YADSRUHT

Yeah, I know the letters in the middle of YADSRUHT aren't reversible, but Daniel Bryant's mirrored theme in the NYT was so cool, I had to type backwards anyway. Nice non-theme fill, too, with I ROBOT, MAHIMAHI, GAWAIN, and BOZOS. I have two questions. First, are there any Shakespeare scholars out there who can tell me where TUWHITTUWHO came from? Second, am I the only one who really wanted to fill the blank in "It's ___ time!" with GO or HAMMER?

The NYS by Josh Strayhorn (is he new?) made me work as long as I do on a Saturday NYT. I spent too much time contemplating the theme entries and trying to figure them out in the midst of solving, and really should have focused on the down clues instead. The two bottom theme entries sandwiching EL MONTE, which I'd never heard of, killed me. And then there was the "desired gift in 'A Christmas Story'"—I managed to put O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" in my head, and dagnabbit, there was no BB GUN in that story. Tack on tricky clues like "crush" for HORDE, and it all adds up to a crushing Saturday-level time. It was a good pain, though...

Updated:

In Mel Rosen's CrosSynergy puzzle, CAROB is clued, as it so often is, as "chocolate substitute." As if! The Cruciverb database shows a couple uses of a much more accurate clue: "chocoholic's bane."

NYS 8:30
NYT 5:11
LAT 3:32
CS 3:15