Friday March 8th 2019, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 17:53
Friday Average: 27:27
Best Friday: 10:21

I surprised myself with a clean finish to this Friday puzzle during a 5am taxi ride to the Hanoi airport, still somewhat drunk from last night and deeply confused by the breakfast box that my hotel provided. I was craving a WINE FLASK but ended up instead with a mild SUGAR RUSH from some overly sweetened yoghurt and two pieces of fruit.

NIIHAU (“Island WSW of Kauai”) is quite the boon to crossword constructors, but I doubted myself all the way.

SILENT C for “Miscellaneous part?” caused me some physical pain. Those clues get me every time and then I groan when I remember them.

Initially I had ‘rap battle’ for “Song that a hip-hop rivalry might inspire,’ which made me think of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but that’s easy to do. DISS TRACK makes the same degree of sense.

I just finished the Punch Up the Jam episode about AFRICA and feel that I LUCKED OUT by listening to it on a flight. Is it possible to overrelate to a podcast episode? Do yourself a favor and listen to that episode and, really, every episode of Punch Up the Jam.

If you want a glimpse into international recruiting life, today might be representative. I was awake at 4am watching the last of the deluge of emails from the east coast working day pour in, packed and stumbled down the stairs to make my way to a taxi to the airport, staggered through check in and immigration, stared blankly sipping coffee in an airport lounge, now on a flight following which I’ll go back through immigration, hopefully retrieve bags, Grab taxi directly to a college fair where I’ll change, maybe fix my hair but no time for IRONING, and then 4 hours later check in to my next hotel. Then comes beer and I JUST MIGHT respond to those emails and the day starts ANEW. 

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