Wednesday, September 22, 2021 - Yay, APPLETON!
Jean solved today's crossword so quickly that several laws of physics may have been broken in the process, or at least bent. There were several related answer pairs in the grid, in particular 9D, Dweller west of the North Atlantic, AMERICAN, and 40D, Dweller east of the North Atlantic, EUROPEAN. A case could also be made for 17A, Much of Roy Lichtenstein's work?, DOTCOMICS, and 51A, "SpongeBob SquarePants", e.g., CARTOON. Jean & Mike were both pleased to see 42D, Wisconsin cit...
23 Syys 20217min
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 - Hail to LOONA Lewis
A fun Tuesday crossword, with some legal puns (are there any other kind?) to spice things up. Jean tore through the crossword in under 12 minutes, while Mike, convinced that 10D, Brand of caramel candy, WERTHERS, should be spelled WORTHERS, spent an absurdly long amount of time before realizing that the cross, 16A, British pop singer Lewis, was in fact LEONA, and not her lesser known rival, LOONA Lewis. In other news, it's Triplet Tuesday, and Jean again shows her mastery of the 3 lett...
22 Syys 202113min
Monday, September 20, 2021 - A Crusty Crossword
Today's subtly themed crossword took us on a tour of the Earth's interior. It began with 17A, Pizza feature for a specialized diet, GLUTENFREECRUST, through 34A, Take on a position, along with its responsibilities, ASSUMETHEMANTLE, ending up at 52A, Lacking any moral compass, ROTTENTOTHECORE, the antithesis of this fine work by Pao Roy. There were a few other interesting clues, such as 9D, Nonbinary pronoun pair, THEYTHEM, and 48D, Rapper J. _______, COLE, apparently one of the "m...
21 Syys 202110min
Sunday, September 19, 2021 - ¡Ay, caramba!
Sometimes, what you need when solving a crossword is a FRESHSETOFEYES. Well, good news, because in today's crossword, they're already there, as in the answer to 116A, New look provider ... or a homophonic hint to this puzzle's theme. Specifically, there are multiple answers with an extra set of I's and whose removal leads to a completely different answer. For instance, 23A, Meticulous magical beings?, THOROUGHFAIRIES, with the I's excised, becomes THOROUGHFARES. Most ingenious. I...
20 Syys 202114min
Saturday, September 18, 2021 - Three Cheers for OKIE from Muskogee
A challenging Saturday crossword (but aren't they all?). Jean had trouble in the bottom half, unfamiliar with 40A, Upgrade for a train passenger, PARLORCAR, and 34D, Humans, in sci-fi slang, MEATBAGS (ugh!), while Mike had an IMPASSE at 21D, Merle Haggard tune, "_____ From Muskogee", oscillating between ABIE and OBIE, instead of the correct OKIE (which is now burned into his consciousness). He also WENTOUTONALIMB by coining a new music genre as an answer to 9D, Genre popularized by Limp Bizki...
19 Syys 202112min
Friday, September 17, 2021 - WALLTOWALL Goodness!
In today's episode, we learn about the story behind 28A, Comedian Notaro, TIG, savor the awesome clue, 32A, Ground shaking stuff?, PEPPER, and for Fun Fact Friday learn why the answer to 55A, Cheese whose name is a semordnilap, is EDAM. All this is just waiting for you, so download now, and listen up! 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 conv...
18 Syys 20219min
Thursday, September 16, 2021 - Going for ... SILVER?
A relatively straightforward Thursday crossword - look, ma, no rebuses! -- with gentle but amusing cluing, and a clever theme involving SILVERLINING. Each answer around the periphery of the grid worked if prefaced with the word SILVER, as in SILVERSURFER, SILVERBELLS, etc. There was one groaner pun - 35D, Ice place to go?, RINK, and a few biochemically trending clues - 34D, Prefix with genetics, EPI, and 37A, Something found in strands, DNA - but a dearth of pop culture references helped imme...
17 Syys 20218min
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - WOAH!
For those of you still recovering from yesterday's jammed-to-the-rafters-with-pop-culture-references grid, the NYTimes proudly presents as an antidote today's puzzle -- with barely a pop culture reference in sight -- thereby keeping the average number of PCRs close to the officially prescribed 3.5 PCRs per grid ... a regulation and a number that we just invented. The theme was cute, involving artificial facial components, and the rest of the clues were equally droll, including such winn...
16 Syys 20218min
