Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Today's crossword is based on a suffusion of sneaky prefixes that underline the beauty, and the beautiful inconsistency, of the English language. Also, it's Tuesday, meaning it's time for yet another Triplet Tuesday segment in which Mike demonstrates his lack of, to put it succinctly, knowledge.  Deets inside, so download, listen up ,and enjoy! We love feedback! Send us a text... Co...

A fun, font-dependent theme makes for an interesting Monday. The font-sizes are almost microscopic, so it may be time to break out that loupe and put it to the test. In other news, we have a Triplet Tuesday Contest Winner! Kudos and congrats to Lindsey, for having turned in a very respectable 7 (3,2,2, to be precise)!! Deets within. Apologies for having missed our usual Saturday and Sunday episode...

A splendid Friday crossword by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano. Both your intrepid hosts, solving independently as always, found this to be a major struggle, with challenging but rewarding clues scattered throughout the grid. For example, 1D, Time to focus on oneself. MEDAY (not to be confused with the equally likely SPADAY -- equally likely in the sense that both have appeared 3 times in the NYTimes...

A challenging Thursday crossword , with a great EINSTEINIAN theme, all revolving around that famous equation, EEQUALSMCSQUARED. Deets are inside, so download, have a listen, and let us know what you think. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com. Also, we're on FaceBook , so feel free to drop by there and strike up a...

If you like astronomy, you'll love today's crossword : it offers up  some, um, heavenly cluing . The theme revolves (sorry) around a number of famous constellations, and the result is a very pleasing, perfect middle-of-the-week puzzle. All the deets are inside, so download, listen up, and ... don't forget to subscribe, so you'll never miss an episode. We love feedback! Send us...

A fun Tuesday crossword by Margaret Seikel, with a theme that involves (if you didn't already guess it from the title) a peace emoji. Besides our in depth analysis of this fine puzzle, today's episode also includes ... drum roll, please ... our Triplet Tuesday Contest™️. So, have a listen, join in the contest, and then let us know how you did - crosswordpodcast@icloud.com. We love feedba...

A debut crossword by Catherine Cetta, and a fine one it is, with a theme that'll make you want to smile, and fairly gentle cluing (as one would expect for a Monday). There were a few exceptions, including several clues that are on the rarer side, including 3D, Picture frames, usually, RECTANGLES (makes sense);  16A, Thomas Jefferson's religious belief, DEISM, and 17A, Shared a video call...

A great Sunday crossword by Will Nediger, with a brilliant theme surrounded by an equally brilliant cast of supporting clues and answers. Will is a professional crossword constructor, and based on today's delightful puzzle we can see exactly why people would be willing to pay him for his art. Deets inside, so download, listen up, and enjoy! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We...

A remarkable Saturday crossword, not so much because of the clues - they were fabulous, as you would expect based on the NYTimes incredibly strict quality control - but because of the grid, a virtual ocean of white with almost no black squares. Making a crossword with such an open grid is no mean feat, but Carter Cobb's cracked the code, as we detail in today's episode. So, have a listen...

A crossword so good that adjectives fail us -- but we still have  nouns, verbs, and alliterations at our disposal to heap praise as the author  fires a furious fusillade of fabulous, funny clues. This is truly a masterclass in great crossword construction. The author, Jacob McDermott, has "only" had 5 crosswords published in the NYTimes, but this one ought to count for 50. In short, we a...

A very challenging Thursday crossword by a veteran NYTimes cruciverbalist, aka David J. Kahn. Jean managed to get through it in close to her usual time, hardly breaking a 25D, Drops in the gym?, SWEAT; Mike did eventually solve the puzzle, but was  surprised  when he finally stumbled upon the final, vital correct answer in the SE corner, never a good sign. For those of you who want to check out to...

A slightly sticky Wednesday crossword, possibly because of all the  alcoholic products, many of them SECO, that have dripped into today's grid - CUPS of beer, KIR, RIOJA, and even DEW. We have the deets inside, so download, listen up and enjoy! Also, we wish to highlight that we'll be having YATTC (Yet Another Triplet Tuesday Contest), this coming Tuesday (or Noodle's Grand Opening...

