Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: November 14, 2020

My time: 11:49, eight minutes faster than average.

SO IT'S COME TO THIS.  Fill analysis time.

Apparently the word GEISHA derives from the Japanese terms gei "art, performance" plus sha "person."So, "art-doer," sort of.

Continuing the Japanese theme, the name of its ANTHEM is "Kimigayo."  The title means "His Imperial Majesty's Reign." The lyrics of "Kimigayo" are the oldest among the world's national anthems, and with a length of 32 characters, they are also the world's shortest. The lyrics are from a waka poem written by an unnamed author in the Heian period (794–1185), and the current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed by John William Fenton eleven years earlier.

I'm not a show tune person, so couldn't instantly come up with "HE'S the Wizard." But, as I assumed, it's from "The Wiz."

"My Violent Monster Just Scared Us Nuts" has got to be the worst MNOMENIC ever.

I'm sure I've heard before that PALO is Spanish for "stick," but I forgot.  Ha ha!  PALO Alto means Old Stick.

ERIC IDLE played Sir Robin (full title: Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Launcelot) in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Harry the Haggler in Life of Brian.

I put *MEDUSA for "mythical figure associated with snakes," but it's ATHENA, who includes the snake (supposed hisser of secret wisdom) among her symbols, along with the better known owl. 

I didn't know the NIH was headquartered in Bathesda.  But on the other hand, who cares?

"Bath water?" is a nice pun clue for AVON.  The AVON River flows through the city of Bath, England.

In more river news, the PLATTE is a tributary of the Missouri, mostly located in Nebraska.

The National Day of Prayer is celebrated on the first Thursday in MAY, by law, as an act of Congress, because we live in a theocracy.

Clever clues: "Lane hugger?" is KENT!  As in Clark KENT; that's pretty devious.  "Fresh bread?" is NEW MONEY.  "Do makeup?" is ATONE.

You have to be pretty ASTUTE to parse some of these well-written clues!  Like "Achilles" for an example of TENDON and "Polish" for an example of EUROPEAN.  And the fill is pretty interesting.  This was a very satisfying Saturday.