This Sunday's NYT Crossword (by Michael Lieberman) finds the gang on a cozy day with Lex in a Costco parking lot. Topics include state lines, claw machines, and vocal fry. Solving for 343 Sundays in a row! Timestamps 00:00 - Weather, rain, and microclimates in Virginia and the Bay Area01:47 - Rainy-day vibes and Costco parking lot logistics03:02 - Chuck E. Cheese money machines and Dave & Buster’s nostalgia05:32 - Why Lex is waiting out the afternoon near Costco06:26 - Mapping Batesville, Charlottesville, and Albemarle County07:14 - Crozet, Claudius Crozet, and local school geography07:39 - Lynchburg’s name, TikTok, and Virginia history08:34 - Virginia’s state shape, Delaware’s weird borders, and Rhode Island13:14 - Fall colors, airport grass, and visiting Crozet15:44 - Starting the crossword with heart transplants and wordplay18:46 - Caldera, Osiris, and other clue-solving stretches20:08 - Agita, Melee, and arcane clue construction23:22 - Pet passports, ink pads, and more crossword fills25:55 - Echidnas, egg-laying mammals, and Australia27:42 - Paper cup, paper cut, and appercu30:14 - Elicit felicity, tally up, and clue pattern recognition32:29 - Dayton, bun me, and a string of sports and language clues34:36 - Flop era, Taylor Swift joke, and teen viewing recommendations36:32 - Whistling, whistle credibility, and parenting power37:20 - Speech therapy, lisps, and the mechanics of pronunciation39:22 - Vase versus vase, and the social life of accents46:36 - Mid Atlantic accent, Troy audition, and dialect coaching49:35 - Vocal fry, celebrity examples, and learned speech styles51:38 - Cars losing color, monoculture, and flattening regional identity52:40 - AI dog videos, media trust, and getting fooled online55:07 - Rhoticism, lambdacism, and the cruel naming of speech conditions56:29 - Final crossword cleanup and Lex heading out for gas