Today's crossword, by Lucido ... Aimee Lucido, is an homage of sorts to one of the most famous fictional British spies of all time. We can't reveal his name here (he's a spy, after all), so if you want to find out who, and what was being, um, homaging, check out today's episode, which also includes another fabulous edition of Triplet Tuesday™️. Our favorite website, xwordinfo.c...

A crossword that's 99 44/100% pure, and if that phrase doesn't resonate, then you, most definitely, need to listen to today's podcast, at which point all will become clean, um, we mean clear 😀 Tomorrow is Triplet Tuesday, so if you're interested in seeing if you can do better than your co-hosts, have a listen, and let us know how you fared! Remember, the New York Times Crosswo...

This crossword is really -- to borrow from 54A, Baseball slang for home run -- a TATER (our favorite new word for something fabulous). What elevates this NYTimes Crossword from merely brilliant to something stratospherically stunning is the theme: but the surrounding cast of characters, aka the non-themed clues, are themselves terrific . Definitely 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, and to find out exa...

Crosswords have moods - some make you laugh; some (especially the insanely hard ones)  make you want to cry; this one was just infectiously joyous. You'll see (er, make that hear) why when you listen to today's episode, so please subscribe, download, listen up and enjoy! To see today's crossword in all its glory, check it out here To listen to 1A, you can do so here We love feedback...

Considering the day of the week and the names of the constructors -- Malaika Handa and Erik Agard -- it was not surprising that the cohosts  had to dig for pretty much every clue:  from 49A, Where the first five counting numbers are "üks kaks kolm neli viis", ESTONIA, to 50D, Man known for his morals, AESOP, to 56A, Lead in to MAIL or BOX, VOICE, it was a major slogfest, but they are not...

A splendid Thursday crossword by Michael Schlossberg -- and somehow "splendid" and "Michael Scholossburg" seem to appear together quite frequently, this being his 7th NYTimes crossword since 2020. The theme was a rebus with a twist, and if that sounds intriguing, wait 'til you hear the details. Ah, but you don't need to wait, you can download and listen up right now....

If you're a HITCHCOCK fan, or a Jimmy STEWART or Kim NOVAK stan, then today's crossword will be right up your alley, as the theme revolves around HITCHCOCK's most famous (?) work, VERTIGO. Both cohosts found this puzzle to be, aptly enough, somewhat dizzying, but they did manage to (eventually) puzzle it out. Deets inside, so download, have a listen, and as always, let us know what...

A fun Tuesday crossword, and we had fun talking about it, as even a perfunctory listen to today's episode will reveal.  So have a listen, and, as always, let us know what you think, and please do something to make this episode go viral! Want to see the entire crossword, solved? Here you go . We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodc...

There appeared to be, along with the explicit and enjoyable main theme, there is a sub-theme involving Star Wars - witness 9D , Humanoid robot who appears in all nine "Star Wars" episodes, informally, THREEPIO, 17A , Childhood nickname for Darth Vader, ANI,  and 52D , Decide one will, OPTTO (which has a decidedly Yoda-ish sound to it). So, two themes for the price of one, sounds like a g...

A crossword that's sure to be a hit with English teachers everywhere, today's rather subtle -- almost to the point of invisible -- theme reminds us of the importance of proper punctuation. There were numerous other noteworthy gems in the grid, including 97A, Twisted do, LOCS ; 92A, Muppet bear, FOZZIE; and  40D, Oviform:egg :: pyriform:____, PEAR (huh!). And there's more where those...

The only thing that was 46A -- A piece of cake, SOEASY -- about this puzzle was, well, 46A. The rest of the grid was crackling with fiendishly clever and often quite arcane clues, such as 61A, Dead letter in a mail sorter's vernacular, NIXIE (woah!); 39D, One with an "If You Choose the Lesser of Two Evils -- You Are Still Choosing Evil" bumper sticker, perhaps", NADERITE (both...

We would need to break out the thesaurus to do justice to today's crossword, an absolutely brilliant theme . We'd say more here, but we don't want to spoil the surprise, so download, listen up, and be prepared to be amazed. The crossword can be seen, in all its glory, right here . We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodca...

For all you poetry aficionados, your time has come -- a crossword theme built around an octad of famous (?) poets. This was definitely a crunchier than usual crossword, Jean had to work slightly harder than was the norm, while Mike feared for his streak , almost done in by his completely erroneous  conviction that "How Firm a Foundation" was an advertising slogan for Serta. Today's...