Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Attention, haiku lovers, your time has come! Well, almost ... there is a haiku in today's crossword, but it is just ONESYLLABLETOOLONG. Today's puzzle was a challenge: almost by definition embedded poems, quotes, etc., require you lean on the crosses, and there were a few toughies, especially 3D, "... not to mention everything that could go wrong!", ORWORSE, and the question of spelling 31A, Pepper between jalapeño and cayenne on the Scoville heat scale, SERRANO. Not a bad crossword, we give it a 4 squares on the JAMCR scale.


nd the author even threw in a single  rebus, just to up the ante. 

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It's an OPENANDSHUTCASE -- the crossword was great, with a very clever and intricate theme:  it was NOACCIDENT that the author was Hal Moore, who has had 7 crosswords accepted in the New York Times in the last 4 years, not too shabby! As is often the case, there were a few words here that rewarded frequent solvers -- 16A, Man with morals, AESOP, had just shown up a few days ago, and 12D, Ideal condition for collectors, MINT, had appeared (in a different guise) just yesterday.  On the other end of the spectrum, CANADAGEESE was a debut, having never appeared in a New York Times crossword (at least since Will Shortz became editor).

Nice work, Hal!

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Today's crossword is a MINTCONDITION Tuesday effort, with lots to like. First, it has 22D,  ______ Lee, longtime head of Marvel comics, STAN; 6D, Bigwig, NABOB (fun to say, and fun to drink); and 66A, Dubious sightings in the Himalayas, YETIS (aka official Nepalese monsters of the New York Times crossword).
For Tip Tuesday, Jean recommends diving through the archives for practice, starting with Mondays; and Mike suggests not confusing DIES IRAE, the hymn, with ISSA RAE, the her.

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Today's crossword paid  homage to the pillars of the FOODCOURT -- DAIRYQUEEN, WHITECASTLE, and BURGERKING (although Mike still wants to know why LADYOLIVEGARDEN was slighted). And that pillar reference was intentional -- both DQ and BK ran vertically, the horizontal answers tending to be shorter than is the norm.

A few recent crossword answers made repeat performances -- 61A, Tennis score after deuce, ADIN, and 66A, Lady _________, first female member of Parliament, ASTOR. But most of the clues were, as befitting a Monday crossword, fairly straightforward, to encourage newer solvers.

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In Saturday's crossword we had 35A, Implausible argument, say, STRETCH, a fine example of foreshadowing, because today's puzzle, titled Stretching Exercises, revolved around stretching various muscle groups (nice scheduling, Mr. Shortz). 

Besides the rather intricate theme -- listen to Jean's splendid explanation herein -- the Slang meter was pretty much pegged today,  between 61A, "Oh, hell yes!", ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY; 68D, Visibly scornful, SNEERY;, and 77A, Racy selfie posted for likes on social media, in modern lingo, THIRSTTRAP. But the cluing was sharp: how can you resist clues like 69D, Cold that just won't go away?, ICEAGE, or 2D, It's 50/50, ONE? The answer is, you can't! 
We give this a perfect 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, OHYEAH.

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Everywhere you look in this crossword you'll find a superb example of the clue-writer's craft. In the top-left, 13A, Rockies you won't find in Colorado?, AWAYTEAM. In the center left, 22D, Stocking stuffer, KRISKRINGLE. In the bottom center, 50D, Hardly a man without morals, AESOP, and in the top center, 20D, Real posers?, YOGIS. Clearly, Kristian House and Mike Dockins know what they're doing, and what they're doing is providing great entertainment. Nicely done, 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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A Robyn Weintraub Friday crossword, woot! Jean had to dig deeply for this one, but Mike was able to fare quite well, abetted by an almost complete dearth of cultural references — but for both it left a good AFTERTASTE. Download and listen up to get the whole story.

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The name's Burch, Jem Burch, and she turns in a gem of a crossword starring the most British of spies, Bond, James Bond. The theme involves 7 OO rebuses, forming a large number 7 that extends the height of the grid, as well as 3 actors who have played James Bond - Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. 

The clues were also extraordinarily well done. Consider as exhibit A 5D, It quits when it gets depressed, ESC (brilliant!), or 64A, Unexpected declaration at the altar, IDONT. 

We give this a rousing 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, and can't wait to see another Jem Burch puzzle! 

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Jean found today's crossword to be a SLICK, SWEETRIDE, while Mike thought it might BURY his streak in an avalanche of cultural references that were not in his wheelhouse -- including but astoundingly by no means limited to, 20A, Star of the "Deadpool" films, RYANREYNOLDS, 34A, Postmodern novelist who wrote "White Noise", DONDELILLO, and 3D, Likely inspiration for Meryl Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada", ANNAWINTOUR. Still, the crossword did have R2D2 and C3PO, so we won't complain too much.

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No, the New York Times crossword is not going to the dogs, although a skosh of them had cameos in today's puzzle. If there is indeed a New York Times crossword Clue-Hall-of-Fame, then we would like to nominate 13D, Awesome, in surfer speak, GNARLY, simply to give us an excuse to write the word GNARLY. There were several artful juxtapositions in today's grid, including 33A, Jack who pioneered late-night talk, PAAR, and 34A, Golfer's target, PAR, as well as 62A, Stinky smells, ODORS, and 66A, Oblong tomatoes, ROMAS. So, yes, we'd rate this puzzle as most definitely ... GNARLY!

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