Sunday, December 27, 2020

A Robyn Weintraub Friday crossword, woot! Jean had to dig deeply for this one, but Mike was able to fare quite well, abetted by an almost complete dearth of cultural references — but for both it left a good AFTERTASTE. Download and listen up to get the whole story.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!

24 Apr 20219min

The name's Burch, Jem Burch, and she turns in a gem of a crossword starring the most British of spies, Bond, James Bond. The theme involves 7 OO rebuses, forming a large number 7 that extends the height of the grid, as well as 3 actors who have played James Bond - Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. The clues were also extraordinarily well done. Consider as exhibit A 5D, It quits when it gets depressed, ESC (brilliant!), or 64A, Unexpected declaration at the altar, IDONT.&n...

23 Apr 202112min

Jean found today's crossword to be a SLICK, SWEETRIDE, while Mike thought it might BURY his streak in an avalanche of cultural references that were not in his wheelhouse -- including but astoundingly by no means limited to, 20A, Star of the "Deadpool" films, RYANREYNOLDS, 34A, Postmodern novelist who wrote "White Noise", DONDELILLO, and 3D, Likely inspiration for Meryl Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada", ANNAWINTOUR. Still, the crossword did have R2D2 and C3PO, so we won't com...

22 Apr 202116min

No, the New York Times crossword is not going to the dogs, although a skosh of them had cameos in today's puzzle. If there is indeed a New York Times crossword Clue-Hall-of-Fame, then we would like to nominate 13D, Awesome, in surfer speak, GNARLY, simply to give us an excuse to write the word GNARLY. There were several artful juxtapositions in today's grid, including 33A, Jack who pioneered late-night talk, PAAR, and 34A, Golfer's target, PAR, as well as 62A, Stinky smells, ODORS, and 66A, O...

21 Apr 202111min

Was this a fun crossword? YOUBETYOURLIFE -- because of that, and 2 other CLASSICGAMESHOW references that formed the theme for today's puzzle. It also had the clue 9A, Wee bit, SKOSH, which was COOL. It was pretty easy, some might say a SNAP, but based on the law of conservation of crossword difficulty (tm), the rest of the week is likely to be ATEST -- we'll report back, as always, and let you know. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, cross...

20 Apr 20217min

NEEDLESSTOSAY, today's crossword is not MISSIONIMPOSSIBLE; indeed, some veteran crossword solvers have maintained that it is a tad TOOEASY. But we found it to be a Goldilocks of a puzzle, just right. It had some interesting factoids -- 6D.Mnemosyne's daughters THEMUSES, and 41A, Site of Hercules' first labor, NEMEA -- as well as some amusing clues, such as 89A, Block where Sesame Street can be found, PBSKIDS, and 98D, Bar rooms?, CELLS (nice). We give it the JAMDTNYTC (that's the Jean & M...

19 Apr 202117min

A FUNFETTI of a Saturday crossword, albeit with a potential natick in the top-right corner for those who do not use compasses on a daily basis -- 26A, 270°, WEST, crossing 14D, On the ________, SCENT. Mike enjoyed 7D, Mathematical puzzle with movable disks, TOWEROFHANOI, and Jean appreciated 49D, "The perfume of heroic deeds", to Socrates, FAME. Both savored 38A, Zoom participants?, DRAGRACERS. All-in-all, a fine offering by constructor Leslie Rogers (edited, as always, by...

18 Apr 202110min

Both Jean and Mike ran into headwinds in the top-right corner, specifically 22A, Agree(with), JIBE -- as opposed to their (independently derived at) answers, JIVE. That one errant letter crossed 13D, Seaport derived from the Arabic for "obstacle", AQABA -- quite apropos in this case! There were some delightful new(ish) clues -- 38A, Football tactic to prevent a long return, SQUIBKICK, and 52D, Matches at a table, SEES (or, as Mike continues to insist, despite all the evidence to t...

17 Apr 202112min