Monday's New York Times puzzle solved: January 15, 2018

My time: 5:14, so very close!

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Agnes Davidson and Zhouqin Burnikel united to bring us this puzzle celebrating the great Martin Luther King Jr.  Playing off of FREE AT LAST, the final words of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech, they give us four more phrases in which the last word is a synonym of "free."  NEW RELEASE, TAX EXEMPT, THE COAST IS CLEAR, and BEG PARDON are the themed answers.

In golf, someone who EAGLES scores two under par.  A birdie is one stroke under par.  An albatross is three under par. There are no other bird names; scores under that are referred to as double bogeys as so on.  But I have some suggestions for bigger or better birds.  Four under par? Osprey.  Five under par?  Condor.  Six under par?  Phoenix.  These are good ideas!

For "praise highly" I wrongly put *EXULT when it's obviously EXALT, and that cost me precious time.

Did you know PRELL was green shampoo?  Me neither.

The French president's palace is the ELYSEE.  Built in 1722, it was occupied by royal mistresses and rich people, until 1848 when it was first used as the residence of the President of the Republic.

MSU, Michigan State University (go Spartans!), is located in East Lansing.

STP is clued today as "big advertiser in auto races."  It appeared on November 6, 2017, as "fuel additive brand."

"Sunoco competitor" CITGO was last seen by me way back on September 4, 2017.

"Alternatives to Nikes" is Oregon brand AVIAS, which came up on September 24, 2017.

Clever clue: "Like food from a West African drive-through?" is TO GO, ha ha.

This was pretty easy, so it both GALLS and IRKS me that I didn't make a new record this Monday.  Ah, well.   That's life.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 24, 2018

My time: 4:37.

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Sunday's was a Could Not Finish for me.  Even though I love René Magritte and The Treachery of Images is one of my favorite paintings, it was still too difficult for me.  Points for a very thorough theme, though.

So today it was Michael Black's turn.  He must be a fan of syndicated daytime game shows, because he managed to fit JEOPARDY, ALEX TREBEK, WHEEL OF / FORTUNE, VANNA WHITE, and PAT SAJAK all into the puzzle.

Aside from this, I thought there was some unusually devious cluing for a Monday in today's grid.  For example, "just one year, for Venus and Serena Williams" is a very roundabout way of getting to AGE GAP.

I knew that Tatum O'Neal was in a movie called PAPER MOON, but I couldn't have told you she won an Oscar for it.  It was released in 1973.  She played Addie Loggins, a girl who may be a con man's daughter, won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and became the youngest winner ever at the age of 10.

The onetime Apple product IBOOK is not something that registered with me at the time.  It was discontinued in 2006 and replaced with the MacBook.

Geography has never been my strong suit.  The country "below" (south of) Hungary is SERBIA.  Slovakia is to the north!

SAWPIT is not a term in my common parlance. It's a ditch you dig, under the tree you saw, into which the planks fall, so... they don't run away?  I'm not sure.

I was a little confused by "banded gems."  It just means a layered look, as in ONYXES.

ELO is a crossword mainstay.  Today we learn they have a song called "Strange Magic."  They're not really my thing.

GAS station Citgo last showed up in the puzzle on January 15.

Golder VIJAY Singh last appeared on March 27.

The ARAL Sea, which I still sometimes think might be called the "Ural" sea until corrected, was last featured on October 12, 2017.

I did pretty well!  KAN you believe it?  Off I go, prouder and a bit WISER.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Today's time: 7:23.

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I actually tried to go quickly today, and ended up with a rather unremarkable time.  This one was especially tricky for a Monday, or maybe I was just trying too hard.  Either way, I enjoyed the BBQ theme, with meat items in phrases such as RESERVOIR DOGS, MILITARY BRATS, and WAITS IN THE WINGS.

I am the single most clueless-about-sports American male, an ongoing series: RBI is a baseball stat standing for runs batted in.  You get points for hitting the ball such that people run home!  What a fun game.

In other sports news, "fast, sharp-breaking curveballs" are apparently called BACKDOOR SLIDERS.

I'm not so good at anything except book learning department: A "letter-shaped track in metalworking" is a T-SLOT.  The T-shaped piece fits into the negative-T-shaped aluminum piece like so.

