Jim here, sitting in for Jeff Chen who is performing in both the Winter and Summer Olympics, in different sports.
This one is easy, right?
Whoa, Jim, you know better than that! Your life experiences, including the percentage of your life you devote to crosswords, are uniquely your own. You know things that I don't, and vice versa. But still. 1-Across has to be IMHO, and 5-Across is clearly SPACE FORCE, so before we've completely settled into our Eames puzzle chair, we've got two Across answers and the first letter of fourteen Downs. Fortunately, my ego boost was temporary, as the rest of the puzzle provided more resistance.
TELENOVELA ("soap in Mexico") ought to be a constructor's dream word, with its alternating vowels and useful consonants, Jeff tells me it's more common in other venues, but this is only its second appearance in the NYT. Juliet CAPULET is a prototypical "star-crossed lover." (I hope I didn't spoil the ending.) REAL MATURE is an evocative phrase. "Chains of churches" describes literal ROSARIES.
Pro tip: "Home" as in "Standing at home" often refers to baseball. "Course" as in "Course pro" often refers to either golf or meals. Other seemingly odd words like "shell" often refer to food, although not pasta this time. You "put away shells" at a TAQUERIA. Poke is often food too but, PSST, it's a literal finger poke today.
Are you Team Stridex or Team OXY? I have no opinion.
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
Tue 2/8/2022
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POW Wed 1/12/2022
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Mon 12/27/2021
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Sat 11/13/2021
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Sat 8/7/2021
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Sat 7/24/2021
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4-Down [Sole survivor of the Pequod.] This is a great clue. Even if you only know the first line of Moby Dick, you know it's narrated by someone called ISHMAEL. He must have survived since he's telling the story, so if there's only one survivor, it must be him. Plus, "Spoiler alert" is funny.
17-Across [Like many old video game soundtracks] is EIGHT-BIT. I suppose that's true for the soundtracks, but the charm of old games now comes from the EIGHT-BIT graphics. Those big chunky pixels could only display 256 (2^8) different colors, so forget any ideas about subtle shading or realism.
2-Down:Exhalation: Stories is a stunningly great collection of short stories by Ted CHIANG.
Sat 5/29/2021
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POW Sat 8/1/2020
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"The play's the thing." The Murder of Gonzago, you'll recall, is Hamlet's ploy, "Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."
