Friday January 4th 2019, NY Times Crossword

Time: 40:19
Friday Average: 27:47
Best Friday: 10:21

Lisbon airport at 4am after staying up all night in order to make my flight to Frankfurt going the wrong way entirely en route to Boston made this Friday a particular challenge. However, I actually cruised through and enjoyed about 75% of this puzzle. APPLIANCE and BIKINI WAX in the NW weren’t all that interesting to me, but I was a big fan of WARM FUZZIES for “‘Feel good’ sensations.” Even though I had Rotten instead of RAMONE for a while for “Last name in punk rock,” I’m also thrilled about that answer. I’d never heard TWIHARD for Twilight series fans, but I feel like a better person for knowing this now.

But then there was the NE, which was an utter disaster for me. I really should know SABRA for a Jewish person born in Israeli territory and that was the answer that eventually sounded familiar enough for me to close out the corner. But I didn’t even know what “US Army E-7” was asking me. As it turns out, Sergeant First Class (SFC!) is the seventh enlisted rank (E-7) in the army. Then there was BAR SINISTER for “Heraldic charge indicting supposed illegitimate birth.” Brutal. I’m not even quite sure what a heraldic charge is. If I had to guess, George R.R. Martin, lover of “gratuitous heraldry,” would have been all over this clue. But I’m relying on the helpful example sentence from dictionary.com: “back in the days when the bar sinister was a real obstacle to social acceptance.” OK, I get it now, but I would like to point out to the website that that is not a complete sentence. Anyhow, I was just trying out different letter combinations for about 20 minutes, overtired and thinking I MEAN REALLY before the puzzle finally came together. Sometimes the crossword knowledge just hits you wrong, but this is the first time in a while that all I could think by the end was God, ARE WE DONE?