Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: July 11, 2018

My time: 6:44.

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Good morning!  Michael Hawkins tries to wake up our brains with this puzzle that celebrates the SNOOZE BUTTON.  Three clued phrases have a double meaning, one of which is what happens after you hit that snooze.  "Incommunicado period" is RADIO SILENCE; "Debbie Downer" is a BUZZKILL; and "express one's opinion in no uncertain terms" is SOUND OFF.

I'll get to the rest of the fill in after just five more minutes.  Zzzz...

That's better.  I like the NEW TAKE on some older words: GHOSTED is clued as "suddenly stopped communicating with," and BOUNCE is defined as "leave, slangily."

Somewhere from the crevices of my memory I dredged up that ST. LOUIS is nicknamed "Gateway to the West," but it hasn't been featured on the blog before.  Obviously, the Gateway Arch has something to do with the epithet.  It used to be called "Mound City."  These people say Kansas City was the first Gateway to the West, and ST. LOUIS "stole" the title.

I guess I wasn't paying attention in 1995, because I didn't remember the memorable Hurricane OPAL.  It was a Category 4 storm that hit the Gulf Coast.  The name was retired in 1996.  I was in Oregon at the time so I guess it wasn't on my radar.

Know your capitals: the capital of Tasmania is HOBART.  This talisman will attract a ho, Bart.

I'm pretty sure I've seen the Spanish OYE (Here! Look here! Hey! Ho!) in a puzzle before, but I didn't blog it.

We all know an EMU is a bird, but did you know that also spells out the initials of Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti?  Now you do.

Paul KLEE has been featured before, but not for his painting Fish Magic.

Oregon shoe company AVIA appeared on September 24, 2017.

Iowa's COE College appeared on December 24, 2017.

Clever clues: "Tube traveler" is OVUM.  "Six for dinner?" is WORD LENGTH.

I thought this was unusually easy for a Wednesday. Either I'm getting better at this, or the puzzles MUSSED be getting simpler!