Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

This was an excellent crossword by Rena Cohen, a Washington University in St. Louis student. If the university sounds familiar, that might be because another NYTimes crossword contributor, Sid Sivakumar, also hails from there. What are the odds? And we'll leave it to the reader to contemplate whether the appearance of 77A, Sloth in 2002's "Ice Age", SID, is coincidence or the result of meticulous planning.
Today's puzzle had a brilliant theme (covered thoroughly in today's episode) and many, many amusing clues. Among the latter was the informative 57A, Discontinued iPods designed to fit into watch pockets, NANOS; the puzzle-within-a-puzzle 113D, Midwest city whose name becomes a Southwest city if you move the first letter to the end, AMES; and the source of in some cases very cheap goods, 52D, Chinese competitor of Amazon, TEMU.
Show note imagery: An example of the work of AL Hirschfeld, a highly regarded 20th century caricaturist.

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This was a fun Saturday crossword, which one of our cohosts (Jean) found to be an easy solve whereas the other (by process of elimination, Mike) found to be deucedly difficult. The reasons for both may be found on today's podcast.
A few other artfully-crafted clues that were left on the editing room floor* include 6D, ___ Carlos Jobim, father of the bossa nova, ANTONIO (careful: the music is uber-soothing); 52A, Bracket contents, TEAMS (oh, those kinds of brackets); and 39A, Artificially unsophisticated, FAUXNAIF. 
Show note imagery: ARUBA, the westernmost territory of the Netherlands
*nobody's actually edited video like this since the last century, but is still an evocative phrase
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This was a great cruciverbial workout by Kyle T. Dolan, whose crosswords tend to be on the challenging side, with 11 of his 19 NYTimes puzzles appearing on Friday or Saturday. The clues today were deviously clever, yet oddly obvious in hindsight. We have all the deets inside, plus a Fun Fact Friday™️ segment celebrating one of the great leviathans of the deep (but no, not that leviathan, the other one 😉). 
Show note imagery: From l. to r., APOLLOVII astronauts Donn Eisele, Wally Schirra, and Walter Cunningham

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Today's crossword, a collaboration between Wendy L. Brandes and Barbara Lin, had an awesome theme that both cohosts temporarily missed in distinct and rather amusing ways that we will not describe here, so as to mildly increase suspense as you wait for the episode to download. While that is happening we would also like to draw your attention to 58D, Where the coffee and Wi-Fi might both be strong, CAFE 😀; 13D, Actor John who has granted more than 650 wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, CENA 😇; and, file this under "sad but true", 34D, About a third of an N.F.L. broadcast, ADS 📺.
Show note imagery: ANTON Chekov, desperately trying to find something that rhymes with "Orchard" 😀 
Show note URL: For those of you wondering who ANTON Chekov was, checkout Checkov for beginners: recommended stories
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As the week progresses, the crossword constructors get more opportunities to add spice to the mix, and Joseph Gangi, author of today's fine puzzle (edited, as always, by the legendary Will Shortz), has been spending overtime in the kitchen, the result of which is the effervescent grid you see before you (or will see if you visit our favorite site, xwordinfo.com).
Besides our cutting-edge analysis, we also have (speaking of cutting) some listener mail regarding CUTCO. So for all of that, you are cordially invited to download, listen up, and enjoy today's episode.
Show note imagery: Georges Seurat, a man well suited to crossing those t's and (especially) dotting those i's 😀.
We love feedback! Send us a text...
Contact Info:
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!