Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A nice way to wrap up the week and the month, with a clever crossword by Jim Hilger -- all about product (mis)placement. Several common phrases had a noun replaced by a product -- for instance, 38A, Reason that the prestigious scientific journal refuses articles from President Herbert's relatives?, NATUREABHORSAHOOVER, and 97A Adding a historic ship as a deal sweetener, THROWINGINTHEBOUNTY. V...

We weren't quite PASTED by Nam Jin Yoon's Saturday spectacular, but it definitely took a while for us to GETGOING on this one, as there were a lot of tricky (and fascinating) clues. The winner in that category was surely 32D, Amphibian that Ogden Nash once rhymed with "bottle", AXOLOTL, with honorable mention going to 19D, Holding up the line for?, CUING. There were quite a few...

The phrase, "a Robyn Weintraub crossword is a thing of beauty" has not made it into common speech yet, but it should, because her crosswords really are extraordinary. Consider just a few splendid examples -- 14A, Choice for those eager to retire and travel?, SLEEPERCAR, or 12A, Union deserters, EXES, or 51A, State in which you might get a tax deduction, PARENTHOOD. Brilliant, the lot of...

You might have to TOIL to figure out today's theme, and we ENVY those who could readily SEE it -- the combination of a precisely placed comma and the addition of an ILY suffix. Apart from the decidedly quirky clues dictated by that theme, there were a few memorable ones -- 57A, Follower of pigs or cows, EIEIO, and 26A, 90s, say, AAVERAGE., ETC ANDSUCH. We give it a 4 on the JAMCR scale. We lo...

If yesterday's crossword left you in a FUNK, then you can RELAX,  because today's puzzle AMPS up the AHAS, and drops the number of Z's to practically zero. Jean's favorite clue was 61A, "I only got a seventh-grade education, but I have a doctorate in ________", James Brown, FUNK; Mike also loved that clue, but if forced to pick a  different favorite, he'd go for...

YAWN, there are certainly a lot of ZEES in this puzzle, it's making us SLEEPY ... Nope, jk, we're fully awake, in fact startled, perhaps, by the crunchiness of today's puzzle. Exhibit A is 17A, Having panache, PIZZAZZY, and 35A, State that many people want to get to on vacation?, STRESSLESSNESS, It was a very ZESTY puzzle indeed! For Tip Tuesday, Jean suggests committing to memory t...

EGAD there's a lot of firing going on in today's crossword -- the theme was YOUREFIRED, and 4 answers were two word phrases with the last word being a synonym for being fired -- CAN, AXE, SACK and BOOT. MERCY!  In other news, EPEE got a rest today, in lieu of which we had 23A, Old weapon in hand-to-hand combat, BATTLEAXE. In lieu of UGG, we had a much rarer if not debut clue, 53A, Bit of...

Warning: if you are addicted to chocolate, you might want to avoid today's puzzle, because it's awash in cocoa-based-deliciousness. There are a number of punny clues, each of which is a combination of two candies, many of which involve chocolate. Jean did her usual tear through the crossword, Mike got naticked at the juncture of 48D, Got hip, with "up", WISED, and 60A, Links gr...

This was a glorious Saturday crossword, with Doug Peterson & Brad Wilbert pulling out all the stops! From 1A, Bands popular in the '70s, MOODRINGS, and 1D, Sight in a produce aisle, MIST,  to 56A, Franchise with the "Dominating the Deep" DVD set, SHARKWEEK, and 30D, Things that generate a lot of cookie dough?, BAKESALES, they did not give an inch. Jean had trouble on the APORT s...

A nice Friday puzzle by Daniel Larsen, with some deliciously deceptive cluing -- e.g.,  37D, When a poser might be presented?, PHOTOOP, 38D, Place for a stud, EARLOBE, 12D, Pot supporters, TRIVETS, and Mike's favorite, 33A, Two swings and a slide, maybe, PLAYSET. Jean finished the puzzle in 18 minutes. Mike also took 18 minutes, alas, 2.5 of them. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact I...

It's a twisty, turny crossword, a technical tour de force by Daniel Mauer. Jean solved it, Mike tried to solve it STAT, but did not find it a SNAP, so his streak, once again, DIED, as did, apparently, MRPEANUT (according to 37D, Classic figure, killed off in a 2019 Super Bowl ad campaign).  Our latest contest is now ongoing -- if you are the first person to send an email to crosswordpodcast@i...

Today's crossword was written by Andy Kravis, Natan Last, and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class, so the adage "too many cooks spoil the broth" does not apply here, since this was a very tasty morsel indeed. Jean tore through it, of course, while Mike panicked while answering 1A, "God is the perfect ______", Robert Browning, writing POEM, thereby leading him to conclude that the...

