Wednesday December 12th 2018, NY Times Crossword

Time: 15:34
Wednesday Average: 17:25
Best Wednesday: 7:24

I checked to make sure it wasn't the 20 year anniversary of the ENRON Scandal or something along those lines because I think it's been appearing in about half of the recent crosswords. I could live without seeing the "Smartest Guys in the Room" for a while and, while we're at it, maybe a less blasé clue for NAZI than "'Life is Beautiful' extra."

I started out this puzzle with a lot of blank stares at the north, not getting anything until Netanyahu's nickname BIBI. I've vaguely heard of LIVE AID, but it's certainly before my time, so I was struggling until I got QUEEN from the crosses (QUASI was a bit unexpected), and then FREDDIE MERCURY obviously fell into place. 1.5 billion people tuned in for that BENEFIT? Wild.

Whenever I proudly spell out MYRRH, Eddie Izzard's voice comes into my head saying, "Well, if you can spell it, you can have it!"

Oh, I just noticed that the circled squares spell out "Bohemian Rhapsody." Very nice.

FORA for "Debate venues" and ETYMA for "Root words" might be too much fun with plurals for one puzzle.

I may have heard of the Lhasa APSO, an absolutely ridiculous looking dog, but I had nothing for "Part of a dog breed's name" and had to try a couple letters out before finally finishing this puzzle.