Saturday, March 15, 2025 - It was a DARKNSTORMY crossword 🙄

Today's crossword was a debut for Jonathan Baude, kudos for that! The theme was uplifting (literally), and the rest of the puzzle was perfect Tuesday fare. We had some entertaining clues -- 46A, Top of the hour?, XII (😀); some educational clues -- 62D, Communication syst. in which the letter Z is drawn with one's index finger, ASL; and some clues of the product placement variety -- 15D, Grey Goose competitor, BELVEDEREVODKA. Cheers! Show note imagery: Banana Bread EGGOs, sadly no longer...

3 Dec 20256min

Today's crossword was perfectly timed, at least for those of us living in those northern regions currently besieged by winter storms. We were intrigued to learn of the existence of NAURU, the world's third smallest country (behind Vatican City and Monaco, for those of you keeping score). We were glad to see that Ms. Adler made a reappearance in the grid (66A, Woman who bests Sherlock in "A Scandal in Bohemia", IRENE); loved the nostalgic 58A, Creator of Asteroids and Pong, ATARI (ah, the clas...

2 Dec 202511min

The easy-to-spell and fun-to-say LOUDOUTS has appeared a grand total of two times in the NYTimes crossword: today, and on June 15, 2013. We are on tenterhooks awaiting its next appearance, which according to our calculations should be in 2037, or thereabouts. For the record, the crossword also featured 9 debut answers, and our favorite, by far, had to be PUMPUPTHEJAM (ah, the classics 😀). We have more to say about the crossword on the podcast, so have a listen while we attempt to recove...

1 Dec 202514min

Did an early version of Elton John's Saturday Night include the lyric "Saturday night's alright for fighting crosswords"? We don't know for certain, but we do know that today's crossword was an epic battle -- at least for Mike. Jean, as usual, found this to be a more of a minor skirmish. As we have come to expect from Adrian Johnson, author of today's puzzle, the clues had a lot of spice and bite. For example, 27D, High-level intelligence assets?, SPYPLANES (nice!); 25D, What sfouf is, ...

30 Nov 202513min

This was a fine crossword by constructor -- aka SETTER, depending on which side of the pond you live on -- Jacob McDermott, for whom we are thankful for this entire crossword, but especially the revelation about SETTERS. We found many noteworthy clues to sing about today. For instance, we had 44A, One-named rock idol who was born Paul David Hewson, BONO; the life-changing (trust us, it will, once you listen to him) 35A, Jazz pianist with a memorable recording of "Tea for Two", ARTTATUM; and t...

29 Nov 202511min

On this dual US holiday -- Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday Eve -- we wish to say how thankful we are for our myriad faithful listeners, and for the geniuses who labor day in and day out to deliver the best crosswords in the world to our metaphorical doorstep. Speaking of best crosswords, we liked today's: it had, as usual, a theme that we did not see coming, it mentioned the Flintstones, and, for the pièce-de-résistance, it included a reference to Mike's favorite biochemical process, the KR...

28 Nov 202513min

Today's crossword -- a debut by John McClung -- paid homage to one of the great movie critics of the last century, to wit, ROGEREBERT; and he was full of wit, heaping praise when deserved and throwing raspberries when not. Today's grid has just 4 examples, and they are a hoot. Deets inside. Show note imagery: The Khan el-Khalili bazaar, in CAIRO 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 fe...

27 Nov 202514min

This was a splendid Tuesday crossword, thanks to an ingenious theme surrounded by a bevy of bedazzling clues. We appreciated the aptness of seeing 3D, In an angry way, CROSSLY, in a CROSSWORD; were flabbergasted by 13D, Weight of every U.S. bank note, ONEGRAM; and were gobsmacked by 20A, U.K. : H.M.R.C. :: U.S.A. : ___, IRS. Today being Tuesday, we have a Triplet Tuesday™️ segment, with Jean being in the hot seat this time around. Show note imagery: BTS, back together again! We love feedback!...

26 Nov 202518min