Monday's New York Times puzzle solved: May 21, 2018

My time: 5:09.

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I didn't finish Saturday's puzzle, though I came very close.  It all came down to two different common baits --- red worm vs. rag worm --- crossed with two actual names of German rivers --- Eder and Eger.  I'm disappointed, but also irritated at the cluing and editing of Saturday's.

Anyway, enough dwelling in the past, man.  Today is a tabula rasa, I always say.  Hannah Slovut gives the five stages of humans in this puzzle: BABY ALBUM, CHILD PRODIGY, ADULT SWIM, SENIOR MOMENT, and, finally, GHOST TOWN.  I like that last one.  I suppose corpse pose would have been too macabre.

"Levi's material" is JEAN, singular.  That's a bad clue.

"Request to a waiter" is also a bad clue for NO MSG.  No one asks that.  They ask whether something has MSG, maybe.  You can't ask that they take out the MSG.  And really, any waiter?  Not even, say, a waiter at a Chinese restaurant?  Why not make this clue "Sign at a healthy Chinese restaurant"?  There.  Fixed it.  I'm Rex Parker!

I know the car model Gran TORINO from the Clint Eastwood movie, but I didn't know that Ford made them.  The Ford TORINO is the descendant of their earlier model the Fairlane.  It's named after Turin, considered the Italian Detroit at the time.

I'm quite familiar with the word ROOD (crucifix), being an archaic word maven from way back, but I'm surprised at its inclusion on a Monday!

Did you know ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision contest?  Me neither, but I saw "Swedish pop quartet" and put it right in the grid.  They won for their song "Waterloo," which in my view remains their highest achievement.

I've vaguely heard of R&B group DRU Hill.  They had seven top 40 hits and were led by Sisqó, who went on to be someone whose name I recognize.

Onetime electronics giant AIWA still exists, after having been bought and sold by Sony.  It now produces mainly audio equipment.

Albert Einstein was born in ULM, Germany.  The town is also famous for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world.

A TETRAhedron is just a fancy name for a triangular pyramid with four faces.

I did not recall women's golf champ Lorena OCHOA from November 21, 2017.

LEM, the Lunar Excursion MODULE, appeared on April 16.

Prince Valiant's son ARN appeared on September 15, 2017.

Pontiac's GTO first rolled out on October 9, 2017.  The NYT crossword loves the GTO.

And here the commentary ENDS.  This was a fun puzzle.  A bit hard for a Monday, but then they can't all be a snap.