Wednesday September 5th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 8:47
Wednesday Average: 17:47
Best Wednesday: 7:24

As far as my brain is concerned, it's 5PM in Delhi, but my body currently occupies 7:30am in an airport lounge in Newark. Sadly, I've left the world of NAAN (really appears in a lot of crosswords, doesn't it?). And I just spilled my coffee, so maybe I should switch to ALE. It is 5 o'clock somewhere and I happen to know exactly where.

Today's theme of TEAM BUILDING affected my solve, I suppose, in that I noticed that NFL teams seemed to be forming from the crosses and I ended up ignoring the "some thing + something else"cluing. "Butter square + Hilarious people." Yeah, I don't have time to parse that, but hey, it's PATRIOTS in the end. Got it. Meanwhile, we have the weirdly banal answer to "Stanley Cup matchup, e.g." as NHL GAME. Yawn. About as exciting as DSL MODEM, I suppose.

However, I really liked this puzzle because. well, I suppose it was nice to get a softball puzzle as I enter the land of jetlag forever. But more than that, how did I never know the word BATHOS before?
 As it turns out, the word was coined by Alexander Pope in the 18th century to refer to something that starts out serious but ends up silly, or as it's phrased better, "the descent from lofty to trite." I am going to use this word a lot and it will annoy my friends and family. (The cluing of "sentimentality" doesn't seem to get the nuance of this word across). I also enjoy that it's sitting atop URBANE, another word I love and should use more.

Here's hoping I don't get stuck in Newark. My flight to Indianapolis is supposed to leave in an hour. We'll see. 

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