Thursday, February 20, 2025 - Oh, *so* close

The first author of today's crossword, Chad Hazen, had over 40 rejections before finally getting a crossword published -- but when he did get it published it was in the New York Times, so there is tha...

6 Nov 202513min

This was a debut crossword by Patrick Hayden, and a very nice one, to boot. The theme was sly, and the author has a knack for writing novel clues for common answers. We covered many of them in the pod...

5 Nov 202515min

If you fear crosswords with large swathes of white squares, infrequently interrupted by a black square or two (and psychiatrists have a technical name for that: "normal"), you might want to give this ...

3 Nov 20258min

This was a sweet Saturday crossword by Michael Lieberman, filled with his characteristically witty, and fresh clueing. We've covered the best in the podcast, but we also were enamored with 37D, Atypic...

2 Nov 202516min

As we sidle up to the most challenging crossword of the week, aka Saturday, we expect the opening act -- Friday -- to help get us in the right frame of mind. Friday does not disappoint, as there were ...

1 Nov 20256min

If you needed to be reminded that the scariest day of the year is coming up tomorrow; and if yesterday's crossword didn't drive the stake (er, point) home, then today's surely will. Between the OREOS,...

31 Okt 202516min

This was the perfect Halloween Eve's Eve crossword, suitably spooky and eminently entertaining. The theme was a stitch, and the supporting cast of clues was, well, quite supportive. We've covered the ...

30 Okt 202511min

Jean found today's crossword to be a tad more difficult than usual; Mike found it almost, but not quite, impossible, thanks to the high density of pop-culture references in the bottom-left corner. We ...

29 Okt 202515min