Monday September 17th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 4:41
Average Monday: 8:48
Best Monday: 4:41

For Mondays and Tuesdays, I'm prioritizing PACE over anything else, which is more of an exercise for myself rather than something that actually makes the solve more fun. As a result, there are often clues that I don't even read because I'm just activating the autofill portion of my brain. I wouldn't advise anyone to be overly concerned about their crossword solve speed as anything more than a curiosity, unless you're getting into competitive crossword solving, which is not something I aspire to. That said, I'm happy to have broken my Monday record this morning!

Regarding the word BOSSY, I just want to say that there is no way to read that term as anything other than sexist. I present my argument simply by asking if you've ever heard a man described as "bossy." I certainly haven't. In fact, I think I've heard it exclusively as a disempowering term and I'm sometimes amazed that I've ever gotten pushback for pointing this out. Therefore, I think it's important to clue it as a sexist term, because part of the thesis of this crossword blog (and probably most others too) is that the way that we define and by extension clue a word matters. If only half of the population can be called "bossy" when they are "demanding that people do this and do that," I think that needs to be noted somewhere.

Beyond that, this was a decently smooth Monday with a FISH-ing theme that could be practically ignored until it comes time to fill in 71-across. I can't find much FAULT with this puzzle, but I'm also having trouble finding much to write about (other than "bossy" mini-rant).

I recently watched Violet & Daisy, which is not a particularly good film, but I enjoyed quite a bit because of the cast of Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel, and James GANDOLFINI. With a cast like that, I certainly hoped for better, but on the other hand, it was impossible, for me anyway, not to enjoy somewhat. 

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