Sunday October 28th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 27:50
Sunday Average: 49:40
Best Sunday: 21:55

Can anyone hear the word TRACTS, especially clued as “Chunks of land,” in any context other than Monty Python and the Holy Grail? That was 1 across and I sure hoped that I was writing in the correct answer, because I wasn’t going to be able to think of anything else. I experienced today’s solve in a lounge in Moscow’s Sheremetyovo Airport (SVO for you airport code heads) and now am blogging along with my second Vienna lager. It’s 4:50pm where my brain is, 11:50am where my body is, and 4:50am where my heart is. That’s time for a beer or two.

Today’s theme was MIXEDDOUBLES, as revealed by 119-across. Until you’ve gotten at least a few crosses, there’s no real way to guess at the theme clues, which as the theme suggests, involve anagrams that come out as a common “something and something” type phrase. Since they’re all anagrams, none of the clues can really stand out as particularly clever or not:

  • “Sou’wester” becomes SWEET AND SOUR.
  • “Late hours” becomes HEART AND SOUL.
  • “Peace marches” becomes PEACHES AND CREAM.
  • “After Earth” becomes TAR AND FEATHER.
  • “Growth ring” becomes RIGHT AND WRONG.
  • “Trade punches” becomes STAND UP AND CHEER. This one sticks out a bit, since it has three words, not entirely working with the Doubles theme. Am I getting too nit picky? 
  • “Prostates” becomes STOP AND STARE. Before I got the anagram part of the theme, I had SliP AND SlidE. 

Since there’s not much to get excited about with the theme, I suppose we should appreciate the volume of answers. Still, it’s mainly just getting enough letters in place to eventually recall a phrase that fits the theme. In a tight spot, you might use the anagram part of the clue to close out the puzzle. 

There were a couple new words for me along the western half of the grid today. I’m thinking that the constructor knows they’re using an obscure word when the clue is a straight-up definition like “Hills with gentle slopes on one side and steep slopes on the other.” I now know that those are CUESTRAS. I also hadn’t heard of “Popular Dominican dance” BACHATA, so I may be able to add dance types to my areas of ignorance. I also wasn’t familiar with APOLUNE, for the point at which a spacecraft in lunar orbit is farthest from the moon, but I bet it came up in Sevenevesby Neal Stephenson at some point. Oh, and I didn’t know the capital of Navajo Nation, WINDOWROCK. Very happy to know that now.

Wow, we got the whole name of architect EERO SAARINEN. We’re deep in crossword land with that name. SHEESH.

I still have three hours left in my layover here, so I’m just dreaming of NAP TIMEon the flight because I’m officially DONE. TATA!

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