Friday December 7th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 14:07
Friday Average: 27:42
Best Friday: 10:21

You have to love AIDES DE CAMP ("Military assistants") for the double whammy of being both a plural that makes you feel smart (like attorneys general or burgers royale) and in French to boot! I'm also a big fan of the more colloquial SHEEPLE, as in wake up! I don't think it can be used without irony at this point.

Generally, I was feeling pretty smart as I flew through this crossword despite entering almost nothing on my first run through the acrosses. I might have only had ELI "Roth of cinematic gore" and I wasn't particularly proud of it. Oh, I also had HAN for "Solo flying?" and HAJ for "Religious trip." It wasn't a great start but the downs got me going. DECEPTICON was a gold mine.

The 1-across "Are we clear?" is almost as bland as its answer, DO YOU HEAR ME? However, I enjoyed almost everything else, especially the sheer randomness of IKEA CATALOG and SEED OYSTERS.

I've never heard of ASH CAKE for "Southern corn bread" so I'll defer to my southerner readers to set me straight on that. I think at some point I knew that the first A-BOMB test was called Trinity but I forgot it long ago. That was the last bit to fall for me. And I really need to remember UZO ADUBA, because she is great.


Comments

  1. ArraDecember 10, 2018 at 5:25 PM

    Flew thru this until getting stuck awhile in the northwest. No, I did not know decepticon, except via the crosses!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. QuillDecember 11, 2018 at 5:58 AM

      Northwest was tricky! I was a little lucky to guess 1 across from the last couple letters.

      Delete

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