Friday, November 17, 2017

My time: 20:39.

--

Zhouqin Burnikel is the author of this head-scratcher.  No theme; it's Friday.  Just vague clues and a shedload of fill that's new to me.  Let's get to it; I'll be here a good long while.

CITIBIKES is the name of the bicycle-sharing (read: renting) service in New York.

Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan was a pilot who flew from Long Beach to New York, and then, although his flight plan was to return to California, instead kept flying EAST to Ireland.  He claimed it was due to mechanical error, but many people believe he did it intentionally, having previously asked for permission to fly to Ireland and having been denied.

An OGEE is an S-shaped molding.  It looks like this.

Did you know IMAN had a fashion line called Global Chic?  Me neither.

Who calls Prudential PRU?  Anyone?

Apparently New York Law School is in TRIBECA.  The NYT puzzle is sometimes overly New York-centric.

I'm proud that I pulled duck variety SMEW out of my mental microfiche unaided.  SMEW!  Ha.

INNER EARS are embedded in temporal bones.  Sure, but it would have helped if I had more quickly remembered what temporal bones are.

TOKYO DOME is the name of the Yomiuri Giants' home stadium.  Come on, I don't even know about my own country's sports.

Case in point: TINO Martinez, a first baseman and hitter for the Yankees and a few other teams.  He had to resign as a coach because of allegations of abusive behavior toward players.  Never heard of the guy.

Also, Chase UTLEY, which is a ridiculous name, who is also a second baseman and good hitter.

Also, there's a golfer named ISAO Aoki.  He won the PGA tour once.

Both of the above people are so unknown to me that I initially thought their names were "Utley Chase" and "Aoki Isao."

"Pen name" is devious.  *NOM DE PLUME fits and put it in; it's the pen brand ERASERMATE.

"Pulitzer-prize winning poet of 1947 and 1974" is LOWELL, meaning Robert Lowell.  In 1947, he won for his book Lord Weary's Castle.  It contains "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket," which is strong stuff.  In 1974 he won for The Dolphin, which was controversial because he used and altered letters from his ex-wife without permission.

A lot of clever clues, just like last time: "pressing warning" is DO NOT IRON.  "Had a stable job?" is SHOOED.  "Cooler person?" is FELON.  "Warning about reaching a braking point" is STOP AHEAD.  "Chain unit, maybe" is both ATOLL and KARAT.

Well, another Friday down.  Not with EASE, however.  I made a lot of EROS when I filled it in.