Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Caitlin Reid and Matthew Stock have produced a breezy Saturday crossword -- with a slew of educational and entertaining  clues such as 52A, Bad drawing?, SHORTSTRAW; 30D, Greek who originated the expression, "Leave no stone unturned", EURIPIDES (huh!);  50A, It's on the house, EAVE (ha!); and 41A, Signature items?, PENS (uh-huh). There were more, to be sure, and you can hear all about them in today's podcast!

Show note imagery: INCOGMEATO, look for it wherever fine vegetarian foods are sold!

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Today's crossword was a delight -- not soul-crushingly difficult, as Friday crosswords sometimes are, but just a joy to behold and to solve. We give numerous examples in today's podcast, but we'd also like to celebrate 2D, "Well, well, well!", LOOKIEHERE(😀); 39D, Got hitched?, HITASNAG(😀 😀); and the fascinating 23A, Grand _______, town in Nova Scotia that's a World Heritage Site (🧐).  This was Jacob McDermott's 7th NYTimes crossword, and we eagerly await his 8th!

Show note imagery: ERTÉ, Art Deco Master! 

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We'd like to say that the Michnovicz brothers have done it again, but since this is their debut NYTimes crossword all we can say is that they've done it! -- written a thought provoking puzzle that will test your spelling props like they've never been tested before (or at least since yesterday's puzzle). We cover most of the hot shot clues inside, but one we missed was 34D, Hot shot?, ESPRESSO; another, the very classy 59A, Jeremiad, RANT; and, perhaps the best of the bunch, 39A, Something that a ram and a Ram have in common, HORN 😀.

Show note imagery: the Heisman Trophy, won back-to-back by running back Archie Griffin.

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A fine Wednesday crossword by Morton J. Mendelson, and to answer the question raised in the grid, yes, ITISART: artfully designed, wittily clued, and with an astonishing number of themed clues. We were also delighted to see echoes of yesterday's stellar crossword crop up today - Tuesday revolved around ONEL, while today we had 59D, Top-notch, AONE. Tuesday involved the letter L, while today's crossword involved a lot of right angles (fundamentally an L that went head over heels). 

Show note imagery: EDITH Wharton, author of the Pulitzer winning novel, The Age of Innocence, and the first woman to win a Pulitzer in fiction.

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Every now and then the NYTimes publishes a crossword for the ages, and today is one of those days, because this work of art, by Marshall Hermann, is sublime, stunning, stupendous, and a slew of other words that start with the letter S -- ironic, considering that the theme  ... nope, we are *not* going to spoil it here: check out today's episode and then, as always, let us know what you think!

Show note imagery: today's picture, varieties of SEAGLASS

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A crossword that's bound to tickle your fancy, a statement that will appear quite droll once you've heard the podcast / soused out the theme. Beyond the clues already mentioned on the podcast, we'd like to highlight 45D, Pain relief brand with an oxymoronic name, ICYHOT; the appearance of yet another French word in the grid (62D, the S of RSVP, SIL), a trend which at least one of us would like to see continue; and there's just something very grounded about 60D, Barber's shout, NEXT. This represents Peter A. Collins' 119th crossword, definitely a cause for celebration.🎉
 
Show notes: the AURORA Borealis, the view from Iceland

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John Kugelman, cybersecurity expert and crossword constructor extraordinaire, has outdone himself  with an extremely punny Sunday opus. INAILEDIT shows up in the grid, and may also have reflected his feelings when he got the last answer to slip into the grid. We liked this crossword a lot, for all the reasons covered in today's podcast. Enjoy!

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An easier than usual Saturday crossword (for at least one of our cohosts, no prizes for guessing who!), which means that -- according to the Law of Conservation of Crossword Difficulty -- Sunday is going to be a toughie! This puzzle did have some fine moments, though, including 13D, Caped crusader?, TORERO; 14D, First garment, perhaps, ONESIE; and one of the finer "bail out" excuses of recent times, 7D, "That's why you get the big bucks and not me", ABOVEMYPAYGRADE. 
 
 Show notes imagery: The Brahmaputra, the 9th largest river in the world (based on the volume of water discharged)

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A lively Friday crossword by Hemant Mehta, with a fusillade of clever and/or educational clues guaranteed to delight the diligent solver. We cover most of them in today's episode, along with a fascinating fact for Fun Fact Friday, plus a bonus: listener mail! For all that and more, download, listen up, and ... enjoy!

Show notes imagery: Where's Waldo?, mentioned in today's puzzle as having been banned (!)

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Today's puzzle, by Damon Gulczynski, has an ingenious and well-disguised theme: and thanks to the revealer's position in the bottom-right, we are kept in suspense / befuddlement, until the very end -- just the way we like it!

A few clues that didn't make it into the episode but are worthy of note include 26D, Groups of hands, CREWS (brilliant!); 41D, Instrument notary featured in George Michael's 1984 hit, "Careless Whisper", SAX (wait, a SAX can whisper? 😀); some very sage advice, 12D, Good thing to map out before an adventure, ESCSAPEROUTE; and last but not least, 9D, One of three for a grand, PIANOLEG (ha!).

A reminder that doing the NYTimes Crossword is a great way to keep those neurons sharp and shiny, so wander over to nytimes.com/crosswords and a subscription/year of merriment can be yours for a very reasonable price. 

Show note imagery: SO NJA Henie, 10-time world champion skater!

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