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. 

Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 28, 2018

My time: 12:08, not bad!

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Kameron Austin Collins constructed this themeless, which boasts some novel and impressive fill: TRUST FUND BABY, NORSE DEITIES ("figures in the Edda"), YEAH SURE, HONEYPOT (as in the vamp spy sense), RESCUE DOG, and REDDITOR.  I like to see less common and newish terms in the fill.

I misremembered Suzanne Sommers' role on "Three's Company" as *CHRISTY.  It's CHRISSY.  I watched more of this show in syndication as a kid than I care to admit.

"Wind River tribe" is ARAPAHO, relatives of the Cheyenne and allies of the Dakotas.  There are divided into Northern and Southern tribes.  Per Wikipedia, "Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and are federally recognized as the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation."

I remembered the cornmeal-based HOECAKE somehow, but would have been hard-pressed to define one exactly.  It looks like a pancake but is sturdy and dense.  It is so named because hoe was a colloquial term for griddle dating back to at least the 1600s in parts of England, where baking cakes on boards or griddles was commonplace.

LUNULAR (crescent shaped) is a new word to me!  It's very uncommon.  More common forms are lunula and lunulate.

Third baseman Ron CEY, nicknamed "the Penguin," is a six-time MLB all-star.  His name looks misspelled.

The puzzle on November 24, 2017, featured the Mercedes A Class, but today we get the much less admirable C CLASS.  These are compact executive sedans.

I was not ready for the Destiny's Child song "BOOTYLICIOUS" (sample lyrics: "you aint' ready for this jelly") to appear in the New York Times puzzle.

MT. DANA is a prominent peak on the border of Yosemite National Park and the Ansel Adams Wilderness.  It is 13,060 feet.

Did you know Edgar Allan POE went to the University of Virginia?  His room there is now a museum.  It is Number 13 West Range, according to oral history (written records were lost in a fire).  Eerie!

I had a vague idea what Gizmodo is, but Engadget is new to me.  They are both an example of a TECH BLOG.

AGASSI was just recently an answer, about his book Open.  I assume that it is in this book that he wrote tennis is "the loneliest sport."

SADA Thompson was an actress who played Mary Todd Lincoln in the miniseries "Lincoln" and the matron in the 1974-80 series "Family."

Did you know the assassin Sparafucile, in "Rigoletto," by Guiseppe Verdi, is a BASSO?  Did you know there was an assassin in "Rigoletto?"  The title character, a hunchback jester, hires this assassin to kill the Duke, who is a skirt-chaser after Rigoletto's daughter.

I knew the Anna Wintour Costume Center sounded familiar.  I don't think it was part of the puzzle, but on June 8, the MET GALA was an answer, and I must have read about it then.  Wintour, of course, is the Vogue editor-in-chief.

Clever clues: "Where college students might take a stand?" is KEG.  It ain't the '60s any more, kids.   "Apple picker" is EVE.  "Place to get solutions, in brief" is CHEM LAB.  "Store that really should have a spokesperson" is BIKE SHOP, ha ha.  "Call" is amusingly vague for DECIDE.

Well, this was a LOAD of new knowledge to drop on me, but I enjoyed the challenge!

Friday, November 24, 2017

Today's time: 12:43.

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Bruce Haight and David Steinberg created a really delightful visually-themed puzzle for Friday.  It's admirably clever, and there's the perfect satisfying a-ha moment when it all makes sense, and best of all, knowing the theme helps you figure out the themed answers.

So the middle black squares show a brimmed hat shape (four black squares under two black squares) flipping diagonally down from left to right.  This makes "with slight provocation... as suggested by some black squares in this puzzle" AT THE DROP OF A HAT, and "snapping" FLIPPING ONE'S LID.  What a clever theme!  It made me smile when I figured it out.

SASHIMI means "pierce flesh?"  I would have guessed shish kabob or something.

"Chocolate truffle filling" is GANACHE.  It's just a mix of chocolate and cream.

LHASA is the capital of Tibet, but I've never heard of Jokhang Temple, which is the most sacred temple in Tibetan Buddhism and according to legend was built by a king for his two brides.

I'm surprised that QATAR has the world's highest per capita income.  I would have thought Monaco, which is only on the CIA's list, for some reason.  The IMF and World Bank lists do not mention Monaco. The CIA also has Liechtenstein listed first.

I immediately put ZORRO for "fictional hero who wears a sombrero cordobés," but I didn't know that was the hat's name.

For "heretofore" I put *YET but it's AGO, and that slowed me down.

For "its shell isn't hard" I thought of *SOFT CRAB (?) and then maybe even *SOFT TACK but it's the most obvious SOFT TACO, duh.

A STINGER is brandy mixed with crème de menthe.

Did you know NAN is also called khamiri?  Me neither.  Khamir is Urdu for yeast.  Khamiri roti is thus a leavened flatbread.

On October 8 we heard about the upright vrikshasana pose.  Today it's the hero pose (if you assumed it, you KNELT).  This is called virasana.

And Mercedes has some cars called A CLASS.  It is a compact car sometimes called the Baby Benz.

"Former Telco giant" is GTE, or General Telephone and Electronics.  It was acquired by Bell and become Verizon.  As did Nynex, remember?

Did you know the TAJ MAHAL is on the Yamuna River?  I knew once but had forgotten.

Hey, it's trattoria treat TORTONI again, last seen October 13.

I don't like the words ENPLANE or NONPRO.

Clever clues: "What can get two feet higher" is OTTOMAN. "Beam that might hit someone hard?" is JIM.  "Chip maker" is CHISEL.  "Cal tecs?" is SFPD.

And that's ALD o' the clues I wasn't sure about.  Fun puzzle!