Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A tough Sunday, with a spectacular, dare we say stellar theme, but some really tricky naticks -- 35A, Japanese beer brand, KIRIN, versus 31D, Sharing maternal lines, ENATIC (yikes!), and 109A, Wine that may be Spumante or frizzante, PROSECCO, versus 94D, Clear, as crystal, BUS (double yikes!). The grid was a technical tour de force, with IX-based rebuses  representing stars: if you connected those...

A challenging Saturday (of course!) crossword, with some major obscurisms lurking in the grid. Certainly 29D, Happenstance, cutely, COINKYDINK, and 20A, Hallux, less formally, BIGTOE, qualify, as, at least for Jean & Mike, does 1A, Popular brand of alcoholic seltzer, WHITECLAW. Other clues were just deliciously deceptive, such as 14A, One might be off the hook, HOMEPHONE, 30D, Record producer?...

We wouldn't say that Jean CRUSHEDIT, but  she did turn in a STOUT performance. Mike's effort, meanwhile, wouldn't win any SPEEDTEST, but he did manage to finish with a SHRED of dignity intact, his streak kept ALIVE by a dearth of popular culture references. For all the details, download and listen up! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a...

Hip, hip, hooray, it's a crossword about hips ... two of them to be precise, it's  very  hip. Jean made short order of today's crossword, as she turned in a perfect 28 minute time, whereas the crossword nearly made short order of Mike, as he struggled pretty much everywhere, in a catch 22: to get the theme revealer, you needed to get the crosses ... but to get the crosses, you had t...

Today's crossword was a shocker! Traditionally, the New York Times grids are designed so that answers can be no shorter than 3 letters and as a corollary no letter can be like, well, like the Z's at the end of 21A, Bolivian capital, LAPAZ, and beginning of 48A, Spaces (out), ZONES -- surrounded on 3 sides by black squares. Yet (gasp!), there they are. It's all in a good cause, howev...

A terrific Tuesday crossword, a paean to 6D, Olympic sport whose all-round competition is composed of the last parts of 19-, 26-, 44- and 52- across, WOMENSGYMNASTICS. Interspersed among all the sports were some other gently amusing clues, such as 28D, Cheery sort?, FAN, 5D, Uranus but not Neptune, GREEKGOD (nice!), and 46D, Aid in scrolling to the top, UPKEY. Now, will Will Shortz & co., cont...

A fairly straightforward Monday, although it did contain one of Jean's banes, a quote, but thanks to gentle crosses (it's a Monday) she was still able to complete the crossword in a blazing 6:12! Mike, meanwhile, was able to ... complete the crossword. For all the details, download and listen up to today's episode. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener m...

A delicious Sunday crossword, with LOL answers courtesy of Julia Child (as curated and transcribed by today's constructor, Jesse Goldberg). How could you not like such bon mots as 38A, "A party without cake is ________", REALLYJUSTAMEETING, or the rather brazen 65A, "If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. __________?", WH...

It's a Saturday New York Times crossword, which means that the glove are off, the gauntlet's been thrown down, in short, the puzzle was tough -- amusing, but tough. The grid itself was built to challenge, divided into 4 largely isolated quadrants. Jean had trouble keeping her footing in the center of the crossword, with 26A, Break down for closer analysis, as data, SLICEANDDICE, not imme...

A Fun Friday crossword, challenging but with not  too  many tripping hazards (aka proper nouns, such as 40A, Big name in pizza rolls, TOTINOS, and 15D, Short-story writer Bret, HARTE). 19A Thin in tone, TINNY, was tricky because we had almost an identical clue the day before, the answer to which was REEDY. Very tricky, Mr. Shortz! A few "today-I-learned" moments arose courtesy of 29A, Wh...

A delicious Thursday crossword, with TOMYUMSOUP as an appetizer, plenty of tasty rebuses to chew on, and some COKES to wash it down. It did have a few of those cultural references that usually cause Mike to break out in a cold sweat, but fortunately 52D, Actress Birch, THORA, and 59A, Genre for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, SKA, had (relatively) easy crossings. A great crossword (did we mention tha...

Today's Wednesday crossword was on the harder side of the spectrum, but it included some fascinating facts. For example, did you know 10D, Creatures that have the densest fur of any mammal (up to 1 million hairs per square inch), SEAOTTERS? Or 21A, One of 20 on the Titanic, LIFEBOAT?  The main theme, however, revolved around authors, whose names were ordinary words with E's attached, ins...

Today's crossword managed to COVERALLTHEBASES as far as baseball adages are concerned. RIGHTOFFTHEBAT, they had the aforementioned COVERALLTHEBASES; and the author also was ADROIT enough to work in OUTOFLEFTFIELD and WHOLENEWBALLGAME.  A very SWEET puzzle indeed. Today is Triplet Tuesday, so to hear Mike do battle as Jean unleashes a bevy of tricky clues, download and listen up! We love feedb...

