Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: November 27, 2018

My time: 5:11.

--

Erik Agard took time off his busy schedule to give us this puzzle, which makes a pun out of a "what do these things have in common?" question.  FRIED EGG, CANDIDATE, COMPUTER PROGRAM ("you might learn a new language to write one"), and EDITORIAL are all things that run, so their "parting words" would be... GOTTA RUN.  Ha!  Puns.

The sixth letter after alpha is ETA.  Gotta know the Greek alphabet in order, apparently.  It goes, for the first ten: Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa.  Or, in Greek, Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ.

"Big name in nail polish" OPI first came up... two days ago, this Sunday.

I've heard of Alice Walker, but I did not know she coined and popularized WOMANISM.  This social theory hopes "to restore the balance between people and the environment/nature and reconcile human life with the spiritual dimension."  In less New Agey terms, it holds at its core that both femininity and culture are equally important to the woman's existence. In this conception one's femininity cannot be stripped from the culture within which it exists.

The largest island in Asia is BORNEO.  It is 288,800 square miles and is shared by three countries: Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The song "HOT HOT HOT" is known to me in its Buster Poindexter incarnation.  I knew it was a cover, but had no idea the originator was a musician named Arrow.  And a new word to me is in the clue: it's a soca hit.  What is soca?  A style of music meaning "soul of calypso," invented by Trinidadian musician Lord Shorty.

I thought "solar deity" was asking for a particular name but it's just a thesaurus-inspired rewording: SUN GOD.  Boring!

Clever clues: "What may hold a bather or butter" is TUB.  "Pop flies?" is SWAT.

This was a cleverly contructed puzzle.  I very much appreciated the SLY theme.