Saturday August 18 2018, NY Times Crossword

-
Time: 20:09
Average Saturday: 20:09
Best Saturday: 40:00

Morning Brain may well be Crossword Brain. Following a long day of travel from Kolkata to Delhi to Jaipur, I had my night #3 of jet lag, which in my experience is the worst one. I was up again at 5am and waiting for that 6:30am breakfast to open and another hour for the Saturday crossword to be available. And yet, somehow, over a leisurely breakfast with what felt like a barely functioning brain, I managed my best Saturday ever, apparently. It may well have just not been a difficult Saturday, but I'm still happy with how my brain functioned. One of these days I'll screenshot just how few answers I manage to place on my first run-through of an average Saturday. I think maybe I had Joe, Ang, and the Northeast, where Jon Hamm had me chuckling to myself, "I've been Jon Hamm'd."

I expect my Savannah kin may well disown me when I say that I needed every single cross for skipjack; neither the type of tuna nor the oystering boat were remotely familiar to me. I'm filing it away. Likewise, every single cross for Sammy Cahn, which is clearly a gap in my knowledge.

 I suppose "The Legend of Zelda:           of Time" would have been far too easy a clue for ocarina, but that is absolutely the only reason that I know it's a thing. I have many fond memories of watching my friends play that game.

Finally, I'll register a complaint about foretaste. It is absolutely a word, but I can't imagine a sentence in which you couldn't simply write "taste." Isn't just "taste" a "hint of things to come?"

It's relief to have Friday and Saturday behind me in this first week of crossword blog. Looking forward to Sunday, as always, with only mild trepidation. 

Comments

  1. TheresaAugust 20, 2018 at 6:54 AM

    There's no way I would have known "skipjack"

    The only time I've ever heard "foretaste" used is in the Lutheran liturgy. Filing that under unnecessarily complicated church speak.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday May 1st 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 8:16 Wednesday Average: 16:37 Best Wednesday: 6:52 Today's theme is STATE CAPITALS that are, as the clue points out to us, in anagram form. MUST I ? OK, let me see if I can figure this out even though it's past my bedtime. I'll get the easy ones first with Salem ( MALES ) and Dover ( ROVED ). After that, we have Austin ( ANTIUS ), Lansing ( IN SLANG ), and Raleigh ( HAIR GEL ). Finally, there's Madison ( DOMAINS ) and the tricky St. Paul ( UP LAST ) There's an exercise I wouldn't have bothered with if I wasn't writing this blog. I know the phrase well, especially since it seems so popular lately, but I never knew the spelling for "Bury the LEDE ." I always assumed it was "lead." I love slang that comes from typesetting. OK, those anagrams thoroughly wore me out. My final observation is that I don't love the way THE EU looks right above S AND P. Both just look deeply wrong.
Read more

Tuesday October 23rd 2018, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 8:43 Tuesday Average: 13:49 Best Tuesday: 6:10 It's another long day in Beijing and I'm enjoying a night cap in the lounge contemplating my early morning flight to Ulan Baator tomorrow night and feeling a bit like  FLAT  STANLEY . Fortunately, I continue to  RAKE IN the hotel points and the status that goes with it, so I've snagged a couple free beers before they shut down happy hour. Today's theme was  ATHLETIC CUP , which eluded me for a bit since I've only ever referred to it as a cup. Other than the aforementioned NHL championship, we have  GEENA  DAVIS ,  WINONA  RYDER , and  SMALL WORLD  as our theme answers.  Was anyone else hearing TJ from Gilmore Girls yelling, "I'm in  ESCROW !" Sure, it shows up in my mortgage-related dealings, but that's all I'll ever hear. I had no idea that  GALENA is the natural form of lead sulfide and instead I just know the Bulgarian chalga singer by that name. I...
Read more

Monday April 15th 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 7:03 Monday Average: 8:15 Best Monday: 4:10 Nothing's more fun than an IRS -themed crossword for Tax Day! I'd actually forgotten that this day was so imminent until talking to several of my international students who were understandably baffled by how our tax system works. As you can see, the long answers have the IRS letters mixed up and circled with DOLLA R SI GNS , of course, being the most appropriate. I'm surprised that the "Genuine class" anagram for ALEC Guinness, which we know from the Simpsons, doesn't show up as a clue more often. Next time, maybe. AGASSI was always my favorite player back in the big Sampras rivalry days and I'm happy enough to see him crossing TENNIS RACKET . Sometimes those answers just work out, I imagine. 
Read more