Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: July 6, 2018

My time: 12:29.

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Robyn Weintraub put this one together.  There isn't a theme, but there are two answers that go across the entire length of the grid.  In the middle, from left to right is MEET IN THE MIDDLE and crossing it on the way down is RACE TO THE BOTTOM ("competition that hurts everyone").

I also liked the grid fill SCATTERSHOT ("lacking focus"), JUST KIDDING, UMPTEENTH ("sizable ordinal"), and SWEET TALK.

I've heard of the Canadian author Alice MUNRO, who won the Nobel Prize in 2013.  She is best known for her short stories.  Here is a list of ten of her best.

"ISN'T It Time" is a 1977 hit for the Babys, a British rock group I've never heard of.

They tricked me this time with "Hawaiian souvenir."  It's not *LEI, it's TAN.  You win this time, Weintraub, muttered the PASTY solver.

"Image on the Maine or South Carolina flag" is STATE TREE.  I didn't know that about Maine; its tree is the White Pine.

Another thing I didn't know was that Herbert Hoover, although born in Iowa, was brought up in Newberg, Oregon, and later SALEM, after his mother and father died.  He was raised by his uncle and aunt.

OTOE has appeared, with the same clue about Lewis and Clark, on March 7.

Wood's LOTR costar Sean ASTIN appeared (with his father John!) on November 27, 2017.

Clever clues: "one of two polar opposites" is ICE CAP.  "Ironic reaction to dry humor?" is SPIT TAKE, ha! "Got into a pickle?" is ATE.  "Drs. that see head cases" is ENTS.  "Decrease?" is IRON.

I thought this was a fairly easy Friday.  I enjoyed the border-to-border crossed clues and the several sly entries.  I did not TIRE of this puzzle and OIL try to go faster in the future.