0:00 – Intro
1:37 – Mini puzzle
2:51 – Daily puzzle (by Brooke Husic)
9:29 – Commentary
New York Times Crossword, Friday 5/7/21:
This one played fast for a Friday puzzle, and I really liked some of the fill. OUTOFLEFTFIELD and INSIDEBASEBALL are nice long fill that kind of give this puzzle a mini-baseball-saying theme. I only learned about INSIDEBASEBALL on a recent crossword. Also liked STARCRAFT and FIASCOS. In general, a remarkably clean grid except for a little dab of crossword glue and the slightly inelegant ASPURE.
What I wish this puzzle had more of is clever wordplay and fun question mark clues. That’s what I enjoy the most about themeless puzzles, and the three question mark clues on this puzzle were a little tepid: HOSE (Running apparel?), BANKLOAN (Something of interest to a business?), and TOQUES (Parts of a restaurant’s overhead?). Although I do like TOQUES as a fill.
I also like it when IAGO is clued as the parrot from Aladdin, which feels like it happens maybe 1/10th of the time. Overall, felt like a fast, modern themeless. The south section did give me a bit of resistance at first, but my finish time was well below my average Friday.
FYI: The third Union Station on the Acela route is in New London Connecticut. (Thanks to u/karmaranovermydogma on Reddit).
15s on the Mini and 6m37s on the daily puzzle.
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