Tuesday October 30th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 7:09
Tuesday Average: 13:45
Best Tuesday: 6:10

Perhaps it's appropriate that I'm in Romania, land of vampires, for the Halloween themed NY Times crossword, a day early. Maybe we'll get another one tomorrow. Romania has, to a limited extent, embraced its Halloween connection, at least if I were to judge by the theme parties advertised at the clubs and the decorations at some of the high schools that I visited.

Today's theme was GRAVEYARD SHIFT, as you can see that the shaded squares each have R.I.P. in them and they shift along the columns. It's a perfectly intuitive theme and actually helped me to parse SUN RIPEN ("Put on a windowsill to mature, say"), which looked weird to me for some time. Of course, the final square to fall was the E in EGIS, alternate spelling of "aegis," which I'd call a somewhat obscure word itself. I also wasn't familiar with "Delaware Valley tribe" LENAPE, which according to WikiPedia had a matrilineal clan system. Neat!

I also struggled a bit connecting TRIPTYCH (and who doesn't love a good triptych?) with a "Picture often used as an altarpiece." But I can't argue with it, so that's A-OKAY!

I also liked "Narcissist's excursions?" for EGO TRIPS.

For now, I'm sitting in the Bucharest airport waiting for my flight to Sofia, where I'll spend about 24 hours, barely enough time to get a banitsa and a Shopksa Salad. 

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