Wednesday, February 26, 2025 - We long for more crosswords by Dan Caprera 😁

A fine crossword by Claire Rimkus and Rachel Fabi, with a brilliant theme that left us eLATEd, and a few words and phrases to add to the ol' lexicon, including: 64D, Body part affected by heterochromia, EYE (for the record, we knew EYE; it was heterochromia that we were unacquainted with)40D, Euphemism for a lesbian couple, GALPALS15D, "I really appreciate it!," in textspeak, TYVMAnd for the full 411 on today's crossword, you know the drill: subscribe (always optional, but this way you'll alw...

30 Dec 202215min

An homage to female ROCKANDROLL artists who have been inducted twice into the HALLOFFAME -- once with collaborators, and once as a solo act. Several other musicians managed to slip into the grid: to find out who they are, as well as some other absolutely fascinating TIL (Today I Learned) areas of the grid, all you need do is subscribe, download, listen and learn! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com. Also, ...

29 Dec 202214min

Lynn Lempel had her first NYTimes crossword published in 1979, and this was her 99th! According to xwordinfo.com, which tracks these sorts of things, most of her crosswords appear on Monday (71), with most of the rest (16) appearing on Tuesday. Jean found today's crossword to be fairly straightforward: Mike found it a bit of a challenge, especially in the vicinity of 9D, White wine named for the European river valley where it's produced, MOSELLE, as the only thing he is less familiar with tha...

28 Dec 202211min

Once again, like CLOCKWORK, the NYTimes has come up with a fine Monday crossword to start our problem-solving week. Apart from a few snags - 1A, Floating ice chunk, BERG (not FLOE); 33A, College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, COE (not UNI); 30D, Bitter part of an orange, PITH (not PEEL or RIND) ; and 61D, A rainbow may be seen as a good one, SIGN (not OMEN) - the crossword was fine: and come to think of it, even with those snags it was fine -- a full 5 squares on the JAMCR scale! We ...

27 Dec 202213min

A challenging but fair Christmas Eve crossword, with 2 full width, and 2 full height answers that were reasonably familiar, although the clues that led to those answers suitably cryptic (e.g., 57A, Symphony originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, BEETHOVENSTHIRD, and 2D, Revenue source for a Girl Scout troop, DOORTODOORSALES). Jean tore through the grid in under 1/3 the time it took Mike, who ran into a morass in the bottom center. All the sordid details, as well as our choice for JAMCOTW...

25 Dec 202215min

A fine Friday oeuvre by Brandon Koppy, and a timely one too, esp. 11D, Follower of an arctic blast, COLDSPELL, 4D, Character in "Frozen" who says "Some people are worth melting for", OLAF, and when things get really nasty outside, 51D, Relief org., FEMA. We also have a very cool Fun Fact Friday segment, so gather your favorite hot beverage and then subscribe, download, listen up, learn and enjoy! We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a li...

24 Dec 202216min

A dizzying, dazzling, delightful Thursday crossword by David Steinberg that has to be seen to be believed -- and even then you might not! Clearly DS is in a league of his own when it comes to crossword construction, we are in awe, as in, aww, that was great! Can we have an encore? 😀 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!

23 Dec 202217min

A highly educational Wednesday crossword, with a slew of TIL (Today I Learned) entries, including the fascinating 9D, Metal next to tungsten on the periodic table, RHENIUM, which neither Jean nor Mike, in spite of having taken several chemistry classes, had ever heard of. It is true that a number of heavier elements have been added to the periodic table, um, periodically, but the lower numbered elements have generally remained unchanged. There were some other TILs, so to help improve your, o...

22 Dec 202214min