This ingenious crossword really takes the CAKE, and, no, we are not SORRY that we wrote that 😀 Besides the themed clues (two word phrases, both of which could take CAKE as a suffix, e.g., FRUITCUP = FRUITCAKE + CUPCAKE), it had other interesting clues: 62A, World's largest terrestrial arthropod, COCONUTCRAB, the witty 47D, Figure of speech?, ORATOR, and the curious 20A, Case for small toilet...

OHO, a themed Monday crossword, that's IDEAL. Although CAIROILLINOIS and HAVANAILLINOIS inexplicably didn't make the cut, DARN, we were glad to see ATHENSGEORGIA. PARISTEXAS, NAPLESFLORIDA and TOLEDOOHIO get their 15 minutes.  Sometime this week we will be giving away a year's subscription to the New York Times Crossword, so be sure to keep listening, and be ready, at the drop of a...

This was an AONE crossword, with an iinnteresting tthheme, and a rebus that crammed more letters into a square than  there are MESONS in the dot at the end of this sentence. As usual, there were a few surprises for Mike -- 61A, Prominent women's rights lawyer, GLORIAALLRED, and 55D, Lesser Antilles native, CARIB -- that is to say, a human being, not to be confused with a non-human bean, aka C...

It's a Saturday Sam Ezersky puzzle, with 6 LETHALLY long answers, but lots of fun clues to keep you entertained. It starts off brilliantly with 1A, Be in charge ... as a doctor?, CALLTHESHOTS, and 13A, Remains to be seen, MUSEUMEXHIBIT:. The rest of the crossword does not disappoint, either. There are some educational clues -- 22A, Small hybrid instrument with 6 strings, GUITALELE, 43D, Histo...

A great Friday crossword, with lots of punny clues and fun facts (appropriate, since it's Fun Fact Friday). Jean's favorite was 41D, Frost accumulation, POEMS. Mike was fond of 35A, Shower heads, perhaps, MAIDSOFHONOR. Apparently 48A, Complete loss of identity, EGODEATH, is a thing, as is 34D, Fashion designer's portfolio, LOOKBOOK (which Mike had temporarily had as LOOTBOOK, but th...

We are INLOVE with this AONE crossword, ITSSAFE to say that it was one of the best puzzles out this year. The theme, SPINTHEBOTTLE, fed into a series of rebuses (rebusi?) that needs to be seen (as it can be, at xwordinfo.com) to be believed. The rest of the crossword was of the same awesome quality, with tight cluing and some interesting new words (we're looking at you, 23D, Relevance of text...

What do you get when you cross a film title with a basketball player? Today's crossword, evidently. Now for those of you who might not be basketball fans, you might want to cry UNCLE, but JUST stick with it, put in a TEENIE bit of effort, and you'll succeed, we do not JEST! We give this a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mai...

Ross Trudeau, creator of the New York Times mini-crosswords, scales it up to author today's puzzle.  Jean did it effortlessly, Mike stumbled because 24A, They aren't what they appear to be, was not only a good clue, it also characterized his answer -- SCAMS -- as opposed to the correct answer, SHAMS. Still, he took comfort in knowing that THISTOOSHALLPASS.  It was Tip Tuesday, and we had...

A gentle Monday puzzle, perfect for the newer crossword solvers in the audience. It had a rather rye, um, no, make that wry, theme involving DELI food, but other than that the HQ (Humor Quotient) was relatively low, with just one real knee-slapper -- 5D, Without exception ... as in dry countries?, BARNONE. A few old favorites made a reappearance -- 23A, Olive ___ (Popeye's sweetie), OYL, and...

Yesterday we ran into ANUBIS, and today we have 40A, Supreme Egyptian deity, AMONRA -- so tomorrow's forecast is for OSIRIS, with a chance of ISIS later in the week. Speaking of AMONRA, apparently there are multiple spellings -- AMONRA, AMENRA and AMUNRA are all acceptable variants. That caused Mike no end of grief, as it naticked with 36D, Base of an arch, which he took to be an arcane archi...

Today's crossword was a tad easier than yesterday's -- Jean did it somewhat more quickly, and Mike cleaved an astonishing 2h30m off of his Friday time 😎. While not as difficult as some Saturdays, the clues were still quite interesting -- 17A, Marked by stately beauty, JUNOESQUE, 19A, Accessory that might have a netsuke attached, OBI, and the possibly contractually-obligated Simpsons ref...

We kickoff  our second season -- well, to be precise, the second episode of our second season -- with a challenging (of course!) Friday crossword. Jean got through it relatively easily, aided and abetted by her encyclopedic knowledge of women's cosmetic products.  It's fun-fact Friday, and in today's episode we take an in-depth look at the (un)official cookie of the New York Times c...

This was a crossword WITHATWIST, or as the crossword constructors would have it, WIXXXXWIST, that made for a very exciting Thursday solve. Jean tore through it blazingly quickly, as usual, whereasMike took forever, no, STRIKETHAT, a tad longer. 1D seemed to be a bit of a stretch -- Sunburn cause, for short, UVWAVE -- but considering the virtuoso-performance everywhere else, we'll cut Matthew...