Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Hopefully the author of today's terrific. crossword, Daniel Larsen, was  paid by the letter, because there were a very small number of black squares in today's grid , which featured 7 clues that ran the entire width of the puzzle, and 1 that ran the entire height. At first blush, then, the crossword looked daunting - a sea of white squares - but fortunately (some of) the crosses were merciful. For instance, 46D, Two-legged stand, BIPOD, and 50D, Police dept. alerts, APBS, would be familiar to anyone who has been solving the New York Times crossword for a while. Some of the more novel clues included 41D, Trump is named in it, EUCHRE (nice indirection, there!),  the keen observation 37A, Many national anthems, WARSONGS, and the amusing 44A, Something you're not likely to fork out?, SOUP 😀.

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Jean cruised through today's crossword while simultaneously baking cookies, while Mike, unencumbered by food preparation tasks of any sort, took 3x as long to get the job done: we will let you draw your own conclusions about this.

Construction-wise, the crossword was a real tour-de-force, with themed answers tracing out the shape of a fish hook, while the letters in the hook themselves formed the names of various fish. Amazing! [If you haven't solved the crossword, stroll over to xwordinfo.com to see the solved puzzle and admire the constructor's handiwork.]

We have no choice then, in the face of such cruciverbal-magnificence, to give this puzzle an enthusiastic 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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There was a lot of misdirection in today's crossword, but that's by design, because the theme was, in fact, a series of movies in which the directions were flipped - 19A, Jim Sheridan gives Daniel Day Lewis nothing to work with in this Irish dramedy (1989), MYRIGHTFOOT, 25A, Rian Johnson helms this snoozer of a whodunit starring Daniel Craig (2019), KNIVESIN, etc. There were some nice clues -- 1D, Item needed for burning, once, BLANKCD, being the standout. and 53D, Monk known as the "Father of English History", STBEDE, not, as Mike originally postulated, THELONIOUS. We give this a 4.5 squares on the JAMCR scale, deducting points for unnecessary naticking (21A x 2D and 10D x 23A), and questionable use of an abbreviation in 63A, Nonkosher sandwich, BLT.

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Apparently the use of "dog" as slang for foot hearkens back to at least 1913, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Mike discovered it 108 years later, during today's podcast, so ... better late than never. 

In other parts of the grid, Apple tech once again makes an appearance ( 7D, iPad ________ , MINI), and U-Haul also pops up (a much rarer event), in the clever clue  26D, Rental with 10-, 15-, 17-, 20- and 26-foot sizes, UHAUL.

It's Triplet Tuesday, and in today's exciting episode ... oops, no spoilers, you'll have to download and listen up to find out what happens!

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Hold the (homo)phone, it turns out there are a multitude of ways to pronounce WAY -- WHEY, as in 20A, Food for Little Miss Muffet, CURDSANDWHEY, WEI, as in 31A, Chinese dissident artist, AIWEIWEI, WEIGH, as in that toe-tapper from the US Navy, 36A, U. S. Naval Academy anthem, ANCHORSAWEIGH, and finally WAY, from the second greatest musical hook of all time, 54A, Breakup song by Fleetwood Mac, GOYOUROWNWAY. [And for details of the greatest musical hook of all time, just download and listen up.]

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How's it going, eh? And if that question resonated, then you might be in a good position to tackle today's crossword, which celebrated all things Canadian. For example ... 19D, Program introduced by the Trudeau government in 1984, colloquially, FREEHEALTHCARE,  104A, Six-time winner of the N.H.L.'s Art Ross Trophy, born in Saskatchewan, GORDIEHOWE, and 16D, Seasonal destination near Quebec City, WINTERICEHOTEL. All of this led to the witty revealer, 76A, Like all the answers with pairs of circled letters, punnnily, MEHDEINCANADA. Très amusant!

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A gentler Saturday crossword, because not all Saturday's have to be Thanos-like (and it's only a matter of time before that Marvel villain makes it into the New York Times crossword, you heard it here first 😀). There were some "today-I-learned" moments scattered throughout the grid, such as 13D, What those with protanomaly have difficulty seeing, RED,  22A, Prefix with -graph, TRI, and 31D, Fruit that's a major Chinese export, PERSIMMON. Mike's favorite clue was, 37D, Obelix's friend in comics, ASTERIX -- the hero in a great series of comics from the great Goscinny and Uderzo, highly recommended!

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An excellent Friday crossword, lots of ingenious and crisply crafted clues. Exhibit A, 39D, Long divisions?, AISLES, and 52A, They may have lots of steps, STAIRWELLS (a nice bit of indirection). Today's puzzle was also, as all good crosswords are, a learning experience: 5A, First country to discover water on the moon, INDIA; 11D, Many a farmer's market attendee, LOCAVORE (wow!); and 30A, "Rabbits" in a race, PACESETTERS, which forms the basis of today's Fun Fact Friday segment.

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Today's crossword includes a novel, or at least very rare, theme, in which the clues lead to answers that similar to common phrases, except the "air" sound in the last word has been replaced with an "or" sound. For instance (because this definitely needs an example), 17A, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael?, RENAISSANCEFOUR (as opposed to RENAISSANCEFAIR).

Jean was temporarily slowed down by 61A, Legendary queen once depicted on Tunisian currency, DIDO, initially writing (perhaps with yesterday's crossword stuck in her head), AIDA, instead. Mike was temporarily stumped by 41A, Professor Moriarty's first name, JAMES --wondering if Moriarty even had a first name -- because in the Sherlock Holmes stories that he could recollect, Holmes seemed to always calling Moriarty ("the most dangerous man in England") by his last name. 

Regardless, this was a fine puzzle, and we give it a perfect 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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You might want to be sitting down for this podcast ... but if you're not, fear not, because the crossword theme is, basically, things that you can sit upon, (BACKSEATDRIVER, COUCHPOTATO, etc.). There were not a lot of verbal fireworks in today's grid, although it did have 24A, Glistens with shimmering colors, IRIDESCES (from a Greek word meaning you'll never be able to spell this);  21D, De-tailed detail?, SPEC, deserves mention, and the crossing of 27D, Nobel prize winner of 1903 and 1911, CURIE, with 46A, Best Comeback Athlete, for one, ESPYAWARD was also intriguing.

There was also some Millenial-ese, 54D, "I'm just like that" in modern lingo -- check out this Inc article for more examples.

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