Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 3, 2018

My time: 3:39, nine seconds shy of the record.

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Trent H. Evans gets our minds moving and our thoughts racing with this one, which showcases four phrases that start with action gerunds.  "Defenseless target" is SITTING DUCK, "directive that's in force until canceled" is STANDING ORDER, "notice when getting fired" is WALKING PAPERS, and "repeated comical reference" is RUNNING JOKE.

What I like especially about this is that the four action words are in order of least to most movement.

Images on Kansas City Chiefs' helmets are ARROWHEADS.  Good fill word.  And inside the image are the letters KC.

I'm not familiar with Alaska's North Slope, but it only takes a passing familiarity with the state to know that its resource must be OIL.  The Alaska North Slope region includes the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska.  The region also includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  It's not a great mix.

There were a lot of old crossword friends in this one:

Ancient Asia Minor region IONIA was discovered on December 29, 2017.

Hawaii's tallest mountain Mauna KEA first popped up on September 4, 2017 --- nearly a year ago to the day!

Pitching stat ERA (Earned Run Average) had its attempted definition on February 22.  At first I had *RBI, which is a stat for a hitter, because I don't know jack about any sports.

Broncos QB John ELWAY appeared on December 10, 2017, and I remembered him!

Pre-CIA organization OSS was last uncovered on December 27, 2017.

We met newsman and "Meet the Press" host Chuck TODD on June 4.

NPR host ARI Shapiro first appeared October 31, 2017, and a few times since.

YIPES, this puzzle was crazy easy.  In addition to there being almost no trouble spots, there was a lot of material that had already been covered in this blog.  If I had just typed in the letters a little faster, I'd be a big winner, BRO.