Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A tough Friday crossword, with Brooke Husic and Nam Jin Yoon combining to make for a fiendishly clever puzzle, with the verbal misdirections coming fast and furious in every corner. Consider: 52A, Blue book alternative, ADULTSITE; the glorious30A, Body with a floor, SEA, and Mike's favorite, 53D, Card display?, STL. Yikes!  In other news, it's Fun Fact Friday, and in today's episode...

Ross Trudeau is at the helm, meaning we're in for a treat, and the great man does not disappoint -- with an LOL theme that you need to see (or hear) to believe your eyes (or ears). We have the deets, so download, and prepare to be blown away! [Not literally, unless you're in a very windy area, in which case we highly recommend that you get to shelter and then download today's podcas...

A not-at-all shady crossword by Michael Paleos,  as a quick ONCEOVER of the grid will REVeal. It did include a few TIL /R (Today I Learned/Remembered) moments (for Mike: Jean knows all)  including 9D, Jazz piano style played by Fats Waller and Mary Lou Williams, STRIDE; the aforementioned 13D, Slim Shady by another name, EMINEM; and  8D, Island like Kiritimati, ATOLL.  Jean -- proving that it is n...

A thoughtful Tuesday puzzler, not  too difficult, and with some fun clues to entertain and educate. Jean momentarily forgot her blood types, and Mike momentarily forgot that EBEAMS are not a thing, but other than that our dynamic duo managed to make it through this puzzle unscathed.  It's Triplet Tuesday, and Jean's turn in the hot seat. Did she succeed? Or did the hot seat cause her to,...

TOOBADFORYOU if you neglected to do this crossword, because it'd be sure to put you in a HAPPY mood, no JOKE! So much for the executive summary, if you want the full 411, we cordially invite you to download and listen up. 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...

A terrific Sunday crossword, with a theme that literally halved the time required to figure out the  themed clues. Jean got through expeditiously, no surprise there, but Mike shockingly managed to solve it on his first go round. Today's episode has all the deets, as well as listener mail 😀, so for guaranteed enjoyment, or your money cheerfully refunded, just hit download/subscribe, play, and...

It's Friday all over again: Jean tore through this crossword like nobody's business, and again Mike took approximately twice the time to get to the happy music. To quote Jean,  when asked, "to what do you attribute your great success", she replied "it helps if you know the answers". Words of wisdom to live by!  Today is Saturday, which means it's time to award th...

An easy / incredibly difficult crossword, according to Jean / Mike, the former benefitting from having memorized Wikipedia, and the  latter disadvantaged by having forgotten it (well, almost all of it, the exception being   WAKANDA ). All in all, a GEM of a crossword, and except for (or perhaps because of??)  a few DREAR moments while one of the cohosts, aka Mike, struggled to get traction, a trul...

Another reminder that the NYTimes Crossword, at the top of its game, has no equal, and they're in fine form today -- where, to be specific, that fine form is a SPIRAL. We have all the deets on this dizzyingly impressive puzzle, so to get the 411, download, hit play, and enjoy. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com....

A gentle Wednesday crossword, with a GLEEEEEEEful theme, an AVALANCHE of fun clues, overall a fun time. Highly recommended, 5 squares on the JAMCR (Jean And Mike Crossword Rating) scale, so if you haven't solved it yet ... do that first , and then download and listen to our blow-by-blow second . We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crossword...

An educational Tuesday offering by Julian Lim, including a refresher on Chinese dynasties (MING, TANG, CHIN, SUI and HAN, to name 5), the fact that DIMES (presumably American) are 1.35 mm thick, and a reminder that NORI is a type of seaweed that goes around  sushi. Now you know. There were other fine bits as well, download today's 100%-ad-free-podcast for all the deets. We love feedback! Send...

Erik Agard is a legend in the crossword world, and even on a Monday, where there are arguably fewer opportunities to demonstrate one's crossword constructing chops, he manages to do so anyway. How, you ask? Well, we have a comprehensive , stem-to-stern report on today's grid, so just download, subscribe, and enjoy! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail!...

