Tuesday, June 8, 2021
It's amazing what an opportunely placed H can do to a phrase -- and Christopher Adams demonstrates this not just once or twice, but *four* times, taking common phrases, and tossing in an H to get a punderfully amusing answer. There was a lot of pop culture in today's crossword. This fazed Jean not at all, but Mike got temporarily natticked at the corner of 1D, "The Open Window" story writer, SAKI, and 17A, Actress Russell, KERI, knowing neither: only by walking through the alphabet did he eve...
9 Jun 202113min
Monday, June 7, 2021
In today's episode, we discover how to pronounce ARNAZ (41A, Desi of "I Love Lucy"); why 3D, Annual drama award, is OBIE, rather than OLEO or OLIO; that VALOR Day is not a thing (14A, _____ Day (September observance, LABOR)); and much, much more! For details, download 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 conversation!
8 Jun 202110min
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Today's crossword was titled Olio, meaning either that a) they didn't have a theme, or b) they were intending to talk about margarine but the proofreader took a POWERNAP at an inopportune time. Either way, today's crossword did have its moments -- 67D, Bits of hijinks?, DOTS, and 44D, Stopped smoking?, COOLED were among our favorites. Jean had a spot of bother with 39A, Three-dimensional, SPATIAL, inadvertently slipping in a C instead of a T. Mike, meanwhile, was disappointed that 45A, One re...
7 Jun 202115min
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Peter Wentz really UPPEDTHEGAME in today's crossword, resulting in a real THRILLER. Both Jean & Mike, solving independently as always, had the toughest time in the bottom-left corner, where tricky clues like 47A, NorCal daily, SACBEE, and 49D, Credit card name, CITI (not VISA), were wedged in between other tricky clues, like 36D, Steinbeck novella, THEPEARL, and 47D, Tests one's spirits?, SIPS. Still, all's fair's in love and Saturday New York Times crosswords, and we give...
6 Jun 202110min
Friday, June 4, 2021
A challenging but fair Friday crossword, with some absolutely stellar cluing. Surely 18A, A child who's lying might make one, SNOWANGEL, deserves some sort of award, as does 40A, Small organic food producer, HONEYBEE (wow!); and we would be remiss if we didn't mention 8D, Explicit, to a Brit, SPELTOUT, and 43A, Hardly a long shot, PUTT. So, we doff our hats to the constructor, Nam Jin Yoon, and give his oeuvre a well-earned 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. We love feedback! Send us a text... Con...
5 Jun 20218min
Thursday, June 3, 2021
If you like rebuses (rebusae?), you will absolutely adore today's crossword, because it has ...wait for it ... eighteen of them, artfully arranged by Kyra Wilson and Sophia Maymudes. We are not going to even try and articulate the theme here in the episode notes, but Jean does a splendid job of explaining it in the podcast. There were a few tricky spots -- probably the most difficult being the spelling of 34A, Catchphrase on "The Simpsons", AYCARAMBA, because a) it sounds like AYCARUMBA, and...
4 Jun 202113min
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Happy Pride Month, everyone! In honor of that august occasion, Jesse Goldberg has crafted a puzzle revolving around 34A, Historic inn commemorated during Pride Month, as suggested by this puzzle's border answers, STONEWALL. Revolving is the operative word, as the top and bottom rows, and left and right columns were dedicated to 10, count 'em, 10 theme-related clues, all of which required STONE to be appended to the end of the answer -- 1A, Graveyard sight, HEAD[STONE], 47D, Quaint street mate...
3 Jun 20218min
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Today's crossword might've been a shoutout to fruititarians, what with the references to HALLEBERRY, PROFESSORPLUM, PRINCESSPEACH, and a very popular singer (especially in the New York Times Crossword), FIONAAPPLE. The latter crossed with 40D, Tech release of 2017, IMACPRO -- a nice touch since, of course, they are made by Apple. There were quite a few cultural references in today's puzzle, including 33D, Singer with the 2019 # 2 hit "Don't Start Now", DUALIPA, and 7D, "Heidi" aut...
2 Jun 202113min
