Sunday October 14th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 31:20
Sunday Average: 50:06
Best Sunday 21:55

A board game themed Sunday? Yes, please. OK, I'll admit that I laughed (at least two HAS) at THE RISK IS TOO HIGH for "'We can't play that game -I can't reach it on our shelf.'" As you can see, the theme is a series of reasons to not play various classic board games made up of common phrases. The best is probably SORRY NOT SORRY, which is a great alternative for the hilariously formal clue "'My sincerest apologies, but that game is off the table.'" I HAVEN'T A CLUE is solid for "'We can't play that game unless we borrow someone else's.'" Now, for "'No that game would be over in a flash,'" LIFE'S TOO SHORT seems pretty fun, but it is just blatantly false. Nobody has ever said that about the Game of Life; it takes forever. I will also object to PLEASE DON'T GO "'I'm begging you, let's not play that game!'") because it's a wild outlier in this theme. Go is an amazing game, arguably the best game, but it does not fit with the other games here. "You don't want to play Sorry? How about Go?" It isn't a board game the same way that Life is a board game. Anyway, the theme closes with "'I've finally decided! I'm...'" ASKING FOR TROUBLE. Even though I don't really want to play any of these board games (except Go), I still dug this theme. I think there was a really similar one within this past year though, right?

The clue that had me stumped forever was the wordy "Bone connection with convex and concave fittings," which just had me saying many ERS and UMS, Eventually, SADDLE JOINT sounded like a pair of words that exist and I was able to close out that region. I had trouble seeing MAESTRO, MAROON, and CAJOLERY around there too, but I was never too worried.

There's actually a lot of fill in this puzzle that I loved. MONOMANIA, BIREMES (of course I wanted trIREMES, which doesn't fit), MERE MORTALS, and GENDER FLUIDITY were all satisfying to type in. But then, why did this puzzle have to remind me of all the EMAILS that are piling up. That's looking like the rest of the day.

I think I've heard the term MARE'S NEST before, but I would never have come up with it or been able to tell you what it means. I guess there are two options: 1. a complex or confused situation; a muddle or 2. an illusory discovery. I like the second one better, because it seems more intuitive to me. I doubt I'll use it, but maybe I'll remember it. 

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