"Grammar Lesson," 1/15/17

O Best Beloveds, I am sorry I didn't post last week. We were on a long road trip and I was too tired. It's a shame, too, because we did do the puzzle and I really enjoyed it. (And, it had SEGO lily in it, which, you may recall from a past post, I formerly didn't know about, but now I know it forever.)

Time to finish/time I gave up: 29:59 BOO YAH
Did I finish it without help? Sure did
Did I check puzzle? If yes, how many letters were wrong? N/A

Commentary:
I enjoyed this puzzle because I like grammar. I actually found the theme clues were easier than the fill in some cases, which helped us blaze through this one. PASSIVEVOICE helped me back into SOFTTACO--I am a big fan of both of those answers. Rex gripes about the theme clues a little (ok, a lot, like he does), but they didn't bother me. He also gripes about being forced to think about ANNCOULTER, but I'm with him on that one, as typing her name made me actually shudder.

We struggled with the NE corner, partly because of that FIGWASP (F_GW___ was not looking good), and partly because we went the wrong way with 15A Apple product and had "cores" for a while, and also "corer," before getting to CIDER. We also had "Tse" instead of TZE for 59D Chinese philosopher Mo-, which, let's be honest, we were just guessing anyway, but it just added to the whole mess.

I gotta say, I was pretty bummed by the amount of work-related clues in here. Come on, NYT, just give me Sunday. 23A Source of stress for many modern workers INBOXES, 39D Something set in a meeting AGENDA, 80A Result of a year-end review, maybe RAISE. I guess we could also throw in 92A ____ pad MEMO, but it's not 1990.

I'm too young for this $h*t

• See above memo pad.
• 122A ____ Aquino, Time's Woman of the Year in 1986. I understand that perhaps I ought to know about CORAZON for other reasons, but this clue just made me laugh at its unabashed 30 year old reference.
• And, I am reluctant to admit this, but I can't stop thinking about that commercial that used to run during football all the time, where the guy says, "It's a quee-no!"

Really?

• 74A ___ department REC. I'm all about some Parks and Recreation (shoutout to 38D Foe of the Cheyenne PAWNEE) but this could have been basically anything. How is department supposed to help clue REC in any way? Am I missing something?
• Rex explains this one: "102A: Specimen, for example: Abbr. (SYN.) — "Specimen" is a SYN(onym) of "example"; tricky." Ok now I at least understand what is going on but I still don't like "specimen" and "example" as synonyms.
• 82D Lacks HASNT. Too old British-y. This clue hasn't my approval.

Things I learned today:

• 75A Uber-owned company that makes self-driving trucks OTTO. I both appreciate the pun and am terrified that we live in this future world.
• The word "panegyric." Husband with a better vocabulary than mine to the rescue again.
• Hint: it's not pronounced "pain jai rick," and if you say that out loud, some husbands might laugh at you.

Times I got to use my French major this week

• Voila
• Heure
• Ici
• En garde

Fritz out!