Wednesday, January 17. 2024 - Morton J. Mendelson had a (b)right idea 😀
A fine Wednesday crossword by Morton J. Mendelson, and to answer the question raised in the grid, yes, ITISART: artfully designed, wittily clued, and with an astonishing number of themed clues. We were also delighted to see echoes of yesterday's stellar crossword crop up today - Tuesday revolved around ONEL, while today we had 59D, Top-notch, AONE. Tuesday involved the letter L, while today's crossword involved a lot of right angles (fundamentally an L that went head over heels). Show ...
18 Jan 202416min
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - A deLightful Tuesday crossword
Every now and then the NYTimes publishes a crossword for the ages, and today is one of those days, because this work of art, by Marshall Hermann, is sublime, stunning, stupendous, and a slew of other words that start with the letter S -- ironic, considering that the theme ... nope, we are *not* going to spoil it here: check out today's episode and then, as always, let us know what you think! Show note imagery: today's picture, varieties of SEAGLASS We love feedback! Send us a text... C...
17 Jan 202418min
Monday, January 15, 2024 - Beware the grampus!
A crossword that's bound to tickle your fancy, a statement that will appear quite droll once you've heard the podcast / soused out the theme. Beyond the clues already mentioned on the podcast, we'd like to highlight 45D, Pain relief brand with an oxymoronic name, ICYHOT; the appearance of yet another French word in the grid (62D, the S of RSVP, SIL), a trend which at least one of us would like to see continue; and there's just something very grounded about 60D, Barber's shout, NEXT. This repr...
16 Jan 202412min
Sunday, January 14, 2023 - A SUPERDUPER Sunday crossword!
John Kugelman, cybersecurity expert and crossword constructor extraordinaire, has outdone himself with an extremely punny Sunday opus. INAILEDIT shows up in the grid, and may also have reflected his feelings when he got the last answer to slip into the grid. We liked this crossword a lot, for all the reasons covered in today's podcast. Enjoy! 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...
15 Jan 202422min
Saturday, January 13, 2024 - Somewhere between new and crescent, it's ... BABYMOON!
An easier than usual Saturday crossword (for at least one of our cohosts, no prizes for guessing who!), which means that -- according to the Law of Conservation of Crossword Difficulty -- Sunday is going to be a toughie! This puzzle did have some fine moments, though, including 13D, Caped crusader?, TORERO; 14D, First garment, perhaps, ONESIE; and one of the finer "bail out" excuses of recent times, 7D, "That's why you get the big bucks and not me", ABOVEMYPAYGRADE. Show no...
14 Jan 202414min
Friday, January 12, 2024 - The NYTimes Crossword - the *perfect* way to while away a snow day
A lively Friday crossword by Hemant Mehta, with a fusillade of clever and/or educational clues guaranteed to delight the diligent solver. We cover most of them in today's episode, along with a fascinating fact for Fun Fact Friday, plus a bonus: listener mail! For all that and more, download, listen up, and ... enjoy! Show notes imagery: Where's Waldo?, mentioned in today's puzzle as having been banned (!) We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line...
13 Jan 202420min
Thursday, January 11, 2024 - X marks the spot!
Today's puzzle, by Damon Gulczynski, has an ingenious and well-disguised theme: and thanks to the revealer's position in the bottom-right, we are kept in suspense / befuddlement, until the very end -- just the way we like it! A few clues that didn't make it into the episode but are worthy of note include 26D, Groups of hands, CREWS (brilliant!); 41D, Instrument notary featured in George Michael's 1984 hit, "Careless Whisper", SAX (wait, a SAX can whisper? 😀); some very sage advice, 12D, Good...
12 Jan 20247min
Wednesday, January 10, 2024 - GOBI, the world's most aptly named desert!
There was one TYPEO in today's grid, but that was by design and quite amusing (20A, What's tolerated by every body?), as we can count on one hand (without resorting to any phalanges chicanery) the number of genuine TYPEOs in the NYTimes Crossword. Some real gems lay lurking in the grid, from subtle clues such as 61D, Its ways are numbered, RTE (lovely!), to the minor head scratcher (for some of us), 12D, One of the Astaires, ADELE (no, not that one); and one that we mentioned in the ep...
11 Jan 202415min
