Saturday, May 24, 2025 - Today's crossword contained, literally, a PLEASANTSURPRISE

This was a Super Crossword for a Super Bowl Sunday. The theme was straightforward but cute, and the rest of the puzzle featured a SEA of crafty clues. For instance, we had 24D, Quick hellos, HIS (ha!)...

9 Feb 16min

Mark Diehl has been writing NYTimes Crosswords - predominantly Friday and Saturday puzzles - since 1984. He's eased off as of late, his last appearing in 2020. But he's back with an ingenious Saturday...

8 Feb 15min

There were some truly awesome clues in today's crossword. We definitely hit the highlights in the podcast, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention 44D, Stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang,...

7 Feb 16min

Today's crossword, a debut (huzzah!) by Dario Salvucci, was one of those puzzle-in-a-puzzle challenges that we just adore. In this case, one had to decipher some emoticon-like clues to get the correct...

6 Feb 20min

Today's crossword leveraged a hilarious line from a very well-known sitcom, and with just the slightest change in syllabification, turned it into the foundation of a terrific theme. Sheer genius from ...

5 Feb 11min

It's been almost 2 years since Nate Cardin last graced the pages of the NYTimes, and from our perspective that's almost 2 years too long. But he's back now, and in excellent form, with a wry theme and...

4 Feb 15min

The Cardinal Rules of Crossword Construction: Rule # 1: never repeat an answer in the gridRule # 2: ignore rule 1 if it'll make for an especially awesome crosswordWe are pleased as punch to report th...

3 Feb 13min

Both cohosts found today's crossword, a collaboration between Lance Enfinger and John Kugelman, to be a real workout (mentally, of course: physically they were pretty much doing their best mannequin i...

2 Feb 17min