Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 31, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: a spooooky 10:50, just over half my average Saturday time.

This puzzle has nothing to do with Halloween at all.  Timely themes is one of the areas in which I think Will Shortz has let us, the crossword-solving public, down.  Incidentally, this was a puzzle in which a knowledge of French was more help than even usual (ALOUETTE! ACCENT AIGU!).  Just OODLES of French.  That may be unfair to non-Francophones, but c'est la vie.

"Onetime trade org" is EEC, which stands for European Economic Community.  It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957.   Upon the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1993, the EEC was incorporated and renamed the European Community (EC). In 2009, the EC's institutions were absorbed into the EU's wider framework and the community ceased to exist.

Here is an example of a "too-clever-by-half" clue: "Product that becomes an item to which it's applied after shifting the last letter one spot down in the alphabet."  PAM, for a pan.  Ugh.

I don't think I've heard the phrase "A LA minute," meaning cooked to order.  Apparently it's applied mainly to sauces, often cooked in the same pan as the corresponding entrée.

"Form of graffiti" is AEROSOL.  I'm not sure if "form" implies that AEROSOL is a type of graffiti or a medium which graffiti is written in.  

I liked that "A to B, say" was a clue for both VOL. and STEP.  I initially guessed *RTE for the first one.

"Cheese from Wales, not southeastern Pennsylvania" is CAERPHILLY.  It is a hard, crumbly white cheese that originated in the area around the town of Caerphilly.  It is thought to have been created to provide food for the local coal miners. 

I've heard of ST. LO, capital of the Manche, but not the Battle of the Hedgerows, which took place there in 1944 between American and German forces.

The Hector Berlioz work "Les Nuits d'ETE" is an 1841 song cycle.

"Things on the small slide?" for AMOEBAS sounds like it's a pun, but just isn't.

I really wanted "dweller in the Himalayas" to be *BIGFOOT but it's BHUTANI.

"European city where the first carbonated beverage was invented" is LEEDS.  In 1767, Joseph Priestly discovered a method of infusing water with carbon dioxide when he suspended a bowl of water above a beer vat at a local brewery in Leeds.  Coca-Cola produced a fizzy lemonade drink called Leed from 1967-84.

Man, I continue to misspell RAMI Malek's name as *REMI despite his many appearances in the puzzle.

Clever clue: "Something fit for a king or queen" is MATTRESS.

I got pretty close to my record on this one!  To me this was a pretty easy Saturday. 

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 30, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 10:51, four and a half minutes faster than average.

Jesus, Mary, or Joseph (NAZARENE), this was an impressive fill!  We have KALAMAZOO, IZOD, RAJAHS, AZALEAS, XEROXES, cartoon boy JASON FOX, and more.  All I can say is GOOD JOB.

We've all heard of the Marquis de SADE, but it took a bit for it to click that he must be the kinkster behind the 1795 hit "Philosophy in the Bedroom." Though initially considered a work of pornography, the book has come to be considered a socio-political drama. Set in a bedroom, the two lead characters make the argument that the only moral system that reinforces the recent political revolution is hedonism, and that if the people of France fail to adopt the libertine philosophy, France will be destined to return to a monarchic state.  Throughout the work, Sade makes the argument that one must embrace atheism, reject society's beliefs about pleasure and pain, and further makes his argument that if any crime is committed while seeking pleasure, it cannot be condemned.  Sounds like the incels online today.  La plus ça change!

I think I have heard somewhere before that Nikola TESLA was friends with Mark Twain.  According to one story, Twain tried out an oscillating machine that Tesla had set up, and the vibrations made him have to make a mad dash for the bathroom.

I've never heard of the ASIAN Games ("second-largest multisport event after the Olympics").  I wanted to put *PAN-AM.  Also known as the Asiad, the ASIAN Games are also held every four years.

For "heat-resistant glass" I wanted to put *PYREX, probably with 95% of other solvers, but that's a trap.  It's SILEX, which seems to mean flint or silica, ground stone.  It was either a type or brand of glass used mostly for percolators in the '70s.  

KALAMAZOO, Michigan, in addition to being the funniest American city name, is also the title of a 1942 Glenn Miller hit: "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo." The lyrics feature letters as wordplay: "A B C D E F G H I got a gal in Kalamazoo..."

"Acts like a quidnunc" was the clue that sent solvers across the nation sprinting for their dictionaries, like so many Mark Twains heading for the toilet.   A quidnunc is a gossip, so MEDDLES in the answer.  I've heard this word before but it hasn't exactly made it to my list of 10,000 most used words.

We're all familiar with the work of Pablo NERUDA, or at least Bart Simpson and I are, but didn't know he was a senator.  He was in the communist party and a friend of Castro.

I'm terrible with geography.  The ZAMBEZI River is Africa's fourth-longest, and its most celebrated feature is Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

There are so many colleges!  EMERSON is a liberal arts college founded in 1880 in Boston.

AZALEAS are the flowers whose name derives from Greek roots meaning "to dry."  I was looking for something that might have a soft X or a Z in it, from xero-.

"Two bells, nautically" is ONE P.M.  But it also could be 1:00 a.m., or 5:00, or 9:00.  Here is a handy chart to ship's bell time.

Never heard of ELEANOR Smeal, three-term president of NOW.  She is also the president and a co-founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, founded in 1987.

"Devils' advocate?" is NHL, referring to the New Jersey Devils.

Soccer star ALI Krieger came up on October 13, 2018.

Clever clues: "Occasion for grilling" has nothing to do with the weather; it's ORAL EXAM.  "Half of Italy" is MEZZO.  "Decreases, in a way?" is STEAMS; I didn't get it for a bit, but it's de-creases.  "Fine example?" is LATE FEE.

I would call this a top-notch Friday.  No theme, no too-clever clues, no ambiguous clues.  Just challenging questions and a grid packed with amazing fill.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 29, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 8:58, six minutes faster than average.

Theme: NO 'T', NO 'W', clued as "I'm busy!" so it's read as NOT NOW, but actually "if read in four pieces, an aid in solving several clues."

This means simply you must remove any T or W from a clue that contains them in order for the answer to make sense.  For example, "twice over" is FREEZE, which only makes sense if you remove the T and W, and read "ice over."  Another example: "twin bed, perhaps" must be read as "in bed, perhaps" and is FAST ASLEEP.  Third example: "tawny" is NO MATTER WHICH, understandable only if the clue is shorn of its T and W and read as "any."

CAVIAR was actually the one that clued me into how the theme worked, perhaps because "wrote" and "roe" sound similar.  My favorite, though, is "wariest animal" for RAM.

"Biblical companion of Moses" is HUR.  No memory of this guy, but I knew Aaron wouldn't fit.  In the Book of Exodus, Hur is first mentioned as a companion of Moses and Aaron watching the Battle of Rephidim against the Amalekites. He aided Aaron to hold up the hands of Moses, which act magically gave the Israelites strength.

