Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - Say, what's your ANGLE?
A geometrically themed crossword, with various ANGLEs making an appearance, at, as one might expect, an angle. Jean solved the crossword in almost record time, but Mike, alas, fixated on the name DEBDUBOIS for considerably longer than he ought to have before finding the correct answer to 7D, Co-founder of the NAACP and author of "The Souls of Black Folk", WEBDUBOIS. A few other noteworthy grid entries include the occurrence of both ALBA (1D, Actress Jessica), and ELBA (12D, Actor Idris with a...
29 Syys 202113min
Monday, September 27, 2021 - INTHEBANK
A fun Monday, with a droll theme, revolving around 61A, Guaranteed ... or where you can find the ends to 17A (POLEVAULT), 23A (PENNANDTELLER), 37A (DAYLIGHTSAVINGS), and 50A (BOTTLEDEPOSIT), INTHEBANK. One of the more interesting clues was 51D, River of forgetfulness, in myth, LETHE, interesting because just two days ago we had a reference to the Greek goddess of memory, MNEMOSYNE. Coincidence? Ha! More likely the work of clever and indefatigable editor Will Shortz. Thank you, Will! We ...
28 Syys 20218min
Sunday, September 26, 2021 - From CECE to NENE
Most crossword answers are black-and-white - but today's grid had a slew of them in gray, as part of an intricate theme involving cut classes (listen to Jean's stellar explanation for all the deets). There seemed to be a plethora of people populating the grid, such as 117A, Michael _______ of "Ugly Betty", URIE, 125A, "Spy Kids" actress Hatcher, TERI, 115D, Children's book author Blyton, ENID, 16D, Thompson of "Sorry to Bother You", TESSA, 51D, Muralist Riviera, DIEGO, 94D, Human rights lawye...
27 Syys 202112min
Saturday, September 25, 2021 - Don't forget MNEMOSYNE
If spelling is not your forte, then perhaps you might want to brace yourself before trying today's crossword. Between 33A, Site of the impact of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, CHICXULUBCRATER, 18A, Greek goddess of memory, MNEMOSYNE, and 33D, Mexican dish named after a small boat, CHALUPA, there were a lot of serious spelling challenges. Jean had issues all over the grid, whereas Mike's were focused in the top-right, having temporarily confused 11D, W.W. II...
26 Syys 202113min
Friday, September 23, 2021 - Enjoy Your LEAPDAY
A gentle Friday, Jean did it in slightly less time than usual, whereas Mike cleaved off 3h5m (if only we were kidding!) from his cataclysmically bad Thursday time. Jean started off slowly and picked up steam as she went along; Mike found most of the puzzle firmly planted in his wheelhouse, with the exception of the top-right corner (with 16A, Lustrous shell compound, NACRE, and 10D, What genes do, biologically, ENCODE (not, with apologies to biology teachers everywhere, DIVIDE), causing...
25 Syys 202112min
Thursday, September 23, 2021 - HUEVOS, Por Favor
An ingenious Thursday delight by Simeon Seigel, with an awe inspiring theme that surely deserves a place in the pantheon of great crosswords. It involves personal identifiable information (PII), embedded in black squares, that emerges when the puzzle is solved. If you haven't seen the solution, hop over to xwordinfo.com to admire Mr. Seigel's opus. In other news, we have listener mail, so to hear that, and more, download and listen up. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love...
24 Syys 202114min
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
