Thursday October 18th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 23:04
Thursday Average: 26:05
Best Thursday: 10:18

I assume that everyone who did this puzzle now has "SANTERIA" by Sublime stuck in their head. Of course, for me, that song makes me think of a co-worker I had back on Fallen Leaf Lake who would sing "I don't chop no manzanita" to that tune as we were at our brush clearing task.

There were quote a few proper nouns in this puzzle that didn't come to me right away. Obviously I got RIRI and RORY right away, but I haven't seen "Brave" and so didn't know MERIDA, nor am I particularly familiar with "Don Giovanni" and Donna ELVIRA, and certainly I couldn't name anyone from "The Bachelorette," so BECCA Kufrin was a definite shrug. However, after reading "German composer Humperdinck," I got to run through all the Eddie Izzard in my head: "Zingelbert Bembledack! Yingybert Dambleban! Zangelbert Bingledack! Wingelbert Humptyback! Slut Bunwalla! (What?) Kringelbert Fishtybuns! Steviebuns Bottrittrundle…" Ah, yes. We shall call him ENGELBERT!

I got stuck for several minutes today because I didn't know CFL (Canadian Football League, I guess) and was sitting on dATE LINE for "Palmist's reading" instead of FATE LINE for much too long.

The theme also took me a moment to work out and definitely fell in the category of "to be worked out after completing the puzzle." LIFT EVERY VOICE was the theme revealer and applies to the themers in that each answer contains a voice type somewhere but spelled backwards, i.e. "lifted:"

  • DIDN'T MISS A BEAT: "Bass." 
  • BARONETCY: "Tenor." Also, ugh. What a word.
  • HOT LAVA: "Alto."
  • ENGELBERT: "Treble."
Finally, I've never heard of anyone referred to as OCEANIAN, but I suppose it's plausible.

Tonight I leave Dubai, which I'm fine with, because I find this city entirely too GLAM, DRESSY, and (I suppose) TRENDY, by which I mean expensive. Off to India for a weekend conference!

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