Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A great debut crossword by Helen Chen, with 6 debut answers - that's a lot of debuting (which spellcheck assures us is a real word). Apart from the clues covered in today's podcast, we cannot help but marvel at the elegance of clues whose answers may make you pause for a moment before the connection becomes apparent:  38D, Picture, IMAGINE, 44D, It's a stretch, EXPANSE, and 52A, Suffix with second, but not third, ARY, all come to mind. Of course there were a few clue answer pairs where those connections were a little fuzzier: 7D, Mischievous fairy queen, MAB (um, OK), and 12D, Yoga asana often paired with cow, CATPOSE (if you say so).

All-in-all a splendid piece of work, we can't wait for Helen's next crossword!

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Matthew Stock, who seems to have a knack for quality crosswords, proves that assertion in today's puzzle, with an LOL theme, some fun clues and answers (2D, Jaunty words upon departing, IMOFF; 41A (which we mentioned in the podcast but just have to highlight here ), No, ____, Bob!, PROB; and 23D, Entertain, AMUSE (which this crossword does from 1A to 58D and every clue in between!). Five squares on the JAMCR scale, unreservedly!

Side note: today's episode title relates to 48D, Musician Anderson . ________, PAAK, so that period before PAAK is not a typo, but part of that fabulous musician's name.

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An educational Tuesday crossword, at least for certainly one of our dynamic duo, with the other playing the role of educator on such diverse topics as the difference between octet and OCTAD, the ABC Islands, and a CHOWCHOW. And that's just a handful of the many fun factoids that we acquired as we spelunked through today's grid, so for all the deets, download, listen up, and don't forget to take notes 😀 

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A fun Monday crossword by Leslie Young and Andrea Carla Michaels - it's hard to resist a puzzle that slips both HAIR and HARE into the grid, and hard not to laugh out loud (we failed!) at clues like 25A, Make-up specialist?, LIAR. So, 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, and for a more detailed discussion of exactly why it has achieved that exalted score, download, listen up, and discover!

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Remember all those mild threats that your parents might've used on you? Well, Katie Hale found all of them and squeezed them into today's grid (a Sunday, because phrases like DONTUSETHATTONEWITHME definitely need most if not all of those 21 square swathes). The crossword was not too difficult, but we'll take it - and give it a well-deserved 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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A tougher Saturday crossword, although eminently fair and with some great clues. Consider, par exemple (as the French would say), 14D, The most well-known one is named for a Greek hero, TENDON (nice!); 26A, Red or green lights, maybe AURORA (ooh!), and 16A, Inventor played by David Bowie in "The Prestige", TESLA (wow!). And those are just a few, we cover the truly greats in today's episode. We also give away our JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award), and ... nope, no spoilers here! If you want to know who the winners are (and whether your picks agree with ours), download, listen up, and let us know what you think - [email protected].

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A fine Friday crossword by Juliana Tringali Golden, with arguably the most interesting clue of the month, 53D, Country where almost half the world's zippers are made, JAPAN (wow!). Of course, there were many other worth pondering -- 25D, Yawl pole, MAST (say what?), 59A, Immediate threat to capture in a game of Go, ATARI (OK, if you say so), and 55A, "Platoon" but not "Dunkirk", IAMB (possibly the most NYTimes-ish crossword clue ever).  All in all a great crossword, 5 squares on the JAMCR scale for sure!

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There are Thursday crosswords, and then there are Thursday crosswords. This is one of the latter, a master class in crossword construction, with challenging cluing and a spectacular theme. We have all the deets inside, as well as a small avalanche of listener mail, so hit that big ol' subscribe / download / play button and enjoy.

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A twisty-turny theme by Michael Dewey to help celebrate our midweek crossword. No revealers here (you'll have to listen to the podcast for that), but we will tell you that both DALEEVANS and ROYROGERS managed to meander into today's grid. A few mysteries popped up in the grid -- 45D, Contents of college blue books, ESSAYS (why blue?); 46A, Lost freshness, STALED (wait, is that even a word? check out the episode to find out!); and 13D, Home of the Minotaur's Labyrinth, KNOSSOS (is that K silent?) -- which we leave for you, dear listener, to ponder. In the meantime, we cordially invite you to download, listen to, and, yes, ponder today's episode!

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The wonderful thing about crosswords is -- apart from the sheer joy of solving them (or at least trying) -- all that you can learn from them. Within the course of one 15x15 grid they can introduce you to relatively new singers; currencies that you might otherwise have never known existed; and 14th century philosophers whose name still lives on today. And today's grid, of course, does all of that. For all the deets, you are cordially invited to download, listen up, and learn!

A reminder: when listening to this podcast, if you haven't solved the puzzle (and aren't planning to), consider going to xwordinfo.com where you can see the solved grid and clues -- it  will make following our discussion that much easier. 

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

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