Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 30, 2020

My time: 7:56, exactly the same as my average Tuesday.

Theme: JUSTICE GINSBURG.  Her nickname, THE NOTORIOUS RBG, the film of her work on gender equality, ON THE BASIS OF SEX, her Brooklyn neighborhood, FLATBUSH, and her law school alma mater (where she "finished at the top of her class") COLUMBIA, are all featured.

The subatomic particle the BOSON is named after "Indian physicist" Satyendra Nath Bose, professor of physics at University of Calcutta and at University of Dhaka.  The name boson was coined by English physicist Paul Dirac to commemorate his contribution in developing, with Albert Einstein, Bose–Einstein statistics—which theorizes the characteristics of elementary particles.

I know about anise, but it took me a while to get to the liqueur ANISETTE.

HILO is the biggest town on the island of Hawaii. More interestingly, it's the fourth-wettest city in the United States.

So, ABSCAM was the big new item for me.  "Inspiration for the 2013 film American Hustle," it was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members of the United States Congress.  The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent businessmen, but later evolved into a public corruption investigation.  The name initially derived from a shortening of "Arab scam."

Emmy-winning actress SELA Ward is a crossword mainstay.

Golfer Ernie ELS and his nickname, "The Big Easy," have been mentioned before.

Did I enjoy today's crossword?  SURE DID!

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 29, 2020

My time: 3:53, about twenty seconds short of a Monday record!

The theme today seems to be "two-word phrases, of which the second word's letters appear in order within the first word."  For example, in SENATE SEAT, the letters of "seat" appear in the first word, as shown by the shaded letters.  The letters of "sound" appear in the "surround" part of SURROUND SOUND, and so on.  This theme is not addressed, as far as I recall, in the puzzle itself.  Hmm.

Apparently I.M. PEI won a PRITZKER PRIZE, an architecture prize, founded in 1979 and carrying a $100,000 award.  Pei won in 1983.

Racecar guy Al UNSER appeared back on December 3, 2018.

Clever clue: "Long lunches?" is HEROS.

For "row of bushes" I put *COPSE like an idiot (that's too abstruse for a Monday, and also that usually refers to trees).  Without that error, I might have broken my old record!  Now we'll never know.  No need to SOB about it.

Sunday's New York Times crossword solved: June 27, 2020

My time: 20:57.

The theme is EXPONENTS.  Several Across answers, as the highlighted one above, are two-part, with the second part above and just to the right of the first part, similar to where an exponent would be placed.  It is then read as: RACE [to the] BOTTOM, WELCOME [to the] CLUB, PREACH [to the] CHOIR, CUTS [to the] CHASE, and so on.

A fair bit of material this Sunday I didn't know anything about, and several fills were done just by pure guesswork as to what sounded and looked like a word.  WASATCH is a Utah mountain range and a state park.  The star of Korean breakout film "Parasite" is CHOI Woo-shik.  "____ Pro" was not enough of a clue to get me to MAC, and crossing it is the Indian state of ASSAM, "whose capital is Dispur" — not a Well-Known Fact, frankly.  Also crossing it is "kingdom east of Babylonia" ELAM which I mistakenly thought was *ELOM.

"NYC's first subway line" is IRT, which has come up before.

"They might be caught in the rain" is CABS, a very New York-centric clue if there ever was one.

"The Lake ISLE of Innisfree" is a famous Yeats poem.  It starts: "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree..."

Further stumbling blocks to a speedy solve were wrong answers.  I had *THE L-WORD pegged for "Potentially risky thing to drop in a relationship" but it's really THE L-BOMB. I also put *HUCK where FINN needed to go, which gummed up the works a fair bit.

We've had Willem de Kooning, and now meet his wife, artist ELAINE de Kooning.  I'm not sure I much care for either of them.

Well, here's to more ALACRITY and HASTE ("expedition" — crafty clue) in future Sundays.

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 27, 2020

My time: 23:53, slower than average.  This was a toughie for me!  I just wasn't clicking, crossword-wise.  I was cruciverbally challenged.

