Thursday August 30th 2018, NY Times Crossword
Average Thursday: 26:31
Best Thursday: 10:18
Only the mildest of hangovers this Thursday morning meant that eggs, coffee, and crossword were just right for me, despite my utter failure to sleep past 6am. I quite enjoyed the AD BLOCK theme, in which four black squares needed to read as AD, affecting up to four answers each. It's fairly straightforward, but some surprisingly current answers made it feel pretty fresh. MANSPRE(AD) ("annoyance from a subway seatmate") over (AD)ULTING ("doing grown-up things, in modern lingo") are absolutely in regular usage among people I know. And I've come to think of myself as (AD)ORKABLE ("endearingly awkward, in slang"), which may or not be true. Really, just a BUTTLO(AD) of theme answers, most of which worked for me.
Once the theme clicked, the puzzle mostly cruised along, despite some not overly enjoyable fill such as AUST ("neighbor of N.Z.") and B.M.O.C. ("Dorm V.I.P"), which I just hate conceptually. The only region of sustained struggle was the SW, with unfamiliar fish TILAPIA, childhood game SEE 'N SAY, author ALLAN Bloom, and Saint BEDE, the "Father of English History," as it turns out. I spent a solid four minutes substituting letters until that corner clicked.
My Delhi conference is wrapping up and I am absolutely maxed out on networking. Another day of high schools tomorrow and then I'll finally be on to a weekend, of sorts.
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