Saturday November 3rd 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 41:34
Saturday Average: 39:00
Best Saturday: 10:34

Today started with coffee and crossword and no particular commitments for the day. TEE TIME, as always, was far from my mind.  There was some definite trickiness today, along with a couple proper nouns that I'm not really familiar with. I didn't know Paul Simon/Derek Walcott musical The CAPEMAN and I couldn't remember US soccer star Megan RAPINOE, because I just don't really follow soccer at all. Of course, that center 3 letter answer, DMX, that I know for sure. I was also glad that I was able to drop in SAINT PETERSBURG for "'Crime and Punishment' setting" without any crosses; that's a definite gimme for me. I'm actually not sure how I would have made it through the puzzle without that one.

I only just now understand why DORA THE EXPLORER is clued as "Nick name." Her show is on Nick Jr. I'd written in the answer but couldn't quite figure out the clue.

I had to spend quite bit of time just trying to fix the puzzle, in particular a couple crossings that threw me off and cost me at least 5 minutes. I'm sure I'm not the only who misspelled APPARAT, especially with "e" looking sensible as part of the answer for "Classified," which ultimately ended up being WANT AD. I don't really see WIND as a natural answer for "Tucker out, in a way." Finally, the crossing of VICODIN and AMOROSO ("Lovingly, in scores") cost me a lot of time. I needed every cross for the latter, so misspelling VICaDIN was basically my doom. Also, I can't have been the only one who wrote in CidER for "Apple _____," right? Apple CORER? Yeah, OK.

Now, it's time to spend my free day exploring Tirana a bit. After a night of normal sleep, I'm feeling significantly SERENER. 

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