Thursday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 11, 2018

My time: 17:21.

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I'mma let you finish, Wednesday, but Sam Trabucco's Thursday puzzle was the trickiest puzzle of all time.  Of.  All.  Time!

Just kidding.  This puzzle plays with interruption and how we depict that in writing.  I don't know if any other puzzle has included a dash before, but it's very clever.  "Line from someone who's been interrupted" is the clue for three answers, which are PLEASE LET ME FIN-, DO I LOOK LIKE I'M D-, and QUIET, I WAS SPEAK-.  Underneath each is a clued continuation.  They are, respectively: "kinda" is ISH, "joined" is ONE, and "Beethoven's Minuet ____" is IN G, or ING when used as a continuation for the third interrupted clue above.

The fun thing is that the dashes are part of the clue, so the the crossfill incorporates the dashes: HI-C, A-Z, and NO-NO.

"Hasbro toy that involves pulling and twisting" is BOP IT.  After my time.  Now there's an updated version where you can selfie it and sing it!

"School located in San Luis Obispo" is CAL POLY.  Officially it's California Polytechnic State University, but you wouldn't know that by looking at their web page.  The name of the city seemed familiar, and indeed it was an answer on September 30, 2017.

I was totally baffled by "Some canasta plays."  I'm not a group card game player.  For some reason I kept thinking of castanets.  Anyway, it's MELDS.  In the game, a meld is a grouping of cards of the same rank, such as a group of queens.  A meld of seven or more cards is called a canasta.

NAN Goldin is an American photographer whose images often feature LGBT themes.

Mercedes RUEHL, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role in The Fisher King, has a hard name to spell.

MAUNA Loa, it's been a while.

I've never heard of George AIKEN, governor of Vermont and then senator for Vermont from 1941-1975.  A Republican, he supported an early form of food stamps, the Full Employment Act, aid to education, and a minimum wage.  He also opposed Joe McCarthy.  The Republican platform has changed 180 degrees since the 1940s and '50s.

Clever clues: "What may take its toll?" is HWY.  "Is appealing" is PLEADS.  "Body shot?" is MRI SCAN.  "Provider of global support?" is ATLAS.  "Exchanged bonds?' is I DOS.

That's AWLS she wrote, so ADO for now.