Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

In today's exciting installment, we go through the 4 stages of Rebus Identification, as today's crossword provides an excellent example of a rebus-festooned-grid. [Full disclosure: we do get a small gratuity every time we use festooned in the show notes, thanks to the generosity of the Society For the Promotion and Preservation of Festooning*]. As you can tell, we had oodles of fun doing this crossword, and to find out why, all you need to do is download/subscribe and listen up!

*ed: that was totally made up, there is no such society ... yet

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A brilliant crossword by Scott Graham, all revolving around the twentieth letter of the English alphabet. Jean loved the implicit theme. Mike missed most of it, but in today's episode Jean sets him straight, as also puts him through the wringer, it being Triplet Tuesday™️.

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You might want to wear shades when solving this crossword, and RUBIN a dollop of SPF -- for reasons that will become abundantly clear once you've done so (solved the crossword, with or without the sunglasses and lotion). Apart from the brilliant theme, the grid had a few gems --  the rarely seen HOYAS making its 11th appearance in the NYTimes crossword,  the slightly rarer SELFIE (10 times), and the very elusive MONKEYSUNCLE making just its 3rd appearance in the grid. Welcome, one and all! 

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If you like movies, and you like puns, you'll love today's puzzle, which is teeming with them. Who can resist simultaneously giggling and groaning at 61A, Staunch dedication to one's upper leg exercise routine?, THIGHFIDELITY, or 94A, Tire-puncturing way across a river, BRIDGEOFSPIKES? And even if you don't like those, there is still a lot to admire in today's grid. All the deets lie within, so subscribe/download and enjoy.

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A fine Saturday crossword by Adam Aaronson. Jean tore through it so quickly that her keyboard melted, whereas Mike's keyboard was in no danger whatsoever, except from a mild fist pounding from time to time. We have all the deets inside, as well as the always suspenseful bestowing of the JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Crossword Of The Week Award), so hit subscribe, click download, and do enjoy!

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A great Friday crossword by Sophia Maymudes and Margaret Seikel: the clues were crisp, the answers rare if not unique, and the crosswordese meter was reading just about 0. A grid with the likes of SORORITYSQUAT, BURRATA, NOODLEBAR and TINYHOUSE is one to admire and savor, and we do exactly that in today's episode.

It's also Fun Fact Friday, and if you were wondering, so, what were ELIA's Popular Fallacies (from yesterday's fine effort by Jeff Chen), wonder no longer - just download, listen up, and all will be revealed.

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An ingenious theme in today's crossword, an anti-rebus -- instead of multiple letters scrunched into one square, we have two letters expanding out of ... nothing, just like the Big Bang (although not quite as noisy). Today's crossword was by Jeff Chen, and that means quality. Clues like 38A, One of two in 2/22/22, SLASH, and the amazing (and debut word)  21A, Carnivorous : meat :: carpophagous : ________, FRUIT are just a few of the many Easter eggs that await the diligent spelunker of today's grid.

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A nice Wednesday crossword, with a really crisp set of answers (and no, that's not a reference to 3D, Jobs creation, APPLE, nor 12D, Pie nut, PECAN). But from 1D, Q preceder in Song, SUZIE (great!), to 55D, Very corpulent, OBESE (probably from eating all those PECANS and AFFOGATOS!), the answers were relatively fresh (like the BUTTONMUSHROOMS). In short, this puzzle was delicious ... and now if you'll excuse us, we have to raid the fridge 😀 

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Alex Eaton-Salners has been known to cause normally intrepid crossword solvers to quake in their crossword-solving boots. He's mercifully dialed it down a notch for this Tuesday puzzle, which still has a fascinating theme, and includes, among the many gems in today's grid, the mysterious ALETTE -- which will be slightly less mysterious once you've listened to today's episode.

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Today's crossword features a homophonic-based theme (homophonic meaning two words with the same sound, like POLLS and POLES), for which we are grateful because a) it made for a fun puzzle, and b)  the opportunities to use homophonic in a sentence are surprisingly scarce. We have more delightful deets for you to digest, devour and dissect, so subscribe, download and enjoy!

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