Opinions were divided on today's puzzle -- Jean found it a snap, Mike, alas, found it a much bumpier road, done in by his lack of knowledge of basketball, northern New Jersey cities, and the Salt-N-Pepa back catalog. Still, a decent crossword, we give it a 4.5 squares on the JAMCR scale. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@...

A sly Saturday stumper by veteran crossword constructor Joe DiPietro, with some really tricky corners, and, come to think of it, a grid full  of cruciverbal traps. We have all the deets, as well as the winner of this week's JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award) just waiting for you, so hit download then hit play for an episode that we hope hits the spot.   We love feedback! Sen...

Today's crossword, by first-timer Erica Hsiung Wojcik, was a real workout, with some great/humbling clues like 42D, Tonal language family, BANTU,  20A, Romeo and Juliet, e.g., TEENAGERS, and 24D, It's on the road again, USEDVEHICLES, that made you sweat, and when you figured them out (if you did), grin: in short, perfect Friday fare.  Definitely 5 squares on the JAMCR scale! We love feed...

A terrific Thursday crossword, with a fabulous theme the likes of which has never been seen before! At least certainly not in recent memory. We don't want to spoil the surprise, so try the crossword first, and then check back for our analysis. Suffice it to say, this deserves a very enthusiastic 5 squares on the JAMCR scale We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener ma...

A fine Wednesday crossword by Alex Bajcz, and if you like pinball games, doubly so. There was much to like in today's grid, with fun clues like 1A, One inclined to go in and out, RAMP (nice!); 31D, Drollery, WIT (drollery, truly one of the great words of the ... 17th century?); and of course 21A, County north of the Firth of Forth, FIFE (of course it is). So hat's off to today's con...

A blast-from-the-past, with a handful of rock bands from the 70s and 80s, deftly woven into the grid with great APLOMB. We liked it ... a lot, and give it 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. In other news, it's Triplet Tuesday, so to find out how Jean fared, hit download, or better yet, subscribe, and start listening ASAP! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Dro...

A nice Monday crossword, the perfect palette cleanser after yesterday's epic battle (for one of us, no prize for guessing which). It was a debut for Li Ding, and hopefully we'll see more of him in the future! Today's episode also features the exciting debut of a new  catchphrase -- so if you want the origin story and/or be able to tell your grandchildren you were there when the catc...

An easy/ludicrously-difficult  crossword, according to Jean/Mike. Also a controversial one, according to the massive number of comments that this generated on Word Play (the NYTimes column for discussing NYTimes Crosswords, highly recommended). We have our own take, and we'd be curious to get your take on it too: crosswordpodcast@icloud.com. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: W...

A relatively straightforward Saturday puzzle, at least compared to the Mt. Everest level-of-difficulty of last week. It was by no means easy , but clues like 1D, They might smell fishy, CATTREATS, and 33D, It goes hand to hand, CLAP, were balanced by clues like 8D, Beat, TIRED, and 40A, Peter Pan alternative, JIF.  In other news, we've picked this week's JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword...

Friday crosswords are meant to try one's souls, and by that standard today's puzzle by Daniel Sheremeta was a smashing success. Jean loped through it in decent time, whereas Mike, solving in tai-chi mode, took just a tad bit longer. That's not to take away from this fine puzzle, however - assuredly a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We...

A very nice Thursday crossword, with a brilliant theme (well, some of the time: at others you can't see it at all). And if that last sentence didn't appear to make sense, fear not, all will be revealed when you download and listen up! 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 fee...

A slightly more intense crossword than usual, the cost, perhaps, of having to squeeze in 4 names that contribute to an awesome theme. Our themestress ™️ Jean has all the deets, so to find out what that theme was, and where all the particularly crunchy bits of this crunchy crossword lay, just download and hit play. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a l...

An educational Tuesday puzzle, with such enlightening clues as 46D, Only mortal Gorgon in Greek myth, MEDUSA; 67A, Disney heroine whose name means "ocean", MOANA; and the curious 51D, Attempting to, casually, TRYNA. There was also a theme, about which our head themestress ™️, aka Jean, has much to say. Of course it's Triplet Tuesday: will Mike make a fool of himself, or merely ... m...