Saturday September 1st 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 55:20
Average Saturday: 40:52
Best Saturday: 20:09

Another Saturday and another absolutely brutal time. This time, my mistake was not in the corner that I expected, so I spent about 20 minutes messing around in the Southeast, mainly because I was not remotely confident about PROLE (like proletarian) being a synonym for drudge and not at all sure enough about PRIVET, TALENTS, or PRADA to leave them in peace. My mistake? With -AMBIA in place for “smallest country in mainland Africa,” I thought “Zambia doesn’t seem right, but I suppose that must be it. I also didn’t know the “Mean Miss of The Wizard of Oz” and zULCH sounded as likely as anything. So that mistake just sat there, again, for about 20 minutes. Friends, GAMBIA is the smallest country in mainland Africa. I plan to remember for next time. 

Contributing to the frustrating solve was my personal setting, crammed into a tiny seat on a bumpy plane ride out of Delhi. I am no CONTORTIONIST and my knees and hamstrings are not enjoying this flight one bit. 

I felt like I was off to a good start when I was able to drop Secretary of War STIMSON right off the bat. OK, so I had to run through Stilton (no, that’s cheese) and Stetson (no, that’s a hat) in my head first. But I know Henry L. Stimson because during a summer class in high school on World War II during one of those Study (but mostly just travel and hang out) in Europe summer programs, I was cast as Stimson during a mock trial of Truman for war crimes. As I recall, I played my part well. 

NOTHING BURGER sounds familiar enough as slang, so I suppose I must have heard it before. But I’m sure I raised my eyebrow then as I do now. 

Today in words that I only grudgingly accept: MISDOES and APERY. 

However, “What’s left” is a nice clue for ESTATE. 

Is CENTRIPETAL a “force of nature?” Because a petal is kind of nature-y? Meh. I also had sUNY instead of CUNY for some time for Hunter College, so that soaked up some time as well. 

It's raining in Mussoorie, so nice pictures will have to wait. 

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