Saturday, March 4, 2023 - KACHINAs and BENTOBOXes and ESSAYMILLs, oh, my!

This was a debut crossword by Jared Cappel, and it was a fine one. The theme was sharp, and surrounded by a bevy of equally keen non-themed clues: the result was, as previously noted, fine. A few clue...

12 Mars 202521min

One of Will Shortz's greatest innovations was the strategy of making Monday crosswords easy, then making them progressively harder throughout the week, with Saturday being quasi-impossible. [Sunday is...

11 Mars 202513min

The doctor -- Dr. Michael Schlossberg, to be precise -- was in fine form today, taking a sentimental stroll through the history books. Jean made short work of today's puzzle, deftly drawing upon her a...

10 Mars 202517min

Joe Deeney has created a daunting looking Saturday grid -- there are oodles of 4-stack answers, and as an ADDEDBONUS, a pinwheel in the center with very few exits into the rest of the puzzle. The clue...

9 Mars 20256min

Today's crossword was a great mental workout, replete with fine, fabulously deceptive clues -- just the kind that you hope for on a Friday. For example, we had 36A, A real no-name, ANON (of course!); ...

8 Mars 20259min

At least one of our cohosts wasn't quite on the same wavelength as today's constructor, Kiran Pandey: the clues and answers just felt a wee bit ... out of sync. Still, professional that they were (in ...

7 Mars 202519min

This was a spookily fun crossword by Rebecca Goldstein, who we are fairly certain won the ORCA Constructor of the Year Award sometime in the not too distant past -- 2024, we read on the internet -- fo...

6 Mars 202513min

This was a fine Tuesday-level crossword, the fourth (on the 4th!) for Hanh Huynh. The theme shone, the rest of the fill was quite good, and the end result was, as you will hear in today's episode, hig...

5 Mars 202517min