Saturday August 25th 2018, NY Time Crossword

-


Time: 01:06:06
Average Saturday: 40:34
Best Saturday: 20:09

I was pretty scared about this one as I crossed the one-hour mark. Fortunately, I had a four drive from Mumbai to Pune, a drive that supposedly takes two hours but apparently speed limits are actually enforced along the highway these days. The jolt of hitting a pothole, getting a flat tire, and having to switch cars apparently woke up my brain and I finished the last quarter of the crossword in a few minutes.  

I probably should not have struggled as much as I did, so perhaps I can blame waking up at 5am (and I’m no longer jet lagged; just regular tired) for some of these extra minutes. I was able to plop down the total gimme early on, ACE OF BASE, for their “1993 #2 hit “All That She Wants.” Maybe that will be harder for non-90s kids. 

The western portion of the grid would have been easy except for the “Program-closing command on a PC,” into which I kept trying to cram CTRL+X and then, when BBQ WINGS became clear, angrily tried for CTRL + W. END NOW? Is this some newfangled command or an old one? 

I kept saying PLAINTS to myself and not believing that it was a word. 

WALL MAP. Just as long as it’s not Mercator or Gall-Peters, amirite? 

Can’t YOU AND I be clued as that ridiculous song from Twin Peaks? I sing that to myself a bit too often. 



Would LOIN CLOTH really be considered “primitive attire?” Ancient, maybe? I suppose the word “primitive” just rubs me the wrong way.

I didn’t love SAND PILE for “contents of a playground box.” That has to be just sand. Sure, it could be in a pile. Whatever. FDR JR is the “first chairman of the E.E.O.C.” So I guess I learned something, but that was really just a bunch of letters.

Here’s where I should have done better and James Welsch will definitely be mad at me for not writing these in right away. Obviously, Lewis CARROLL is the “Coiner of the words ‘chortle’ and “frabjous.’” Worse than that, “Hymn to Him” did not register immediately, despite being my favorite song from MY FAIR LADY and one that I sing to myself definitely too frequently. My only excuse is that I misread the clue as a “classical” musical, which led my mind completely in the wrong direction. 


OK, it's been a 5am to 10pm workday. I'm off for more cocktails and then to stay in the same hotel in Delhi for six straight nights. OH HELL YES. 

Comments

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