Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: August 15, 2018

My time: 9:15.

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Kathy Wienberg is setting her sights on testing our knowledge of anagrams in this  puzzle.  Six themed answers are sayings that contain a word more or less synonymous with anagrammed, or least mixed up.  The clues are anagrams of the other word in the phrase, written all in capitals, Scrabble-style.

"DAM," for example, is MAD SCRAMBLE --- that is, dam is a scramble (anagram) of mad.  "FIRED" is STIR FRIED.  "PARBOIL" is BIPOLAR DISORDER --- the letters are in disorder and disarray.  "STREAM" is MIXMASTER.  AND "LYDIA" IS DAILY JUMBLE.

Cute and fun!

Considering how many times Tulsa school ORU has been in the puzzle, you'd think that I'd get to it quicker.  Instead I stayed on *OSU for too long.  Note that OSU is actually in Stillwater, not Tulsa.

I haven't seen The Lego Movie, so I didn't know the main character's name, EMMET Brickowski.  On a related note, the Lego wiki is really badly written.

I had forgotten, if indeed I ever knew, that Laura Bush was NEE Welch.  I wonder if the street in Dallas is named after her.

Apparently ABS are the muscles used in a Russian twist.  It's a held sit-up, with the arms extended in front, and then twisting to the right and left.

For once, I DO is not clued as wedding words.  Here's an Abba hit, "when sung five times."  That's too many times.

"Institute signed into existence by Thos. Jefferson" is USMA, which stands for United States Military Academy,  a.k.a. West Point!  Jefferson signed legislation establishing the United States Military Academy in 1802. He took this action after ensuring that those attending the Academy would be representative of a democratic society.

"Pic" is FOTO.  Ugh.

Surprisingly, given the length of time this took, that is the sum total of new information for me this time around.   I was slowed by some vague or fuzzy clues, like "removed from memory" for ERASED, "opposite of keyed up" for AT EASE, and "didn't just criticize" for REAMED.  Oh well, they can't all be winners.  No SHAME.  I know I can OUTDO this performance.