Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

In August we had a fabulous crossword honoring "the Man of 1000 Voices", Mel Blanc, and ... he's back, this time in the grid, and in celebration of what might be the greatest animated toon duo of all time, starring in gags that never get old.

Deets inside, as well as our latest JAMCOTWA™️ (Jean And Mike Do The New York Times Crossword) winner. Enjoy!

Show note imagery: GINZA, in all its glory.

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This was definitely a Saturday-caliber crossword, where Will & company pull out pretty much all the stops. On no other day of the week will you see entertaining, educational, and definitely challenging clues like 16A, Italian pianist who composed the scores for "Nomadland" and "The Father", LUDOVICOEINAUDI (yikes!); or 40A, Origin of "The Tale of Genji," considered by many to be the world's first novel, JAPAN (huh); or the amusing 25A, The 21,728th page of 1989's 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, END (what else?).😀 

This was a debut for Alex Jiang, and we await, with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation, his next puzzle.

Show note imagery: The Tale of Genji, dubbed the world's first novel

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This was a very nice Friday crossword -- not soul-crushingly difficult, but with enough razzle-dazzle (see yesterday's episode 😀) to really lift the spirits. We have the deets inside, as well as a fascinating Fun Fact Friday™️ examination of one of history's most famous eggs.

Show note imagery: PIMA cotton, accept no substitutes!

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This was a fun crossword by Gia Bosko, with a theme that Jean immediately sussed out, and Mike only discovered after he finished the crossword. That remarkable and dare we say it (yes, we do!) amusing story is just one of several you'll hear in today's episode; so, please, hit download / subscribe / play, and then ... enjoy!

Show note imagery: An old fashioned WALKIETALKIE, which became much more useful once they figured out a way to ditch the cord 😀 😀 

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While Wednesday's child might be full of woe, we prefer our Wednesday clues to be full of woah! 😀 And that's exactly what we got in today's crossword: a sizable number of clues whose answers did not immediately leap to mind. They did, eventually, thanks to serendipity and some gentler crosses.

Kudos and thanks to today's debut cruciverbalists, Cole Vandenberg and Hadith Ragunathan: well done!

Show note imagery: An OSIER, waiting patiently, as only a tree can, for somebody to mention it in the NYTimes crossword 😀

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This crossword quickly skyrocketed from "nice cluing, not bad" to "unbelievably awesome!!", thanks to one vital clue. We'll leave you in suspense as to what that clue is -- until you listen to the episode, of course -- but we feel quite certain that you'll agree with our assessment. [Either way, let us know via the usual channels.]

Show note imagery: The extraordinary OLETA Adams

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Monday's are engineered to entice and intrigue newer solvers, and today's crossword, by Margaret Seikel, does so admirably. There were a few clues that gave us pause: 47D, Attaches, ADDSON (not ADHERES, which, among other problems, would not fit); 43D, Georgia politico Stacey _______, ABRAMS, eventually came to mind (she has definitely not been prominent in the news as of late); and we were especially surprised by 42A, Flower symbolizing early love, LILAC. Now we know!

Show note imagery: US Patent 4,530,631, for the POPTAB

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It is not always the case that a theme gives us the case of the giggles, but Derrick Niederman's crossword provided us with a plethora of LOL moments. It is definitely in the running for next week's JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword of The Week Award). This week's JAMCOTWA was a slam dunk; check out today's episode to see if our pick was also your favorite.

Finally, we have a spot of listener mail, so do have a listen, and, as always, please tell all your friends and relations to do the same.

Show note imagery: A LEITMOTIF, the theme from "Jaws"

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The difficulty level's been dialed up to 11, so if you did not get through today's puzzle ... it's not you, it's Kunal Nagar (abetted in this criminally awesome crossword by Will Shortz). Every single clue had something to commend it, and pretty much every single answer required your cohosts, working independently as always, to work for it. This is definitely worth a joyous 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

Show note imagery: OCTAVIAEBUTLER, an extraordinary science fiction writer, winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards (among many others)

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This was an awesome debut by Bryan Cheong, who is, astonishingly, only 14 years old. You would not know it from the crossword, though: the clues are sharp and the fill as crisp as can be. Definitely 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, and we are on the edge of our seats waiting for Bryan's second crossword.

In honor of the day (Friday), we also have a Fun Fact Friday™️ segment, about Phoebe Ann Mosey; and if you don't recognize that name, faer not, you'll assuredly recognize her stage name, which we cover, along with much more, in today's segment.

Show note imagery: Traditional parts of a Japanese tea room, including a SHOJI.

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

Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!