Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: February 6, 2021

My time: 6:42, a new record!  Beating my old time by 45 seconds!  I was completely on this one's wavelength, from HERSTORIES to NERDCORE.

I've never heard of a "big jackpot" referred to as a MIL.  I know it's short for a million, like "I won three mil!" but that's not replacing the idea of a "big jackpot."  Possibly a poor clue?

I'm old.  I see "princess of Monaco," I think Grace.  But it's STEPHANIE, Grace's youngest child.  Currently 14th in the line of succession to the Monegasque throne, she has been a singer, swimwear designer and fashion model.  Maybe someone should make a "Crown" TV show about that royal family.

Never having been a Potterhead, I had no idea about HELGA Hufflepuff, "one of the co-founders of Hogwarts."

I can thank the excellent series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" for keeping the BORSCHT BELT in my consciousness.  The Catskills episode was a high point. 

Hey Skinny!  We've all heard of Charles ATLAS, but we didn't know his birth name name was Angelo Siciliano.  His exercise technique was called Dynamic Tension.

The show "Inside the NBA" was in the blog on July 8, 2018.  It is on TNT.

Here's a new word: ENTERIC, meaning intestine-related.

The author of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in 1884 has got to be Freidrich ENGELS, right?  That's some title.  It's not as snappy as Das Kapital but it's got a certain gravitas.

The Mercedes-Benz cars A-Class and C-Class have been in the puzzle before, but today we have S-CLASS, a sedan.  It starts at 94,000 dollars.  

Sonnet ender SESTET was last in the blog on September 6, 2020.

Clever clues: "Nice pair of boxers?" is PECS.  "A real cinematic tour de force?" is STAR WARS.  "Share, as a plot?" is SPOIL.  "Government program?" is WEST WING.  "Many characters in Kill Bill" is ELS; that is, L's in the title.  "Big scoop" is SHOVEL.

I was very surprised after solving this one to realize I had beaten my old time.  It seems like there wasn't very much brand new material, and what was new-ish was easy to guess from the context, like ENGELS.