Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

An ingenious Thursday delight by Simeon Seigel, with an awe inspiring theme that surely deserves a place in the pantheon of great crosswords. It involves personal identifiable information (PII), embedded in black squares, that emerges when the puzzle is solved. If you haven't seen the solution, hop over to xwordinfo.com to admire Mr. Seigel's opus. In other news, we have listener mail, so to hear that, and more, download and listen up.

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Jean solved today's crossword so quickly that several laws of physics may have been broken in the process, or at least bent. There were several  related answer pairs in the grid, in particular 9D, Dweller west of the North Atlantic, AMERICAN, and 40D, Dweller east of the North Atlantic, EUROPEAN.  A case could also be made for 17A, Much of Roy Lichtenstein's work?, DOTCOMICS, and 51A, "SpongeBob SquarePants", e.g., CARTOON. Jean & Mike were both pleased to see 42D, Wisconsin city that's home to Lawrence University, APPLETON, as, no doubt, was the admissions department of Lawerence University, which hopefully already has an ad out. 

A fine puzzle, we give it 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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A fun Tuesday crossword, with some legal puns (are there any other kind?) to spice things up. Jean tore through the crossword in under 12 minutes, while Mike, convinced that 10D, Brand of caramel candy, WERTHERS, should be spelled WORTHERS, spent an absurdly long amount of time before realizing that the cross, 16A, British pop singer Lewis, was in fact LEONA, and not her lesser known rival, LOONA Lewis. 

In other news, it's Triplet Tuesday, and Jean again shows her mastery of the 3 letter answer. For all the deets, download and listen up.

These podcasts work particularly well when you can see the answers as you follow the conversation. If you don't have them handy, you can always find the completed grid + clues at xwordinfo.com.

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Today's subtly themed  crossword  took us on a tour of the Earth's interior. It began with 17A, Pizza feature for a specialized diet, GLUTENFREECRUST, through 34A, Take on a position, along with its responsibilities, ASSUMETHEMANTLE, ending up at 52A, Lacking any moral compass, ROTTENTOTHECORE, the antithesis of this fine work by Pao Roy. There were a few other interesting clues, such as 9D, Nonbinary pronoun pair, THEYTHEM, and 48D, Rapper J. _______, COLE, apparently one of the "most influential rappers of his generation", and clearly worthy of an in-depth Fun Fact Friday investigation. Stay tuned.

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Sometimes, what you need when solving a crossword is a FRESHSETOFEYES. Well, good news, because in today's crossword, they're already there, as in the answer to 116A, New look provider ... or a homophonic hint to this puzzle's theme.  Specifically, there are multiple answers with an extra set of I's and whose removal leads to a completely different answer. For instance, 23A, Meticulous magical beings?, THOROUGHFAIRIES, with the I's excised, becomes THOROUGHFARES. Most ingenious. 

In other parts of the puzzle, Jean got momentarily naticked* at the corner of 22A, To love, in Italian, AMARE (not AMORE), and 17D, Straight sides of sectors, RADII (not RODII), whereas Mike had an issue with 31D, Agitate, ROIL (not RAIL) crossing 34A, Three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver in the New York Jets Ring of Honor, ALTOON (not ALTOAN). Still, both dug in, and managed to dig their way out of this delightful puzzle, definitely a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

*stymied by unfamiliarity with two crossing answers

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A challenging Saturday crossword (but aren't they all?). Jean had trouble in the bottom half, unfamiliar with 40A, Upgrade for a train passenger, PARLORCAR, and 34D, Humans, in sci-fi slang, MEATBAGS (ugh!), while Mike had an IMPASSE at 21D, Merle Haggard tune, "_____ From Muskogee", oscillating between ABIE and OBIE, instead of the correct OKIE (which is now burned into his consciousness). He also WENTOUTONALIMB by coining a new music genre as an answer to 9D, Genre popularized by Limp Bizkit and Korn, NUMETAS, instead of the much more reasonable NUMETAL. 

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In today's episode, we learn about the story behind 28A, Comedian Notaro, TIG, savor the awesome clue, 32A, Ground shaking stuff?, PEPPER, and for Fun Fact Friday learn why the answer to 55A, Cheese whose name is a semordnilap, is EDAM. All this is just waiting for you, so download now, and listen up!

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A relatively straightforward Thursday crossword - look, ma, no rebuses! -- with gentle but amusing cluing, and a clever theme involving SILVERLINING. Each answer around the periphery of the grid worked if prefaced with the word SILVER, as in SILVERSURFER, SILVERBELLS, etc. There was one groaner pun - 35D, Ice place to go?, RINK, and a few biochemically trending clues - 34D, Prefix with genetics, EPI, and 37A, Something found in strands, DNA - but a dearth of pop culture references helped immensely. We give this a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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For those of you still recovering from yesterday's jammed-to-the-rafters-with-pop-culture-references grid, the NYTimes proudly presents as an antidote today's puzzle -- with barely a pop culture reference in sight -- thereby keeping the average number of PCRs close to the officially prescribed 3.5 PCRs per grid ... a regulation and a number that we just invented. 
The theme was cute, involving artificial facial components, and the rest of the clues were equally droll, including such winners as 5A, Put down in writing?, PAN, and 24A, Canine covering?, DENTALCROWN. A nice mid-week effort, we give it a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.

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Today's crossword was tough, for a Tuesday - with a bevy of popular culture references that covered a wide swathe of time. There was almost 130 years, for instance, between, 60A, Lord High Executioner in "The Mikado", KOKO and the revealer at 57A, 2013 Best Musical Tony winner ... with a hint to this puzzle's theme, KINKYBOOTS. There were also quite a few popular references, such as 20D, One-named singer with the 2010 hit "Dancing on My Own", ROBYN, 8D, DKNY"s Donna, KARAN, and who can forget Ward ________ (old political operative), HEELER (both of your co-hosts, for a start!). 

In other news, it's Triplet Tuesday, and to see just how Mike fared, you'll surely want to download today's episode and listen up!

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We love listener mail! Drop us a line, [email protected].

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