Joseph Knecht

  Jam Session ... ... brought to you  live from the Apollo in 1993 by B.B. King , Jeff Beck , Eric Clapton , Albert Collins and Buddy Guy .   Lucille never sounded sweeter! Today's puzzle was brought to us by Bill Bipal   and Jeff Chen , a mentor to many fledgling constructors .   Bill is making his LA Times debut, and the big news is that Jeff is retiring from his position as a commenter to the indispensable NYT xwordinfo blog .  Jim Horne , creator and editor of that site informs us emphatically that he won't miss Jeff Chen ! I know a lot of solvers don't like it when clues cross reference other clues, especially when they reference themers .  But that is also a big giveaway that they are probably pointing to the reveal . If you perp down on that fill you can often get yourself out of a sticky situation.  At least in this case ... 17A. See 54-Across: GRAPE JELL...

    I Got You On Tape! Spinning for the Cause ( lyrics ) Amie Walker is making her 17th appearance on the Corner, the first on June 17, 2022 reviewed by Lemonade .  Today she is spinning 3 fragments of theme fill each spanning 2 lines and unified by circles, just like last Thursday.  As there are a total of 6 clues with theme elements I'll just leave them where they are and start with the reveal followed by the grid ... 56A. "I can prove you're lying!," and an instruction for reading each set of circled letters: ROLL THE TAPE .  Without the circles it would be pretty difficult to figure out what's happening (Hand up if you can think of an alternate reveal without them).  OTOH , it's now pretty obvious what's going on.  If I didn't know better I'd think that Amie had lifted the theme from the title of the splash screen song Spinning for the Cause, by our house band I Got You On Tape .  "Spinning" is of course the occupation of professi...

    That's Entertainment!   lyrics  Today constructor Jeff Stillman steps into the spotlight for his 51st appearance on the Corner, and entertains us with a bit of slight-of-hand.  The rare solver, who will remain anonymous, may be disappointed that Jeff conceals his tricks in ( horrors! ) , circles.  But I think the former's time for today's puzzle would not have been as lightning fast (as I'm sure it was) without them.  The rest us, incapable of solving 3 dimensional crossword puzzles in our heads, would probably have been AT SEA . Since each of the three themers consist of single letters spread across two consecutive lines and 4 consecutive columns we'll start with the grid ... And here's Jeff's reveal ... 64A. Hollywood honors since 1995, and what the circled letters are?: SAG AWARDS .  The honors he is referring two are those of the Screen Actors Guild A...