Thursday, May 22, 2025 - If crosswords were paintings, this'd be the Mona Lisa 🖼️

This was an unexpectedly crunchy Friday crossword, with lots of brilliantly concealed traps for the unwary solver. We loved every "there goes the ol' streak, it was good knowin' ya" moment, as we toil...

25 Apr 8min

This is Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry's second collaboration, and it is an uber-awesome bit of cruciverbal magic. They started with a chef's kiss of a theme, puzzling with a powerful payoff; they ended w...

24 Apr 8min

Today's crossword was an homage to Earth Day, and we loved it! One of the big no-no's in crossword construction was ignored in the making of today's puzzle, but it was for the sake of the theme, so th...

23 Apr 7min

This was a nicely crafted Tuesday crossword. The theme was fun and straightforward, and the themed clues were in good company. For instance, the puzzle included our favorite snake — 51A, Reptiles on p...

22 Apr 14min

This was a perfect Sunday crossword by Michael Lieberman. Mike (cohost, not constructor 😀) needed to resort to pencil and paper (!) to help visualize the theme, and thoroughly enjoyed the sheer tacti...

20 Apr 13min

This was a very nice Saturday crossword by Jesse Cohn, almost exactly one year since he last published on a Saturday. The clues were interesting / challenging / suitably obscure, as one would hope. Se...

19 Apr 6min

Friday crosswords have a lot of weight on their shoulders: they need to be entertaining (of course); themeless (by convention); and ramp up the difficulty to just the right level so that Saturday does...

18 Apr 7min

This was a terrific crossword by Rafael Musa — who usually works the Friday side of the street — and Sala Wanetick. The theme was ingenious and, as we discuss in today's episode, almost impossible to ...

17 Apr 7min