NYT Crossword 09/14/17 (Thu.)

Cruciverbalist: John Guzzetta
Editor: Will Shortz

Solving time: DNF (Too many words/trivia I knew nothing about in one place)

Puzzle uniqueness:

"Tooth" broken up by black squares in three answers with the answer DIASTEMA (which I've never heard of) being the clue. Yuk!

Words I hadn't known until now: 

DIASTEMA - "Formal term for the gap suggested by 17/16-, 35/37- and 54/57-Across"
SEEDPEARLS - "Tiny treasures from the sea"
NESSUS - "Centaur who was killed by Hercules"
NUTRIA - "Burrowiing South American rodent"

Trivia I didn't know: 

RYDELL - "'Grease' high school"
URDU - "Language of the Lahore Post"
NESSUS - (See above)
DES - "Paris's Pont ___ Arts"
ELON - "University near Greensboro"
NUTRIA - (See above)

Junk answers:

ILES - "Dots in la mer"

ASNO - "Come ____ surprise"
ACH - "German cry"
DES - "(See above)
TATA - "'Toodles!'"
EEO - "Job listing abbr."
DWI - "Cause for suspension, in brief"
SRO - "Above capacity, for short"
NFC - "Giants' group"

Clever clues: 

GET -  "What comes before a clue?"
INTROS - "They're often made at icebreakers"
NEST - "Twitter site"
ACT - "It's the law"
TAP - "Weak punch?"
MISADDS - "Does sumthing wrong?"
REVEILLE - "Rising notes?"

Obscure (i.e., really reaching) words: 

DIASTEMA - (See above)
RYDELL - (See above)
DUMONT - "Early TV network competing with NBC, ABC and CBS" (I actually knew this!)
MISADDS - (See above)
NUTRIA - (See above)