Monday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 15, 2018

My time: 5:14, so very close!

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Agnes Davidson and Zhouqin Burnikel united to bring us this puzzle celebrating the great Martin Luther King Jr.  Playing off of FREE AT LAST, the final words of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, they give us four more phrases in which the last word is a synonym of "free."  NEW RELEASE, TAX EXEMPT, THE COAST IS CLEAR, and BEG PARDON are the themed answers.

In golf, someone who EAGLES scores two under par.  A birdie is one stroke under par.  An albatross is three under par. There are no other bird names; scores under that are referred to as double bogeys as so on.  But I have some suggestions for bigger or better birds.  Four under par? Osprey.  Five under par?  Condor.  Six under par?  Phoenix.  These are good ideas!

For "praise highly" I wrongly put *EXULT when it's obviously EXALT, and that cost me precious time.

Did you know PRELL was green shampoo?  Me neither.

The French president's palace is the ELYSEE.  Built in 1722, it was occupied by royal mistresses and rich people, until 1848 when it was first used as the residence of the President of the Republic.

MSU, Michigan State University (go Spartans!), is located in East Lansing.

STP is clued today as "big advertiser in auto races."  It appeared on November 6, 2017, as "fuel additive brand."

"Sunoco competitor" CITGO was last seen by me way back on September 4, 2017.

"Alternatives to Nikes" is Oregon brand AVIAS, which came up on September 24, 2017.

Clever clue: "Like food from a West African drive-through?" is TO GO, ha ha.

This was pretty easy, so it both GALLS and IRKS me that I didn't make a new record this Monday.  Ah, well.   That's life.