Sunday's New York Times puzzle solved: May 13, 2018

My time: 16:47, a new record for Sunday --- and my fifth record-breaking time this week!  That's cray cray!

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Neville Fogarty and Erik Agard teamed up to create "Love at first Site," a puzzle that imagines various dating sites with punny names.

"A deep kissers' dating site?" FRENCH CONNECTION.  "Dating site full of hot dudes?" STUD FINDER.  "Extreme sports dating site?" ACTION ITEMS.  "Carpentry dating site?" BOARD MEETING.  "Dating site for lovers of natural foods?" ORGANIC CHEMISTRY.  And so on!  Ha, puns.  This theme is a keeper!

On to the other stuff!

We all know IAGO is the villain in "Othello," but I'd forgotten that Brabantio is Desdemonda's father.  He doesn't like Othello or Iago!

The Palais Garnier in Paris is a 1,979-seat opera house, built in 1875 to perform OPERAS.  It was named after its architect, Charles Garnier.

I knew there was a Manning named ELI, but I didn't know he had the "second-longest QB starting streak in NFL history."  He's right after Bret Favre.  But what is a start for a QB?  I don't know.

"Actor whose first and last name look like they rhyme, but don't" is exactly what I always think when I see SEAN BEAN's name.

"Emerald or aquamarine" I thought might be *JEWEL but it's BERYL, a type of mineral.  Yellow beryls are called heliodor and colorless beryls are called goshenite.

I'm not familiar with George MASON University, a research school, initially founded as a branch of the University of Virginia in 1949.

TRINIDAD is the southernmost of the Lesser Antilles, an island group that includes St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Barbados, and Dominica among others.   They curve southward to form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea.

Robert MONDAVI was the influential founder of a Napa Valley winery.  From an early period, Mondavi aggressively promoted labeling wines varietally rather than generically. This is now the standard for New World wines. The Robert Mondavi Institute (RMI) for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis opened October 2008 in his honor.  I wanted to put Robert *PALMER, as that's the only Robert associated with wine I knew.

"UTEP team," which sounds Mesopotamian to me, is MINERS, the sports team of the University of Texas at El Paso.

I can't say I've watched a whole lot "Trading Spaces," so I certainly don't know the host, PAIGE Davis.

China's core leader (head of military, state, and party at once) Xi JINPING is a name much in the news, but I had a little trouble with it anyway.  

Thanks to George Harrison, we in the west know about the SITAR, but I haven't encountered the term mezrab very often, to my knowledge.  A mezrab is the plectrum used to pick the instrument, and it's worn on the finger like a ring.

TESSA Thompson is another actress I've never heard of.  She was in Creed, Thor: Ragnarok, Selma, and Dear White People.  All films I have heard about but not seen.

It doesn't surprise me that the EPA has a flower logo, but it's not something I knew right off.  Scott Pruitt thinks it looks like a marijuana leaf, because he's a colossal moron and tool.

Do we have all the US Vice Presidents memorized?  No, we do not.  Have we heard of HENRY Wallace, veep from 1941-45 under FDR?  No, we have not.  Are we sadly unfamiliar with our own country's major political figures?  Possibly.

"Arcade hoops game" NBA JAM appeared March 9.

North Carolina liberal arts university ELON last appeared October 8, 2017.

NPR host ARI Shapiro last appeared November 9, 2017.

Clever clues: "Went through channels?" is SWAM.  "Patty alternative?" is TRISH.  "The rite place?" is ALTAR.  ' is FEET. 

I really can't believe I did a Saturday so quickly.  I guess this entire week I was just in tune with the creators.  AREN'T I the clever one? BOO-YAH!