Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

John Hawksley pulls out all the stops on this one: no theme (typical for Saturday), but some jaw-droppingly difficult clues that will leave you awed, agog, and amazed (which also sounds like a great name for a law firm 😀). We have all the deets inside, as well as this week's JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award), so for all that goodness, subscribe, download, listen up, and enjoy!

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A fabulous, fun  Friday crossword by a reliably great crossword constructor, Robin Weintraub. It has such pleasing clues as 57A, Contronym that means moving quickly or not moving at all, FAST 😀 ; 56A, Alternative to an elbow, PSST 😀 😀 ; and 29A, Take the edge off, say, ERODE 😀 😀 😀. Yes, the entire grid is just like that, sparkling clues that make you want to stand up and applaud. Bravo, Robin!

Tomorrow we'll be picking our JAMCOTWA, and if you'd like to weigh in on your favorite crossword of the week, you can vote for it right here.

For those who want to learn more about today's Fun Fact (for Fun Fact Friday), here's everything you need to know (and more!) about the SERIALCOMMA.

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It's not clear that the phrase "come for the theme, stay for the clues" has ever been applied to a crossword before -- ChatGPT denied knowledge -- but it really does apply to this one. It has an attention-grabbing theme (thanks to multiple gray and embedded-circle squares), but the clues are 😘 (the closest that we could come to a chef's kiss Emoji). We cover most of them in today's episode, so for all the deets, subscribe, download, listen up, and enjoy!

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A very pleasing crossword by Jennifer Lee and Victor Galson, who managed to sneakily embed a chyron into the grid. They also seemed to have included a mini-French theme, with 36A, "Ta-da!", ETVOILA, and 18D, Belle's counterpart, BETE. [We momentarily entertained the notion that the answer to 2D, AMI, would also fit the bill, but, alas, the clue, was "Are you telling this story or _______?".

Five squares on the JAMCR scale, and to find out why, please subscribe, download, listen up, enjoy aaaaand... tell all your friends about us so that they, too, can join in on the fun!

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You might want to have a pillow handy while working on today's crossword, so when you figure out the theme and your jaw drops, no serious injury results. Yes, the crossword is that good. For all the deets ( we do not want to spoil things here), subscribe, download, listen up, and enjoy!

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A fine Monday crossword by Eric Rollfing, with one of those memorable Monday themes that makes one ponder the incredible ingenuity of the many NYTimes Crossword constructors. There were a few sneakier clues in the grid, including 59D, Poached component of the dish shakshuka, EGG, and (especially since clued without any reference to churches ) 53D, Semicircular building recess, APSE, but fortunately the crosses were gentle.

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In honor of Pride month, the NYTimes Crossword editors have broken out the ol' color palette. They may have previously embedded color (other than gray) in the grid , but not very often - so if this is not a debut, it certainly is a rare event.

The colors were put to good use, though, in a theme that was both a celebration of Pride month and the ingenuity of the crossword constructor, Rafael Musa. Kudos on a job well done, a puzzle that definitely warrants 5 squares on the JAMCR scale!

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A superb Saturday crossword by John Westwig, challenging -- as one would expect from the putatively hardest crossword of the week! -- but fair, with a merciful (from Mike's perspective) dearth of pop culture references (44A, Actress Sink of "Stranger Things", SADIE, being one of the rare exceptions; we'll give 10A, Winner of three Emmys for Outstanding Game Show Host, SAJAK a pass, since he's been host since 1981; and don't even get us started on JUSTINIANII 😉).

Also, it is Saturday, and we've picked our JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award) - to find out who won and why, subscribe, download, listen up, and enjoy!

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A much easier crossword than Thursday's, both cohosts were able to get through it without too much difficulty - a fact which Jean attributes to a (for her) novel solving technique. To find out what that entails, we cordially invite you to subscribe / download / listen up / enjoy.

As promised, our poll -- in which you get to pick which should be the JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award) is now out, although in the interest of fairness, we heartily implore you to wait until Saturday's crossword is out before casting your final ballot.

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A tricky Thursday crossword (as Thursday crosswords are wont to be), with the sort of highly ingenious theme that suggests the Steinberg CLAN might be involved, as, gasp(!), they were. And that theme was nestled within a constellation of clever clues, a goodly portion of which are discussed in today's episode, so download, listen up, and ... enjoy!

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