Saturday November 24th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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 Time: 39:53
Saturday Average: 38:48
Best Saturday: 10:34

I can’t be the only one who has never watched Dora the Explorer and has no idea what her catchphrase is. I needed every single cross and I still didn’t understand what SWIPER NO SWIPING could possibly mean. Apparently there’s a character named Swiper who sometimes swipes things but Dora tells him not to and then he doesn’t... that was following some cursory internet searching, so please tell me if I’m missing something. To add insult to injury, “Dora the Explorer, e.g.: Abbr” is the clue for SRTA (ugh), one of the last clues that I managed.

Even though I struggled mightily with this crossword, I really enjoyed a great deal of the themeless answers and clueing. HIGH MAINTENANCE and IDLE SPECULATION are both lovely long answers. RETICENCE clued as “Taciturnity” is just a double whammy of fantastic words and actually one of the first clues that I got. I may not be great at cars, sports, or abbreviations, but I’m positively decent at words.

I didn’t really understand what “‘Things get ugly’” was supposed to mean, but THE CLAWS COME OUT is a fun phrase that I’m not sure anyone uses.

What did I learn today other than Dora the Explorer trivia? Definitively “Mephitis” as a synonym for STENCH or, more completely, a noxious smelling glass. That was a wild guess for me and I’m glad it worked out.

Well, this crossword gave me my biggest NY Times crossword scare in a while, but I muddled through. Time to return to the land of Thanksgiving leftovers.

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