Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A series of lively clues made for a vastly entertaining Saturday crossword. Notables include the debut 32A, Neuropsychological trait in which one might ascribe colors to numbers or tastes to words, SYNESTHESIA (!); the thought-provoking 32D, Capricorn's symbol, SEAGOAT 🐐; and the droll 38A, Don't do it, doc!, HARM 😀 

All in all a fine Saturday, and for all the deets - as well as the always exciting selection of this week's JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Do The New York Times Crossword Of The Week Award), have a listen!

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David Distenfeld is on a role. Last month he had a Monday crossword published, and today has weighed in with a tricky Friday puzzle -- just on the right side of impossible (although as always, YMMV depending on a) how long you've been doing the crossword and b) just how much trivia/lore you've managed to stow away). In today's puzzle, the number of pop culture references were mercifully few (at least for Mike, for whom pop culture is definitely his bane).

There were many clever clues in today's grid and ... if you want to know what they are and why, you know what to do! Download, listen up, and enjoy.

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A tricky Thursday crossword - with, surprisingly, no rebus, but transformed by the unexpected appearance of the lowly comma. Jean tore through the crossword so quickly that she didn't even recognize that a theme was in play, whereas Mike had much more time to linger lovingly over the grid and savor the care that went into its creation.

For those of you wanting to go beyond just the facts, here's a reference to the EAPOE story, definitely worth a read (or three), and the origin story behind YAS, queen!

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A perfectly balanced mid-week crossword, with a clever theme, and some novel words/phrases -- 12A, Body of water between Sicily and Greece, IONIANSEA; 53D, Popular booth in New York's Times Square, TKTS; and 45D, Stand that a speaker might take, PODIUM 😀. Another plus, there were almost no naticks (notable exception: 62A, San Bernardino suburb whose name means "beautiful hill", LOMALINDA vs 60D, _____ queen!, YAS).

In short, a fine Wednesday, we give it a full and enthusiastic 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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Today's crossword is based on a suffusion of sneaky prefixes that underline the beauty, and the beautiful inconsistency, of the English language. Also, it's Tuesday, meaning it's time for yet another Triplet Tuesday segment in which Mike demonstrates his lack of, to put it succinctly, knowledge.  Deets inside, so download, listen up ,and enjoy!

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A fun, font-dependent theme makes for an interesting Monday. The font-sizes are almost microscopic, so it may be time to break out that loupe and put it to the test.

In other news, we have a Triplet Tuesday Contest Winner! Kudos and congrats to Lindsey, for having turned in a very respectable 7 (3,2,2, to be precise)!! Deets within.

Apologies for having missed our usual Saturday and Sunday episodes, apparently our "fervent desire for our podcast to go viral" was slightly misinterpreted as "please send us a fever and a virus".  All is now well, though, thanks for those of you who wrote in!

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A splendid Friday crossword by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano. Both your intrepid hosts, solving independently as always, found this to be a major struggle, with challenging but rewarding clues scattered throughout the grid. For example, 1D, Time to focus on oneself. MEDAY (not to be confused with the equally likely SPADAY -- equally likely in the sense that both have appeared 3 times in the NYTimes Crossword); 21D, Brainstorming diagram, IDEAMAP (my, we have been seeing MAP pop up a lot as of late, Will must be planning a trip 😀); 32D, Musician's mouthpiece, AGENT (cute!); 1A, Powdered green tea, MATCHA (huh!); and 4D, Farm fresh box letters, CSA.

Besides all that, we also have listener mail, which has propelled another one of our  "So That's How You Pronounce It!" segments. 

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A challenging Thursday crossword, with a great EINSTEINIAN theme, all revolving around that famous equation, EEQUALSMCSQUARED. Deets are inside, so download, have a listen, and let us know what you think.

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If you like astronomy, you'll love today's crossword: it offers up  some, um, heavenly cluing . The theme revolves (sorry) around a number of famous constellations, and the result is a very pleasing, perfect middle-of-the-week puzzle.

All the deets are inside, so download, listen up, and ... don't forget to subscribe, so you'll never miss an episode.

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A fun Tuesday crossword by Margaret Seikel, with a theme that involves (if you didn't already guess it from the title) a peace emoji. Besides our in depth analysis of this fine puzzle, today's episode also includes ... drum roll, please ... our Triplet Tuesday Contest™️. So, have a listen, join in the contest, and then let us know how you did - [email protected].

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We love listener mail! Drop us a line, [email protected].

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