Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Was this a fun crossword? YOUBETYOURLIFE -- because of that, and 2 other CLASSICGAMESHOW references that formed the theme for today's puzzle. It also had the clue 9A, Wee bit, SKOSH, which was COOL. It was pretty easy, some might say a SNAP, but based on the law of conservation of crossword difficulty (tm), the rest of the week is likely to be ATEST -- we'll report back, as always, and let you know.

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NEEDLESSTOSAY, today's crossword is not MISSIONIMPOSSIBLE; indeed, some veteran crossword solvers have maintained that it is a tad TOOEASY. But we found it to be a Goldilocks of a puzzle, just right. It had some interesting factoids -- 6D.Mnemosyne's daughters THEMUSES, and 41A, Site of Hercules' first labor, NEMEA -- as well as some amusing clues, such as 89A, Block where Sesame Street can be found, PBSKIDS, and 98D, Bar rooms?, CELLS (nice). We give it the JAMDTNYTC (that's the Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword) seal of approval, as well as 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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A FUNFETTI of a Saturday crossword, albeit with a potential natick in the top-right corner for those who do not use compasses on a daily basis -- 26A, 270°, WEST, crossing 14D, On the ________, SCENT. 

Mike enjoyed 7D, Mathematical puzzle with movable disks, TOWEROFHANOI, and Jean appreciated 49D, "The perfume of heroic deeds", to Socrates, FAME.  Both savored 38A, Zoom participants?, DRAGRACERS.

 All-in-all, a fine offering by constructor Leslie Rogers (edited, as always, by Will Shortz), we give this crossword a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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Both Jean and Mike ran into headwinds  in the top-right corner, specifically 22A, Agree(with), JIBE -- as opposed to their (independently derived at) answers, JIVE. That one errant letter crossed 13D, Seaport derived from the Arabic for "obstacle", AQABA -- quite apropos in this case! There were some delightful new(ish) clues -- 38A, Football tactic to prevent a long return, SQUIBKICK, and 52D, Matches at a table, SEES (or, as Mike continues to insist,  despite all the evidence to the contrary, SETS). 

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Happy tax day! And we're not just saying that because of 17A, City transport, redundantly, TAXICAB. Jean found today's crossword easy-ish, Mike had a MACABRE problem in the top right, done in by his unfamiliarity with apparently the most famous singer of the 20th century, in her most famous role... that would be 12D, Streisand role in Funny Girl, BRICE. HARSH!

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A "smooth solve", as they like to say in the crossword-solving-biz, with just a few potholes and lots of fun clues -- 27D, Spring recreation?, TRAMPOLINE, being the bounciest of them, and 47A, Start of a giant's chant, FEE, being -- ironically for a giant, but mandated because of the NYTimes rules about answer length -- shortest, answer.

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Neither Jean nor Mike got off to a ROCKYSTART with this crossword, ironic since all of the themed answers benefited from having, well, a ROCKYSTART. For example, 18A, Coyote outfoxed in cartoons, ROADRUNNER, maps to ROCKYROAD; 24A, "Get Out", for one, HORRORFILM, maps to ROCKYHORROR; and so on. A few old favorites dropped by -- 65A, Cookie in the shape of its first and last letters, OREO (the official cookie of the NYTimes crossword), and 50A, Mauna ______ (Hawaiian volcano), KEA (the official Hawaiian volcano of the NYTTimes crossword). It's Tip Tuesday; Jean had a tip about the Eloi, and Mike weighed in with a few musical terms.

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AWGEE, it's AWEEBIT of an INSIDEBASEBALL theme. Jean, of course was enthralled, but Mike was too busy searching for the missing G from 46D, Doin' nothin', CHILLIN, to take much notice. Fortunately he did find that missing G in the puzzle, and for all the details, have a listen!

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A punderful Sunday crossword, based on the notion of running two companies together at high speeds in the hope that they will produce something interesting ... oh, wait, we've just been told that that's what nuclear physicists do. In any event, this was a fun crossword, with clever cluing throughout, from 42D, Little sounds, INLETS, to 103A, Shot across the bow, ARROW, to 58A, Rulers' staffs, SCEPTERS, something for everybody to enjoy and/or groan at.

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One of us (that would be Jean)  found today's crossword to be a walk in the park, the other (that would be Mike) less of a SHOOIN and more like a POLARBEARPLUNGE (to borrow an answer from yesterday's crossword), his experience ably summarized in the clue, 25A, "Heavens to Murgatroyd!". 

Just a friendly reminder that if you want to subscribe to the New York Times crossword, nytimes.com/crosswords is all that you need to know; and if you want to follow along as we discuss our solutions (or lack thereof), you can see the correct solutions, and clues, at xwordinfo.com.

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