Saturday, June 27, 2020

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.

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