My time: 10:25, less than half the Saturday average! That's more like it!
No theme on Saturdays, but I was misled for a while by the middle Across UFO REPORTS, followed by "joint that sells joints." I knew it was a dispensary, but I put *CBD DISPENSARY and then *THC DISPENSARY, because I got it in my head that there was some three-initial theme going on. But it's the more plebian and prosaic POT DISPENSARY.
Apparently TAMPA is the seat of Hillsborough County. Okay then. The population of the county is 1.23 million, which means this county alone is more populated than the lowest seven or eight states.
The poorly-spelled MEGYN Price is a TV actress about whom I know nothing.
I was surprised to learn that a HALO is a feature in many depictions of Buddha, but there you are. Often in statuary it's represented by a flat ring around his head. Anyway, I thought HALOs were western ideas.
I had no idea that TNT was originally used as a yellow dye! Today I found out! Predictably, it was the Germans who figured out how to make it an efficient explosive.
"Common recyclable" is EMPTY? I said ugh when I filled that in. It just doesn't parse right.
"Super Six, of old autodom" stumped me. I originally thought it might be like a "big six" group of auto makers, I guessed at *EDSEL but it's ESSEX. It turns out the Super Six Coach was a model of car made by the Hudson auto group. The coach was later reused by the ESSEX auto company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hudson. ESSEX also had a model called the Hupmobile.
Never heard of ANN Petry, "first female Africa-American writer with a million-selling novel." She wrote The Street in 1946. She was active in the mid-twentieth century.
I feel like there is a disproportionately large number of handbag questions in the NYT puzzle. I have never heard of FENDI and I don't intend to learn any more about it.
Also never heard of shampoo brand T-GEL. Made by Neutrogena, it's a dandruff shampoo.
Yet again my limited knowledge of Greek myths, on which I claim to be such an expert, lets me down. I know of STYX the river, and the titan/goddess STYX, but I could not have told you that she was the daughter of the titans Oceanus and Tethys (siblings, natch).
"Let know, with off" is TIPPED, but I for some reason was stuck on the sense of "mad and let someone know about it," like told off, and couldn't make anything fit. Likewise, for its cross "entered angrily, say" I wanted to out *STORMED IN but it's STOMPED IN.
EVIE Sands, a singer, was featured on this blog way back in January 2018.
Clever clues: "Ring highlights?" is GEMSTONES. "Place to go that requires cash at the door?" is a wonderful descriptor of a PAY TOILET.
Well GEE, this was a successful puzzle! I was stumped, went down wrong ends, saw the light, and finally emerged victorious. I liked all the clues except that one about recyclables.
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