Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: February 20, 2021

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: February 19, 2021

Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: February 18, 2021

Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: February 17, 2021

My time: 6:04, a minute slower than the record.

Theme: APES, with an additional MONKEY I/N/ T/HE/ MIDDLE.

The themed Across answers all have ape within their letters, like the apt BANANA PEEL and the much less apt AMANDA PEET ("'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' co-star"). 

Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: February 16, 2021

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.

Sunday's New York Times crossword puzle solved: February 14, 2021

My time: 23:10, only about a minute faster than average, but that's still pretty good for a rebus that has four letters in each box.  Still, I'm not sure why it took even as long as it did; there wasn't a huge amount of new information in this one.

Theme: a Valentine's Day theme, titled "Sealed With a Kiss."  The rebus squares are outlined in red.  Each of these squares includes RED plus the next letter of the answer.

The first one I got was JA[RED L]ETO, because I knew he won a Supporting Actor Oscar for The Dallas Buyer's Club.  When I saw that those were the letters in the square, I figured each one probably started with red since they were outlined in red.  Once I knew that, some of the rebus answers came a bit faster.

The extra letters in the rebus squares, when read left to right and top to bottom, spell out ruby lips.

I've heard of PANsexual, but I thought the other "prefix with sexual," at four letters, might be omnisexual.  It's AMBIsexual, which seems to be an outmoded term for bisexual.

I like how the British "prats" is ARSES. 

Keeping with the British motif, "barrister's deg." is LLD, which is abbreviated for Legum Doctor, Latin for "teacher of the laws" and thus abbreviated accurately as LL.D.  The double "L" in the abbreviation indicates the plural. 

And more Brits: F[RED P]ERRY was a tennis champion who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles.  In the late 1940s, Perry was approached by Tibby Wegner, an Austrian footballer who had invented an anti-perspirant device worn around the wrist. Perry made a few changes to create the first sweatband.  His name is now a clothing brand.  Moronic right wingers have adopted one of their black and yellow shirts as a symbol, an inanity that the copy repudiates.

Never heard of soubise sauce, made by sautéeing ONIONS and adding them to a basic béchamel sauce. 

"Sea lion, for one" is EA[RED S]EAL.  They comprise 15 extant species in seven genera (another species became extinct in the 1950s) and are commonly known either as sea lions or fur seals, distinct from true seals (phocids) and the walrus (odobenids).  Well, that's sorted, then.

The BUSHTIT, a small woodland songbird, has the funniest name of all avifauna.

I had an idea that Mango Madness was a flavor of the many SNAPPLES, but I hesitated, because Go Bananas?  Really?  Don't knock it till you've tried it, I guess.

I don't know any regional capitals.  PAPEETE is the capital of French Polynesia on Tahiti.

"Debussy prelude inspired by a water sprite" is ONDINE.  The story, of course, concerns a water nymph whose deadly powers prove lethal to the mortal who betrays her love.

"West coast beer brand, in brief" is OLY, which is Olympia, as explained on July 15, 2018.

"Wheel of Fortune" freebies RSTLNE appeared on November 19, 2020, the "Wheel"-themed puzzle.

Capital of Yemen SANAA came up on June 26, 2020, but I just keep forgetting how to spell it.  This time I put *SAMAA.

Clever clues: "Opposite of a standing order?" is BE SEATED.  "Rules out?" is ANARCHY.  "Post production" is CEREAL.  "They'll be mist" is AEROSOLS.  "Place with robes and sweaters" is SAUNA.

And that wraps it up with a bow.  Happy Valentine's Day!  Lisa Bunker, who constructed this puzzle, is certainly NO SLOUCH in the crossword department.