Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: November 20, 2018

My time: 5:45.

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Zhouqin Burnikel celebrates turkey day a few days early with this puzzle.  "Turkey's place" is the single clue repeated for four answers: POULTRY FARM, RAZZIE AWARDS, BOWLING ALLEY (three strikes in a row is called a turkey in bowling), and WESTERN ASIA.

I already knew of Jerry Stiller's wife and comedy partner, but I had trouble spelling her name: Anne MEARA.

Did you know Shaquille O'NEAL has a podcast called "The Big Podcast with Shaq"?  Inventive name, that.  Also, one of his nicknames is The Diesel.

I didn't know that Egypt, Sudan and Syria all use some form of POUND as currency.  The Sudanese pound is divided into 100 piastres.  The Syrian pound is divided into qirsh, but this is also called piastres in English.

The 1998 Winter Olympics were held at NAGANO, Japan.  It was the first time there was women's ice hockey. The mascots were four snowy owls.

Know your birthstones!  OPAL is the birthstone for October, along with tourmaline.  It is thus the one "after sapphire," which is September's birthstone.

"Home of the Rams, for short" is SO. CAL.  This refers to the Los Angeles Rams, located of course in Southern California.

Fun puzzle!  A light and amusing theme.  Nothing challenging in it.  But also no cleverness to the clues.  And now, I'm OUT A here.  I have some turkey shopping to do.