Friday, October 27, 2017

My time: 23:47.  I am on a slow streak.  I didn't really try today but even so that's slow.

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This puzzle is by David Steinberg, and it was a toughie.  There's definitely a whole lot of fun, colloquial, modern fill like EPIC FAIL, EMOTICON, BAD SANTA, LINKEDIN PROFILE, KRUSTY, IT WAS A JOKE, TROLLS (in the sense of "forum annoyances"), and so on.  And there wasn't even very much that was unfamiliar to me.  But there were the usual Friday vague clues, and I just kept second-guessing myself and putting in wrong answers and then sticking with them.

Things started off poorly when I did not remember "Disney exec" Bob IGER, who is the CEO of Disney who replaced Michael Eisner.

I then ran into PINK VIAGRA, "sex drive enhancer introduced in 2015."  It never hit my radar.  The colorful name is only a colloquialism.  The pharmaceutical name is flibanserin.

"Heaps" is A TON, which is annoyingly tricky because it could be a lot but the payoff of figuring out which it is is so small as to be unmeasurable by science.

Likewise, for "gab" I put *YAP but it's YAK.

For "aid for establishing rapport" I confidently put in *ICE BREAKER but it's EYE CONTACT.  My answer is better.

"Flanders red and others" is ALES.  I never drink beer so this isn't in my wheelhouse.  They are apparently known for their sour, tart, fruity tastes.

For "have one's hard work recognized" I put *GET AN "E" FOR EFFORT, when it is the actual phrase, GET AN "A" FOR EFFORT.

Today we get anago and unagi as an example of EEL, but not unadon.

"Summer hrs. in Somerville" is EDT.  It would help if I knew that Somerville is in Massachusetts.

Allen TATE, "onetime US poet laureate," held that title from 1943 to 1944 and seems to be remembered today mostly for being a nasty old bigot.

I never knew the name of JEN Psaki, "White House communications director under Obama."  Chauvinist pig that I am, I assumed *JON at first.

Clever clues: "line judge?" is PALM READER.  "Something that's had its head turned?" is EMOTICON.

That's it FOE today.