Sunday January 27th 2019, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 44:49
Sunday Average: 48:21
Best Sunday: 21:55

I'd never realized that the three is skipped in the "Media inits. before One, Two or Four" for BBC and now I'm wondering if that's a Monty Python reference, but I guess they'd have to skip to five after two for that to really work. Today's puzzle is titled "Unemployment Lines" and features some wordplay about losing certain positions and I guess it's either appropriate or inappropriate as the government temporarily reopens tomorrow and lots of people return to work at least for the moment.

  • "Unemployed salon worker?" DISTRESSED HAIRDRESSER. Right, because tresses are hair things. I second guess myself on that word frequently. 
  • "Unemployed nail polisher?" DEFILED MANICURIST. It's hard not to read this answer as pretty gross.
  • "Unemployed men's clothier?" DISPATCHED TAILOR. I had "Destitched" for a long time and I know that's not really a thing, but I was stretching. I don't really think of tailors doing a ton of patching, as such. 
  • "Unemployed educator?" DEGRADED TEACHER. Also just really hard to avoid seeing this as pretty gross.
  • "Unemployed loan officer?" DISTRUSTED BANKER. I think we can all get behind this one!
  • "Unemployed rancher?" DERANGED CATTLEMAN. The logic of this one seems sounder to me. 
  • "Unemployed prestidigitator?: DISILLUSIONED MAGICIAN. This obviously has to be the favorite since it calls up Gob Bluth as well as its share of D&D references. 
Does this theme work? I suppose I can't argue with its consistency, so I'll allow it. 

I really need to remember famous cook EMERIL LaGasse because he comes up so damn much in crosswords and he just won't stick in my head. The fact that he crossed some random fast food sandwich in MCDLTS, which apparently is the same as another fast food sandwich I don't know called a Big N Tasty, meant that crossing was the last part the grid to happen for me. 

Isaac ASIMOV remains always and forever welcome in all crossword grids. 

Gosh, it's hard for me to catch UTAHANS as a word. It usually takes every cross. 

Of course the NY Times would still be talking about the Curse of THE BAMBINO. That curse is over, New York!

Comments

  1. S. SandrigonJanuary 30, 2019 at 1:21 PM

    C and I failed at this one, I've been working on it while bartending the last few days. I only started cheating today. Happy Birthday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. S. SandrigonJanuary 30, 2019 at 4:20 PM

      PS I got EMERIL right away, but what the fuck is a MCDLT?

      Delete

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