My time: 21:08, one minute slower than average. This was not a good showing! There was quite a lot that I didn't know in today's puzzle, and some clues that just pointed me in the wrong direction. And I certainly never expected the clue "behind" to turn out to be ASS in the New York Times puzzle! My word!
"Cut along the grain" is RIPSAW. Is RIPSAW a verb? Or is "cut" a noun here, and a synonym of RIPSAW? It seems like it's the former, but does anyone really say, "Okay, let's ripsaw this bad boy?" I hate this already.
ZAPOTECAN is the language family they're looking for here. According to Wikipedia, the 2010 Mexican census reports 425,000 speakers, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca.
It took me quite a while to get to SANTA HATS for "carolers' wear." My mind was simply not firing on all cylinders today.
The airer of "Music City Tonight" is TNN, which makes perfect sense once you see it, but sense was eluding me.
I have never in my life heard of an OTTAVA. It's a musical direction meaning "at an octave higher or lower than written." Which is weird. Why write it in the way you don't want it performed?
"One pile of laundry" is WHITES, which, again, seems kind of obvious. My mind went to hamper. It went to armful. I just didn't think about the sorting part. Maybe I ought to sort my laundry.
I wanted "What are you waiting for?!" to be *GET TO IT, but it's GET ON IT, which also slowed me down.
The WOMEN'S March, an annual event since 2017, is a grassroots left-wing movement empowering women of all colors, creeds, and sexual orientation. You go, sister! Throw out all the old white men.
"Come and Get Your Love" was a 1974 hit by REDBONE, a Native American band. I've heard that song on classic rock radio a few times. They also had a hit called "The Witch Queen of New Orleans."
I've never heard of AIMEE Bender, a modern author. I have a vague memory of seeing her title The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake somewhere.
I have heard of ZENER Cards, the ESP testing set of shapes and symbols, but I just couldn't recall the name. If you are skeptical of ESP, you're zener than those who believe.
For "strike that's barely struck" I was thinking light jab or something, but it's FOUL TIP, some damn sports term. In baseball,a FOUL TIP is a batted ball that goes directly from the bat to the catcher’s hands and is legally caught. A foul tip is considered a strike and the ball remains in play.
Not being a Potterhead, I had no idea what ANTONIN Dolohov's name was, nor had I heard of his last name. It's one of the Death Eaters. He's a bad one, according to his bio.
I was not familiar with early movie mogul Marcus LOEW, but of course I know his legacy. He was one of the early founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The bumpy green fruit the OSAGE orange came up on December 4, 2017.
Political commentator and former White House Press Secretary DANA Perino was in the puzzle on May 29, 2018.
Clever clues: "Collection of offers?" turns out to be THE MOB. That's tricky. At first I thought it was a terrible clue because I was thinking offer like "an offer you can't refuse," but it's a collection of offers, like people who off you, like whacking a guy. "Flash setting" is DC COMICS, and that took me way longer to get than it should have. I have to grudgingly give credit to "non-nons?" for OUIS, even though it's kind of dumb as well as clever. "Student body activity?" is P.E. CLASS.
Whew, tough puzzle today! As the time clicked by I was ready to GO BERSERK.
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