Sunday, September 10, 2017

My time: 30:24, a new record!  Yessss.

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The theme here is adding the sound /sī/ to various phrases and cluing them literally, so static cling becomes STATIC CYCLING ("spin class activity?"), PC clones becomes PC CYCLONES ("storms that don't offend?"), draws nigh becomes DRAWS SINAI ("makes a quick map of an Egyptian peninsula?"), and low frequency becomes SILO FREQUENCY ("number of appearances in a grain holder?").

So.  Funny!  Ha ha!

ONEONTA is a city in central New York, and it has "one of the SUNY schools."

"What Siri runs on" is IOS, which is Apple's operating system.

SKYTEL?  What the hell is that?  The thing that comes alive in the Terminator movies?  Oh yeah, that's Skynet.  Skytel is a wireless data company.

Thing I don't believe I have ever heard in my life: YLEM.  It's the primordial ooze from which all matter was formed!  Good word.

For "Europe's largest lake" I put *BAIKAL, but that's apparently the deepest freshwater lake.  The largest lake in Europe is LADOGA, a lake in Russia, and the 14th largest freshwater lake in the world.  

"Action at a bris" is SNIP!  Yikes!

War su GAI, a Chinese chicken dish, sounds pretty good.

Richard ESTES is known for his photorealist paintings of reflective, modern surfaces and cityscapes.  Diners, windows, chrome, that sort of thing.  Here's a gallery.  

"Black church inits." is AME, or African Methodist Episcopal.  The clue seems a little hamfisted and unwoke.  Maybe the clue could ave referred to its history or acts rather than its blackness?  Would we say "white church inits." for SBC?

"Common opening bid in bridge" is ONE NO.  Apparently NYT puzzle makers believe that bridge is a popular activity in 2017.  Anyway, "one no" is short for "one no trump," which probably means something, but this is Greek to me.  I like the "no Trump" part at least.  A cursory search did not show me that anyone says "one no" without adding the trump part.

Alicia WITT is yet another actress I have never heard of.  Apparently she is also a singer-songwriter.

RUM is the main drink in an Aunt Agatha, which according to the linked source at least was named after the disapproving aunt in my beloved Bertie and Jeeves books.  How have I not heard of this cocktail?

IRENE Joliot-Curie was the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie.  With her husband (of course), she won the Chemistry Nobel for her discovery of artificial radioactivity.