Thursday November 29th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 36:48
Thursday Average: 26:20
Best Thursday: 10:18

WELL NOW, sometimes a crossword will just THRASH you and this was one of those Thursdays. The theme was relatively tricky, with the answers to be entered, as the puzzle eventually reveals, IN A ROUND ABOUT WAY. So, essentially you follow the arrows and the answers continue around the center structure and onward. I think the fact that the revealer is formed by those answers makes the whole thing particularly tricky. If you have trouble grokking the theme, you'll have trouble finding purchase elsewhere.

That said, I figured out the theme after not too long, but really struggled with a good deal of the fill. I'm terrible with actors and actresses, so TYE Sheridan and NATASHA Lyonne evaded me for a long time. I've never heard the word SCHNOOK for a "Patsy," but it sounds correct, I suppose. And I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know BRACERO as a term for a "Seasonal migrant worker from Mexico." Those clues around the Southeast just gave me all the trouble.

ANITA "Hand (name used for some prank calls)?" That's your prank call name? That's definitely no Ivanna Tinkle or Hugh Jass! Lame.

OK, and the last square for me, which I spent maybe 6 minutes searching around for, was really embarrassing. I felt great with uTMOST for "Maximally" and apparently I don't know even the most famous of designers, so uRMANI sounded as likely as anything for "First living designer exhibited at the Guggenheim." Yeah, so I'm dumb and obviously it's AT MOST and ARMANI. I think I need more coffee now.

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