Saturday, June 2, 2018

Saturday's New York Time spuzzle solved: June 2, 2018

My time: 20:17, a few minutes of that spent looking for typos

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Trenton Charlson came up with this Saturday themeless which has a lot of fiendish vagueness, in both clues and fill.  I liked seeing TIME SLOT, UNSUNG HERO, YES AND NO ("it's complicated"), and a lot of other fresh phrases.  I'm not a big fan of GQ TYPE ("well-dressed, photogenic guy").

I've never heard of or forgot the nail care brand CUTEX.  When I saw the clue I thought it might be Essie again.

The MOHAVE is not just a desert, but a Native American tribe who once thrived around the Colorado River.

"Habitat for an ibex" is ALP.

Speaking of ungulates, the animal on the Michigan state flag is an ELK.  Two of them!  And an eagle!  And a hunter.

I know what a yogurt sauce with cucumbers is; that is, I can say its name.  But I'll be hornswoggled if I can spell TZATZIKI without help!

The PTA was apparently founded in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers.

Strobe lights typically use XENON GAS, or a flashtube, sometimes with colored gels.

Here's a groaner: "eBay feature" is CAPITAL B.

GODZILLA is well known as the destroyer of Tokyo many times over (and in American versions, New York or maybe Los Angeles?), but in some of the movies he battles giant monsters in OSAKA, bringing down property values in the process.

I didn't remember that Chris Farley played EL NINO on "SNL," but now I vaguely recall it.  He played it as if it were a luchador.  I'm more of a Matt Foley man myself.

The Golden Ratio symbol PHI first appeared on September 13, 2017, and twice more after that.  So this is the third time.  I ought to have it down by now.

California city Santa ANA last appeared April 24.

A metric ton of clues this time: "What might come after a pig or a sheep?" is E-I-E-I-O.  "Introduction to folks?" is THAT'S ALL.  "Closes, in a way" is SHAKES ON --- I had no idea whether this was properly filled in long after the grid was complete, because it made no sense to me.  It means as in closing a deal, shaking on it. "Part of many a street name" is ORDINAL.  "Good to go?" is TRAVEL SIZE.  "It may be in a sling" is GIN (not *ARM!).  "Spare item?" is TIRE IRON.  "Go out, but not for long?" is TAKE A NAP.  "Main entrances?" is MANHOLES.  "One involved in mass production?" is ALTAR BOY.

This was a tough one because of all that wordplay!  I enjoyed it, but it was hard to finish, and I AM not TEA ZIN!

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