Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 27, 2018

My time: 11:32.

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Daniel Kantor explores idioms in this intriguing puzzle.  Four themed answers have no clues at all.  Instead, the grid themselves provide the clues.  For example, 17 Across has blanks inside the squares, and is FILL IN THE BLANKS.  33 Across' squares are just different SHADES OF GREY.  42 Across has a box drawn around the rectangle of squares that house its answer, which is to be written INSIDE THE BOX.  Finally, 62 Across has lines on the top and bottom of its squares, and the answer is written BETWEEN THE LINES.

This is a novel theme, and I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out those unclued answers.

"Zombie's domain" is not literal (graveyard?  mall?), but meta-textual: they're found in SCI-FI.

Warhol is best known for soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, but he also painted images of MAO.  Hammer, sickle, Mao Tse Tung!

Did you know SEGA is derived from "Service Games?" Me neither.

I'm not terribly familiar with the Hyundai SONATA.  It's a four-door midsize made since 1985.

Do people say "lambchop" as a term of endearment outside of deliberately over-the-top smarminess?  Does it really substitute for DEAR?

Omar EPPS plays Dr. Eric Foreman (not the one from "That '70s Show," dumbass) on the medical drama "House."

"Card letters" is ST. L, which only makes sense if you call the Cardinals the Cards.

I didn't know the NRA's first ever presidential endorsement was Ronald Reagan.  he'd be jeered out of office as a RINO today.

In art history trivial details you probably knew if you knew something about art, El Greco lived in TOLEDO, Spain.  He is known for his landscapes of the place.  Born in Crete, his real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos.

Baghdad suburb SADR City last appeared on August 16.

KALE as in moolah was last used on August 30, 2017.

Quite a few clever clues this Thursday: For "coverage of the Senate?" I put *CSPAN but it's TOGAS.  "Cause for a shootout" is TIE --- soccer, not gunslinging.  "Sign of summer" is LEO --- I always fall for that one. "Good standing in the Navy?" is SEA LEGS.  For "break up a plot?" I had *DIG but it's HOE.  "Bean sprouts?" is IDEAS.  "Stuff from which some suits are made?" is TORTS.  "Pays for a workout, say" is ACHES.  "Something you might kick after you pick it up" is HABIT.  "Starbuck's order giver" is AHAB --- I admire that one's trickery.

Well, this one wasn't exactly a SNAP due to those meta, sans clues answers.  But it was a fun kind of difficult.