Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A true test of cruciverbal mettle and stamina, with some awesomely difficult clues. They aren't hard to find, either: just point randomly anywhere on the grid and you'll be likely to find one. For instance, 33D, Mozart's "Voi, che sapete", and others, ARIETTAS (egads!); 39D, Pool side, SOLIDS (oh, that kind of pool 😀); and 16A, What a snake or dragon can represent, LUNARYEAR. And those weren't the hardest in the grid -- Jean and Mike are still trying to figure out how to spell...

10 Jul 202216min

A superb. Friday puzzle by Kyle Dolan: Jean found it straightforward, Mike had to dig deeply for clues like 4D, Representative, TOTEMIC (which definitely was not, as far as Friday clues go); 10D, Mission Santa ____ (National Historic Landmark in California), INES (now officially on our bucket lists); 14D, Question at a press conference, maybe, WHOSNEXT (no, WHOSONFIRST 😀). The topper was 22A, Point ____, ocean spot farthest from land, NEMO, which coincidentally and most deservedly is o...

9 Jul 202218min

If today's crossword makes you fear you are seeing double, do not adjust your, er, eyes, because you are -- thanks to Philip Wolfe's cleverly constructed theme. We have all the deets inside, as well as a slight addendum to a discussion of yesterday's theme, just waiting for you to download, subscribe, and enjoy! A friendly reminder: the New York Times Crossword would love to have you as a subscriber, and it makes a great gift for, well, you (as well as your friends and relations)! Just...

8 Jul 202212min

Sam Koperas and Jeff Chen provide a master class in crisp crossword clues, with numerous LOL examples. There are too many to list here, but trust us (better yet, download the podcast and listen to us!) -- the grid is bursting to the seams with 'em. It definitely pegs the scale on the JAMCRmeter (that's Jean And Mike Crossword Rating meter), kudos to both constructors (and Will Shortz, it goes without saying but we just did anyway). We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love lis...

7 Jul 202211min

Today's crossword is an homage to Taylor SWIFT, but even if you can't hum FEARLESS or SHAKEITOFF, fear not - the clues are straightforward (respectively 20A, Like daredevils, informally, and 41A, Get over a minor injury, say) and the crosses gentle. Beyond that, we have to pause in admiration of the inclusion of YOINK, which Mike originally took to be YOIK, as immortalized by Daffy Duck, but the crosses fortunately helped straighten him out. In other news, it's Triplet Tuesday, and thi...

6 Jul 202213min

Jean's favorite team -- the Kansas City ROYALS -- gets into the grid, as did Mike's favorite DC (and MARVEL!) supervillain -- ARCLIGHT -- so that's yet another cause for celebration, beyond, of course, the fact that, it's the 4th of July. Speaking of which, today's crossword was Bruce Haight's 59th, so while he hasn't had quite as many crosswords published as the US had had birthday's, he's definitely making headway! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love li...

5 Jul 20228min

Today's fine crossword by Tom McCoy featured grammargrams, a concept so rare that even Google couldn't find it, but thanks to WordPlay (the NYTimes Crossword column) we know that it's a real thing. You didn't need to know what a grammargram was to solve the puzzle - Mike is living proof of that - but it did help - and Jean (of course) is living proof of that. In other news, we have a belated JAMCOTWA to announce, and want to wish a happy 4th of July to all our American listeners. We love ...

4 Jul 202215min

A tough-ish Saturday crossword by Evan Kalish, with clues like 51A, Verb whose past tense form is an anagram of its present tense, EAT (that took a while!); 60A, Assign new keyboard shortcuts to, REMAP (yay, one for the nerds!); and 53D, Plant that symbolized purity in ancient Egypt, FLAX (not FLAN, which while delicious is not necessarily pure), all giving a taste (especially the latter 😀) of the difficulty level involved (high). We loved this crossword, and rate it a 5 squares on the...

3 Jul 20228min