Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solvd: February 15, 2021

My time: 5:23, only six seconds faster than average.

Theme: WHITE HOUSE DOGS.  The four themed answers begin with the names of presidential dogs, and these answers are clued as the definition plus the name of the president in brackets.  I suppose this is to celebrate that we have a normal human with normal human emotions like love and caring in the White House again, one who likes dogs.

For example, BUDDY COP MOVIES is clued "'Rush Hour' and '21 Jump Street' [Clinton]."  

I'm not a car guy, so the fact that CAMARO is a model of Chevrolet is not one readily available to me.

For "vittles" I initially put *EATS but it's the more earthy GRUB.

"TV deputy of Mayberry" is BARNEY FIFE.  That's Bush W., #43's dog!  He was a Scottish terrier.

"The Buddha is often depicted meditating on it" is BO TREE.  I don't think I've heard it called that, and was fairly confused.  I know it as a Bodhi tree.  The oldest plant in the world of known planting date is the bo tree called Sri Maha Bodhi planted at the temple at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, in 288 BC.  Bo was Obama's dog, a big fuzzy Portuguese water dog.

A bit of Hawaii in this puzzle: KAILUA is a location, also on Oahu, that is a big windsurfing destination.  It was home to Barack Obama’s winter White House. 

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C is an example of a MAJOR SCALE.  Also called the Ionian mode, the major scale is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales (containing five whole steps and two half steps). Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double its frequency so that it is called a higher octave of the same note (from Latin "octavus," the eighth).  This about as much musical notation I can understand.

I've never heard of this but I love it: "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on His Tuba," a 1931 hit by Rudy Vallee.  He plays it in Cuba.  The Revelers also did a version.

Never heard of ISLA Verde, an area just outside of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. 

The last presidential dog isn't found in the main themed answers, but the penultimate Down clue: "Pres with the pooch Heidi" is IKE.  She was a Weimeraner.

"Basketball players, quaintly" is CAGERS.  This baffled me today and when it came up on August 23, 2020.

The IRS form 1099-INT came up on September 8, 2018.

Waikiki Beach, located on OAHU, was last in the blog on July 9, 2018.

Elsa of Arendelle last appeared on October 27, 2020.

I thought this one was quite difficult for a Monday!  Lots of new material to me, and a few fairly vague clues, like "more than magnificent" for EPIC.