Wednesday November 28th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 23:41
Wednesday Average: 17:23
Best Wednesday: 7:24

It was a tough Wednesday for me due mostly to an extremely unfamiliar Southwest and a lot of difficult seeing USER ID ("Surfing moniker;" nice clue) and also not knowing how to say female bear in Spanish. It turns out it's OSA.

I suppose I remember Hernando DE SOTO, but he really blends in with the hoards of terrible people descending on Central and South America at that time. Maybe I knew about ESTERS back in Chemistry class some 20 odd years ago, but I certainly had nothing for that chemical compound, but I'm interested in the etymology from Wikipedia, which tells us that the word 'ester' was coined in 1848 by a German chemist Leopold Gmelin, probably as a contraction of the German Essigäther, "acetic ether." Throw in a clue about DR. T & the Women, a 2000 film starring Richard Gere, and yeah, you lost me. Sometimes you just have to run through the letters and, I'll admit, that R surprised me.

I also stared blankly at "How some deposits are held" until TJ's voice starting yelling in my mind, "I'm IN ESCROW!" That's obviously the only way to clue that answer in the future.

Oh, and there's a theme that actually helped me with the solve. Today was FRENCH REVOLUTION and, as you can see, the circled letters spell out something French and revolve around a certain space. So you have French Horn, Pastry, Cuff, Door, Poodle, and Kiss. Yes, that all works well enough.

Other than the painful gaps in my knowledge that this puzzle exposed, I have to say that this was an enjoyable Wednesday, helped of course by working from home, coffee, and dog. It's all about context. 

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