I only knew LEO as the "sign before Virgo" right off because of the three squares.  LEO runs from July 23 to August 22, and Virgo is from August 23 to September 22.  Astrology is stupid.

I don't think I've ever seen SCATHE as a verb meaning "denounce harshly."  I have seen it as the verb meaning "to hurt," of course.  I SCATHE this usage!  SCATHE it, I say!

I needed a little fill help to get the 1992 Jackie Chan film SUPERCOP.  It's also been released under the title Police Story 3.

On the other hand, I'm very familiar with the classic George Stevens film SHANE, but I always forget that Alan Ladd played the title role. 

I was at a rare loss for the prefix meaning odor.  It's OSMO-.   That might be its meaning as a word part, but it's usually used in words to man "transmitted through a permeable membrane."  I mean, that's how odor works, but the words using this prefix don't have to do with odor.

The role of Frankie in Grease was played by DIDI Conn, as shown on July 26.

I remembered CAEN, Normandy, from October 21.

Clever clues: it's not that original, but today I was fooled by "series ender" for ET AL.  I don't know why, but I got a chuckle out of UFOS as "causes of some 911 calls."

I thought this was a terrific puzzle!  The theme's trick was very well done, especially with the nearly-hidden key in the final "I'm busy!" answer.  Truly, this is a Thursday that will be hard to OUTDO.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 28, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 13:08, three minutes slower than average.  This one was a doozy!  I did not do it in a TRICE.

Theme: a quote from "Sex And the City" and it goes like this: "Men in their 40s are like the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle..." TRICKY, / COMPLICATED, AND / YOU'RE NEVER / REALLY SURE / YOU GOT THE RIGHT / ANSWER.  

Wow, that's... not clever or insightful.  At all.  It's really, really bad writing.  I'm not taking offense; I'm sure men in their 40s are far from God's gift to single women.   This line just sounds like something they'd put in the mouth of the "type A businesswoman" character on "The Simpsons" so the other characters could look confused.

Well, onto the fill.

I remembered from somewhere that the OBOE is the instrument to which the orchestra is tuned.  I'm so proud!

Apparently Beck Bennett is a player on "SNL."  I know his face, not his name.  And he often plays MIKE PENCE.

Also apparently there is a Triple Crown in baseball too, for pitching.  One category is ERA (Earned Run Average).  The other ones are wins and strikeouts.  There's also a batting Triple Crown but that's enough sports stats for today.

The clue "piolet, e.g." completely flummoxed me.  I don't think I've ever heard of a piolet.  It's a two-headed ICE AX.

Every single person in public radio is named IRA.  Today we get IRA Flatow, a science guy.  He hosts Public Radio International's popular program "Science Friday."  On TV, he hosted the Emmy Award-winning PBS series "Newton's Apple" and "Big Ideas."  He also has written some books.

Oh good, more sports.  GABE Kapler, an outfielder for a lot of teams, now a manager.

I know the song "Hello, Dolly!" quite well — Louis Armstrong does a fantastic version — but not much about the 1964 Broadway musical by Jerry Herman.   Dolly Gallagher LEVI is the title character, a vivacious widow and matchmaker.

For "was verklempt from pride" I put *SWELLED but it's more Yiddish, KVELLED.

Ha ha!  I was just talking about the Church of the SubGenius today!  Mark Trail looks like J.R. "Bob" Dobbs.  I was active in that silliness as a kid and did some drawings for the publications.  The members are descended from YETIS.  Boy, this clue is going to confuse and alarm a lot of people.

There's a rapper called Lil UZI Vert.  I think they're running out of names.  Oh well, at least this one is pronounceable by the human tongue.  He was born with the British-nobility-sounding name of Symere Bysil Woods in 1994 and is a multi-millionaire!  Oh, I've wasted my life.

Recently we had a "Rent' clue about Mimi, and today it's "role for Idina Menzel:" MAUREEN Johnson, based on the character Musetta in "La Bohème."  Menzel is known for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical dramedy TV series Glee from 2010 to 2013, and a non-singing role as Nancy Tremaine in the musical fantasy film Enchanted. She also voiced Queen Elsa in Disney's 2013 animated film Frozen, in which she sang the Oscar- and Grammy Award-winning song "Let It Go."

I've never heard of a FOGBOW, colorless cousin of the rainbow.

The Arizona State SUN DEVIL mascot finally gets its own place in the grid, rather than the school initials.

"Casual ristorante" is TRATTORIA, yet noted as being more formal than an osteria on October 7, 2017.

The word for Turkish inn IMARET appeared on November 11, 2018. 

I remembered "Palindromist" Jon AGEE from way back on October 5, 2017!  He also wrote a book on spoonerisms called Smart Feller, Fart Smeller.

Clever clues: "Senate rebuke" is a sly way to get to the tired old ET TU.   "Go (for)" is RETAIL.  "Driving test, of a sort" is GOLF.

And that's the end of this very challenging Wednesday!  There was some good fill (ICE AX, BOATYARD, KVELLED) and some tired fill (RTE, ERA, ET TU), but mostly the grid looks good.  Nothing wrong with the theme, I just felt the quote isn't worthy of inclusion.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 27, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 5:32, two minutes faster than average.

Theme: not quite apt anagrams, these are "apt phrases" clued with the letters of the phrases, but without repeats, rearranged into a definition of sorts.  So, for example, "just the letters of US Capitol" are used to make the phrase POLITICS AS USUAL.  And the letters "unearths" can be rearranged and used multiple times to spell out TREASURE HUNTER.

It's a clever enough word trick.  It didn't help me much because on a Tuesday I don't take the time to sit and think about what letters are used in a clue, but if someone was stuck it could definitely help to know the letters had to be from a certain set.

In the fill, I liked how "grade upgrade" was PLUS and "grade downgrade" was MINUS.  Having put KISS for "Hershey's foiled confection" at the top I really wanted kiss to be the answer at the bottom clue "sleep disruptor in a fairy tale" (PEA), but I guess that would break some rule about not repeating words.

This year is year of the RAT and last year was year of the PIG.  Next year will be the year of the OX. Know your Chinese zodiac!

I couldn't tell you right off the bat that Beyoncé voiced NALA in the Lion King remake, but it's a fairly easy thing to guess.

New to me is children's TV series "ESME & Roy."  It's about two friends who babysit monsters in a town called Monsterdale.

FedEx alternative DHL appears often but I always have a hard time with it.

Disney queen ELSA's realm being Arendelle came up on April 19, 2018.

Clever clues: "Things you might open with a click" is PENS.  "Safe space?" is BANK.

