Monday October 22nd 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 5:40
Monday Average: 8:41
Best Monday: 4:41

This will be a short and probably poorly written entry today, since this particular Monday disappeared from almost entirely in flying from Jaipur to Bangkok to Beijing. The travel time was mostly overnight, I think, but I lost track of time and got to the hotel around 5pm. An amazing dinner at Black Sesame Kitchen later and I'm back and ready to sleep.  

Today's theme seems to be a series of adjectives that share etymological origins with the names of the PLANETS: MERCURIAL, VENIAL, MARTIAL, JOVIAL, SATURNINE. Perhaps it's just my overtired brain telling me this, but is it really strictly accurate to say "Etymological origins of the answers to the five starred clues" are the planets? Don't these personality traits have more to do with the Roman gods, since there's nothing particular warlike about Mars the planet? Or do I have all this backward? I'd Google it, but I'm in China and I haven't set up a VPN yet. Explain it to me in the comments. I'M ALLears!

In terms of learning, I can't recall ever hearing the word MONOMER, which, intuitively enough, is a molecule that can be bonded to other identical molecules to form a polymer. 

That's about all I have in me tonight. Sleep is all that's left. 

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