Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Today's crossword paid homage to the pillars of the FOODCOURT -- DAIRYQUEEN, WHITECASTLE, and BURGERKING (although Mike still wants to know why LADYOLIVEGARDEN was slighted). And that pillar reference was intentional -- both DQ and BK ran vertically, the horizontal answers tending to be shorter than is the norm. A few recent crossword answers made repeat performances -- 61A, Tennis score after deuce, ADIN, and 66A, Lady _________, first female member of Parliament, ASTOR. But most of t...

27 Apr 20216min

In Saturday's crossword we had 35A, Implausible argument, say, STRETCH, a fine example of foreshadowing, because today's puzzle, titled Stretching Exercises, revolved around stretching various muscle groups (nice scheduling, Mr. Shortz). Besides the rather intricate theme -- listen to Jean's splendid explanation herein -- the Slang meter was pretty much pegged today, between 61A, "Oh, hell yes!", ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY; 68D, Visibly scornful, SNEERY;, and 77A, Racy selfie posted for ...

26 Apr 202119min

Everywhere you look in this crossword you'll find a superb example of the clue-writer's craft. In the top-left, 13A, Rockies you won't find in Colorado?, AWAYTEAM. In the center left, 22D, Stocking stuffer, KRISKRINGLE. In the bottom center, 50D, Hardly a man without morals, AESOP, and in the top center, 20D, Real posers?, YOGIS. Clearly, Kristian House and Mike Dockins know what they're doing, and what they're doing is providing great entertainment. Nicely done, 5 squares on the JAMCR scale....

25 Apr 202116min

A Robyn Weintraub Friday crossword, woot! Jean had to dig deeply for this one, but Mike was able to fare quite well, abetted by an almost complete dearth of cultural references — but for both it left a good AFTERTASTE. Download and listen up to get the whole story.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!

24 Apr 20219min

The name's Burch, Jem Burch, and she turns in a gem of a crossword starring the most British of spies, Bond, James Bond. The theme involves 7 OO rebuses, forming a large number 7 that extends the height of the grid, as well as 3 actors who have played James Bond - Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. The clues were also extraordinarily well done. Consider as exhibit A 5D, It quits when it gets depressed, ESC (brilliant!), or 64A, Unexpected declaration at the altar, IDONT.&n...

23 Apr 202112min

Jean found today's crossword to be a SLICK, SWEETRIDE, while Mike thought it might BURY his streak in an avalanche of cultural references that were not in his wheelhouse -- including but astoundingly by no means limited to, 20A, Star of the "Deadpool" films, RYANREYNOLDS, 34A, Postmodern novelist who wrote "White Noise", DONDELILLO, and 3D, Likely inspiration for Meryl Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada", ANNAWINTOUR. Still, the crossword did have R2D2 and C3PO, so we won't com...

22 Apr 202116min

No, the New York Times crossword is not going to the dogs, although a skosh of them had cameos in today's puzzle. If there is indeed a New York Times crossword Clue-Hall-of-Fame, then we would like to nominate 13D, Awesome, in surfer speak, GNARLY, simply to give us an excuse to write the word GNARLY. There were several artful juxtapositions in today's grid, including 33A, Jack who pioneered late-night talk, PAAR, and 34A, Golfer's target, PAR, as well as 62A, Stinky smells, ODORS, and 66A, O...

21 Apr 202111min

Was this a fun crossword? YOUBETYOURLIFE -- because of that, and 2 other CLASSICGAMESHOW references that formed the theme for today's puzzle. It also had the clue 9A, Wee bit, SKOSH, which was COOL. It was pretty easy, some might say a SNAP, but based on the law of conservation of crossword difficulty (tm), the rest of the week is likely to be ATEST -- we'll report back, as always, and let you know. We love feedback! Send us a text... Contact Info: We love listener mail! Drop us a line, cross...

20 Apr 20217min