Saturday's New York Times puzzle solved: April 21, 2018

My time: 11:30, a new record by four minutes!  Dang.

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Daniel Nierenberg constructed this themeless featuring a nice amount of fresh fill, like ESTATE SALE, GENE THERAPY ("procedure that targets mutations"), EROTIC NOVEL, GAY MARRIAGE (""subject of the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges"), BUBBLE TEA, I NEED HELP, SHADOWBOX ("punch the air"), and SEE ATTACHED ("common two-word email").

I didn't know that "NCIS" was a spinoff of "JAG."  I haven't watched more than two minutes, tops, of either one.

I remember NEHI soda, but I didn't know that it was originally the name of the NEHI Corporation, which changed its name to the Royal Crown Company after its popular RC Cola.  It's now owned by Dr Pepper/Snapple.  There are no little guys in business any more.

The classic Pontiac GTO, which appeared on October 9, 2017, is clued here as "Motor Trend's 1968 Car of the Year."

"Windows alternative" is OSX, the Apple operating system, which is now called macOS.  I kind of wanted the answer to be door.

Rare word alert!  EGEST means "to expel, as from the body," as opposed to ingest.  And also, BRAE is a Scots word for a hillside along a river, or as it's clued here, "landform near a loch."

Never heard of CRIS Carter, NFL wide receiver for several teams and later a football analyst.

In some Greek origin myths, EROS is one of the primordial deities, coming into being after chaos, the earth, and hell.  It's clued here as "fourth god to exist," but I don't know how official such rankings are.  The ancient sources are rather contradictory.  Eros came along around the time of Nyx and Erberus.

Did you know a Turkish LIRA is equivalent to 100 kurus?  Me neither.

The oddly-spelled Pistons point guard ISIAH Thomas last appeared way, waaayyy back on August 28, 2017.

Clever clues: "Sites for some touchdowns" is HELIPORTS.  "Bud drinker?" is BEE.  "Like some blankets and arguments" is HEATED.  "Rock sample?" is DEMO TAPE.  "Body image, for short" is TAT.

And that's all the fill I had trouble with or comments about.  I thought this was a great puzzle.  Fun clues, fresh fill, tough to get a toehold in at first but not too challenging.  The solver RESTS, at last ON TOP of his game.