A bit of a challenging Monday crossword, some of the clues were relatively ARCANE. Jean had a SMA  problem with 46D, Southeast Europe's ______ Peninsula, going for BALTIC before BALKAN. Mike, meanwhile, got TOTO's version of 62A, Where this puzzle's circled letters can be found, AFRICA, stuck in his head, and it took 17A, Song lyric before "short and stout", IMALITTLETEAPO...

Ooh, it's a beyootiful croosword, and if you're wondering about all those seemingly superfluous o's, well, they are an essential part of Ashish Vengsarkar's very punny puzzle. So, if you're the sort of person who reads 110A, Power of a cowboy's boot, and thinks BOOTSTRENGTH; or if you see 10D, Dramatic accusation at a dentist's office, and think YOUCANTHANDLETHET...

Jean was hampered by technical issues, possibly brought on by 16A, Mischievous character in West African folklore, ANANSITHESPIDER, while Mike, meanwhile, had to DIGDEEP, hampered by his decision, violating his own tip, to solve at night. Still, after a TENSE hour (or in Mike's case, two), with nary a CARELESSMISTAKE between them, they were able to gaze upon on a completely solved puzzle. A g...

It's a Robyn Weintraub Friday puzzle, and that means tough, fair, and  LOL clues all over the grid. To get things rolling, take a look at 25D, Big wheel at a party?, BRIE. She also ought to win an award for 17A, Olympics haul of fame?, GOLDMEDALS, which was just fractionally better than 44D, Irrational thing to celebrate? PIDAY. There's much more in the grid and on the podcast -- which a...

If you are one of those folk who think that rebuses should be banned, then you may appreciate the irony that two bands - AM and FM - show up in each of the rebuses in today's grid, in an ingenious fashion, with AM needed to solve the across clue, and FM required to solve the down clue. Jean has all the details (and remember you can always checkout xwordinfo.com to see the solved puzzle and cl...

A "crunchy" Wednesday crossword, with enough tricky clues to slow solvers down, although, it is often a good idea to take it -- as they say in life, in Aesop's fables, and in this puzzle -- SLOWANDSTEADY. The constructor embedded most of the grid's humor in the top-left corner, with 3D, Don't knock until you've tried it, DOORBELL, running into 20A, One who whistles wh...

A relatively easy Tuesday crossword, one might even say a GIMMEGIMMEGIMME 😀: both Jean and (unusually) Mike tore through it. The best clue was definitely 19D, Website where you go to see the stars?, YELP, but there were some others of note, such as 13D, "Aren't I great?", YAYME, and Mike's favorite, 57D, The "N" of N.B., NOTA. A nice crossword, we give it a 5 squares...

Jean had a RAREBIT of an issue with today's crossword, but it was nothing MAJOR. Mike, meanwhile, was intrigued by 17A, Marine inhabitant that's an animal, not a plant, despite what it's called, SEACUCUMBER, and appreciated its location in the grid near what it clearly was a case of -- 1A, Negative media coverage, in brief, BADPR. One clue that stood out, was the delicious (and cros...

A lot of sizzle in today's crossword, appropriate for the 4th of July. Both Jean & Mike, even though they were solving independently, experienced HIGHANXIETY, and had reasons to WAIL, in the same places. The first was at the corner of 102D, Delicious food, in modern slang, NOMS, and 109A, ÷ and † in typography, OBELI (yikes!); the second was 14D, Hair loss, ALOPECIA, crossing with 40A, Je...

There were some fireworks in today's crossword (especially in the top-left and bottom-right corners), with tricky clues like 3D, Strengthen, as an embankment, REVET (!), and 6D, Verdi opera set during the fifth century, ATTILA (!!). Jean labored mightily in this corner, while meanwhile, in the bottom right, Mike was inventing answers out of whole cloth, such as 52A, Metal oxide in dental crow...

A fine Friday crossword that is definitely 10D, Out of the ordinary, REALLYSOMETHING,  with lots of places where one might 27D, Crack under pressure, CHOKE, albeit less likely if one had a 26A, What a fitness coach likely leads, ACTIVELIFESTYLE. There were some interesting longer answers, including 17A, Cut-and-paste tool for language learners, GOOGLETRANSLATE, and 52A, Like some headphones, NOISE...

The constructor of today's crossword, Joe Deeney, had one big idea, and ran with it -- omit the word BIG from a series of answers, and then expand the word that followed into a BIGger font. For instance, 20A, "I can't believe I said that", MEANDMYMOUTH appeared in the grid with MOUTH in a larger than ordinary font. Cute! Jean's favorite clue was 48A, Rhyme for "menora...