Thursday April 11th 2019, NY Times Crossword

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Time: 25:48
Thursday Average: 24:51
Best Thursday: 10:18

There's a combination of tags on dictionary.com that I've come to be highly suspicious of and that is "informal" along with "North American." In this case, I came across these after completing the puzzle and checking to see how exactly "Mischievous trick" yields DIDO. Throw in some details like "19th century" and "unknown origin" and I'm fully off board. I WON'T buy it.

There's quite a bit of trickiness in today's crossword,  in which the ONSETS of the theme gradually come into a focus. Essentially, we have an extra syllable thrown into common phrases (or in one case, a famous name) getting you a phonetically slightly off version of those phrases. Of course, the clues are there to provide maximum (YAWN) wackiness.

  • "Ornately decorated money?:" BAROQUE BREAD. This is obviously baffling but eventually makes some degree of sense and comes from the phrase "broke bread."
  • "March meant to end a drought?:" PARADE FOR RAIN. Not quite as off-the-wall in terms of cluing and so differs in that it's basically the same subject matter as "prayed for rain."
  • "Bumper version of a cart?:" COLLIDE BARROW. I could make almost nothing of this until my mind grasped Clyde Barrow as someone famous. Specifically, that's the Clyde of Bonnie and Clyde. This answer seems like a real outlier, since it's a person rather than a phrase.
  • "What the trees by Walden Pond provided?:" THOREAU SHADE. Since I'm from the land of Henry David, I got this answer before having any idea what was happening with the theme. It also took me a while to spot "throw shade."

I could think of many a 4-letter "Frequently cosplayed sci-fi character," but I suppose LEIA is the most likely in the end.

It would seem that Matisse would be an example of a FAUVE when he "emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism." Noted. Sticking that under the alternate spelling OCHER gave me some trouble in the southeast.

Overall, despite my nitpicking, I was pleased by the challenge that this Thursday provided. It also made me wish I'd had a Croque-monsieur for breakfast. 

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