This was an okay Tuesday, but I thought the theme, while clever, was sort of detached from the puzzle.  It showcases a fun fact about a phrase — its letters can be anagrammed into a definition of itself! — but there isn't any cohesion within the puzzle itself.  I didn't dislike it, it just left me wanting a little bit more, a piece that would put it all together.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 26, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 5:14, just short of average but not great for a Monday at this point. 

Theme: three apparently quite disparate jobs — CODE BREAKER, STAND-UP COMIC, and CHIROPRACTOR ("health professional who has your back?") — are told to GET CRACKING.  That's pretty clever!  Very well done. 

Title woman in songs by the Beatles and the Spinners is SADIE.  In the case of the latter it's the 1975 song "SADIE," no description of her sexiness attached.  It's about the singer's mother, actually.

"Yellow flowers in the primrose family" is OXLIPS.  The oxlip, primula elatior, is a semi-evergreen perennial that grows well in shade.

New Jersey's SETON Hall University is a Catholic university in the Big East conference.  It main campus is located in the quaint town of South Orange.

ERNIE Banks, Chicago Cubs Hall-of-Famer, appeared way back on October 11, 2017, but back then he was referred to as "Mr. Sunshine."  Today he's clued as "Mr. Cub." 

"Hilo Hello" is ALOHA.  The Hawaiian city of Hilo was an answer on June 30.

Clever clue: "A physicist or a fashion designer might work with one" is MODEL — the physicist part refers to the Standard MODEL describing the forces and particles of the universe.  "Hombre-to-be, perhaps" is MUCHACHO, Spanish for young man.

This was a very nice Monday!  Good clean fill, and a smart theme.  I really liked the clues; often a Monday is kind of boring with its straight synonym clues, ut this one has some fun ones like "target of a camper's scalp-to-toe inspection" for TICK.  The constructor, Eric Bornstein, is SLY AS A FOX!  It's not quite as EASY as the typical Monday but much more interesting.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 25, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 20:19, five minutes faster than average.

Theme: "At the Halloween Play..."  The themed Across clues are punny phrases that happened "at the Halloween play." The answers aren't riffs on already-existing phrases but jokes about various Halloween things.  For example, "when the black cat appeared, the" AUDIENCE HISSED.  "The vampire never" REFLECTED ON HIS ROLE.  And so on.

The one that I first figured out was "the mummy was a hit" AT THE WRAP PARTY.  But I also appreciate "the critics loved the witch's performance," WARTS AND ALL.

All right, let's get to POINT B by going through the fill.

I simply could not remember the heartburn reliever brand MYLANTA.

Never heard of rap producer IRV Gotti, born Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr.  The founder of Murder Inc. records, he was acquitted of laundering money in 2005.

I've watched a couple seasons of "Stranger Things," but I still needed crossfill to get LUCAS.  He's the nerd.  Ha ha!  Just kidding.  They're all nerds.  He's the African-American one.

Why is SECOND the most common street name in America?  It goes SECOND, Third, First?  Hey?

"Source of some tweets" gave me some trouble.  First I put *AVIANS, forcing me to change my Down crossing answer RAG for "rip (on") to *NAG.  But then I later discovered that *AVIANS would make another crossing word *ACOLSTE.  So I changed *AVIANS to *AVIANY.  You know, an adjective!  That bird is so aviany!  Well, no.  I had to change "rip (on)" back to RAG to get AVIARY.  That makes sense!

"Component of béchamel sauce" is ROUX.  Béchamel sauce is a white sauce made of ROUX and milk.  ROUX is a sort of gravy made simply by melting butter and stirring in flour.  I personally have tried and failed to make it.

I normally can't stand clues about small towns being north or south or some given distance from some other place, but "Indiana city that's 100 miles west of Lima, Ohio" is a great clue when the answer is PERU.  PERU is the county seat of Miami County, Indiana!  Make up your own names, Indiana!

We all know what a dodecagon is, but what's a hendecagon?  A chicken-shaped polygon.  No, it has eleven sides.  Also called an undecagon or a unidecagon.

HAKEEM Jeffries is a Democratic congressman of New York and the chair of the House Democratic Causcus.

I know what the original IPOD looked like, but I wasn't aware that its control was referred to as a click wheel.

It wasn't an answer, but I discussed Bach MOTETS on October 8.

As I Lay Dying father ANSE Bundren last appeared April 26, 2018.

I remembered that ST. L was the answer for "Card's place" from way back on September 27, 2018! 

I forgot, however, about Al Capone's right hand man, Frank NITTI, who makes his third appearance in this blog.

Clever clue: Two of Us? is ITEM.  "Apt thing to wear during allergy season?" is A SHOE — now that's a groaner.

Well, all in all this was a successful and ABLY constructed Sunday puzzle.  The theme was silly and fun, and the clues were challenging.  I had no issues with how any of the clues were written.

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 24, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 18:06, two minutes faster than average and quite lucky to get it.

There was a lot of new material in this one, sly clues, and a lot of fresh fill.  In general today's grid construction is quite a NEAT TRICK.  I actually came close to saying I CAN'T while trying to finish this, so I'm surprised I beat my average.

The famously walled Spanish city of AVILA appeared a cuple of times in this blog, most recently February 4, 2019.  However, I didn't remember, and didn't put it together with the Spanish languge clue "Muralla de" AVILA.  Their official name is Muralla y Puertas.

For "categorized by district" I put *ZONED but it's ZONAL.  This messed me up a bit in the northwest.  Similarly, I put *AUTOPILOT for the clunky-sounding AUTO DRIVE.

"Sazerac cocktail ingredient" is RYE whiskey.  I'm not a drinker, and when I was, never drank RYE.  Apparently it started with brandy, though.

I am still puzzled about this one: "in-person setting for the Emmys, but not the Oscars."  PDT.  Pacific Daylight Time, surely.  But... aren't they both held on the west coast?  Am I missing something?  Is it because the Oscars are aired later?  I have no idea.

"One of 30 on a regular dodecahedron" is EDGE but I put *AXIS.  (A pyritohedron has 30 edges: six corresponding to cube faces, and 24 touching cube vertices.)  This caused me to think that its Across contact, "hole maker," ended in -axe but it's SPADE.  

I had a little trouble spelling TREF, or non-kosher.  (trif? tryf? tirf?)

"Going from petticoats to pants, once."  I was looking for a synonym for being bold or breaking tradition, like when women started wearing pants.  But that's barking up the wrong historical tree.  It's BREECHING.  I must confess I had no idea about how this one works, either.  I had to look it up.  BREECHING is the term marking the rite of passage when a young boy moved into wearing pants.  From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or early 20th century, young boys in the Western world were "unbreeched" and wore gowns or dresses until an age that varied between two and eight.  Breeching was an important rite of passage in the life of a boy, looked forward to with much excitement, and often celebrated with a small party. It often marked the point at which the father became more involved with the raising of a boy.  In more modern times in Britain, a parallel was going from short pants to trousers.

