Tuesday, October 17, 2017

My time: 7:07, five seconds shy of a new record.  Man, I wish I had hurried.  Or taken note of the time while I was playing it.

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Jeff Chen gives us a theme in which CON MEN "target the starts of" several clued entries such as PIGEON COOP, MARK ANTHONY, and CHUMP CHANGE.  I enjoy a clever theme that asks "what do these unrelated words have in common, if you define them slightly differently."

Despite the very quick time, I had a lot of pauses and unknowns on this puzzle.

I spaced on the name of the BANYAN, the fig tree that's the national tree of India.

A BETA RAY, or beta particle, is a forming of ionizing radiation in which an electron or positron is emitted from an atomic nucleus during radioactive decay.  And not, you know, this guy.

For "Canadian plans tribe" I had *ERIE but it was CREE.  The Cree Nation has about 200,000 members in Canada.  The Erie, on the other hand, lived in New York and Ohio, and were wiped out by the Iroquois.  So, my answer was pretty uninformed.  Ha, ha!  I'm white.

A.P. CALC is a "high-level H.S. class with integrals."  Integrals are mathematical objects that can assign numbers to describe area, displacement, volume.  The opposite of integration is differentiation.  I don't know anything about math.  In my senior year of high school I was taking Algebra II with the ninth-graders.

"Pro at building financial worth, slangily" is IBANKER.  Not in my vocabulary.  That would be iBanker I suppose.  I guess that means investment banker.  Or pompous ass?  Something like that.

Did you know Anne HECHE was in Donnie Brasco?

Some AL sluggers are DHs. That means Designated Hitter.  He hits for the pitcher, who is apparently some kind of sissy.

"Int'l. group headquartered in DC" is OAS.  That is the Organization for American States, which is designed to promote solidarity and cooperation across the Americas.

Clever clue: "It has its charms" is VOODOO.

And that's it.  U CONN come back tomorrow for the next installment.