I'm really not that familiar with CITGO, though I'm sure I've gotten gas at one.  Likewise MAACO is not in my immediate mental grab-bag.

The tarsus (plural TARSI) is actually not one bone, but a cluster of seven bones in the ankle.  Not to be confused with Saul of Tarsus, later Paul the Apostle, of whom it is said that "he fell to the earth" before a vision of Jesus and thereupon changed his name and his ways.  No doubt Saul fell to earth because his tarsus broke.

The volcano in Hawaii is called Mauna KEA.  The name means White Mountain or possibly Sky-Father mountain.  It sounds like key, a vast key pointing to the sky, the tallest mountain in Hawaii.  I originally had *LOA, which is its lesser-known neighbor.  It's lower than Mauna Kea!  Ha!

Clever clues: "welcome sight?" is MAT.

Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 22, 2018

My time: 4:59.

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Alex Eaton-Salners takes us on a tour of both the dictionary and the solar system with this puzzle that explores the PLANETS, or at least five words that have them in their etymology.

MERCURIAL ("capricious"), SATURNINE ("gloomy"), VENIAL ("forgivable"), MARTIAL, and JOVIAL all fit the bill; however, venial surprised me as I was unaware of the linguistic link.

The gas station ESSO came up in this blog once before, for its slogan "Happy Motoring."  Today it's described as having a logo with a blue oval.

The gas station CITGO has appeared in the puzzle a few times.  This time the clue calls attention to its logo with a red triangle.  Perhaps red and orange?  Hard to tell.

A pupu PLATTER is a tray of American Chinese or Hawaiian food, consisting of an assortment of small meat and seafood appetizers.

Sitting Bull was a leader of the LAKOTA people, specifically the Hunkpapa people.  He had a vision that seemed to predict the victory at Little Big Horn and was shot and killed during an unjustified arrest.

"Amino acid vis-à-vis a protein, eg" is MONOMER.  This refers to a single atom or molecule which is able to join with other monomers to make new substances called polymers.  A string of amino acids is called a polypeptide chain. Polypeptide chains grow in number and begin to fold, creating helices and plated sheets. These interact with one another and keep becoming more and more complex until a protein, a polymer, is formed.

The fact that the VOLGA is the longest river in Europe has come up a few times.

Clever clue: "Clink on the drink" is BRIG.

Well, I'M ALL through now.  This was a fun puzzle.  I liked how the theme was a virtuous cycle; the more you know about it, the easier it is to fill in.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Today's time: 27:43.

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I could not finish Wednesday's puzzle.  Just way too much esoteric, foreign fill.   EZIO?  HADJ?  DOG IT?  Ugh.

Back to today!  Fresh start!  The "ABC order" theme of today's puzzle is very clever indeed.  I caught on immediately, and it helped enormously with the fill.

Lady Bird Johnson's real name?  CLAUDIA Alta Johnson, née Taylor.  Aw, poor little lame baby bird!

Apparently, cathode ray tube is popularly abbreviated CRT.  I don't believe I have ever heard that.

I also did not know that an the unit barrel (as in oil) is abbreviated BBL.

I have never heard anyone say, "I'm IN UP to my ears!"

MIT is a school we all know, but did you know it was on the Charles River?  I didn't.  So is Brandeis, Boston University, and Harvard.

I'm not really a car buff, so I'd never heard of the "classic Camaro" IROC (named after the International Race of Champions), but apparently it's a good buy.

I have heard of EYDIE Gormé, just barely, but I had imagined her name as pronounced "Edie," and when presented with five letters, wrote *EDDIE.  I knew there was something wrong there.

"Retrieves, as balls" alone added a good ten minutes to my time.  I had *SNAGS until I realized it just didn't work there, and finally stumbled on SHAGS.  Another sports term I don't know.  BOOYAH!

And yet still more sports minutiae: CITO Gaston, "first African-American manager to win a world series."   His name sounds like Citgo Gas-station.  He managed the Blue Jays his entire career.  Figures Canada would be the first to give a brother a chance.

ROLEO is not an often-used word, but it's a word!

Crossword makes sure love Nas.  He's not even in the fill this time!

Clever clues: "Heading for the fence?" is HOT.