Thursday November 15th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 22:00
Thursday Average: 26:15
Best Thursday: 10:18

I should probably watch "Frozen" one of these days because it sure seems to have provided an awful lot of crossword fodder, as it did today with reindeer SVEN. Also, I hear it's pretty good and Kristen Bell is in it, so what am I waiting for? I may, however, skip the live action ALADDIN remake, which apparently is coming in 2019.

Today's tricky Thursday comes courtesy of rebus squares that could be anywhere, which is a daunting proposition on the face of it. However, the puzzle falls into place once you realize that it's always going to be the letters IOU in the squares, which was given away fairly early with the gimme (for me, anyway) of NOTOR(IOU)S B.I.G. ("Noted artist on Bad Boy records, with "the"). The theme, of course, is MICRO LOANS, so the IOU's are made small by cramming them into single squares, and we're also helpfully informed that there will be five of them. "Making the 'Top Party Schools' list, e.g." may indeed be a DUB(IOU)S HONOR, but maybe that's what a student is looking for and honestly any time a student refers to a specific ranking instead of the nebulous "rankings," I'm happy.

I did not know that Moe of the Three Stooges and WHY (I OU)GHTA fame had the last name of Howard, so that clue confused me for a moment. I also had never heard the word ELUTE, meaning to "Wash out with a solvent." Fortunately, I was able to guess that batting champion Matty was another baseball ALOU, which is essentially always correct.

All I can hear running through my head now is Bart Simpson's voice yelling "You sold my soul for POGs?" That's probably the best and only legacy for that particular fad, along with the lines directly preceding it: "Remember Alf? He's back. In pog form." 

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