Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

A very nice Friday crossword by Jacob McDermott, with some awesome clues, and no crosswordese in sight. A few sample works, 15D, Oh, the humanities!, LIBERALARTS 😀;; 27D, "Heck, yeah!", DARNTOOTIN 😀 😀 ; and 32D, Rocky road ingredient, PEAGRAVEL 😀 😀 😀. In short, a great crossword, most definitely worth 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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A challenging Thursday crossword, thanks to the unexpected appearance of a boatload of rebuses (or, as we Latin scholars like to call them, rebusae). 

For themed crosswords, especially towards the end of the week, we can group our puzzle solving experience into two eras: PGTT (Pre-Grokking The Theme), and AGTT (After-Grokking The Theme). For the record, things were proceeding slowly, and indeed looking quite dire, during the PGTT era. But, once we passed into exulted AGTT era, we had a smile on our face, and if we weren't sitting down solving the crossword, would've been tempted to dance a jig: that's just how happy we were to get through this crossword!! 😀 

A reminder that xwordinfo.com is a great resource for those who like to solve the NYTimes Crossword (and if you're having trouble following our discussion, check it out first to see the completed grid and answers).

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An absolutely magical crossword, thanks to (possibly) aspiring  magician, and (most definitely) adept cruciverbalist Joseph Gangi. Most of the grid was straightforward, but there were definitely some notable clues/answers, such as 54A, Not as well, ILLER (wow!); 55A, Pepper and others, SGTS (cute!); and 61A, Modern initialism when skipping text, TLDR (which is hopefully not your reaction to these show notes, and which is why we are ending them ... now!)

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A DDDelightful Tuesday crossword by Dominic Grillo, who managed to inject a whole slew of D's into the grid, and remove virtually all "crosswordese", in a tautly written puzzle with a highly amusing theme. DDDDDeets inside, so DDDDDo have a listen, and, as usual, let us know what you think!

Just a reminder that the NYTimes Crossword is a great way to hone your wits, vanquish ennui, and make yourself attractive to whatever gender you would like to be attractive to. Wander over to nytimes.com/crosswords, and from there a subscription is just a click or two away.

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A pleasing Monday crossword by Michael Lieberman and Andrea Carla Michaels - a little crunchier than most Mondays, but a pleasant solve nonetheless, with an amusing hunk-related theme  -- deets inside.

Also, we have a winner in our Triplet Tuesday Contest!! That lucky person will shortly have a virtual cornucopia of Wisconsin swag heading their way, to eat / wear / enjoy (and hopefully it will be clear which items belong in which category 😀 )

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If you like donuts, you'll love today's crossword, as the grid is teeming with them. Beyond those, there were a number of novel clues -- a lucky 13 (!), in fact, were making their debut in the NYTimes Crossword, making for an exceptionally "fresh" crossword (to use the terminology of our favorite cruciverbially-related website, xwordinfo.com). We have much to say about today's puzzle, and our travails while solving it, so please download, listen up, and enjoy!

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Today's crossword is a rare bird - a Saturday crossword with a theme. The theme is not particularly difficult (nothing like Thursday's missing OP pairs, for example), but it turned out to be instrumental (for at least one of our cohosts) as they flailed about trying to metaphorically reach 55D, Shangri-La, EDEN, i.e., to solve the puzzle. The deets are, as usual, inside, so please subscribe / download / listen up / enjoy and, as always, feedback is appreciated - [email protected]

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Today's crossword was a cruciverbial masterpiece, with a stream of LOL answers that seemed to go ONANDON. Beyond those delightful gems that we cover in today's episode, we'd like to note a few other highlights -- 27D, Paramount requirement?, SCREENTEST 😀 ; the curious 33D, World capital where it's illegal to display the Soviet hammer and sickle, RIGA; and 23D and 35D,  Junkyard warning, SNARL and GROWL, respectively (also a great name for a law firm)

All in all a great crossword, 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

There are just 2 days remaining to enter our Triplet Tuesday Contest! Our sorting hat is almost full, but there's still room for more entries, so listen to last Tuesday's episode, then send your answers to [email protected], and may the best solver prevail!

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A tough Thursday crossword, both cohosts had to really dig deeply to get through this one. The theme was tricky, the clues absolutely diabolical ( we mean this in the best possible way), but we were WOWED, when we weren't yelling OYS! as we were making our way through it. Deets inside, and remember there are just a few more days left to enter this week's Triplet Tuesday (check out Tuesday's episode for specifics).

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We are presuming that Miranda Kany has an appreciation of CAJUN cooking, based on its key role in today's delicious theme. Beyond that there were other intriguing elements to this crossword, including 20A, Gets old, say, STALES (which is, at least for us, a very new answer); the sly crossing of 24A, Output of the Rolling Stones, appropriately, ROCKMUSIC, and 3D, Current choice, ACDC (which just cries out for that extra /, as in AC/DC); and finally the magnificently apathetic 54A, "Whatevs", MEH (for those too lazy to spell out "Whatevs" 😀). All in all, a lot to like in today's grid, here's hoping for many more puzzles from Miranda before too long!

Remember, our Triplet Tuesday Contest is going strong - check out Tuesday's episode on how you too can enter, and possibly win some fabulous WI swag!

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