Team Leaders

I stupidly entered Tommy Chong as my first guess. Haven't had my coffee, yet! Nice one!

Nice!!

Fun one. Thanks.

Really well done!

Nice one!

Really liked this one, Jay, but wow, got stuck in a rabbit hole from your 25D hint, in that ROY was right next to his surname HORNS, albeit pluralized. Had me looking up surnames for the plethora of other names in the grid, initially hoping there’d be other Horns to justify the plural. But great fun once I had backed out!

This one was great! Took me a minute to figure out that I wasn't going to find HAMMERSTEIN in the grid, but that was a small hiccup. Fun fact -- the first concert I ever saw (when I was about 5 or 6) was Sonny & Cher. Thanks for the puzzle, Jay!

Nice aha moment for me. Good Monday brain workout. Thanks, Jay!

Yep, Google is my friend. Thanks, Jay.

What fun! Thanks!

Silly me, looking for CHAMMERSTEIN in the grid...

I back solved for the G in Chong, figuring that it had to be something and Eng. Nicely done.

"OK, so Siegfried and Roy is important, oh and look ROY crosses RODGERS which is one letter off from ROGERS and ROY ROGERS is a performer! I'm all over this..." Eventually saw SONNY and [O]CHER and AMOS and [H]ANDY and course corrected. Needed Google for RODGERS and [C]HART (though once it came up it rang a bell) and for CHANG and [G]ENG, which I only got because symmetry told me which thing to Google. Several entries I didn't know in the grid, but got them all from crosses so fair enough. Overall very clever and fun, as usual. Thanks. :)

Great start to the week! Fun puzzle.

Dave’s not here, man……..

Love it! Had to Google a bit- the only pairs I knew were Adam & Eve and Sonny & Cher, but that was enough to let me know that I was clearly on the right path. The rest are new to me.

Very nice. Got a little worried about finding “Hammerstein” in the grid!! Haha! But course corrected! Nice start to the meta week!

Entered CHONG then realized you wanted the LEADER again. I spent a LOT of time looking for GLADE, certain that it was ROY AND DALE. Now here is a real, "my mistake got me the right answer"...I did not know the poet ODETTA nor the Tennis player CHANG, so I had ODETTE and CHENG. I was never going to find the G (though by that time I knew what the answer had to be, I was assured by the fact that changing one letter in the otherwise "useless CHENG" gave me CHONG (Loose Vowel anyone!). But what was the final entry, AHA ROY and AL (https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/R/Roy-Al) so take the GAL, drop the G and you get CHONG - yep and verified by CHENG....

Man talk about wrong door.

I half expected you to do DAVE and B(L)USTER, but of course as we all know, "Dave's not here man..."

Fun puzzle!

Cool, I guess I am in just the right demographic that I didn't need to ask the internet about any of the duos.

Excellent!

Either him or Chong! This was clever.. thanks Jay/Bird!

Also - the placement of ADAM, RODGERS, and AMOS solved this quickly for me, though like others I puzzled over finding Hammerstein for a bit; that was the only one i needed googs for.

I got it from HONG, didn’t know about Rodgers and Hart. But I did know Chang and eng and that stuck out because wtf GENG? so I didn’t need to google. Dave is still not here, man.

I have to admit that I am waiting for the Wednesday nudges (and maybe the final reveal) to see how my correct answer was the right one. I am not so good at finding some of the steps. Here is what I had: Adam and Eve gives E Sonny and Cher gives C Rodgers and Hammerstein (or Hart) gives H Chang and Eng gives E Amos and Andy gives A So now I have ECHEA and I guessed Cheech Marin (having listened to Cheech and Chong in high school) and it was correct. Looking forward to seeing the REAL relationships between words.