July 26, 2023 - We are AMPED about today's crossword (and the discovery of the CLUAN 😀)

This was a fine end-of-work-week crossword by Rafael Musa, his 19th for the NYTimes and his 9th Friday, so he certainly knows this day well! Though seemingly not hugely difficult, it was a good warmup...

31 Touko 202515min

The constructor of today's crossword, John Kugelman, is mostly known for his Sunday crosswords: but somehow he managed to squeeze all that ken into a 15x15 grid, and the result is this fine Thursday o...

30 Touko 202515min

This was a clever Wednesday crossword, and not just because its author, Peter A. Collins, slipped 21A, Understanding, KEN, and 22D, Astuteness, ACUMEN, into the grid. It was, inevitably, the theme tha...

29 Touko 202518min

This was a fine Tuesday crossword by Ginny Too, with a twee theme that lent itself to some amusing segues, as you will discover in today's episode. We also have our Triplet Tuesday segment, so to see ...

28 Touko 202515min

This is Ari Halpern's third NYTimes crossword, but his previous crossword appeared seventeen years ago. We're hoping that's because Ari found other things to do in the interim, and not because he's su...

27 Touko 202510min

This was a brilliant crossword by Dylan Schiff. Solving it was terrific fun, but creating it must've been a real bear (to borrow from a recent NYTimes Crossword answer). You'll see why when you check ...

26 Touko 202519min

Both cohosts found today's crossword to be a tad on the easy side (for a Saturday), but it nonetheless had some brilliant clues. Among these were 32D, Eton ___ (traditional English dessert), MESS (yum...

25 Touko 202512min

Our intrepid cohosts -- solving, as always, independently -- had very different experiences whilst filling in the grid. Jean got through this relatively readily, whereas Mike muttered many imprecation...

24 Touko 202517min