Crossword: 9:54
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I thought I'd fly through the puzzle today. I filled in the top-left corner, inferred the theme and dropped in the first themer in 20 seconds. But I finished well over a good time for a Monday.

Anyway, welcome to my blog. I've been meaning to write more essentially my whole life, and I decided to make a resolution to do some every day. I've got some unbottling to do, so the first month may be denser than others, but we'll see how long I can keep it up. At the very least, I'll post my (New York Times) crossword stats. First up, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I'm not sure how much of a Star Wars fanatic I really am. I was born in 1977, the year it was released. While I have a reasonable memory of waiting in a block-long line for Return of the Jedi at age 5. I doubt I was in attendance for the earlier films, or would remember them if I was. Yet everyone was into it. My kindergarten class of other xillenials made up lyrics to the John Williams theme (well, it was just the names of the three films sung out loud). I knew Vader was Luke's father, I had some action figures and a second-hand Millennium Falcon. So I guess I was a fan.

I read a lot as a kid. There was no Harry Potter for my generation, but Susan Copper wrote a great series of YA fantasy books (the first one is called "Over Sea, Under Stone"). And Lord of the Rings changed everything. Nintendo changed everything too, and the two combined cemented my identity as a nerd (Magic came much later). I've met people who say they don't watch Star Wars because they dont like sci-fi. But Star Wars isn't science fiction, it's fantasy. There's wizardry, magical creatures, sword fights; the fact that it takes place in space is secondary. The Death Star might as well be a dragon destroying villages. As a nerd, loving Star Wars is kind of imperative, and I need to keep my street cred up. It's kind of an arranged marriage, but the bride is hot with a great personality.

But this was supposed to be about The Last Jedi, wasn't it? It was good. You should go see it.