Friday October 19th 2018, NY Times Crossword
Friday Average: 28:34
Best Friday: 10:21
I've probably said this already, but Friday is my favorite day for the NY Times. I generally prefer themeless puzzles and Friday usually is just challenging enough to make me nervous but provides adequate purchase to let me just hack my way through. On my initial pass through, I may have managed 5 or 6 answers and was definitely staring at a potential DEAD END in the Southeast and I'd incorrectly written in "mOnkey wrench" instead of, as it turns out, TORQUE. As a solver, perhaps the biggest breakthrough I had to make was finding the willingness to remove answers that aren't working for whatever reason.
I enjoyed most of the medium answers, such as the cluing for SIX PACK ("Objective worked toward during crunch time?"), ON VACAY ("Catching rays for days, say"), and ATE CROW. "Cliff notes" is an excellent clue for YODEL and it was the last answer I managed. However, I did not care for "Alpha male, perhaps?" for FRAT BRO, even if that ? is supposedly calling into question that whole notion of alpha males and why being a bro would make you one. BOO HISS.
The Mark Twain quote is always appreciated: "SANITY and happiness are an impossible combination."
Obviously, I was happy to see SMEAGOL as "Notable ring bearer."
The southeast was tough for me, because I wasn't familiar with ASHANTI as a "Region of Ghana known for gold and cocoa" or what a "Roll of 4 and 6, in craps" would be (EASY TEN, as it turns out). NEOLITH just wasn't really coming to me either. Even though I consider myself fairly knowledgeable in Greek mythology, my 36 year old self has lost a lot of facts that I knew when I was ten, so DANAE as the "Mother of Perseus" was a struggle too. But, once again, my favorite thing about crosswords is just letting my brain drag words that sound right from the depths and somehow this one worked out perfectly.
Today, I learned that NACRE is mother of pearl and, as it's clued, "Button material." Also, apparently KAREN is the "Real first name of writer Isak Dinesen," so that's cool.
Greetings from Jaipur, by the way!
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