Friday, May 28, 2021

A challenging but fair Saturday crossword, with quite a few "today-I-learned" moments. For example, 10A, "The Metamorphosis" protagonist, SAMSA, the very interesting 15A, Person who will do anything for you, in modern slang, RIDEORDIE (!), 26D, Nintendo offering with more than 10 installments, MARIOPARTY, and the revelation that the answer to 20A, Bridge, e.g., PASTIME, is spelled with only one T. Who knew? Speaking of spelling, 37A, Birthplace of Ivan Turgenev, OREL, is spelled ORYOL accordi...

20 Jun 202114min

Hopefully the author of today's terrific. crossword, Daniel Larsen, was paid by the letter, because there were a very small number of black squares in today's grid , which featured 7 clues that ran the entire width of the puzzle, and 1 that ran the entire height. At first blush, then, the crossword looked daunting - a sea of white squares - but fortunately (some of) the crosses were merciful. For instance, 46D, Two-legged stand, BIPOD, and 50D, Police dept. alerts, APBS, would be famili...

19 Jun 202113min

Jean cruised through today's crossword while simultaneously baking cookies, while Mike, unencumbered by food preparation tasks of any sort, took 3x as long to get the job done: we will let you draw your own conclusions about this. Construction-wise, the crossword was a real tour-de-force, with themed answers tracing out the shape of a fish hook, while the letters in the hook themselves formed the names of various fish. Amazing! [If you haven't solved the crossword, stroll over to xwordinfo.c...

18 Jun 202115min

There was a lot of misdirection in today's crossword, but that's by design, because the theme was, in fact, a series of movies in which the directions were flipped - 19A, Jim Sheridan gives Daniel Day Lewis nothing to work with in this Irish dramedy (1989), MYRIGHTFOOT, 25A, Rian Johnson helms this snoozer of a whodunit starring Daniel Craig (2019), KNIVESIN, etc. There were some nice clues -- 1D, Item needed for burning, once, BLANKCD, being the standout. and 53D, Monk known as the "Father o...

17 Jun 202110min

Apparently the use of "dog" as slang for foot hearkens back to at least 1913, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Mike discovered it 108 years later, during today's podcast, so ... better late than never. In other parts of the grid, Apple tech once again makes an appearance ( 7D, iPad ________ , MINI), and U-Haul also pops up (a much rarer event), in the clever clue 26D, Rental with 10-, 15-, 17-, 20- and 26-foot sizes, UHAUL. It's Triplet Tuesday, and in today's excitin...

16 Jun 202112min

Hold the (homo)phone, it turns out there are a multitude of ways to pronounce WAY -- WHEY, as in 20A, Food for Little Miss Muffet, CURDSANDWHEY, WEI, as in 31A, Chinese dissident artist, AIWEIWEI, WEIGH, as in that toe-tapper from the US Navy, 36A, U. S. Naval Academy anthem, ANCHORSAWEIGH, and finally WAY, from the second greatest musical hook of all time, 54A, Breakup song by Fleetwood Mac, GOYOUROWNWAY. [And for details of the greatest musical hook of all time, just download and listen up....

15 Jun 20218min

How's it going, eh? And if that question resonated, then you might be in a good position to tackle today's crossword, which celebrated all things Canadian. For example ... 19D, Program introduced by the Trudeau government in 1984, colloquially, FREEHEALTHCARE, 104A, Six-time winner of the N.H.L.'s Art Ross Trophy, born in Saskatchewan, GORDIEHOWE, and 16D, Seasonal destination near Quebec City, WINTERICEHOTEL. All of this led to the witty revealer, 76A, Like all the answers with pairs o...

14 Jun 202114min

A gentler Saturday crossword, because not all Saturday's have to be Thanos-like (and it's only a matter of time before that Marvel villain makes it into the New York Times crossword, you heard it here first 😀). There were some "today-I-learned" moments scattered throughout the grid, such as 13D, What those with protanomaly have difficulty seeing, RED, 22A, Prefix with -graph, TRI, and 31D, Fruit that's a major Chinese export, PERSIMMON. Mike's favorite clue was, 37D, Obelix's friend in ...

13 Jun 20215min