Thursday March 7th 2019, NY Times Crossword

Time:15:07
Thursday Average: 25:16
Best Thursday: 10:18

This theme has me singing the “Bring ‘em out” theme from the Punch Up the Jam podcast. It would have fit the theme, but I suppose there’s no shortage of phrases with “‘em” out there. The revealer, STICK EM UP, shows that the letters “em” are oriented vertically in the theme answers. Fortunately, I knew HANG EM HIGH off the top of my head and ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS are a staple of Los Heros tournaments. HOOK EM HORNS for “Cheer at a Texas football game,” on the other hand, is entirely unfamiliar to me but was surprisingly easy to infer. KNOCK EM DEAD rounds out the somewhat aggressive theme.

CHIN MUSIC means “Chitchat?” I think I’ve always heard it in the context of a high and tight pitch in baseball.

Greetings from the streets of Hanoi!