Saturday, September 30, 2017

Today's time: 18:30, a new record!

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A pretty clever puzzle by Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen.

I would have had an even faster time, but got hung up on the south.  For "home of Rembrandt's The Night Watch" I ended up with *RIETSMUSEUM, which seemed reasonably Dutch to me.  This is one of the cases wherein I would have just had a DNF if it hadn't been for doing it online, which told me I had some errors.  So I changed *V-E DAY to V-J DAY, and changed "track prize" to STAKES from the incorrect *STATES.  (You know, as in "We won the regional, and now we're going to States!"  No?  Apparently it's just "going to State.")  So anyway that makes The Night Watch living at RIJKSMUSEUM, which is even more appropriately Dutch!

For "yours truly, facetiously," I got stuck on thinking of letter closings.  It's actually the term for MOI, as used by Miss Piggy.

I liked "reception figures" being both EARS (surely an incomprehensible answer to those born after 1980) and DJS.

I got PHLOX by naming flowers that fit; I didn't know it was Greek for flame.  But it makes sense, if you think about phlogiston.

I think K-MART's slogan "The Saving Place" is before my time.  Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Ask AMY, syndicated advice column.  Not Ask Ann.  Amy Dickinson.

San Luis OBISPO, or SLO to the locals, is known for Bubblegum Alley, where wads of chewed gum cover walls.  Ick, how gross!

Point REYES National Seashore is a coastal park in Marin County, California.

I find it hard to remember if the author of the novel The Phantom of the Opera is Gaston *LAROUX or LEROUX.  He is also well known among mystery fans for his The Mystery of the Yellow Room.

"Setting of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" ends up being G MAJOR.  I feel like that is misusing the word "setting" somehow.  Also it seems like it is played in different keys than G at times, so.

I'm glad the Young Frankenstein assistant was INGA and not Igor.

IDEAL GAS is a "substance obeying Boyle's law," which is an experimental gas law, making the gas in question largely hypothetical, much like my sex life until late college.  Basically the law states that the pressure a gas exerts is inversely proportional to the volume it occupies.

Clever clues: "under the weather while above the clouds" is AIRSICK.  "Become lightheaded" is GO BLONDE. (I was looking at the partial fill, thinking, *GO BLOODY?  As in, loss of blood?)