Sunday November 18th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 41:16
Sunday Average: 49:22
Best Sunday: 21:55

I love portmanteau words basically every since I learned the word 'portmanteau,' which was probably from Elliott Kalan of Flophouse and MST3K fame. So today's puzzle, titled "Portmanfaux," was obviously a complete joy to me, even if I'm not sure I have the SMARTS to concisely describe what exactly the theme is doing. Essentially, the last word of each theme answer is a well-known portmanteau word and it is proceeded by two words whose beginning and ending, respectively, could be used to create that portmanteau word.


  • "Satchel for a homicide detective?:" MURDER CASE MURSE
  • "Unseasonal wear on a winter vacation?:"SKI RESORT SKORT
  • "Late morning meal for a TV family?:" BRADY BUNCH BRUNCH
  • "One way to buy mustard cheaply?:" GREY POUPON GROUPON
  • "Emails such as 'Click this link to become an Apollo astronaut?:" SPACE PROGRAM SPAM
  • "Collection of Yule-centric posts?:" BURNING LOG BLOG
  • "Utensil for eating some cured meat?:" SALTED PORK SPORK
OK, so it's definitely nonsense, but I still enjoyed putting them together, especially the Grey Poupon and the salted pork. 

I'm actually surprised at how rarely ERASMUS shows up in crosswords, but I was happy to read a bit about him because I hear about him only in the context of scholarships and educational programming. 

I loved the RBIS / RIBEYES crossing, even though I don't love the former being pronounced like the latter or, while we're at it, the pluralization of the former because it's already plural. But there's lots of baseball in this one, with BLOOP, AL EAST, and SOX, so I'm not going to complain about that.  

I think I pulled RISE OVER RUN straight out of seventh grade brain. I don't think I've really ever heard anyone say it since then. 

ÓSCAR ARIAS, two-time president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner, is someone I need to remember both for general awareness and for the sake of crosswords. 

I got stuck for an extended amount of time just searching for my one mistake, which turned to be having HYPEd ("Charged up") instead of HYPER and not getting what on earth NONdEAL would be but figuring it's some type of number in advanced mathematics. Oh, NON-REAL. That makes more sense. 

Here's a clue I didn't love: "When a happy hour might start" for AT SIX. I mean, yes, sure could. But it's Sunday and I'm through with crosswords so happy hour can start now. 


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