I had to reply on a lot of crosses to get BAD BOUNCE ("challenge for an infielder").

For "eternally, in religious parlance," I put *AGE ON AGE but it turned out to be AGE TO AGE.  This kept me in tangles down in the southwest corner for a while.  Especially since I stayed with *SOIL for "pileup after digging a hole" but it's a financial hole and DEBT.

HAL's earthbound "twin" in Arthur C. Clarke's 2010 is SAL 9000 (I had *SAD and thought that couldn't be right).  SAL had a female voice.

Never heard the term OBAMACRAT!  It means, obviously, a Democratic supporter of Obama, but on the net I've also seen it defined as a person who might have voted for Obama but isn't necessarily a Democrat.

The Hokies of the ACC is VA TECH, more properly abbreviated VT, sometimes VPI, and formally Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  Hokie sports!  Go Hokies!  Ha ha!

I only didn't have trouble with this clue because of the wording: "'This is prophetic' in 'Nixon in China,' eg." Title in title is an example of what four-letter word?  ARIA.  This one is sung by Pat Nixon.  The opera was written by John Adams, not only our second president but an accomplished composer and conductor as well as veteran time-traveler.

"New Hampshire's Gate City" is NASHUA, a burg of 86,000.  Built around the now-departed textile industry, in recent decades Nashua has been swept up in southern New Hampshire's economic expansion as part of the Boston region. It was twice named "Best Place to Live in America" in annual surveys by "Money" magazine.  Why is it called Gate City?  I don't know.  Because it's on the border with Massachusetts?

I didn't know there was a Disney show called "TRON: Uprising."

Icelandic currency KRONA has some up quite a lot, but I still mistakenly spelled it with a final E.

The ABBA song "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" appeared on August 15, 2018.

I never remember that KSU is home to the Wildcats.

A plethora of clever clues today: "Jacket material" is COVER ART, as in book jackets.  "Function with no limits?" is not about math but refers to an ORGY.  Let's keep it PG-13, New York Times! "Takes a ride?" is one I've seen before for REPOS, so I got it fairly quickly.  "Passing options" is A, B, C, D.  (I initially had *ABC'S.)  "Intellectual property?" is IVORY TOWER.  "Digital access points" has nothing to do with technology and is FINGERTIPS, hardy har har!

This was a fun, well-thought-out, challenging Saturday!  Some of the cluing was RAZOR SHARP.  I liked "things relied on in desperation" as a clue for A WING AND A PRAYER.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 23, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 10:32, five minutes faster than average.

And now, AWAIT no longer — the information that I didn't know about beforehand!  There honestly wasn't much.

The only character with the same name in "Rent" and "La Bohème"?  MIMI.  That's MIMI Marquez the junkie and stripper in "Rent," and just plain MIMI, the seamstress, in "La Bohème."  The seamstress falls for Rodolfo, a poet; the stripper falls for Roger, a poet.

"Cost-of-living fig." is CPI, or Consumer Price Index, a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.

I didn't know that Lizzo's birth name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, but the AKA part was easy to guess.

German river the EDER is a 110-mile long river that begins in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia and passes in to Hesse, where it confluences with the River Fulda.  None of that means anything to me.  Not to be confused with the Eger River, properly called the Ohře.

"Pieces of pomegranate" is ARILS.  An aril is a covering of seeds, especially a brightly-colored fleshy envelope, as in the case of the pomegranate.

"Omaha relative" is OTOE.  I am familiar with the latter but didn't know that the Omaha was a tribe.

Japanese beer brand ASAHI showed up on September 29, 2017.

Clever clues: I figured out "what's before after, at the end?" right away (as in EVER after), but it's a fun wording.  "Batting equipment?" is FAKE EYELASHES.  I really thought "tree toppers" would end in stars but it's ANCESTORS.

These was a Fun Friday!  The clues were mostly amusingly sly (like "B+ or A-" for BLOOD TYPE), and the fill boasts some little seen stuff like STAR POWER, FREE SHIPPING, LEATHER SEATING, and PINSTRIPE SUIT.  I believe that these long entries are more easily guessed with a little fill than short ones, and make the solve easier.

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 22, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 14:12, one minute slower than average.  I'll take it!  This puzzle had a lot of abstruse information in it and an original, hard to discover theme.

Theme: RUNS ON EMPTY ("keeps going despite fatigue").  This means that in three instances, the letter series R-U-N, or three "run"s, are over, or on, three squares that remain.... EMPTY.  

The three answers that are meant to be unfilled are clued thusly: "what's theorized to have preceded the Big Bang;" "what polar opposites have in common;" and "what's uttered by a mime."  In other words, nothing!  Leave those squares EMPTY.

Well, I have to say WOW, and I guess OOH.  I'm impressed; my hat is off to Sid Sivakumar, who constructed this amusingly challenging puzzle!  It was fun to solve.  Even having the key capper phrase RUNS ON EMPTY did not clue me in, until I realized that the reason the Down crosses ON PUR-POSE and N-ERVE didn't fit was they needed an extra letter.  Once I saw the trick, knowing that R-U-N was in the answer helped me get LABOR UNIONS.

Okay, on to the fill.

I know AC/DC well and I have given Back In Black many a listen, but I didn't know it went 25x platinum.  That's a lot of rock!  It achieved that status on December 9, 2019.

For "it may lead up to a letdown" I put *HOPE and thought, "Geez, that's pretty grim, New York Times, but I guess that's the age we live in!"  But it's HYPE, which makes much more sense. 

Never heard of the five-star hotel in Kolkata TAJ Bengal, but it's pretty easy to guess.

Not so easy to guess, on the other hand, is GURU NANAK, the founder of Sikhism.  A sixteenth-century mystic, Nanak is said to have traveled far and wide across Asia teaching people the message of ik onkar ("one God"), who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth.

"_____ ears" is a terrible clue for JUG.  "Actress Laura" is a boring clue for DERN.

"Houseware brand that's easy to read in a mirror" for OXO, though, is fun.  See the difference?

I didn't know that LENT was once known as Quadragesima (Latin for fortieth), but with that translation it's easy enough to connect the dots, Lent being the period of forty days before Easter.

"Harrison, e.g., but not Ford" is the kind of fun clue that made me smile.  It's WHIG; William Henry Harrison, who died in office after a month, was the WHIG candidate for president.  The president Gerald Ford was a Republican, not a Whig. And Harrison Ford has nothing to do with it.  Whigs advocated the rule of law, written and unchanging constitutions, the right of property, maintaining social order, and preserving a distinct cultural heritage.  Sort of like Scalia conservatives.

