Friday, October 20, 2017

Today's time: 18:14.

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It's a themeless by Peter Wentz! I found it pretty easy for a Friday.

I loved BADA-BING for "and there you have it!"  I know there will be haters for that clue.  I loved it.  And Paulie and Silvio told me they loved it too.

Lots of great and modern fill all over this one: BB SHOT, EPISODE I, USB PORT, ICLOUD, ARCANA, GUY FAWKES MASK ("symbol for a member of Anonymous," which was the first thing I filled in, right across the puzzle).  The only clunker, to me, is ALE HOUSE.  Andy Capp goes to a pub.

"Twerps" is SNIPS.  Yes; see definition 3 in Mirriam-Webster.

"Inverse function in trigonometry" is ARCSINE.  I mentioned on Tuesday that I don't know anything about math.  All I know about arcsine is it's a button on a calculator.  The arcsine is defined as the inverse of the sine function, which would be great if I knew what that was.

I knew "dated women?" would be some kind of joke, and when I saw FAIR emerging I wondered briefly if it might mean set in the past, like wenches at a Renn Faire, but it's the out-dated term FAIR SEX (though I think fairer sex is used more often).

I am the single most clueless-about-sports American male, an ongoing series: I live in Texas, and couldn't figure out who the "Longhorn rival" was without a lot of help from crossfill.
John Jordan "Buck" O'NEIL was the first black coach in Major League Baseball, I think maybe for the Cubs?  His Wiki article seems primarily enamored of is Negro Leagues stats.

The one answer that gave me the most trouble was HODA KOTB.  She's Egyptian-American.  Her name registers as total gibberish to me.  She's a co-host of "The Today Show."  Even after a complete fill, I looked at it and thought, what's Hodak O.T.B?  (Hodak Ol' Tirty Bastard??)

For "places for nightstands" I had *BEDROOMS but it's the more apt BEDSIDES.

For "chucklehead" I had *NITWIT but it's DIMWIT.  Fooled me good!

"Butterfly KOI (fish)" is new to me.  I mean, I've heard of koi, but not this type.  It is also called dragon carp, which we can all agree is way cooler.

I also didn't know that a gibbon is a kind of LESSER ape.  Them and orangutans.  Of course, who made those rankings?  A gibbon might call itself a great ape, and humans a lesser hominid.  The winner always gets to write history and dictate terms.

Clever clues: "things non-PC people buy?" is MACS (I put that in confidently right off). "Sources for labor pains?" is SCABS.

And that's all the things that gave me pause.  No MOW for me.