Friday, November 24, 2023 - ASTI, the Pride of Piedmont!

It takes just an askance glance at today's grid to know that something's up. Perhaps it's the suspicious symmetry, or the fact that several runs of gray squares seem to have been cut in half. That's b...

13 Maalis 202518min

This was a debut crossword by Jared Cappel, and it was a fine one. The theme was sharp, and surrounded by a bevy of equally keen non-themed clues: the result was, as previously noted, fine. A few clue...

12 Maalis 202521min

One of Will Shortz's greatest innovations was the strategy of making Monday crosswords easy, then making them progressively harder throughout the week, with Saturday being quasi-impossible. [Sunday is...

11 Maalis 202513min

The doctor -- Dr. Michael Schlossberg, to be precise -- was in fine form today, taking a sentimental stroll through the history books. Jean made short work of today's puzzle, deftly drawing upon her a...

10 Maalis 202517min

Joe Deeney has created a daunting looking Saturday grid -- there are oodles of 4-stack answers, and as an ADDEDBONUS, a pinwheel in the center with very few exits into the rest of the puzzle. The clue...

9 Maalis 20256min

Today's crossword was a great mental workout, replete with fine, fabulously deceptive clues -- just the kind that you hope for on a Friday. For example, we had 36A, A real no-name, ANON (of course!); ...

8 Maalis 20259min

At least one of our cohosts wasn't quite on the same wavelength as today's constructor, Kiran Pandey: the clues and answers just felt a wee bit ... out of sync. Still, professional that they were (in ...

7 Maalis 202519min

This was a spookily fun crossword by Rebecca Goldstein, who we are fairly certain won the ORCA Constructor of the Year Award sometime in the not too distant past -- 2024, we read on the internet -- fo...

6 Maalis 202513min