Apparently a liter of water weights a KILO.  A gallon of water weighs about eight pounds.  A pint's a pound the world around!  The weight of a volume of water can be found given the density, which is the mass compared to the volume. The density of water is 1 kilogram per liter (kg/L) at 39.2°. 

UTAH is home to Bryce Canyon, Sego Canyon, Zion National Park, Desolation Canyon, the skiing resort Alta, the Wasatch Mountains, and its national flower the sego lily.  What I'm getting at is that UTAH appears in the puzzle a lot. This time, "its name is said to mean people of the mountains."  This is a conjecture, and the name's origin is unknown.

Actress UZO Aduba appeared on December 7, 2018. 

Clever clue: "Down-hearted softies?" is DUVETS.  "Telephone when all lit up?" is DRUNK DIAL.  "It's used to carry out an order" is TRAY; that's a great one.  "Ones arranging spots" is AD EXECS.

This was a great puzzle!  It's nice to see an original grid with a clever trick.  The clues were largely well-written and the fill has some rare words (like LABOR UNIONS, GURU NANAK, DATES UP).  I'm fairly proud that I managed to complete it in the time that I did.

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 21, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 7:04, three minutes faster than average.

Theme: world capitals replacing semi-homophones in set phrases, and then clued accordingly.  So "census taker in India?" is DELHI COUNTER, a play on deli counter.  The oddly specific "police dragnet in South Korea?" is SEOUL SEARCH, from soul search.

I had a bit of trouble with "ways to cross a river in Switzerland" (BERN BRIDGES).  For some reason I was looking for a river in front of BRIDGES, even though I had already solved the other three with their city names!  What a dummy.  

"We LIE loudest when we LIE to ourselves," said Eric Hoffer, household name.  Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983.  You don't need to know that to solve the clue; I just thought it would be nice to know.

I don't think I've ever heard of BARUCH College, one of ten senior colleges of CUNY. Baruch College is located in the sunny Park Avenue South area of Manhattan, in the heart of one of the world's most dynamic financial and cultural centers.

I hate the phrase "U.S. OF A."  Blech.

The WEI dynasty is here clued as "circa AD 250," but this refers to the Cao WEI or Former WEI, one of the major states of the Three Kingdoms era.  The other Wei dynasty is the Northern or Later Wei, about 4th to 6th century AD.  Don't mix them up!  There will be a quiz later.

"Brew with hipster cred" is PBR.  Is it?  Is it?!?

Battle of Normandy site is CAEN, a commune in northwestern France.  Caen is known for its historical buildings built during the reign of William the Conqueror, who was buried there, and for the Battle for Caen — heavy fighting that took place in and around Caen during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, destroying much of the city. The city has now preserved the memory by erecting a memorial and a museum dedicated to peace, the Mémorial de Caen. 

"Watches Bowser, say" had me thinking of Nintendo, dammit.  It's DOGSITS.

For "skate park feature" I put *RAMP but it's RAIL.  And for "If-____ (computer programming statement)" I put *THEN but it turns out to be if-ELSE.  It is used to specify a block of code to be executed, if the same condition set in "if" is false.

SOCHI, Russia was the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Six countries participated for the first time in these games: Malta, Paraguay, Timor Leste, Togo, Tonga and Zimbabwe.

Verizon acquisition GTE last appeared on April 26, 2018.

The archaic word EGEST last appeared April 21, 2018.

Clever clue: "Bellyache" is meant to be interpreted as "complain," sort of equivalent to the verb BEEF.

This was a fun one!  I enjoyed the wordplay, and some of the refreshing fill.  TELETHONS?  I CAN'T EVEN!

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 20, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 4:47, about 35 seconds short of the record.  Shoulda tried harder!

Theme: "Like goods that are temporarily out of stock," or BACK ORDERED.  "Or a hint, alphabetically," to the highlighted answers.  It took me a minute even after I solved it, but this means the themed answers are in reverse alphabetical order.  I would have thought the connecting thread was that they all had double letters, except that TO LIFE doesn't fit.

As a theme, it's kind of anti-climactic.  So many words that don't have anything in common except for the arrangement of their letters.

The grid is a little wearying, as well, with its US DO and the silly plurals IKEAS, MIAS ("Farrow and Hamm, for two") and ELMOS.  But on the positive side, it has SPLIFF, BEFOULED, and SATRIANI. 

And now to the fill.  Not very much new to me today.  IT'S ON!

I had no idea how to interpret the clue "gut course."  I thought it might be a class on gastrointestinal medicine or something.  It means EASY A.  Apparently I totally missed the boat on the term "gut course."

I knew that 911s are PORSCHES, but never heard of Panameras.  I will probably never own a Porsche.

L'chaim! literally means TO LIFE! Chayyim, also transcribed Haim, Hayim, Chayim, or Chaim, is a name of Hebrew origin which means "life." Its first usage can be traced to the Middle Ages. The feminine form for this name is Chaya.  L'chaya!

Mike the Tiger, mascot of LSU, was mentioned way back on October 22, 2017.

Sparky the Sun Devil, mascot of ASU, came up on January 30, 2018. 

LARGO, slow and steady in music, appeared May 26, 2018.

Actress NIA Vardalos was a standalone clue on February 20, 2018 and also appeared as part of a rebus on December 5, 2018.  She's a Crossword Constant!

Clever clue: "One used to old habits?" is NUN.

I didn't think much of the theme today, but they can't all be winners.  Almost all of the fill was fun.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 19, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 4:07, not bad!

Theme: how four EMOTIONS are typically depicted in newspaper comics.  So: "Anger, in the comics" is STORM CLOUD.  "Odor, in the comics" is WAVY LINES.  And so forth.

This theme would be decidedly more interesting if the "in the comics" part was omitted in the clues, SWEAT DROPS would be clued only as "nervousness."  And then the word EMOTIONS, already in the puzzle but ignored, theme-wise, could be clued as "what four starred clues describe in the comics."  (Not that they're all emotions; that's an example.)  Or maybe even make in the comics be the a-ha capper answer to clue like "where these themed clues are true."  That would make a really clever Wednesday.  As it is, this a straightforward Monday.  There's nothing wrong with it, but it didn't make me smile the way it would if it were a little more tricky.

Anyway.  "Catkin-producing tree" is ALDER.  And what is a catkin?  Why, simply any spicate inflorescence (as of the willow, birch, or oak) bearing scaly bracts and unisexual usually apetalous flowers.  That's clear, right? There will be an exam later on.  Apparently they're edible??

"Letter after phi, chi and psi" is OMEGA.  This is a fraternity and sorority thing.  Psi OMEGA is a fraternity for dentistry!

Way back in 2017 we had the painter Charles Wilson Peale, but today we meet 19th-century portrait painter Rembrandt PEALE.  He was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

That OPEL was once owned by General Motors came up on December 17, 2017.

Allen "the Answer" Iverson was last in the puzzle on September 20, but this time I spelled his first name right.

