My time: 17:10, over twice my best time but still three minutes faster than average. For 1 Down I put "in *LIEU of" but it turned out to be WANT, and that slowed me down.
I like the clue "1, 2, 3, 4... 11, 12, 14, etc" for FLOORS.
"Composer whose name is one letter off from an international peace grp." is Georges ENESCO, really the Francophone version of, more properly, George Enescu, a Romanian composer and pianist. His most well-known compositions are the two "Romanian Rhapsodies."
Cleopatra says "Come, though mortal wretch" to her ASP before committing suicide in "Antony and Cleopatra," act V, scene 2. "Come, thou mortal wretch, / With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
/ Be angry and despatch."
"1980s cable competitor of CMT" is TNN, The Nashville Network, which no longer operates under that name.
"Bird that sometimes sings in a duet" is WREN. This is a science fact I had no idea of!
It turns out that Cal Ripkin Jr. and Pee Wee Reese, like Alex Rodriguez, Rich Aurilia, and Ernie Banks, played SHORTSTOP.
Judith RESNIK was the second American woman, first Jewish woman, and fourth woman overall in space. A crater on the moon is named for her.
I have never heard of the North Star, a.k.a. Polaris, referred to as Alpha URSAE Minoris.
"Machine in particle physics lab, in brief" is LINAC. This stands for linear particle accelerator, which accelerates charged subatomic particles or ions to a high speed by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beamline. It is used in radiation therapy against tumors.
For "___-fi" I put *SCI but that's a trap. It's the little-used SPY-fi (ugh). That's a terrible term, but it would be fine to use it in the puzzle if they had bothered to think of a real clue. Blank clues are just the worst.
The lead agent on "NCIS" is called Leroy Jethro GIBBS. He's played by Mark Harmon. Ha ha! Jethro!
We've all heard of BURNING MAN, but we don't know that it's held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. But only since 1990! At first it was held on Baker Beach in San Francisco. Then the Man told them they couldn't burn effigies on the beach.
And finally, the Kendrick Lamar song "DNA" went three times platinum, but I've never heard of it. I'm not hip. It does: "I was born like this, since one like this / Immaculate conception I transform like this Perform like this, was Yeshua new weapon." Okay then.
Clever clues: "Times table?" is NEWS DESK. "90s kid?" is A STUDENT. "Expert on feet" is POET.
This was a challenging Saturday! Quite a humdinger, or BEAUT, as they say.
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