Saturday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 27, 2018

My time: 17:09, an excellent time for me!

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A nice themeless by Mark Diehl.  It has a lot of interesting fill, like MARIE CURIE, BEER GUT, TRASHMOUTH, BLOODBORNE, STEADY DIET, TEAM EVENTS, ERRATA PAGE, ZYNGA, and more.

HEME is the red pigment in blood.  It's responsible for the red color in hemoglobin.

I only just recently heard about a Caesar cocktail; I read about it in a Mexican restaurant.  Sometimes it's called a Bloody Caesar.  It has CLAM JUICE!  Ick.

THINK YOUNG is clued as "be open-minded, maybe?"  So... so, so, what, exactly?  Being young is equal to being open minded, so old people are inherently close-minded?  [starts drafting angry letter to Mark Diehl on 1917 Corona typewriter]

New word to me: "trigger-to-cylinder connection" is PAWL.  In general use, it's a bolt that falls into notches in a mechanism to ensure movement in only one direction.

And another new word: POMACE, the pulpy residue from cider making.

"Hello, MARY LOU" was a hit for Ricky Nelson in 1961, but it was written by Gene Pitney.

Isfahan is the capital of Isfahan Province in Iran.  It's famous for its Islamic architecture.  It served as the capital of Persia in the past, but now his home to nearly four million IRANIANs.

Likewise, Thimphu is the capital of Bhutan.  It is home to 104,00 BHUTANI people.  I would memorize all 195 world capitals, if I were any kind of crossword doing guy.

Megan BOONE is an actress best known for "The Blacklist."  I saw a couple of episodes.  It was okay.  It's no "Breaking Bad."

"He hit a homer!  Folks, he hit the laces right off that ball!  He's rounding the bases now!  What a DINGER!  What a humdinger!"

For "green-skinned fruit" I had *APPLE for a long time, which slowed me up!  It's ANJOU.

For "tied up, in he operating room" I had *SUTURED for a long time, which also caused me trouble.  It's LIGATED.

Clever clues: "Side with?" is ABUT. "Space race?" is ALIENS.  "Kept close to one's chest?" is HUGGED.  "Bad way to get to work" is LATE.  "Something you may lay down or break" is THE LAW.

This was a fast time, but EWE can bet I can do it faster... someday.