Wednesday's New York Times puzzle solved: June 13, 2018

My time: 7:28, not too shabby.

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This puzzle by Michael Hawkins is tailor-made to appeal to those who enjoy sartorial-themed phrases.  "Not be contained anymore" is BURST AT THE SEAMS.  "Forget one's place in the conversation" is LOSE THE THREAD.  "Have measurable impact" is MOVE THE NEEDLE.  The clunkiest one is LEAVE IN STITCHES, clued as "make laugh hysterically," but both seem quite off without their transitive object.  You leave them in stitches.  Without that pronoun, it could be clued as "what a surgeon might do to a wound."

Anyhoo.

"Side dish at a Chinese restaurant" is BROWN RICE?  Hardly ever.  It's fried or steamed white, traditionally.

"Lohengrin" is an OPERA by Richard Wagner, most famous for its Bridal Chorus, also called the Wedding March.  I haven't heard of "Lakmé," or its composer Léo Delibes.  It is set in India and is about the titular Brahmin's daughter who falls in love with a British officer.

I don't think of MEALY as "having fine granules," because I'm used to it being a descriptor of soft fruit, but its other definition is containing meal (farinaceous), so there we are.

AVIS owns Zipcar, a "car sharing" service.  It's not a ride-hailing service like Uber, but more like a timeshare for cars.

For "old cylindrical music collectible" I could only think of those Edison phonograph wax cylinders, but it's PIANO ROLL, a roll of perforated paper used to make player pianos run.

Franz Joseph HAYDN was known as "The Father of the Symphony" and "The Father of the String Quartet."  Beethoven was a pupil of his and apparently did not enjoy his teaching.

"Life Is Good" is rapped by NAS.  There is, has been, and will be only NAS.  No other rappers exist.  Just NAS. 

"Another Suitcase in Another Hall," from EVITA, was a clue on March 24.

I even remembered that hockey feint DEKE appeared on October 29, 2017.

Clever clues: "Org. with oral reports?" is ADA.  "Gives hands down?" is DEALS.  "Reactions to buffets?" is OWS.  "Net asset?" is GOALIE.

Well, this was a fine, fresh, fun puzzle.  My time is nothing to CRO about, but ISLE be okay.