Thursday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 4, 2018

My time: 19:31.

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This is one of those puzzles that is baffling at first and then, once you've caught on, practically fills itself in.  Daniel Mauer asks up to find the 4WARDING ADDRESS of the themed clues, which are then put in verbatim, as the written clue, rather than as an another answer.

For example, the answer to "ten cents" is 12 DOWN, while at 12 Down the clue "answer found elsewhere" gives us... TEN CENTS.  "Allowed in" turns out to be 44 ACROSS, while the actual 44 Across ("answer found elsewhere," again) is ALLOWED IN.

I would be more impressed --- and it would have been much more of a challenge --- if the clues had led to original answers.  For example, if at 12 Down rather than repeating the clue as an answer, if it had said *TWO NICKELS or something.  Or if "Sea cow" gave 48 DOWN, as it does in the puzzle, but instead of giving SEA COW for 48 Down, if it had been *DUGONG.  That would have been deviously tricky to solve.

Anyway, it is what it is.  The format allows for a lot of words with syllables that are homophones of numbers, like 1SIES ("toddlers' attire"), 4AGE ("gather food") and CRE8 ("make").

The IOLANI Palace was the official residence of the Kingdom of Hawaii.  It was used at the capital building until 1969.  Today, it is a museum.

I have never heard of Century 21 competitor ERA.

"Virginia Cavaliers' org." is the ACC, which I covered way back in October 29 of last year when it was the Blue Devils' turn.

A CASTER is the wheel on a desk chair.

Henderson is a city in NEV.  It is the second-largest in the state, although it is technically part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area.  It is often named one of the safest cities in America.

I don't have any idea why "U.S. 1?" is PRES.  No clue.

The last pope named Pius, Pius XII, was a critic of Nazism.  He also said Communist Catholics should be excommunicated.  He died in 1958.

Another musical term I've never heard of: OSTINATO, a repeated musical phrase, usually in the same pitch.  It seems like most modern rock and pop is all ostinato.

I had a lot of trouble with "historical group of 15, for short," even though I know perfectly well what the SSRS were.

"WINE is one of the most civilized things in the world," wrote Ernest Hemingway in Death in the Afternoon.

ACR- is a prefix meaning height, but I didn't recognize it as such until I found it in its more familiar acro- form.  As in acrobatic and acrophobia.

"If music be the food of love, play on" is the first line of "Twelfth Night," spoken by ORSINO, the Duke of Illyria.

Clever clues: "Yelp alternative" is ARF. "Angels might come to its aid" is START-UP.

It was fun trying to make SENS of this puzzle.