Tuesday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 30, 2018

My time: 9:04.

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Emily Carroll takes being HOUSEBROKEN literally in this puzzle.  Running across a pair of rows are circled letters, some on one row and the rest above, which spell out a type of house --- "broken" up by being on different rows.  So we have A-F/RAME, then RAN/CH, DUP/LEX, and finally CHAL/ET.  Fun!

The Sun Devils are the mascot for ASU, Arizona State University.  Sparky the Sun Devil!  He has a pitchfork.

Llwynywermod is, as is obvious from the spelling, WELSH.  It's the residence of the Prince of Wales, located in Wales.  Clarence House is the more famous royal residence, in London.  There are also residences in Scotland and Gloucestershire.

I've never heard the term MOW for the part of a barn where hay is stored.  It's always in the full term, hay mow. Interestingly, it rhymes with cow, not low.  Haymow, you're an all star, get your hay on, get baled!

THETA is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, coming before iota.  In uppercase it is written Θ or ϴ, and in lowercase θ.

APPLETON, Wisconsin, is a town founded in 1835 that has a population of about 75,000.   It's home to Lawrence University, a liberal arts college founded in 1847.

And it's NAS!  Again!  Crossword creators' favorite rapper.  This time for the #1 album Hip Hop Is Dead, released 2006.

I almost knew KALAMATA, the "large Greek olive," but wasn't quite sure of the spelling.  It is named for the city in the south Peloponnese.

Did you know that the NY Y[ankees] are the Red Sox archrivals?  I didn't.

Of the two ETTAS mentioned in the puzzle, I've heard of Etta James, "the Matriarch of R&B," but not Etta Jones, a sadly little-known jazz singer.

LOMA Linda, California, is a city in southern California known mostly for its population of Seventh Day Adventists, apparently.

William T. SHERMAN may not have originated the phrase "WAR is hell," but he popularized it.  The entire quote is worth memorizing, actually.

Vientiane is the capital of LAOS.  It is located on the northwest border with Thailand, on the Mekong River.  Vientiane sounds like windy, Laos sounds like loss, it was lost in the wind. 

Apparently Major League Baseball's PENNANT RACE happens around September.

What was once THRACE is an ancient region now split between Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey, bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Black Sea to the east.  An interesting fact is that this region was also once known as Europe.

NOB Hill is an affluent neighborhood in San Francisco.  Best fact: it abuts another neighborhood known as the Tenderloin, a not-so-affluent neighborhood, and this area is sometimes referred to as Tendernob.

Whew.   That was very tough for a Tuesday.  Time for a WREST.