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Welcome to Jean and Mike to the New York Times Crossword.
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And today we are doing the Crossword for Tuesday, March 10th, 2026.
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So on this day that has nothing really special about it,
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other than the fact that it's Tuesday, March 10th, as we already mentioned.
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How did you find today's Crossword?
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It was really different theme-wise.
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Because the themed answers were all vertical.
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That you have the verticals, the downs, the themed.
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It was by Daniel Bodily who was done 16 crosswords the New York Times since 2022.
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And he tends to specialize in Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday crosswords.
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Well, this was, I think, a pretty typical Tuesday.
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It had, like I said, it had a fun theme.
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But there were some clues there that I wasn't like, oh, yeah, it's that.
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I didn't get them right off the bat.
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Okay, I'm going to try and predict one of those.
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That was capital of North Macedonia, stop chi.
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No, I did not know about that.
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Let me try another one.
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I knew, I know you got 58 across, apt anagram of brush, shrub.
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I'm sure you got that one.
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What about 23 across?
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Something I can stand for.
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Yeah, I did not get that.
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Yeah, I didn't get it.
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I solved the crossword, but I didn't understand it until just now.
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Something I can stand for.
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Yeah, I just immediately went for the pronoun.
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I just had a little trouble with 236 across.
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Eight pointer in Scrabble.
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Yeah, I've never seen anything that ends in tile like that.
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But I guess it is a J tile.
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And that crossed with eight down, one playing 45s informally, radio DJ.
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And I was trying to decide, did they still do that?
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I mean, they can't be as common.
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I think there might be some niche markets where they do, but.
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That's sort of interesting.
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They wear masks at home.
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Good place to start.
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And did you, let's see, I'm going to predict that you did get two down immediately.
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See, I looked at that and thought it was like the end of a movie.
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Because it was Bollywood.
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So, but then I had the S of USB K, uh, one across blind dash the cable.
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So I was able to get to Siri pretty quickly.
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So, yeah, why don't we talk about the theme?
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Well, as I said, all of the theme clues went vertically.
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They were down clues.
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And, um, I will, I will go through them quickly and see if you can see the theme.
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Uh, three down was focus of gonday protest.
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And that was a British Raj.
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And then we had, um, 32 down.
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All time best selling female rapper worldwide was Nikki Minaj.
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And then we had eight down radio DJ, as you mentioned before.
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They also had, um, 17 down, Mediterranean dish whose name can be translated as pampered daddy.
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And that was Boba Ganou.
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Uh, and then we also had, uh, 45 down, which was drink that's just been squeezed, say.
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And that was fresh OJ.
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And if you haven't figured out what they all have in common is they all end in J.
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And then we had a radio DJ, fresh OJ, Nikki Minaj and Baba Ganou.
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And the revealer clue was funny, it was the very last one.
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Three letters, Bronx, Bronx, Born Star to fans or a fanatic to the theme clues.
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And that was J. Low.
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So all the J's were quite low.
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So, um, at any, at any point during the solving experience, did you find yourself saying 18
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Haven't the foggiest?
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Well, you know, when I started and I got like, I think it was 49 across was, um, well, not quite open.
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It was completely closed.
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And that J came at the end and I'm like, oh, that can't be right.
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But what else would it be?
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You know, what would it, and then I, and then I kept seeing more J's and I'm like, oh, well,
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maybe there's a thing here.
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But yeah, I was a little concerned when I saw that J at the, at the end of a very long
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down clue, which turned out to be British Raj.
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So, uh, so yeah, that was, that was a little bit of a puzzlement.
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But, uh, but yeah, eventually I sort of got the hang of it and said, oh, yeah, there's
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a lot of clues or answers like that.
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Biseis Habanera for one.
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Did you get that one right away?
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Yeah, I don't think I did either.
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Although, I might have gotten it pretty quickly because.
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Well, I didn't have the A because I didn't have that.
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That one took me a while.
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So no, I didn't know that.
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I mean, I like the fact that we had 26 across.
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That was conductor stick baton.
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And then we had 71 across.
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That was dangerous sort of stick TNT.
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Sort of sticky something in there.
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And we had, let's see, 28 down.
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I thought this was, this was curious.
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Razor scooters and Rubik's cubes wants fads.
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Ever been on a razor scooter?
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I hear they're very thin and very sharp.
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And to gather, they're still made.
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Well, we had that word that, that kind of, we were discussing, I think, was it just last
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week, 44 across, wolf down, snarf.
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Because I wanted to put, but I'm like, oh, no, it's snarf.
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I think I actually guessed right on this one, which was surprising, because usually I do just
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Is that her to pronounce vermus?
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Because there's only one, oh.
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Yeah, I guess maybe.
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We always say the most.
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Yeah, but it's Spanish.
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It's almost, almost.
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So what does that mean?
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It's like, let's go, macho person or mustache.
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No, it just means that we go.
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So who's the machacho there?
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That would be, um, was it machacho?
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It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, let's go mustache, which is what I was.
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We had, um, 59 down, ignominious failure.
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I just like to say ignominious.
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It usually takes me two or three tries.
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As soon as you should know, I've been practicing this for days.
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Well, speaking of ignominious failures.
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Which means it's time for triplets Tuesday.
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Is that like an almond or something of what's to come?
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I'm asking you the questions today.
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It will be a, a noble success.
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But next week, you'll be an ignominious failure.
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So for new listeners, uh, triplets Tuesday is that segment where one of us reads the
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three clues to the other.
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The answer to all three clues is one three letter answer.
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The object is to guess that answer in as few clues as possible.
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We do it three times, hence the name triplet Tuesday.
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You are invited to play along.
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As soon as I've asked the clue hit pause and see if you can figure it out before Jean does.
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And let us know you did.
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Your first clue, hum follower.
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Is that HUM follower?
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I can think of lots of things that come before them, but...
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Yes, with a question mark after it.
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And your third clue would have been Geese Formation.
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All right, well done.
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Your next set of clues.
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Listeners, hope you're still with us.
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Pachinko author, blank Jin Lee.
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I haven't read that.
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And your third clue would have been 66 S-E-C-S.
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You are doing great.
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Last set of clues here.
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Subtinent of Noam Chomsky's American Power and the New Mandarins.
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Let's name it again.
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American Power and the New Mandarins.
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Noam Chomsky, you remember him.
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I have no idea who that person is.
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And he has written that I haven't read that.
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Uh, your second clue?
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60s as in like 1960s.
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It's actually a dream as apostrophe 60s.
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So, probably the 1960s could be the 1860s?
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Could be the 1460s?
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I am not at liberty to say.
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It's just apostrophe 60s.
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Warzone for Rambo, informally.
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All right, hang on.
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We have to talk to the judges.
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I was worried that you'd see through that.
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And think of it as.
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I wasn't even thinking about war.
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Ironically, we were discussing this earlier today, so.
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You got all three of them.
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Well, no, you did fight.
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I mean, the third one was particularly.
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I was worried that you would know Noam Chomsky's book.
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Well, I, like I said, I know him.
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And I've read things he's written, but not that book.
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Well, we'll chalk that out as a win.
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And listeners, how did you do?
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Let us know crossword podcast at iCloud.com.
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That is it for today.
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We will be back again with our in-depth.
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Cutting it to analysis of tomorrow's crossword.