I pulled out 15A Auto parts giant: OREILLY because I had been assigned to an inventory observation at an O’Reilly Auto Parts store almost a decade ago. During my time as an auditor, I don’t even know how many inventory observations I did. But it was a lot. For some reason–and I don’t recall why this was–someone else was assigned the inventory observation instead. I didn’t complain. I did try to take a Christmas inventory observation from someone, but the scheduler didn’t allow my coworker to trade it away. I don’t understand the move, but OK. So my coworker had to work on Christmas and be away from her family, and I ended up with a New Year’s Eve and a New Year’s Day (7am!) inventory observation. New Year’s Eve was in like Oxnard, and the New Year’s Day was in Palos Verdes. I left the NYE party at like 10:30pm so I didn’t oversleep. Glad those days are behind me.
There was no theme today, and based on how I was doing early, I really thought that many letters shared a square. Clearly that wasn’t the case.
I was happy that I got long answers very quickly. Sort answers were harder.
19A Short spiel: ELEVATORPITCH. These get easier the more you do the thing you’re doing.
31A Unpredictable: FULLOFSURPRISES. Like the Taliban and how they took over Afghanistan so fast. You know, except if you’ve ever played the game Risk.
46A Program that a 2011 global commission officially declared a failure, 40 years after its launch: THEWARONDRUGS. Hooray for more bad policy.
3D What sunlight and wind provide: RENEWABLEENERGY. Though I had thought it had something to do with plants. Also Calah is has been having a lot of fun with succulents. Here’s to hoping she’ll share with us in blog posts every so often.
12D “Ahhhh!”: THATSTHESPOT. It really is.
Finished this one in 29:22.
| Day | This Wk | Best | Average | 4-Wk Avg | Streak |
| Monday | 6:52 | 3:49 | 9:27 | 7:31 | 70 |
| Tuesday | 10:07 | 5:22 | 13:37 | 11:44 | 13 |
| Wednesday | 7:58 | 7:38 | 17:25 | 16:26 | 11 |
| Thursday | 29:23 | 12:12 | 29:07 | 27:11 | 11 |
| Friday | 26:19 | 16:23 | 34:24 | 31:21 | 11 |
| Saturday | 29:22 | 27:43 | 34:38 | 35:35 | 11 |
| Sunday | 15:11 | 55:13 | 40:49 | 10 |