Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Something to sing about on this, the first day of 2023 - a great crossword by a trio of constructors - Adam Wagner, Michael Lieberman and Rafael Musa - with a brilliant theme. Specifically, it offers two clues for the themed answer, one in the usual place and t'other in a surprising location that will remain a secret until you've listened to this podcast, which we hope you do ... right now.

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In celebration of the new year, we have a jam-packed episode. First, we have our usual meticulous dissection of today's puzzle; then, the big reveal for the JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award); next, a first, our predictions for the new year in NYTimes Crosswords; a return of "Oh, That's How You Pronounce It!", and last but not least, listener-mail. So please subscribe / download / listen, and we wish all of you all the best for 2023!

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Brendan Emmett Quigley has crafted an elegantly enjoyable Friday crossword -- clues that are brilliant (54A, One who is mean as the Dickens?, SCROOGE), enlightening (15A, Whom the New York Times co-named athlete of the year, with Babe Ruth, in 1920), MANOWAR, and impossible to spell (21A, Missed-the-turn maneuver, UEY). We liked this crossword ATON, THATSFORSURE; and to find out precisely why, just tap Subscribe / Download / Play / Enjoy (um, if you do find the Enjoy button, do let us know 😀)

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A fine crossword by Claire Rimkus and Rachel Fabi, with a brilliant theme that left us eLATEd, and a few words and phrases to add to the ol' lexicon, including:

• 64D, Body part affected by heterochromia, EYE (for the record, we knew EYE; it was heterochromia that we were unacquainted with)
• 40D, Euphemism for a lesbian couple, GALPALS
• 15D, "I really appreciate it!," in textspeak, TYVM

And for the full 411 on today's crossword, you know the drill: subscribe (always optional, but this way you'll always have the latest and greatest ready to listen to), download  (pretty much a requirement if you want to do the next bit), listen up, and enjoy (guaranteed or your money cheerfully refunded 😀)

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An homage to female ROCKANDROLL artists  who have been inducted twice into the HALLOFFAME -- once with collaborators, and once as a solo act. Several other musicians managed to slip into the grid: to find out who they are, as well as some other absolutely fascinating TIL (Today I Learned) areas of the grid, all you need do is subscribe, download, listen and learn!

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Lynn Lempel had her first NYTimes crossword published in 1979, and this was her 99th! According to xwordinfo.com, which tracks these sorts of things, most of her crosswords appear on Monday (71), with most of the rest (16) appearing on Tuesday. Jean found today's crossword to be fairly straightforward: Mike found it a bit of a challenge, especially in the vicinity of 9D, White wine named for the European river valley where it's produced, MOSELLE, as the only thing he is less familiar with than white wine is European river valleys. For the full 411, we humbly invite you to subscribe, download, listen up and enjoy.

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Once again, like CLOCKWORK, the NYTimes has come up with a fine Monday crossword to start our problem-solving week. Apart from a few snags - 1A, Floating ice chunk, BERG (not FLOE); 33A, College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, COE (not UNI);   30D, Bitter part of an orange, PITH (not PEEL or RIND) ; and 61D, A rainbow may be seen as a good one, SIGN (not OMEN) - the crossword was fine: and come to think of it, even with those snags it was fine -- a full 5 squares on the JAMCR scale!

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A challenging but fair Christmas Eve crossword, with 2 full width, and 2 full height answers that were reasonably familiar, although the clues that led to those answers suitably cryptic (e.g., 57A, Symphony originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, BEETHOVENSTHIRD, and 2D, Revenue source for a Girl Scout troop, DOORTODOORSALES). Jean tore through the grid in under 1/3 the time it took Mike, who ran into a morass in the bottom center. All the sordid details, as well as our choice for JAMCOTWA are in today's episode, so between wrapping and unwrapping presents (for whatever holiday you celebrate - Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza or none of the above), take some time out to have a listen!

Note that we will not be publishing a podcast tomorrow, but we will be back, rested and ready for action, on Monday!

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A fine Friday oeuvre by Brandon Koppy, and a timely one too, esp.  11D, Follower of an arctic blast, COLDSPELL,  4D, Character in "Frozen" who says "Some people are worth melting for", OLAF, and when things get really nasty outside, 51D, Relief org., FEMA. We also have a very cool Fun Fact Friday segment, so gather your favorite hot beverage and then subscribe, download, listen up, learn and enjoy!

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A dizzying, dazzling, delightful Thursday crossword by David Steinberg that has to be seen to be believed -- and even then you might not! Clearly DS is in a league of his own when it comes to crossword construction, we are in awe, as in, aww, that was great! Can we have an encore? 😀 

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

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