Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A puzzle with a tinge of BACKSPIN, a clever MOTIF, and no serious HAIRPIN turns.  Jean learned how to send a LATERGRAM, Mike appreciated the appearance of AIR, EYRE, and ERA in such a tiny grid, and both agreed that this deserved a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com. Also, we're on...

In today's episode, Jean explains by way of example what a natick is, how to spell the answer to 49D, Shish _______, KEBAB, and provides a brief bio of 37A, Skater Lipinski, TARA .Mike suspects product-placement in the vicinity of 51D, Popular health info source, WEBMD, and ponders the proximity of a reference to PG&E to AFIRE and TREES in the southern and slightly more orange part of the...

This puzzle starts perfectly -- with the  title, Theme, Shmeme -- alerts you that it means (non-serious) business with the very first clue, 1A, Round number?, BARTAB, and never lets up, with a delightful bevy of fun and entertaining clues, perfect Sunday fare. You have to love a crossword that includes 88A, Barely afloat?, SKINNYDIPPING, and 70A, It's sedimentary, my dear, SILT. Kudos to Cait...

A relatively merciful Saturday, with fun clues and just a handful of names (ERICIDLE, Diana RIGG, GEENA Davis and EDIE Segwick). Superman (or at least his alter-ego) saved the day for Jean (14A, Lane hugger?, KENT), while Mike got out of a STICKYSITUATION by realizing that 13D, Mythical figure associated with snakes, was *not* MEDUSA, but rather the much more ASTUTE ATHENA (and the two cross: kudo...

This crossword wasn't as EASYASPIE, but it wasn't too much of a PAIN, either, in spite of being a fairly open grid, with lots of daunting white spaces. The clues were deftly crafted, including Jean's favorite, 62A, Early tablet user, MOSES, and Mike's, 30D, Honker, SCHNOZ. Jean has to dig deeply to figure out 33A, Songs by a recording artist that aren't well known, DEEPCUT...

One of those great Thursdays, with a theme guaranteed to provide a glorious aha! moment that will stay with you all day. Jean was slowed down slightly by a RARE gathering of RANDOS, while Mike was elated to discover that his years spent watching The Jetsons once again paid off. Both were surprised to discover that ACAI has 3 syllables -- it seems it barely has room for 2 -- and it took some seriou...

A wonderful Wednesday crossword, with a clever and appropriate theme for Veteran's Day. Particularly witty clues included 51A,  Producer of a lot of suits?, BUSINESSSCHOOL, and the award winning 46D, It's found beneath the crust, PIEPAN. (Hands up, all those who wrote MANTLE first. We thought so ... 😀)  We appreciated the appearance of both ICAHN and CAHN as answers, and, of course, are...

A punny Tuesday crossword with lots to like: if the answer to 20A, Sommelier?, PORTAUTHORITY, doesn't bring a smile to your lips, well ... that's just a theoretical question, because we know it will. Mike was particularly pleased to learn that his memorization of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's  skit, "Titus Andronicus ... as a Cooking Show!", finally paid dividends, whi...

A fairly crunchy crossword, for a Monday, with an interesting but subtle theme -- a vowel-wordchain, with AEIOU showing up in a series of descending clues: PALLBEARER, PELLGRANT, PILLBUG, POLLTAKER, PULLQUOTES. Our favorite clue - 17A, Raiser of the dead? (PALLBEARER), ironically positioned just underneath ENTOMB. Now that's craftsmanship! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We...

Jean tears through today's crossword, while Mike, FELTSAD to discover  the bottom-left corner to be almost LETHAL (but still TAME compared to yesterday!).  We give it a 4.0  squares on the JAMCR scale. 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 ferocious Saturday, so let's get right to today's crossword AUTOPSY! Mike is run over by GRANIMALS, gets kicked in the SHIN, lost a MINT by betting on, well, MINT, and chose a few other words INERROR. Jean, meanwhile, could hardly make a DENT in the puzzle until 35A! In short, just another typical New York Times Saturday crossword, definitely not for the faint of heart! We give it a 4...

A crossword that almost drove both Jean & Mike BANANAS, but they fought it to THEBITTEREND and, abetted by ALOT of luck and a little BARTRIVIA, were able to triumph. Some especially fun clues -- 13A, Loaded questions?, BARTRIVIA; 44A, Take a good, long look at yourself? EGOSURF; and 28A, Strip at the beach?, TANLINES. What can we say? It's a perfect 5 squares on the JAMCR scale! We love f...

OHLOOK, it's  a Thursday crossword honoring the beloved HASHTAG (nee pound sign, aka octothorp), and ALLTHINGSBEING=, there are no puzzles we'd rather be SOLVING than ones like these, by Jeremy Newton. A 5 squares on the JAMCR scale, AYE! 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...

