Tuesday's New York Times puzzle solved: April 17, 2017

My time: 6:49.

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Wren Schultz (clever pseudonym of Will Shortz??) must have put a lot of thought into this puzzle, in which every answer in the entire grid is an alternating consonant-VOWEL pattern.

As I've mentioned, I'm quite bad at geography, so I don't recall offhand that the ODER River serves as a border between Germany and Poland.  (German joke: "What's that awful ODER?" "Oh, that's Poland.")

Some of today's fill stands out for its unique flavor: UNEXAMINED! KEROSENE! POPEMOBILE! NIXON ERA!

I didn't know that ERIC / BANA was in Munich.  It also features Daniel Craig and Geoffrey Rush.

Despite my sports ignorance, I have indeed heard of Cy Young winner OREL Hershiser, but don't ask me to spell his last name.

I know all about DEVO, but I had don't think I every heard their red ziggurat hats referred to as "energy domes."

Probably due to the prevalence of consonant-vowel words in crosswords, there was a ton of previous fill this time around:

"Hurled weapon" BOLA was tossed at us on October 7, 2017.

The AZORES haven't appeared such that I've charted, but several of their islands have.

PALOMA Picasso, designer of perfumes and fashion items, was limned on January 1 of this year.

Easy-to-grip kitchen tool maker OXO was showcased January 12.

Baseball Commissioner Emeritus Bud SELIG appeared February 2.

Food thickener AGAR was served up on December 28, 2017.

Clever clue: "One making an ewe turn?" is RAM.

For sheer audacity and cleverness, TEN out of ten on this theme.