A short, fun and occasionally not unintentionally educational podcast in which two fans of the New York Times crossword describe their puzzle-solving travails.
Latest episodes
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11 min
Monday, October 26, 2026 — After a Long Hiatus, LIL Abner's Back in the Grid! 🌽
This was a YAFM — Yet Another Fine Monday — crossword by Kevin Christian and Andrea Carla Michaels, who have collaborated on so many puzzles that Andrea, at least, has lost track.…
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13 min
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — This Crossword ... She's Dynamite!
Solving today's crossword, by Dylan Schiff and John Kugelman, required you fully engaged your pun lobe (just north of the puneal gland, according to 100% of the neurosurgeons that…
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4 min
Saturday, October 24, 2026 — A Breezy (But Not Cheesy!) Puzzle by Robert Logan
Today's crossword had some stellar clues — as we describe in today's episode — built around an absolutely gorgeous "super-symmetric" grid. For those of you not immersed in the esot…
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15 min
Friday, October 23, 2026 — Happy Mole Day🧪😁
This was an excellent and challenging Friday crossword by Katie Hoody, who is well known for her excellent and challenging (predominantly Saturday) puzzles. Today's might've been n…
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15 min
October 22, 2026 — The Wrath of Khan? Nah, More Like The Really Awesome Crossword of Kahn 😀
Today's crossword was an awesome bit of work by David J. Kahn, a highly accomplished crossword constructor who first published in the NYTimes in 1994. The puzzle in question was —…
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8 min
Wednesday, October 21, 2026 — Yup, Today's Crossword Deserves an A+
Although your cohosts — currently sporting their higher-ed caps while writing this — are staunchly against grade inflation, they don't feel the slightest twinge of guilt at giving…
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16 min
Tuesday, October 20, 2026 — Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Introducing Our Best Tuesday Podcast This Week! 😉
Today marks the NYTimes debut for crossword constructor David Falkowski, and a fine debut it is. The theme was smile-inducing, as were, come to think of it, the rest of the clues i…
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11 min
Monday, October 19, 2026 — Off We Go, to OSWEGO 🙄
Both cohosts found today's crossword to be a jot crunchier than the typical Monday fare in places. It started off almost comically easy, but then seemed to put up more resistance i…
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12 min
Sunday, October 18, 2026 — Hello, LORELEI!
Today marks Peter Gorman's debut Sunday crossword. He has now published every day of the week except Friday and Saturday, but, based on how quickly he was able to get to 5 — his fi…
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13 min
Saturday, October 17, 2026 — Yup, This Was a Saturday Crossword Alright! 😀 😱
Saturday crosswords are, by tradition — at least since Will Shortz took over as editor — the toughest puzzles of the week, and today's definitely qualified. Both cohosts had to lab…
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13 min
Friday, October, 16, 2026 — No, You Can't Play an EBOW With An ELBOW 🙄😂
Today's crossword was a debut for Adam Shapiro — but it wasn't for a lack of trying. He has had 15 previous submissions to the NYTimes rejected, so today's puzzle is a monument to…
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8 min
Thursday, October 15, 2026 — You Can't Hide from the Ides 🙄
Today's crossword was an absolutely terrific debut by McKay Fritz, with another one of those delightful and, as expected, thoroughly unexpected themes that the NYTimes is legendary…
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11 min
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 — Happy National Curd Day Eve 🧀 😍
Today's crossword, by Jacob Stulberg, celebrated a scourge of modern civilization, a negative answer to the phrase made famous by Verizon — "Can you hear me now?". It made for a te…
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16 min
Tuesday, October 13, 2026 — Happy National Train Your Brain Day!!
We would classify today's crossword as a tinge crunchier than usual, for a Tuesday. Certainly 57D, Ceremonial Maori dance, HAKA, did not leap to mind. Likewise 7D, Whole that's gre…
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5 min
Monday, October 12, 2026 — Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Everyone! 🇨🇦
While today's crossword did not have a Thanksgiving Day theme, it did have a theme for which we are thankful: one that was relatively straightforward but still quite amusing. This…
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15 min
Sunday, October 11, 2026 — 🎶 Ya Gotta Have Heart, Miles and Miles and Miles of Heart ❤️🎶
Today's crossword was a splendid work from an always entertaining constructor, aka Michael Lieberman. The themed clues in particular appear engineered to put a smile on your face —…
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6 min
Saturday, October 10, 2026 — SIA, SZA and Rhianna Walk into a Grid ...
This was a very entertaining and relatively straightforward Saturday crossword by David Levinson Wilk, arguably easier than Friday's — but, as always, YMMV depending on what's in y…
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7 min
Friday, October 9, 2026 — For Some, Spelling SYSIPHEAN is, Well, SISYIPHEAN — or, Third Time's the Charm — SIS…
Now this was a Friday crossword — themeless, tricky, and highly entertaining. We have to applaud 39A, It's mine, all mine!, EGO; scratch our heads at 44D, "Gymnopédies" composer, S…
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12 min
Thursday, October 8, 2026 — Oh, No, It's an ONO 🐠 😀
Rachel Grey and John Kugelman have collaborated on a very clever Thursday crossword, based on a dizzying theme that it took both cohosts no little time to suss out. Fortunately — a…
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13 min
Wednesday, October 7, 2026 — In the Great ROTI v. NAAN Contest, ROTI Scores Again!!
Listeners may recall that the appearance of ROTI or NAAN in the grid immediately drives us to xwordinfo.com to check out the number of times each has appeared in a crossword. As a…