Friday, December 19, 2025 - Let's Make Some ILLINOISE!

This was an awesome debut by Bryan Cheong, who is, astonishingly, only 14 years old. You would not know it from the crossword, though: the clues are sharp and the fill as crisp as can be. Definitely 5...

6 Sep 202518min

This was a delightfully intriguing and decidedly crunchy Thursday crossword, penned by Colin Ernst and adroitly edited by Will Shortz. It took both cohosts, working independently as is their wont, no ...

5 Sep 202513min

This was a fun crossword by Michael B. Berg, his second for the NYTimes. The theme was terrific, revolving around a word that neither cohost had heard before, ZHUZH. Fortunately, the crosses were fair...

4 Sep 202510min

In keeping with the nursery rhyme, we would argue that today's crossword was full of grace ... or at least some very cool clues. Mike's favorite was 10D, Certain parent overseeing a child's career, i...

3 Sep 202514min

Today's crossword marks Lynn Lempel's 103rd for the NYTimes, and was a great way to usher in September. While there were no debut answers, quite a few of the clues caught our fancy, including 64A, Fle...

2 Sep 202511min

Michael Lieberman was definitely playing against type when he dreamed up this crossword, because he spends his days at his law firm fighting corporate mergers, but his nights -- apparently -- trying t...

25 Aug 202519min

The fifth NYTimes crossword by Ryan Judge made for a very nice Saturday; not a walk in the park, by any stretch, but more straightforward than last Saturday's "let's scale Mt Everest barefoot" uber-ch...

24 Aug 202511min

Our cohosts were surprised and delighted to learn, thanks to today's crossword, that there are four countries whose national anthems have no lyrics, and so people instead hum, or sing something along ...

23 Aug 202518min