Well, that's AMPLE coverage of this Monday.  Good GAME, everyone.  Hit the showers.  See you tomorrow.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 18, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 17:01, about two minutes slower than the record.  Not bad at all!  I did it IN A SNAP!

Theme: "Title Basin'," which is the title of the crossword.  The title is itself an example of the theme, in which several titles have their last word replaced with a homonym (or two, in the case of JULIUS SEES HER).

The theme gave me no trouble, as "Yann Martel's baking memoir" could only be LIFE OF PIE.  I ike "Voltaire's sweet novel," or CANDIED.  I think "Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's pet story?" is not a great clue for THE LITTLE PRINTS.  Something like "Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's story of trailing a small person" maybe?  Eh, it needs work.

For "shunned, with 'out'" I put *CAST and that had me puzzled in the top right for a bit.  I don't think "ICED out" is as good an answer.

"What a figure skate has that a hockey skate lacks" is TOE PICK. They are a hockey player's number one nemesis: the dreaded toe pick.  Toe picks are located at the front end of a figure skate. They're small, sawlike ridges at the front of a skate that assist figure skaters in executing their tricks, jumps and lands on the ice. 

MRI is a common crossword answer, but today it's clued as "scan that excites hydrogen atoms."  I did not know anything about how an MRI works.  The body is largely composed of water molecules. Each water molecule has two hydrogen nuclei or protons. MRI takes advantage of the high prevalence of hydrogen in the body and the magnetic properties of the proton in a hydrogen atom. Hydrogen atoms induce a small magnetic field due to the spin of this atom's proton.

I'm familiar with Debussy, but not "NUIT d'Etoiles." It's a solo voice piece with piano.

ELENA Ferrante is a pseudonym for an Italian novelist.  Her four-book series of Neapolitan novels are her most widely known works.

I've heard of ECRU, but I could not figure out "neutral paint color" FLAX even with three letters.

I've never heard of Dutch dance act 2 Unlimited or any of their... uh, songs, but "Y'ALL ready for this?" is as easy enough slang phrase to guess. 

HOT DESK is a new term to me.  It means "share a workspace, in modern lingo."

"It's possible" is not a great clue for I MAY.  Also, I really hate the spelling TE-HEE.

"First official port of entry to the United States" is SAG Harbor.  Today a town of about 2,000 in the Hamptons, its landmarks include structures associated with whaling and its early days when it was designated as the first port of entry to the new United States. It had the first United States custom house erected on Long Island. 

An EXTERN is a nonresident doctor, a visiting physician perhaps. 

Never heard of SNL cast member HEIDI Gardner.  She seems to have been in a lot of mediocre film and TV.

Lover of Orion EOS appeared on July 4, 2018.

Clever clues: "Beat" is SPENT. "Call to reserve?" is LET.  "Bullet alternatives: abbr." is not *BBS, but NOS., as in numbers instead of bullet points.  "What can take a punch?" is LADLE.

This was an okay Sunday puzzle.  The theme was just sort of there, with no capper, and it didn't even have any consistency.  I thought it might be food-related homophones when I saw both LIFE OF PIE and IN SEARCH OF LOST THYME, but no.  It's just homophones, and the last one is kind of a cheat.  Don't get me wrong, I still admire the craft that goes into puzzles like this.  It's just this one isn't as tight as it could be.  AND SCENE!

Saturday's New York Times crossword puzle solved: October 17, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 10:23, three minutes slower than the record.  I DON'T LIKE TO BRAG, but that's pretty good considering the amount of white space on this grid!

Theme: a minor one, but the five black crosses make up a QUINCUNX, and each one can also be called a PLUS SIGN.

I mostly loved the fill.  This amount of used squares is impressive, doubly so with things like QUEBEC, XANADU, RETURN OF THE JEDI, and so on.  I'm not as happy about the various ADA, ANA, ANNA, ENE, and so on, but I guess that's inevitable with this kind of grid.

I have heard of the SALT talks, but couldn't have told you that Carter and Brezhnev signed SALT II.  SALT I was signed by Nixon and Brezhnev. 

ADA Yonath, an Israeli chemist, won one-third of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for for "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome." 

Ugh, sports are so boring, college sports perhaps more so.  "Two-time NCAA football champs on the 2010s" are the CLEMSON / TIGERS.  They have three titles in all, and won in 2016 and 2018.  They have a lot of championship wins.  Once I had the latter team name, I came up with the school, thanks to some filled crossing and a vague memory of its appearance on February 6, 2018.

"Setting for The Great Escape" is not Alcatraz or even a gulag, but a STALAG.  I probably should have known that.

"Bronze: Lat." is AES.  What?  It's a neuter noun meaning debt, gong, money, or several base metals.  Why is Lat. abbreviated?

French food I have never heard of in my life: CLAFOUTI.  I had to get every letter of that from crossfill!  properly spelled clafoutis, it is a baked French dessert of fruit, traditionally black cherries, arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. The clafoutis is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm, sometimes with cream. 

There are a lot of theater clues in the NYT puzzle.  This one is director Trevor with three Tonys.  That's Trevor NUNN, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.   In 2008 "The Telegraph" named him among the most influential people in British culture.  He has also directed works for film and television.

"Veep" actress ANNA Chlumsky appeared on February 4, 2019. 

Political commentator ANA Navarro has appeared several times, most recently July 1, 2018.

Same with SADR City, last seen September 27, 2018.

I noted that SOLE is a relative of flounder on September 7.

Clever clue: "Type face?" is EMOTICON.  "Some last a lifetime" is BANS.  "Overseer of millions at work, perhaps" is CFO.  "Needing to be tucked in, say?" is UNMADE.  "Ornaments" is meant to be read as a verb and the answer is TRIMS.

I did this puzzle in good time, and it was fun.  Nothing to GNASH at here.

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 16, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 9:28, only one minute slower than the record.

I loved the fill in this puzzle!  So many popular and slangy phrases, like JUST AS I THOUGHT, ACCIDENTS HAPPEN, EMPTY SUITS, and THEM"S THE BREAKS, plus unusual words like ZEPPELIN, OZYMANDIAS, HEAD TRIP, AMAZON, and ACID TEST.  What a great grid!

Well, I'M ALL SET.  Onto the stuff that I needed to figure out!

I really got in my head that "showboaty home run celebrations" would be something laps, but it was BAT FLIPS.  This is one of those sports terms of art.  Not this. 

More sports: I've come across the term "Big EAST" before, even in this blog, but it's not one in my wheelhouse.  Its nucleus is composed of the "Catholic Seven" members of the original Big East Conference: DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, Providence College, Seton Hall University, St. John's University, and Villanova University.  And then there was something about the various basketball- and football-centric colleges having a schism, and then my eyes gazed over and I stopped reading about it.

