Tuesday December 11th 2018, NY Times Crossword

Time: 5:05
Tuesday Average: 13:29
Best Tuesday: 5:05

As an avid composter, I'm perfectly thrilled with today's COMPOST BIN theme. The related answers all feature a first word that is something you could throw in the compost, so you have SHELL SHOCK, PEEL OUT, GROUNDS CREW, and PIT BOSS. Back when I worked at the Bijou Restaurant, the city of Portland had implemented compost pickup for participating restaurants and I always felt a bit better about the massive amount of food waste when I could believe it was being put to better purposes than landfill filler.

Many of us can probably agree with the aptness of the George CARLIN quote used in the clue today: "In America, anyone can be become president. That's the problem."

Do many people wear an APE SUIT for Halloween? My main association is Theo Epstein's legendary escape from Boston reporters, if I'm remembering that correctly.

I got to be a passenger in the carpool this morning and I appreciated the personal NEGAWATTS saved by not having to focus on driving for an hour and a half. I also have no idea if that piece of "modern lingo" can be used in that way. But this puzzle flew by this morning before I'd even EASED into it and I set a personal record for Tuesday. I'm actually not quite sure how people are able to do these crosswords much faster because if I try to up my typing speed at all, I just have typos that cost me more time in the end. That said, I know many people are able to do even Saturday crosswords faster than that, somehow. Maybe their fingers are more AGILE than mine.

Now that I've read her Wikipedia page, I'm pretty sure I should be familiar with AUDRA McDonald, winner 6 Tony Awards and a cast member of  some Shonda Rhimes shows. And she played Billie Holiday in an HBO series. Very cool!