Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Happy last day of June! In today's episode, both Jean & Mike resist the urge to break into song when discussing Tommy Tutone's most famous hit, 867-5309/Jenny, the theme of today's crossword. They also ponder the works of Ted CHIANG, the origin story of FIVEGUYS, and the reappearance of the computer that might very well be powering WordPlay's comments, section, the ENIAC. F...

If you have a fear of painful (aka good) puns then beware, this crossword is likely to cause nightmares. Exhibit A, 17A, "So this red thing, Mom? This is not good.", BEETREPORT, and exhibit B, 63A, "Wow, Mom, this is like at a restaurant! Dibs on the chocolate pudding!", MOUSSECALL. Ouch! We'd continue with exhibits C and D, but they are likely to trigger SOBS and perhaps...

Back in the day, we'd nip in the bud any clues like 55A, "Years ago ....", literally, THEBACKDAY, and 24A, Put an early stop to, literally, THENIPBUD, but fortunately here in 2021 Alan Arbesfeld had no such misgivings, and today's fine crossword -- we rate it a 4.5 on the JAMCR scale -- is the result. Meanwhile, on today's exciting edition of Triplet Tuesday, Mike does a P...

Today's crossword is a panoply of colors: if you solve it correctly on an iPad or on the web, the answers RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO and VIOL:ET become appropriately colored. Even more impressively, they are arranged so that they sweep out an arc, like a rainbow, truly a work of art -- if you don't have access to the solution, do check it out at xwordinfo.com. There were se...

The toughest crossword of the week lives up to its reputation, with a stunning array of deceitful clues. Easily the best, and for which the crossword constructors should win either an award or jail time, is 3D, Answer that would be more apt at 10 Down, TOES. What makes this so sneaky is the writing of 10 Down rather than 10-Down. The latter is the NYTimes crossword's convention for clue refer...

In today's episode, Jean finds today's crossword to be a breeze, while Mike sees it as more of a tempest. Both ponder the meaning of 25A, Spirals out over the winter holidays?, HAMS, and their response is 20A, Acknowledgement with a shrug, WELLOK. In today's Fun Fact Friday segment, we learn about the joys of clerihews. Remember, when listening to this podcast, we recommend you do s...

Jean makes short order of today's crossword, whereas Mike gets tormented in a TANSY garden, nearly snookered  by SNOODS, menaced by MCCOO, and temporarily lured into believing that LECI  Eshkol was the third prime minister of Israel (for the record, it was the eminently more plausible LEVI Eshkol who occupied the office). Still it was a great crossword, we give it a 5 squares on the JAMCR sca...

Jean runs into a spot of bother at 41A, Tech that enables contactless credit card payments, RFID, while Mike almost needs the fainting couch upon uncovering the answer to 24A, Decorative items washed up on the beach, SEAGLASS. Also in this episode, the more loquacious of your co-hosts admires 44A, Loquacious, CHATTY, and both are intrigued by 10A, Fleeting romantic interest, FLAVOROFTHEWEEK. Yum!...

Jean attempts to set an indoor speed record for the Tuesday crossword, while Mike prefers to saunter his way through the grid. Both finished and lived to tell the tale, which is precisely what they do in today's episode. Also listen for another exciting Triplet Tuesday adventure, with Mike doing the pitching and Jean at bat. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener m...

In today's crossword, we get a lesson in knowledge (Jean, discussing 2D, 1950's-60's singer Bobby, DARIN, and the tie-in to the Three Penny Opera), and ignorance (Mike, confessing that he thought 9D, Honorific for Gandhi, MAHATMA was in fact the great leader's first name -- rather than his actual first name, Mohandas).  Today's puzzle did have a nice theme to it, 52A, &quo...

Jean tore through today's crossword like nobody's business. Mike, meanwhile, got through about 2/3 of the grid at a decent clip and then lapsed into slo-mo mode for the remainder, running into a sea of cruciverbal misery  bordered between 70D, Like fuschia and turquiose, MISSPELLED (nice!!), and 93D, Raw deal from a restaurant?, CEVICHE. However, this did let him spend quality time with...

A challenging but fair Saturday crossword, with quite a few "today-I-learned" moments. For example, 10A, "The Metamorphosis" protagonist, SAMSA, the very interesting 15A, Person who will do anything for you, in modern slang, RIDEORDIE (!), 26D, Nintendo offering with more than 10 installments, MARIOPARTY, and the revelation that the answer to 20A, Bridge, e.g., PASTIME, is spel...

