Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 22, 2018

My time: 4:59.

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Alex Eaton-Salners takes us on a tour of both the dictionary and the solar system with this puzzle that explores the PLANETS, or at least five words that have them in their etymology.

MERCURIAL ("capricious"), SATURNINE ("gloomy"), VENIAL ("forgivable"), MARTIAL, and JOVIAL all fit the bill; however, venial surprised me as I was unaware of the linguistic link.

The gas station ESSO came up in this blog once before, for its slogan "Happy Motoring."  Today it's described as having a logo with a blue oval.

The gas station CITGO has appeared in the puzzle a few times.  This time the clue calls attention to its logo with a red triangle.  Perhaps red and orange?  Hard to tell.

A pupu PLATTER is a tray of American Chinese or Hawaiian food, consisting of an assortment of small meat and seafood appetizers.

Sitting Bull was a leader of the LAKOTA people, specifically the Hunkpapa people.  He had a vision that seemed to predict the victory at Little Big Horn and was shot and killed during an unjustified arrest.

"Amino acid vis-à-vis a protein, eg" is MONOMER.  This refers to a single atom or molecule which is able to join with other monomers to make new substances called polymers.  A string of amino acids is called a polypeptide chain. Polypeptide chains grow in number and begin to fold, creating helices and plated sheets. These interact with one another and keep becoming more and more complex until a protein, a polymer, is formed.

The fact that the VOLGA is the longest river in Europe has come up a few times.

Clever clue: "Clink on the drink" is BRIG.

Well, I'M ALL through now.  This was a fun puzzle.  I liked how the theme was a virtuous cycle; the more you know about it, the easier it is to fill in.