Put on your PARTYHATS, because it's time to celebrate the debut NYTimes crossword by Jack Murtagh, a real BEAUTY with lots of clever cluing, and multiple homages to Mike's favorite company -- 13A, Jobs creation (IPAD), 7D, 13-Across accessories (STYLI), and 31D, Cook of Apple (TIM). Our favorite clue, hands down, was 65D, It must do it (TAG), which definitely deserves some sort of award...

WOW, a great but not particularly HEAVYDUTY  Tuesday crossword, just the ticket, SOIHEAR, if you need an IDYL to HIDEAWAY in. We just saw GOLDENDOODLEs a few days ago, and today we celebrate the appearance of 45A, Designer dog that crosses a Pomeranian and terror, a PORKIE.  It's Tip Tuesday, so be sure to listen to Jean's Excellent, Educational, Exceptional, Extolling of  E, as well as...

Jean almost beats her personal best Monday time, her fingers a blur over the keyboard. Mike, meanwhile, takes heart in the fact that he solved a crossword with a GOLDENDOODLE in it (20A, Popular dog crossbreed), HEHE.  Also of note was the interesting overlap from yesterday's (Sunday's) puzzle:  31D, Green-EYED monster, tied in with Sunday's 75A, Source of the words "O, beware...

An EXQUISITE and very ARTY start to November, with references to various works and writers, including OTHELLO, BAUM, DANTE, and, while not quite as classical, the definitely classy EBERT and CARLSAGAN. There was a nice mix of fun clues -- 21A, Bottom Lines? (XAXES), and obscure ones, such as 17D, Boat sometimes built around a whalebone frame (UMIAK (!)).   We give it a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale...

A very scary Halloween crossword, avec trop de français, à nos avis (if you know what I mean, and pardon our French). Mike spent a lot of time pondering veggies, eventually migrating from CROUTONS to CARROTS before settling on RADISHES for 14D, Sources of crunch for a salad, while Jean struggled with a startling number of French-related clues. Saturdays are meant to be tough, and this one certainl...

A not-at-all-scary crossword for Halloween's Eve. Mike particularly enjoyed the appearance of his favorite comic, Mitch HEDBERG, and Jean enjoyed DEEPSIGH -- as she explained with a DEEPSIGH. Some unfamiliar words also cropped up -- the magnificent 52A, Acts like a quidnunc , MEDDLES   (distantly related to a geometric arrangement that appeared recently, quincunx), and 3D, River through Victo...

A palette cleanser of a crossword -- see yesterday's podcast to see why! -- with a fun tw ist, and a few novel entries -- 13D, Serfs of olden days, HELOTS,  and an interesting variation on scathing, 46A, Denounce harshly, SCATHE. There were some entries that showed off the TLC that clearly went into this puzzle -- 2D, Aries animal, RAM, directly opposite it at the bottom of the puzzle, 69A, S...

Brace yourselves, because today's Wednesday crossword definitely felt like a Saturday, with a northwest corner that crossword aficionados will be talking about -- not always in the kindest terms -- for years. You can learn all about the epic struggle right here, and marvel at clues like 6D, What members of the Church of the SubGenius parody religion claim to be descended from, YETIS; and 5D W...

A very clever Tuesday crossword, with some astonishing anagrams from the pens of Luci Bresette and David Steinberg. Did you know that you could, using just the letters of US CAPITOL, spell out POLITICSASUSUAL? Tis true! There are a few other amazing anagrammatic gems hiding here in plain sight: listen to the podcast for the details, as well as some great tips -- it is Tip Tuesday™️ -- to help you...

A cracking-good start to the crossword week, with an array of amusing allusions to -- of course -- cracking, as in, what do a CODEBREAKER, STANDUPCOMIC, and CHIROPRACTOR have in common? A few old friends join jus as well -- ALOE, the official balm of the New York Times crossword, ADELE, possibly its official chanteuse, and TSA, definitely its favorite airport security team. We give it a perfect 5...

A scary Sunday crossword -- Mike was so frightened, in fact, that he entirely forgot how to spell ACOLYTE -- no LIE! -- and wobbled at the junction of SERAPE and APIA. Jean, meanwhile, maintained her joie de vivre in spite of the PANE inspired by a series of very bad puns. 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...

It's a tough but ultimately doable Saturday, with the clever cluing that you would expect on this day, and just a few real tricksters. Mike gets hung up at the corner of 16A, Categorized by district (ZONAL, not ZONED) and 5D, Hal's earthbound "twin" in Arthur C. Clark's "2010: Odyssey Two" (SAL, not SAD). Jean, meanwhile, quite reasonably goes for CORDUROY for 6A...