Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Jean tore through today's NIFTY crossword so fast that she didn't even see the theme (as Einstein correctly predicted would happen to crossword solvers as they approached the speed of light), while Mike fell into all the TRAPS, and has a few SCARS to show for it.

In today's Tip Tuesday segment, we observe that
1. GURU ≠ Religious figure all the time
2. SPOT = AD (a lot of the time)
3. Leaving iffy squares blank, rather than hazarding a guess, makes them easier to spot as the grid fills up (and may therefore save time in the long run).

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How's it going, eh? Pretty well, especially if you were able to get today's crossword, which included many references to Canada, including mention of the most Canadian thing ever -- TIMHORTONS (a wildly successful, primarily Canadian-based restaurant chain owned by Burger King). MAPLESYRUP (available at TIMHORTONS 😀), HOCKEYNIGHT, and, um, RAIN also made an appearance.
Tomorrow is Tip Tuesday, so be sure to listen in for tips on how to hone your crossword solving skills.

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Today's crossword was quite the SCRIM, LIVENED with an ingenious theme involving shared letters  (e.g., 23A, Very short-lived gemstones, EPHEMERALDS = EPHEMERAL + EMERALDS, and 63D, Pounding on a pie topping, HAMMERINGUE = HAMMERING  + MERINGUE). You'll definite need a CUPPA or two, and possibly a long troll in the OPENAIR, to solve this one.

Remember if you want to follow along as Jean & Mike discuss today's crossword, and haven't gotten the crossword figured out for yourself, wander over to xwordinfo.com, where you can see the solution + clues.

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Jean tears through today's crossword like it's a Monday, while Mike takes a more TORTOISE-like approach, hindered by a lack of knowledge, spelling, and in some tragic cases, both. 

The clues themselves are minor works of art (see: 31D, Study pills, PLACEBOS, and 30D, Air traveler in early winter, SANTA), but even some of the juxtapositions are worthy of note -- RUSHERS next to TORTOISE, PINACOLADA next to TEETOTALER, that's craftsmanship, right there!

A terrific 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, and we hope to see more of Nam Jin Yoon's work sometime soon!

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It's a Robyn Weintraub crossword, so expect Good Things. Both Jean & Mike were temporarily THROWN off the scent, getting little traction especially in the top left and right corners. Eventually they persevered. Jean was rescued by, of all people (and we use the term loosely), BILLTHECAT and Mike, well, once again, his Achilles' heal, ADBLOCKERS, almost did him in. In a crossword with lots of terrific clues there two absolutely  fabulous ones -- 26D, Page seen in a wedding album, RINGBEARER, and 16A, Classic British rock group, STONEHENGE. We give this a 5 well-deserved squares on the JAMCR scale.

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For those of you LONGing for a good Thanksgiving Day crossword to sink your teeth into, metaphorically spelling, here you go! This wasn't a ROMP, but you didn't need to be a GURU to solve it either -- just a bit of luck, a lot of patience, and a passing acquaintance with  1970s operating systems. 😀

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Feast your eyes on this fabulous Wednesday crossword by John Guzzetta and Jeff Chen (edited, as always, by Will Shortz). It included a WRY reversing-homonym theme, and a SLEW of clever clues that were clearly written without the impediment of RYE . Jean cruised through it in record time while Mike, hobbled by his lack of knowledge of the legendary Buck ONEIL, was slower off the mark, but eventually got the job done.

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A genuinely fun and funny crossword by Caitlin Reid. Any crossword that includes the clue 19A,"An orca is actually a dolphin?!", WHALEILLBEDARNED, deserves some sort of award. We give it a perfect 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, and it's not because we're fishing for compliments 😉

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A few challenges for the spelling-challenged -- DIDGERIDOO and MATZOH, to name two -- but other than that, ITLLDO (quite WELL, in fact). It did feature Jean's favorite musketeer, ARAMIS, as well as Mike's favorite prime minister, PIERRE (48D, Justin Trudeau's father). There was also a (possibly intentional) acoustical tie-in to yesterday's crossword -- that featured  48A, Wished (BADE), whereas today's included the clue 32D, Sounded like sheep (BAAED).
Tomorrow is Tip Tuesday, and remember, if you have some tips that you'd like to share with our burgeoning listening audience, drop us a line at [email protected].

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A novel crossword, definitely not by the numbers, to round out our puzzle solving week. The theme involved adding up intersecting digits, which was a real HOOT. Jean found this slightly more difficult than usual, while Mike knew a diminishingly small number of answers at the outset. Some clues of note:
33D, Makes cloudy (BLEARS),  9D, Don's partner in the underworld, CAPO, and 97A, Zoning, so to speak (OUTOFIT).

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