Malcolm X was born in OMAHA in 1925.  You know, OMAHA has come up a few times in the puzzle, and every time, I question whether the clue is a fact worth knowing.

I assumed that when Ralph NADER wrote Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, he was being facetious.  It turns out to be a novel about a utopia in which the super-rich use altruism to help the world.

"Most valuable player awards?" is OBIES.  Meh, that's not quite clever enough.  Maybe if it had been Oscars?

"Door or window frame" is CASING.  I've heard this term, but it took me a while to fill it in.

JENA Malone is an actress who started in bit roles when she was about 12 and is best known for her role as Johanna Mason in the Hunger Games movies.  It's the role she was born to play!  They have the same initials.

Dutch painter Jan STEEN last appeared on December 11, 2018.

Clever clues: "Graduation props?" isn't something you hold but your props, like respect, as in HONORS. "Key chain?" is ISLES.  "Inits. at the top of some brackets" is a clever way to get to NCAA.  "Half of a jazz duo" is ZEE.

Well, that about wraps it up for this Friday.  Happy end of the work week.  I hope we still have an America in a couple of weeks.

Thursday's New York Times Crossword Puzzle solved: October 15, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G'day, mates!  My time: 9:41, five minutes faster than average.

Theme: a tribute to AUSTRALIA, also called the land DOWN UNDER.  Four Australian terms are in the puzzle, each read for half of the term forward, and then the rest of the term tuns backward, underneath the first half.  You know, because they're all upside down to us.

"Web-footed mammals" is platypuses, in the grid as PLATY / SESUP.  And then there's KANG / OORA, VEGE / ETIM, and finally, DIDGE / OODIR, "instrument played using circular breathing."

Good on ya if you figured all that out quickly!  That was hard yakka, fair dinkum it was.  Onto the fill!

I hate, hate, hate clues that ask what key something is in.  Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" is in E FLAT.  Is this important to the work?  Is it interesting?  Is it unusual in any way?

I also thought the clue "a goose egg," with the indefinite article, was odd and misleading for NADA.  Articles aren't often used in clues or fill, and it's really not needed here. 

I didn't know that a LIME was used as a gimlet garnish.  I guess I didn't know what a gimlet was. I was picturing something smoky with an olive or onion.  It's just gin and lime juice.

The figure atop the US Capitol Building is called the Statue of FREEDOM.  It's a figure of woman wearing a helmet and holding a sheathed sword, nineteen and a half feet tall!

"Wood rich in tannins" is OAK.  The word "tannin" actually comes from tan, which is derived from late Old English tannian "to convert hide into leather," from Medieval Latin tannum "crushed oak bark," used in tanning leather, probably from a Celtic source (such as Breton tann "oak tree"). So that makes sense!

What is FLEUR de sel? It's a term for the thin layer of salt that forms after seawater has evaporated.

ATUL Gwande is a surgeon, professor of surgery at Harvard, and a writer.  He is the author of the books Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science; Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance; The Checklist Manifesto; and Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

"S.I. VIPs" is EDS.  I guess that's an EDitor at "Sports Illustrated" maybe?

In an additional Australian nod, the RUM Rebellion was Australia's first and only military coup, an 1808 uprising in the then-penal colony of New South Wales.  It was staged by the New South Wales Corps in order to depose Governor William Bligh, who is one of the few people in history to have two famous rebellions against him.

Apparently the words "spunk" and "slogan" derive from ERSE?  "Spunk" is from Gaelic spong, or sponge. A similar evolution of meaning took place in cognate Irish sponnc "sponge, tinder, spark; courage, spunk."  And "slogan" derives from 1500s slogorne "battle cry," from Gaelic sluagh-ghairm "battle cry used by Scottish Highland or Irish clans," from sluagh "army, host, slew."  Fascinating!

EFRAM Zimbalist Sr. was a violinist and composer.  His son was a noted TV actor.

I put FOG IN for "strand at the airport, maybe" because it was clued exactly the same way yesterday (when I mistakenly put *ICE IN at first).

"The time it takes light to travel .3 mm" is a P-SEC or picosecond, one trillionth of a second.  I guess scientists need these really tiny measurements.

Did you know ONYX is the traditional gemstone for a seventh wedding anniversary?  That's nice.   Copper and wool are the "traditional" gifts (set in 1937 by the American National Retail Jeweler Association, apparently?), but more modern gifts for the seventh are ONYX, desk sets, and flowers.

Novelist and travel writer Santha Rama RAU appeared on December 28, 2017.

Clever clue: "A house may be built on it" is SPEC.  "Things with perks?" is COFFEE POTS.  I also liked TRAMPOLINE for "bouncer's equipment," because I couldn't stop thinking of stuff like velvet rope?  "Ones coming for a ride?" is REPO MEN.

Well, this has been a real RIOT.  I enjoyed the wacky theme!  Hooroo, mates!

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzle solved: October 14, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 11:56, two full minutes slower than average.

This one just kicked my can around the block today.  No particular reason, I think — I cottoned on to the DIGIT theme pretty early on, but the north section just had me hitting a wall.

Anyway, the DIGIT theme.  That's DIGIT as in hand extremities, not numbers.  Five gestures you can make with your fingers are describes without using the words "finger" or "thumb."  So you get "2nd and 3rd separated" for VICTORY.  (In this puzzle, thumb turns out to be 1st, which is reasonable.)  "1st and 5th" is HANG LOOSE.

"2nd and 3rd crossed" (HOPEFULLY) was what clued me in to the theme, because what else do you cross?

I did have a bit of trouble with "1st."  It means CAN I GET A LIFT, but since the clue doesn't mention  the direction or even that the thumb is extended, I was just picturing the thumb by itself.  And so I was thinking of "thumbs-up" and something along the lines of can I get a yeah (???).  Well, I knew that wasn't it.

Anyhoo, now the fill.

I think "water slide" for CHUTE is a little misleading.  My brain wasn't going down that way, at least.  Likewise "disciplinary" is a bit vague to get to PENAL.

TANTO is a new word to me.  In music, is means "so much," as in allegro non tanto (brisk, but not too much so).

For "count me in" I had *I'M FREE instead of I'M GAME.  And for "tied in ____" I naturally put *KNOTS but it's A KNOT, which is bad form, crossword-wise, in my opinion.

For "gold and silver have them, but not bronze" I put *ELLS.  But it's ORES.  Mine works too!

KYRA Phillips is a news anchor who worked for CNN and later ABC.  She seems to have done a lot of embedded work and training with the military, and also seems to be a suck-up to the orange hole of ego in the White House.

"Extra on 'Star Trek'" is YEOMAN.  That's a new one.  Usually it's "red shirt" or "alien" or something like that.

