Tuesday, March 9, 2021

An admirable Tuesday crossword, not too HARD, not too EASY, with a very clever theme -- POLAROPPOSITES. Jean was intrigued by STELAE, while Mike was pleased that, thanks to NPR reporter Ofeibea Quist-Arcton's distinctive sign-off, he knew that the capital of Senegal was Dakar. It's Tip Tuesday, and here's what you ought to know: Sometimes it *does* pay to fill in letters: even if you don't know the entire word, you may be able to classify a square as being either a vowel or consonant,...

9 Des 20209min

BLIMEY (to quote yesterday's crossword), today's work is an ode to Anglophiles, with several answers that mean one thing on this side of the pond, and another thing on the other. For example ...17A, Travelled by subway?, WENTDOWNTHETUBE, 27A, "Would you call the elevator for me?", CANIGETALIFT, and 48A, "Hand me a flashlight", PASSTHETORCH. A few weeks ago we had a crossword with a distinctly Canadian theme, so expect Australia/India/South Africa/Other commonwealth country to pop up in the no...

8 Des 20208min

Today's crossword was ALITTLE easier than yesterday's epic. Jean's favorite clue was 79A, Nickname for baseball great Ernie Banks, MRCUB, Mike's was a tie between 44A, Brand that comes out a head?, PEZ, and 78D, Helical bit, AUGER. Both Jean and Mike were surprised to learn the existence of 104A, Peninsula shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, ISTRIA, and wondered if the author might've had a few AYS about 105D, Exclamations of regret, AYS, in lieu of OYS. We just hit 5000 downloads, so tha...

7 Des 202012min

A DEVILISH Saturday crossword, but ILIKEDIT, well, both of us did, to be precise. And precise is, er, precisely what you needed to be to solve this elegantly crafted puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley, with some SWELL clues like 31A, Woman of the world, MOTHERNATURE, and 11D, Occasion for smoking, BARBEQUE. We give this an enthusiastic 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. Remember, if you want to get in touch to discuss anything you hear on this podcast, just drop us a line at crosswordpodcast@iclou...

6 Des 202016min

Jean was clearly EQUALTO the task of solving today's crossword, while Mike was a bit LATETO the party, getting stuck in, well, the sticky stuff -- 38D, Sticky stuff (PINETAR, not VINEGAR), among other places. Our favorite clue? 21D, Leaves home?, TEAPOT. Our least favorite? Trick question, we loved the entire puzzle, and give it a 5 squares on the JAM CR scale. Today's fun fact: The Congo River is the second longest in Africa, has the world's second largest drainage volume, and is the deepes...

5 Des 202017min

It's not an UNLUCKYBREAK that Jake Halperin put together this fine crossword, which (possibly coincidentally) plays homage to a Mitch Hedberg routine about B being unlucky, because it's just a 13 scrunched together. Among the fascinating clues in today's puzzle, 7D, The U.S. Forest Service owns about 38% of it, IDAHO; and 34A, Modern lead-in to scrolling, DOOM (aka DOOMSURFING). We give today's effort a 5 squares on the always accurate, but unpredictably published, JAMCR scale We love feedbac...

4 Des 20209min

A tough Wednesday, Jean was well above her time, and Mike almost succumbed in the top right corner, unfamiliar as he was with ... pretty much every clue in the top right corner, SHEESH! There were quite a few NEW words and phrases, and we'd tell you about them RIGHTTHISSECOND but, OHSNAP, we're out of time! 😀 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 st...

3 Des 202010min

Jean tore through today's NIFTY crossword so fast that she didn't even see the theme (as Einstein correctly predicted would happen to crossword solvers as they approached the speed of light), while Mike fell into all the TRAPS, and has a few SCARS to show for it. In today's Tip Tuesday segment, we observe that 1. GURU ≠ Religious figure all the time 2. SPOT = AD (a lot of the time) 3. Leaving iffy squares blank, rather than hazarding a guess, makes them easier to spot as the grid fills up (a...

2 Des 202010min