Hopefully the author of today's terrific. crossword, Daniel Larsen, was  paid by the letter, because there were a very small number of black squares in today's grid , which featured 7 clues that ran the entire width of the puzzle, and 1 that ran the entire height. At first blush, then, the crossword looked daunting - a sea of white squares - but fortunately (some of) the crosses were mer...

Jean cruised through today's crossword while simultaneously baking cookies, while Mike, unencumbered by food preparation tasks of any sort, took 3x as long to get the job done: we will let you draw your own conclusions about this. Construction-wise, the crossword was a real tour-de-force, with themed answers tracing out the shape of a fish hook, while the letters in the hook themselves formed...

There was a lot of misdirection in today's crossword, but that's by design, because the theme was, in fact, a series of movies in which the directions were flipped - 19A, Jim Sheridan gives Daniel Day Lewis nothing to work with in this Irish dramedy (1989), MYRIGHTFOOT, 25A, Rian Johnson helms this snoozer of a whodunit starring Daniel Craig (2019), KNIVESIN, etc. There were some nice cl...

Apparently the use of "dog" as slang for foot hearkens back to at least 1913, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Mike discovered it 108 years later, during today's podcast, so ... better late than never.  In other parts of the grid, Apple tech once again makes an appearance ( 7D, iPad ________ , MINI), and U-Haul also pops up (a much rarer event), in the clever clue  26D, R...

Hold the (homo)phone, it turns out there are a multitude of ways to pronounce WAY -- WHEY, as in 20A, Food for Little Miss Muffet, CURDSANDWHEY, WEI, as in 31A, Chinese dissident artist, AIWEIWEI, WEIGH, as in that toe-tapper from the US Navy, 36A, U. S. Naval Academy anthem, ANCHORSAWEIGH, and finally WAY, from the second greatest musical hook of all time, 54A, Breakup song by Fleetwood Mac, GOYO...

How's it going, eh? And if that question resonated, then you might be in a good position to tackle today's crossword, which celebrated all things Canadian. For example ... 19D, Program introduced by the Trudeau government in 1984, colloquially, FREEHEALTHCARE,  104A, Six-time winner of the N.H.L.'s Art Ross Trophy, born in Saskatchewan, GORDIEHOWE, and 16D, Seasonal destination near...

A gentler Saturday crossword, because not all Saturday's have to be Thanos-like (and it's only a matter of time before that Marvel villain makes it into the New York Times crossword, you heard it here first 😀). There were some "today-I-learned" moments scattered throughout the grid, such as 13D, What those with protanomaly have difficulty seeing, RED,  22A, Prefix with -graph,...

An excellent Friday crossword, lots of ingenious and crisply crafted clues. Exhibit A, 39D, Long divisions?, AISLES, and 52A, They may have lots of steps, STAIRWELLS (a nice bit of indirection). Today's puzzle was also, as all good crosswords are, a learning experience: 5A, First country to discover water on the moon, INDIA; 11D, Many a farmer's market attendee, LOCAVORE (wow!); and 30A,...

Today's crossword includes a novel, or at least very rare, theme, in which the clues lead to answers that similar to common phrases, except the "air" sound in the last word has been replaced with an "or" sound. For instance (because this definitely needs an example), 17A, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael?, RENAISSANCEFOUR (as opposed to RENAISSANCEFAIR). Jean...

You might want to be sitting down for this podcast ... but if you're not, fear not, because the crossword theme is, basically, things that you can sit upon, ( BACKSEAT DRIVER, COUCH POTATO, etc.). There were not a lot of verbal fireworks in today's grid, although it did have 24A, Glistens with shimmering colors, IRIDESCES (from a Greek word meaning you'll never be able to spell this...

It's amazing what an opportunely placed H can do to a phrase -- and Christopher Adams demonstrates this not just once or twice, but *four* times, taking common phrases, and tossing in an H to get a punderfully amusing answer. There was a lot of pop culture in today's crossword. This fazed Jean not at all, but Mike got temporarily natticked at the corner of 1D, "The Open Window"...

In today's episode, we discover how to pronounce ARNAZ (41A, Desi of "I Love Lucy"); why 3D, Annual drama award, is OBIE, rather than OLEO or OLIO; that VALOR Day is not a thing (14A, _____ Day (September observance, LABOR)); and much, much more! For details, download and listen up. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpod...

Today's crossword was titled Olio, meaning either that a) they didn't have a theme, or b) they were intending to talk about margarine but the proofreader took a POWERNAP at an inopportune time. Either way, today's crossword did have its moments -- 67D, Bits of hijinks?, DOTS, and 44D, Stopped smoking?, COOLED were among our favorites. Jean had a spot of bother with 39A, Three-dimens...