Saturday March 2nd 2019, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 18:43
Saturday Average: 36:37
Best Saturday: 10:34

I’m just barely holding onto my blogging GOALS this week as I try to get this one in just barely under the wire. Finally, I completed a crossword in which I didn’t get painfully stuck and rather calmly hacked my way through, wondering if we would have Bette or GEENA Davis, honestly hoping for the former since I just recently watched All About Eve (thanks to the Unspooled podcast).

Good morning from Vietnam, specifically Ho Chi Minh City, home of some truly fine breweries like Pasteur Street, where I found myself last night. I’m staying here for four whole nights, which diminishes my sense of TRANSIENCE during these endless TREKS. And it makes me feel like less of an ERSATZ (a favorite word that reminds me of Magic the Gathering) traveler. I don’t even have any TRAVEL IRONS.

I could think of more than one “Beast slain by Hercules,” but I was happy that NEMEAN LION fit, since it was always one of my favorites as a kid, mostly because the mysterious word “nemean” conjured up a mystical place with mysterious qualities to me.

DENEB is often the 19th brightest star in the sky, I’ve learned.

I’ve seen “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” but did not remember the protagonist LISBETH Salander; that’s a hell of a name.

Now I’m off to wander the streets of Saigon and find a STEIN of beer, or maybe SEVERAL.

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