Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

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

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

Today's crossword was tough, for a Tuesday - with a bevy of popular culture references that covered a wide swathe of time. There was almost 130 years, for instance, between, 60A, Lord High Executioner in "The Mikado", KOKO and the revealer at 57A, 2013 Best Musical Tony winner ... with a hint to this puzzle's theme, KINKYBOOTS. There were also quite a few popular references, such as 20D, One-named singer with the 2010 hit "Dancing on My Own", ROBYN, 8D, DKNY"s Donna, KARAN, and who can forget...

15 Syys 202116min

Mondays are traditionally the easiest crossword of the week: last week's had a bit more crunch to it than usual, so this may be Will's way of balancing the ledger. Today's puzzle did have a few TIL (Today I Learned) clues, most notably 33A, State whose flag, with eight gold stars in the shape of the Big Dipper, was designed by a 13 year old, ALASKA, and 6A, Face ______ (app that creates bizarre photos), SWAP; but most were of the order of 11D, "Eat your _______!" (parent's order), VEGETABLES ...

14 Syys 20216min

Today's puzzle ought to put a smile on your face ... because there's a smile in the grid! A winking smile, to be precise, the emoticon ;-). Rather than using PUNCTUATIONMARKS, however, the ;-) is ingeniously spelled out (SEMI, COLON, HYPHEN and PARENTHESIS, all arranged in the appropriate shape in the grid), and it must've taken forever to get this right. We salute the author, Alex Rosen, for a job well done - 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. Besides the PUNCTUATIONMARK artistry, there was some ...

13 Syys 202112min

An amazing oeuvre by Sid Sivakumar. Just consider 1A, Cause for alarm?, BURGLAR (ha!)), 3A, Acts like a nudnik to, PESTERS (huh?), and 45A, Smartphone screen displays, ALERTS (wow!). Now imagine an entire puzzle with clues like that, well ... you don't have to imagine, because the entire puzzle is like that, a serious mental workout worthy of a Saturday New York Times crossword. A 5 squares on the JAMCR scale if ever a puzzle deserved one! For all the deets, download and enjoy today...

12 Syys 202116min

A challenging Friday crossword (but easier than last week's!). There were a few novel entries in today's grid, including 17A, Hybrid citrus fruit native to China, MEYERLEMON, the very 21st century 3D, "G2G", TTYL, and 35D, Marshal under Napoleon, NEY. Jean leveraged her familiarity with 12D, ________ the 25-Down, founder of the kingdom of Hawaii, KAMEHAMEHA, to get a good leg up in the top right corner, whereas Mike leveraged his familiarity with computers and his unfamiliarity with gerunds t...

11 Syys 202112min

A fascinating puzzle, with several TIL (Today I Learned) moments. Most notably, the astonishing 30A, Animal whose teeth are the strongest substance in the natural world, SNAIL. For those of us who never even knew that SNAILs had teeth, this was indeed a revelation! Also, the fact that RADIAN is part of the SI (metric system) was also a bit of a stunner. The theme involved standard to metric conversions, so for instance, 16A, "In a Silent Way" trumpeter, [~3:5], KILOMETERSDAVIS (as opposed to ...

10 Syys 202114min