Wednesday's New York Times puzzle solved: March 14, 2018

My time: 5:49, beating the old record by nearly two minutes!  Wow!  What a treat for Pi Day.

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In this tasty puzzle, Jeff Chen mixes it up a bit with some hidden anagrams.  Within four clues are circled letters that, when rearranged, spell out four ingredients to MARINARA sauce.

The clues in question are ZERO IN ON, which contains chopped onion; HOT OATMEAL, which has diced tomato; ARTIFICIAL GRASS, the circled letters of which hide minced garlic; and BARBERSHOP, where you will find mixed herbs.

"Pioneering text adventure game" is ZORK, which premiered in 1977, when I was only a wee lad.  I vaguely remember such a thing, and the cover art rings a bell.  I'm sure I played some variant of it at some point.  It was likely I got eaten by a grue.

Icelandic money is KRONA, but many other places have the same or similarly-spelled currencies.

I may have a heard the name ORSON Bean, but I did not know he was "game show regular."  He was an actor and comedian who was a long-time panelist on "To Tell the Truth."

"Org. with millimeter wave scanners" is TSA.  I had not heard of this name for full body scanners.  By the way, they don't work.

I've heard of STACY Keach, but not the show "Man With a Plan," a modern-era Matt LeBlanc vehicle.

RBI, again.  This time it's "result of a successful squeeze bunt."  A squeeze play is when you sacrifice yourself at bat to get a runner already on third home. 

HESSE, the German state, came up on November 28, 2017.  This time we are given the added information that it contains Wiesbaden, a spa town and the capital.

I learned UZI Gal's last name on October 29, 2017.

BRO, I did not have a lot of trouble with this puzzle!