Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 5, 2018

My time: 5:32, about 16 seconds slower than the record!  I'm on a roll this week!

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The Terrific Trio of Amanda Chung, Karl Ni and Erik Agard synergized their best qualities to bring us this exercise in TEAM BUILDING, a "goal for six answers in this puzzle."  Six NFL teams are created by solving two-part rebus or charades-like clues.  For example, "actor Lundgren + elected officials" is DOLPH + INS, or DOLPHINS.  "Butter square + hilarious people" is PAT + RIOTS, OR PATRIOTS.  My favorite is "London's Big ____ + ladies" which is BEN + GALS, or [Cincinnati] BENGALS.

The first themed answer, and the only one I had trouble with, is "'Whatever You Like' rapper + gets some color at the beach."  I knew the second part was TANS, but I'd never heard of the song in the first part.  It's T.I., whom I've heard of but don't know anything else about.

OMAN is the Arabian land near the Strait of Hormuz.  This is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.   On the north coast of the strait lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.

"Take a stand by not standing."  KNEEL.  I like it.

LUNISOLAR is not a word I've encountered before.

There are extra innings at times in baseball games, but it doesn't look like people use the phrase TENTH INNING all that much.  It is the name of a follow-up Ken Burns documentary about baseball.

Somehow I remembered the Linux operating system UBUNTU.

I was not tricked this time around for Queen stadium name ASHE, which has come up several times since October 11, 2017.

"Mr. Robot" actor RAMI Malek last appeared August 12.  Surely after so many appearances I know him. Starting... now.

Western Hemisphere grp. OAS appeared way back on October 17, 2017.

Exodus hero ARI Ben Canaan was chosen for puzzle glory on October 4, 2017.

I came so close to beating my personal best today.  Don't worry, I'VE GOT A PLAN to beat the record.  It's to go faster next time.