While Ryan is still on vacation, Brian is once again joined by Ben "The Barnacle" Zimmer! Coming in a smidge shorter than last week's show, Ben and Brian spend most of the episode talking all about cryptic crosswords -- history, evolution, Twitch streaming, and a Thunder Round of some of their favorites from the past week.

Find more of Ben Zimmer on Twitter and on his other podcast, Spectacular Vernacular. And read the two articles he mentions on this show, the ones from Beyond Wordplay and Slate.

There's a contest crossword, which you can download at https://bit.ly/fmi328con

. And if you want to check out any of the cryptic crosswords mentioned on the show today, go to Daily Crossword Links for those and more!

Stuff to click:

• MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 and the Hunt's archive
• SkyKnit
• Learned League

If you get bored, write something for the Fill Me In wiki.

And if you're feeling philanthropic, donate to our Patreon. We shout out the names of our patrons on the first new episode of each month -- including today!

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