Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 28, 2018

My time: 12:08, not bad!

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Kameron Austin Collins constructed this themeless, which boasts some novel and impressive fill: TRUST FUND BABY, NORSE DEITIES ("figures in the Edda"), YEAH SURE, HONEYPOT (as in the vamp spy sense), RESCUE DOG, and REDDITOR.  I like to see less common and newish terms in the fill.

I misremembered Suzanne Sommers' role on "Three's Company" as *CHRISTY.  It's CHRISSY.  I watched more of this show in syndication as a kid than I care to admit.

"Wind River tribe" is ARAPAHO, relatives of the Cheyenne and allies of the Dakotas.  There are divided into Northern and Southern tribes.  Per Wikipedia, "Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and are federally recognized as the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation."

I remembered the cornmeal-based HOECAKE somehow, but would have been hard-pressed to define one exactly.  It looks like a pancake but is sturdy and dense.  It is so named because hoe was a colloquial term for griddle dating back to at least the 1600s in parts of England, where baking cakes on boards or griddles was commonplace.

LUNULAR (crescent shaped) is a new word to me!  It's very uncommon.  More common forms are lunula and lunulate.

Third baseman Ron CEY, nicknamed "the Penguin," is a six-time MLB all-star.  His name looks misspelled.

The puzzle on November 24, 2017, featured the Mercedes A Class, but today we get the much less admirable C CLASS.  These are compact executive sedans.

I was not ready for the Destiny's Child song "BOOTYLICIOUS" (sample lyrics: "you aint' ready for this jelly") to appear in the New York Times puzzle.

MT. DANA is a prominent peak on the border of Yosemite National Park and the Ansel Adams Wilderness.  It is 13,060 feet.

Did you know Edgar Allan POE went to the University of Virginia?  His room there is now a museum.  It is Number 13 West Range, according to oral history (written records were lost in a fire).  Eerie!

I had a vague idea what Gizmodo is, but Engadget is new to me.  They are both an example of a TECH BLOG.

AGASSI was just recently an answer, about his book Open.  I assume that it is in this book that he wrote tennis is "the loneliest sport."

SADA Thompson was an actress who played Mary Todd Lincoln in the miniseries "Lincoln" and the matron in the 1974-80 series "Family."

Did you know the assassin Sparafucile, in "Rigoletto," by Guiseppe Verdi, is a BASSO?  Did you know there was an assassin in "Rigoletto?"  The title character, a hunchback jester, hires this assassin to kill the Duke, who is a skirt-chaser after Rigoletto's daughter.

I knew the Anna Wintour Costume Center sounded familiar.  I don't think it was part of the puzzle, but on June 8, the MET GALA was an answer, and I must have read about it then.  Wintour, of course, is the Vogue editor-in-chief.

Clever clues: "Where college students might take a stand?" is KEG.  It ain't the '60s any more, kids.   "Apple picker" is EVE.  "Place to get solutions, in brief" is CHEM LAB.  "Store that really should have a spokesperson" is BIKE SHOP, ha ha.  "Call" is amusingly vague for DECIDE.

Well, this was a LOAD of new knowledge to drop on me, but I enjoyed the challenge!