I pulled out 35D Most common answer in New York Times crosswords (more than 6% of all puzzles): ERA because I was convinced that the answer was ETA, even 42A Info for an airport limo driver: ETA was an answer already. I’ve felt it’s just the amount of sloppiness to expect from the NYTXW. But it turned out to be ERA instead. It robbed me of about a minute, but I’m kinda relieved that it wasn’t a duplicate answer.
Theme!
17A Game that has only a single round: RUSSIANROULETTE.
23A Single item seemingly always found at the bottom of a McDonald’s bag: FRENCHFRY.
49A Entrance divided in half horizontally: DUTCHDOOR.
58A Board game played on a big hexagram: CHINESECHECKERS. SETTLERSOFCATAN also fits. Terrible game, though.
37A Portmanteau coinage describing this puzzle’s theme: ALLITERNATION. I now understand the theme. It’s alliteration with names of countries. Not terrible.
Finished this one in 9:11.
| Day | This Wk | Best | Average | 4-Wk Avg | Streak |
| Monday | 4:41 | 3:49 | 9:23 | 5:15 | 78 |
| Tuesday | 9:11 | 5:22 | 13:13 | 10:48 | 2 |
| Wednesday | 7:38 | 17:04 | 14:53 | 18 | |
| Thursday | 12:12 | 28:38 | 30:32 | 4 | |
| Friday | 10:29 | 31:21 | 19:42 | 18 | |
| Saturday | 20:12 | 33:30 | 32:27 | 18 | |
| Sunday | 15:11 | 53:28 | 43:22 | 5 |