from the Latin for seaweed.

I've never heard of Roger MUDD, a newsman for CBS News and NBC News, as well as the History Channel.

Another name unknown to me is Luis SUAREZ, an Uruguayan soccer star who plays as a striker for Barcelona.

I know AVIA from its previous appearances in the puzzle, but didn't know it from "Saucony competitor" because I didn't know Saucony is a shoe company.

Thanks to today's puzzle, I finally know what GEODESISTS do.  They measure and monitor the Earth to determine the exact coordinates of any point.

I knew "what Hawaii has that Alaska lacks" was some kind of wordplay, but I put *DOUBLE I"S, which is true, but it's DOTTED I'S.  This would have been better as "What Hawaii has that Iowa lacks."

The clue that maybe gave me the very most trouble is "stop by."  I put *VISIT but it soon became clear that this wasn't anywhere near right.  It's END AT, which confused me more than a little.  Long after the solve, it dawned on me that it fits in the sense of stopping at a time.  "You can play that game for a while, but you must stop by / END AT ten o'clock."  I must admit that I really only stumbled on this answer by trial and error.

I'm heard of "TIMON of Athens," of course, but sad to say I didn't know he was characterized as a misanthrope.

LEO appeared on June 24 as "proud, passionate type."  Snooze.

Clever clues: "Stumpers?" is POLS.  "Show around the area?" is LOCAL COLOR --- show is a noun here.  "Blarney stone?" is FAUX DIAMOND.  "Seller of shooting equipment" is CAMERA SHOP.  "Places to go out and have a gas?" is OXYGEN BARS.  "Expert on bugs" is TECHIE.

This was a HELLUVA tough puzzle for me. A lot of vague and tricky clues!  McCarty is quite the GAG MAN.