Here's a "week one" meta for you; it includes 5 clues with a leading asterisk which should hopefully bring the difficulty down a bit! I had some fun putting this one together. I trust you will enjoy solving it and seeking the answer to the meta, which is a girl's name. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=141509#p141509
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$10 gives you access to 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game. You won't quite know what to expect: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, sometimes all of those, and sometimes none! One thing is for sure, these are some of the more creative metas my brain has been able to come up with. And there's more: this time there's a mega-meta!
My blurb specified "leading asterisks" deliberately! ;)
HeadinHome 🤓15:33 · 2023-09-05T17:41:55.265Z
Whew - that was a google workout! Once I got the alternate “El-“ words, I tried the correct method, but since I had Eliezar for the third part, I gave up on the (correct) mechanism (Eleaior??). Just started guessing El-names for girls and got lucky on Eleanor. Now I see I should have read a little further in the Ezra verse!
MatthewL 🤓5:29 · 2023-09-05T18:04:04.990Z
Uggh. Got stuck on ELP too. Took a while. And that's with both my mother in law and sister in law being named Eleanor. Cannot believe I didn't see it sooner. Oh well, lovely puzzle, Ben! Thanks.
Carolyn 2s · 2023-09-05T18:03:59.976Z
Cute!
JM 10:54 · 2023-09-05T19:04:57.838Z
Nice one! Some day I would like to see Ingrid Bergman from Casa Blanca clued as “La Ilsa Bonita.”
Very fun puzzle thanks you! Sagittarius A* threw me off! I had ?EANO for a while before scanning the clues again and realized I missed the LOTR asterisked clue… whoops … btw I think 67A is a typo?
Yes, I corrected the clue when someone suggested the original clue ("Mrs. Sacha Baron Cohen") was wrong. Trouble is, the replacement clue ("La ___ Bonita") was also wrong. I've since edited it again!
I K Snamhcok 🤓11:56 · 2023-09-05T20:26:57.588Z
I also had ELP at first. And i had hoped to see my own personal fictional hero — Kal-El, aka Clark Kent, aka Superman — here, but I’m very pleased to have found ELEANOR, which is my dear daughter-in-law’s middle name. Very nice!
Shortcut it a bit since it was advertised as a week 1, so once I caught on to the EL start and had the five replacements I just jumped to Eleanor. Didn't notice until I came here that the first letters spelled out the rest for me (which would have been useful, since I had to look up the spelling ). Lack of knowledge and less than easy google path made getting the 40A replacement tricky, but eventually I got literal and just typed the clue into google, which produced the correct answer. Neat and tidy in the end, but yeah maybe more week 2 than 1. :) Fun stuff, thanks.
No relation, at least not unless you go back many generations. The name is Cornish, btw.
whimsy 12:36 · 2023-09-07T01:41:52.323Z
Happy Birthday, Eleanor! (Aren't you glad they didn't name you Wilhelmina -- my first off-the-wall guess!)
Thanks for a somewhat challenging but fun puzzle!
ReB 5s · 2023-09-08T00:05:31.082Z
Unfortunately, other than for 39A, I had to look up/google all the other themers as the themers were not in my knowledge base. Even still, I needed one more nudge to get me out of my 42A rabbit hole (ELK), after which the answer came immediately. Not one of my more successful weeks.
Cindy Heisler 2s · 2023-09-08T13:31:34.136Z
Happy Birthday to your daughter! Thanks for the puzzle.