Saturday December 15th 2018, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 33:26
Saturday Average: 38:36
Best Saturday: 10:34

As I’m recovering from crashing the Anchor Brewing Christmas Party last night, I can’t help but noticing all the alcohol (mostly beer) in this puzzle, with BEER COOLER, PBRS, RUMS, HOTEL BAR, (Canadian) MIST, ON ICE, (Grey) GOOSE, and HAMM(s). Maybe I’m stretching on a few, but once you start looking, it’s hard not to keep finding them. 

I don’t think it was just sleepiness making this Saturday puzzle so brutally difficult. Even if RENT-A-COP starred Burt Reynolds and Liza Minelli, I can’t be the only one that struggled there. I remember MR. MOM for some reason, but why do we have two somewhat obscure 80s comedies in the mix? 

The Northeast was by far the trickiest for me as I had nothing other than my lucky guess of PIED PIPER for “Sort who entices others to follow.” I had nothing until Fox Mulder slowly drifted into my head to remind me that the “Folklore monster whose name means ‘goat-sucker’” was, of course, CHUPACABRA. I would call that cross along with “Arguing with God, for example” for CHUTZPAH, which in turned cross the ZAMBEZI River, probably the crux of this puzzle. 

Of course, now I’m singing “Washington on your Side” to myself thanks to that MUST BE NICE answer, which I also had a hard time seeing, by the way. 

I’m currently listening to “Weather Bird” in an effort to remember Earl “Fatha” HINES, one of the most influential figures in jazz piano, as I’m learning from Wikipedia. I also had no idea that EL GRECO’s real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos, but that was a fun answer to infer. 

Surely “Some Winter Olympians” aren’t just SLEDDERS, right? Lugers? Bobsledders, maybe?

I can hear my friend James reading The Haunting of Hill House outloud in the next room and soon it’s time for breakfast in Berkeley. This is my kind of vacation.



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