I had a lot of wrong answers at first.  For "Opens the door for, say" I put *IS KIND.  "What has a large following on a college campus?" is HONOR CODE but I put *HONOR ROLL, which doesn't fit the pun.  For "More morose" I put *DOWNER, which isn't even grammatical.  In my defense, DOURER isn't much better in terms of Things People Actually Say.

Some of the clues were pretty open vague (like "____ button" for PANIC), which also contributed to my slowness.  And some of the answers, like OSMOSED?  Come on.  I have a few complaints.  "Double shifts" is a pretty bland clue for SLOGS.  "Pennsylvania country or its seat" is a deliberately obscure (and far more damning, boring) clue for YORK.  I also don't think anyone ever calls a small battery an AAA CELL.  Ugh all around.

I didn't even know there was a Florida Atlantic University, much less that it's in BOCA RATON.

That Boston to D.C. train, ACELA, has come up a few times before.

I know who JASON MRAZ is but I can't say I've listened to a lot of his music.

Similarly, I know "The Shoop Shoop Song" well but didn't know the name Betty EVERETT.  More evidence of the Great Black Erasure.

2018 Stanley Cup champs" are the Washington Capitals, fondly known, to some, as the CAPS.

I have never heard of left-wing Italian playwright DARIO FO.  I thought, seeing his name, that "Dariofo" was his last name.

Clever clue: "What to do if you'd like a hand" is ANTE.

This was a real SLOG.  I'm a bit rusty perhaps.  Well, I NEEDN'T dwell on the past.  Moving on.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 26, 2020

My time: 13:16.

Clever clues: "One taking the high road?" is STONER.  "Ian's relative" is ESE, as in language suffixes.

I saw the movie, but didn't know that Frederick LOEWE wrote the music to "Gigi."  I hated the movie.

The emblem of RAVENCLAW is an eagle?  J.K. Rowling is all mixed up.

The kwanza is the currency of ANGOLA.  Its name comes from the river of the same name.  One kwanza is currently worth 0.0017 of a dollar.

"Lover of Tony in a hit 1978 song" is LOLA.  This refers to "Copacabana."

I had no idea there was a GEENA Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

KITTEN HEELS are shoes with a shorter heel than most, for more comfort.  Probably Geena Davis approves of them.

Here's SANAA, capital of Yemen, again.

Okay bye bye.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 25, 2020

My time: 10:02.

Theme: GO OUT ON A LIMB.  Three Across answers are missing "limbs" — WORKS LIKE A CH[arm], [leg]ALLY BLONDE and WHISTLE-BLO[wing].

Clever clues: "A chair might hold one" is GAVEL.  "Gift that much thought is put into?" is ESP.

I've said it before, but if you really want to be a Crossword Maven, you have to know your state flowers.  I don't.  Georgia's is AZALEA.

And there's NO MORE from me.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 24, 2020

My time: 9:01.

Theme: COLD OPEN, as in "SNL's" opening sketch.  Themed answers start with IC ("icy").

I didn't know IOWA CITY used to be the state's capital.

"Joe and Jack" is IRISH COFFEE.  That's pretty clever.

Did you know Macy's was founded by R.H. MACY?  The initials stand for Rowland Hussey.

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, so a resident of that city is a SLOVAK.

Roberto ALOMAR was a second baseman, mostly with the Padres.  He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, in 2011.

"Dinar spenders" are IRAQIS.  Iranian currency is the rial.

And now, I'LL GO.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 23, 2020

My time: 6:58.

Theme: STRAIGHT EDGES.  See how those four themed answers have letters that are straight on the left?  No curves there!

I don't think people say BEER GUTS, but the clue "they may hang out at pubs" is amusing.

I don't think people say ECOLABEL either, as I've mentioned before.

ERNST Mach has come up before.

I like that LEAPFROG and DOGPILE cross.

Well, that's my CUE to go.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: June 22, 2020

My time: 5:22.

Theme: a fugitive, an ESCAPEE, who is also hiding in four themed Across answers as "SKP."  You see him in DESK PHONES, RISK-PRONE, ASK PRICES, and JAMES K. POLK.

People do, in fact, use the term ASK PRICES.

A "flat, rectangular brooch" is a BAR PIN.

I could really have done this one faster, but they can't all be winners.