"Capital at an elevation of 12,000 feet" is LHASA (home to the Jokhang Temple).  I must admit I was not thinking of regional capitals.  I was thinking Quito (elevation 9,000 feet), but didn't put it in because of the Q.  It would have been a great guess though.

I didn't know that the soap ZEST was blue-green. It was originally introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1955 with the slogan "For the first time in your life, feel really clean."

"Goddesses of the seasons" is HORAE.  Also spelled horai and sometimes called the Hours in English, the HORAE are the Greek personifications of the passing of the seasons and time.  The number of Horae varied according to different sources, but was most commonly three: either the trio of Thallo, Auxo and Carpo (goddesses of the order of nature) or Eunomia (goddess of good order and lawful conduct) and her sisters Dike (goddess of Justice) and Eirene (goddess of Peace).  Their sisters were the Moirae, who spun out the web of fate. 

I was totally baffled by "low, creaky speaking register," and even more baffled by its answer.  VOCAL FRY.  That's a new one on me!  VOCAL FRY is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure that permits air to bubble through slowly with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency.  The "see also" section of the Wikipedia article is illuminating.

I had forgotten the use of ASSAY as in a lab test, last mentioned way back on December 24, 2017.

Clever clue: "Outcome of being fired?" is ASH.

Whew!  Well, this stopped short of being a disaster, but Lord, it wasn't good!  Whenever I said AH, OK while solving this one it wasn't in a "eureka!" way but more in a dubious, disappointed way.

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 13, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 6:08, a minute and a half faster than average.

Theme: WIN-WIN SITUATION, in which four phrases contain the letter string WIN twice.

Apparently D sharp is equivalent to E FLAT.  Why not just have one name, then?  This article's first few sentences provide some completely abstruse gobbledygook to explain it.

Jule STYNE is a British-American composer of musicals, best known for "Gypsy," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," and "Funny Girl."

I got CHOPIN from his first name, Frédéric, not from knowing he composed the Revolutionary Etude (op. 10, no. 12).  Also known as the Étude on the Bombardment of Warsaw.

"Bygone days, old-style" ELD was clued as "days of yore, in days of yore" on December 22, 2017.

This was a pretty tepid Tuesday.  Not great, not cute or clever, not bad.  It was not A-ONE, but I still FEEL OK about it.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 12, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 6:18, about 45 seconds slower than average.  This one really kicked me around the block.  All the cylinders weren't firing tonight, I guess.  Maybe I shouldn't have been watching "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" while I was solving.  But it's so funny!

Beyond that, though, things just weren't clicking tonight.  I wasn't thinking NACHO for "snack chip," more along the lines of Frito.  "Parts of gas stoves" did not make me think of BROILERS.

Theme: FLOWER / GARDEN.  Four shaded pairs of down squares represent the "stems" of the flowers, while the names of the flowers are found in a ring of circled squares clockwise and then reading down the stems. 

For "sharp or sour in taste" I put *ACRID and was displeased to find the intended answer to be the much worse ACIDY.

I was similarly disappointed to find "fireplace log holders" the clue for GRATES.  I think of a log holder as an andiron or fire-dog.

While I'm going on in this vein, I think "that was fortunate" is a bad clue for GOOD THING.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is home to COE College, which was last seen in the blog on July 11, 2018. 

Ancient Irish crowning stone LIA Fáil last appeared December 13, 2017.

And that wraps up this meh Monday.  I think a lot of solvers found this puzzle to be slow going.  The theme is fine enough, but I think some of the cluing isn't as finessed as it could be.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 11, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My time: 17:51, eight minutes faster than average. 

Theme: "Pi R Squared," says the title, and lo and behold, every time the letter string P-I-R appears, it's in one square.  For example, "lift weights" is PUM[P IR]ON.  "South Amrican mammals with trunks" is TA[PIR]S.

I would not have solved this quite so fast if I hadn't seen the title, which spells it out pretty plainly.  Honestly, I'd rather that the title have appeared as an answer in the puzzle, or at least maybe something like area of a circle in the puzzle as "What you get when you apply the formula that appears x number of times in this puzzle."  That would have made it a great theme.  As it is, it's just kind of, meh.  Some letters go in a single square.  Okay.

I was only slightly surprised to see that IGUANA was the answer to "in the Caribbean it's known as the chicken of the trees."  I thought it might be something like *POSSUM.

NANTES is the city famed for being a,port on the Loire.  Its port is called Nantes Saint-Nazaire.

Never heard of SEDALIA, a Missouri town apparently home to the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.

SOBA noodles have come up a lot in the puzzle but this is the first time they've been noted as "often eaten cold in the summer."

I didn't know that SPRUCE is a wood commonly used in the making of violins.  Maple is another. Spruce is chosen for the top, also called the front, table or soundboard. It is light in weight, yet longitudinally strong and laterally flexible. To the eye, the most prominent feature of a spruce top is the darker vertical graining. These grains are the annual growth rings of the tree. 

The Algonquin apparently called the MISSISSI[PI R]IVER "the father of waters."  That seems eminently reasonable.  They called it something like meche sebe.

Kings County, New York, is coterminous with Brooklyn and the second-most densely populated county in the US. Queens County is, similarly, coterminous with the borough of Queens.  They're both in the EMPIRE STATE.

The clue "Sapa ____ (title for Atahualpa)" is pretty opaque, isn't it?  Sapa INCA is the hispanicized spelling of Sapa Inka, the title of the emperor of the Incas.  Atahualpa was the last true Sapa INCA, before the Spanish executed him and began a conquest with puppet emperors.

UGA or the University of George has come up before but this time they're clued as "sch. for Bulldogs."

Also in sports, Slammin' Sammy SOSA is the only player with three 60+ home run seasons.  I guess Big Mac didn't make that record.

Apparently the EMU is the only bird with calf muscles.  I think that's odd.  Why not an ostrich or cassowary?

MARGO Price sounds like a country singer who was active around the time of Hank Williams, but actually she was born in 1983.  Her most famous song is "Hurtin' (On the Bottle)," or maybe "Hands of Time."

"When doubled, 1934 Cole Porter comedy short" turns out to be PAREE.  "Paree, Paree" is a 1934 short film, a condensation of the 1931 film 50 Million Frenchmen, which he co-wrote.  It stars Bob Hope and Dorothy Stone.

Maa was a EWE in the film Babe.  She was voiced by Miriam Flynn.  She was killed by three wild dogs who were attacking the flock, until Babe came and drove them away. Jeez, that turned out to be a downer.

Finally, REE Drummond is a food and crafts blogger and TV personality.  Her blog is called The Pioneer Woman.

Clever clues: Especially given the Pi R squared theme, "square things" is a pretty sneaky clue for ATONE.  "Grumpy co-worker" is DOC.  "Spare part?" is PIN.

Wow, that was a lot of new material!  I like learning new things, but this puzzle was pretty basic.