My time: 19:35, a few minutes faster than average.
This was a fun puzzle, super tough, with vague clues that made me chuckle or kick myself when everything finally clicked. Which is exactly the right level of challenge!
No America's Birthday theme today, which I find surprising. Oh well, #AllCountriesMatter
I had the most trouble with that southwest corner, but truthfully, all the corners were hotspots. I got DECKLE edging in books right off the bat but not much else.
While I enjoyed the clever phrasing of the cluing in general, I have a couple of complaints. RAPS is not usually pluralized. ("These chart-toppers are great RAPS," said the white guy, whitely.)
I'm not familiar with the phrase ROCK-RIBBED for "unwavering," but it's valid.
I know what P.F. CHANG'S is but didn't know they had a Great Wall of Chocolate. This seems to be a cake, a single dessert. I imagined a sort of chocolate bar where you pick types of chocolates off the wall. I guess that's a little Willy Wonka.
"Archangel of the Apocrypha" is URIEL, supposedly the one who stood guard at Eden with a flaming sword, but then left his post to check for the requisite lamb's blood on the doorframes of the Jews in Egypt.
Sports are not my department department: BIANCA Andreescu is a Canadian tennis champion. Tennis great ROD LAVER has come up before, but I had forgotten about him. I had to get nearly every letter on these before I was able to complete their names.
For "top drawer" I had *CLASSY which made the Fellini film *LA STRADY, which confused me a bit. It's CLASS-A (and LA STRADA, ovviamente).
For RAT TERRIER I put *FOX TERRIER almost immediately which tangled me up a bit. For "Uh-uh!" I had *NO WAY for a long time. It's NOHOW, which I insist is not equivalent to "uh-uh!" Boo on this clue.
Clever clues: "Checked out for a bit" kept me focused on the sense of zoned out but it's ON LOAN. "Business checks?" is BOYCOTTS. "Lines of code" is BYLAWS. "Call overseas?" kept me guessing a good long while. I had *AWAY RATE and knew that wasn't right. It's not a telephone call. It's AHOY, MATE. Yarr, that's a good 'un. "What a current flows into" is ANODE.
Lots of tough thinking it out, on this one. I fought for every square but finally emerged victorious. It provided AMPLE challenge.
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