Thursday's New York Times puzzle solved: March 29, 2018

My time: 12:16, pretty good.

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Claire Muscat and David Steinberg go nuts with this puzzle, which contains three types hidden away (for winter?) in phrases.  However, the twist is that there is an extra letter stowed away within the nuts -- an N, a U, and a T, to spell NUT in the circled letters. LEAN CORNED BEEF contains A(N)CORN, BURIAL MOUND contains ALMO(U)ND, and LIFE EXPECTANCY contains PEC(T)AN.  Is there a reason for all this nuttery?  Is it National Nut Day?  I don't know nuttin,' honey.

I like the metaclue "the answer to this clue is located on one" for EDGE (it's at the north border).

"Dash letters" made me focus on Morse code until it became clear that the dash was in a car: MPH.

For "powdered ingredient in sweet teas and smoothies" I put *KALE and then *ACAI.  It's TARO.  That doesn't go in tea!  But it does go in bubble tea, which is not real tea.  It's nutritious!

"An end to terrorism?" for QAEDA is so so awful that I didn't dare to enter it even with the beginning Q.   I mean, that's barely wordplay at all, and totally tone-deaf.

For "letters on a beach bottle" I put *SOS but it's a different kind of bottle: SPF.

I've never heard of "Facebook Messenger precursor" ICHAT.

"Mythical hunter" for NEMEAN lion is just plain wrong.  It wasn't a hunter, it was a lion.  This is the most blatant error I have seen yet in the Times crossword.

I can't keep track of every perfume.  Apparently DIOR makes J'adore.

The New York Times also likes corporation genealogies.  RCA, founded in 1919, is a descendant of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, commonly called American Marconi.

Pierre-Simon LAPLACE was a French astronomer and mathematician who wrote a five-volume treatise called Celestial Mechanics (Mécanique Céleste). 

48 Across is a raised hyphen and the answer is DELTA.  I think something may be missing?

The PIKE is one of the four main diving positions, in which your legs are straight and you're bent at the waist with your head facing your tibiae.  There should be no gap between the upper and lower body.

ETAS as in the frat letter came up on January 16.

Clever clues: "Puts blades to blades, say" is MOW.  "Cut protections" is a noun, not a verb + object: SCABS.  "Driving instructor?" is GOLF PRO.  "Like good spellers?" is WICCAN.