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.
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