Tuesday November 13th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 12:14
Tuesday Average: 13:43
Best Tuesday: 6:10

It's my first crossword back in the office and I'll have to admit that this one was quite a slog for me. I was highly discouraged right from the start because I consider world capitals to be one of my few crossword strengths, but there was "Nauru's capital" and nothing was coming to mind. However, it turns out that was exactly right because, officially, Nauru has no capital! As Google so concisely puts it, "YAREN is often assumed to be the capital city of Nauru, but that is not the case." So, I'm starting out this entry somewhat angry about that.

However, the theme was fun. The revealer is ANDES, which suggests that our theme answers will have an extra "es" (and es) added to the end of a familiar phrase and, as always, wackiness will ensue:

  • "Representatives Sessions (R-TX) and Aguilar (D-CA), for instance?" HOUSE PETES. And maybe the driest ? theme clue of all time.
  • "Why many people visit Napa?" FOR THE WINES.
  • "Nurseries?" BABY SITES.
  • "What ice trays typically do?" BEAR CUBES. That one was torture. I'd NIX this one. 
  • "President Herbert's wife and mother, e.g.?" HOOVER DAMES. For a while, I thought I would have to know the names of Herbert Hoover's wife and mother, which might the same. Not so!
  • "Play 'Name that Tune?'" GUESS NOTES. 
Well, that's an awful lot of theme crammed into one puzzle and I'll leave it at that. The SW, for me, was absolutely brutal with long down clues "Cardiologist's X-Ray" for ANGIOGRAM and "Mathematician Daniel after whom a principle is named" for BERNOULLI, which basically had me stabbing at familiar-sounding roots and plausible Italian names until the app TOLD me I was done, leading me to a MUTED celebration.  


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