Thursday September 27th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 12:10
Average Thursday: 26:35
Best Thursday: 10:18

Greetings from the Indianapolis Airport, site of my first crossword blog entry! Despite my wildly more complicated upcoming itinerary, I'm hoping that this series of flights will go substantially more smoothly than last time. I took care of this Thursday crossword fairly quickly on the airport shuttle, finishing strangely enough with my favorite clue of "Starbuck's order giver" for AHAB. Give me a Moby Dick clue any time and if it's also a clever play on First Mate Starbuck's name, even better. I also enjoyed that SEA LEGS is just off to the side of the Pequod's captain there.

ALAS, I can't say that I enjoyed this theme very much and I'm actually hesitant to even call it a theme. So, we have unclued long entries that all have some kind of visual motif in or around the squares that are, in effect, the clues. I was able to write in FILL IN THE BLANKS based on those lines once I had the starting F, but that doesn't mean that I like it. SHADES OF GRAY works better but unfortunately calls to mind those unfortunate novels. INSIDE THE BOX and BETWEEN THE LINES are clued with the basically imperceptible difference of having light gray lines at the end or not. I'm also a little skeptical of the former answer, because isn't that just an inversion of the actual phrase "Outside the box?"

I'm ready to forgive the theme because the fill is, I'd say, pretty stellar. IDEAS clued as "Bean sprouts?" is a lot of fun and makes me think of Griffin McElroy's classic "Bean Freak" bit.


Wait, KALE is slang for money? Apparently, only long ago, but with the recent resurgence of kale (right?), it's ready for a comeback! I'll try to make it a thing. 

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