Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

Mar 09 2025 1643 ep. 14 mins 51
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword Podcast artwork

A short, fun and occasionally not unintentionally educational podcast in which two fans of the New York Times crossword describe their puzzle-solving travails.

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Sunday, March 9, 2025 - Ah, the sweet aroma of newsprint and printer's ink

Mar 09 2025 17 mins  
The doctor -- Dr. Michael Schlossberg, to be precise -- was in fine form today, taking a sentimental stroll through the history books. Jean made short work of today's puzzle, deftly drawing upon her apparently infinitely large collection of pop-culture references. Mike, meanwhile, has the advantage of being able to search through his collection much faster: it does not take long to

Saturday, May 8, 2025 - Joe Deeney, the Houdini of crossword constructors 🙄😁

Mar 08 2025 6 mins  
Joe Deeney has created a daunting looking Saturday grid -- there are oodles of 4-stack answers, and as an ADDEDBONUS, a pinwheel in the center with very few exits into the rest of the puzzle. The clues were definitely of Saturday calibre. As proof, consider 53D, Arabic man's name meaning "servant of God, ABDI; 30D, Scorching, HOTASHADES; 46A, Antonym of "iie" in Japanes, HAI; and t

Friday, March 7, 2025 - MOVIEMAGIC, on the big screen, and in this tiny grid 😀

Mar 07 2025 9 mins  
Today's crossword was a great mental workout, replete with fine, fabulously deceptive clues -- just the kind that you hope for on a Friday. For example, we had 36A, A real no-name, ANON (of course!); 32A, Darkens in the light, say, TANS (how enlightening); and 49A, Buttery topping for paratha, GHEE (oh, gee 🙄). Those were just a few of the terrific clues in the grid; for more, d

Thursday, March 6, 2025 - Three (Slightly Belated) Cheers for ALYRAISMAN! 🤸‍♀️

Mar 06 2025 19 mins  
At least one of our cohosts wasn't quite on the same wavelength as today's constructor, Kiran Pandey: the clues and answers just felt a wee bit ... out of sync. Still, professional that they were (in terms of determination and ethics, not income), they managed to persevere and get to the happy music. We have all the deets inside, so please have a listen, and, as always, please enco

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 - Happy ... Halloween??

Mar 05 2025 13 mins  
This was a spookily fun crossword by Rebecca Goldstein, who we are fairly certain won the ORCA Constructor of the Year Award sometime in the not too distant past -- 2024, we read on the internet -- for creating crosswords just like today's. So, to see what it takes to become Constructor of the Year, check out Rebecca's latest and, of course, this episode! Show note imagery: BABKA,

Tuesday, March 4, 2025 - Announcing the discovery of the world's first Chameleon Word™️

Mar 04 2025 17 mins  
This was a fine Tuesday-level crossword, the fourth (on the 4th!) for Hanh Huynh. The theme shone, the rest of the fill was quite good, and the end result was, as you will hear in today's episode, highly satisfying. In addition to our usual banter (including the accidental discovery of the world's first chameleon word™️), we also have our Triplet Tuesday™️ segment. This is

Monday, March 3, 2025 - Vroom, vroom!

Mar 03 2025 8 mins  
If you didn't know anything about today's constructor, you'd likely conclude, as did we, that this was a fine Monday crossword. But then, if you discovered that the constructor was 13 years old, you might be tempted to reflect that a) PRODIGY does not often show up in the grid, and b) it certainly applies to Harrison Walden, the aforementioned 13-year-old. In other developments, we

Sunday, March 2, 2025 - Today's puzzle, brought to you in Crossword-Color™️🌈 🙄

Mar 02 2025 22 mins  
Even a casual glance at today's grid will reveal that something's up - seven vertical colored lines that, unsurprisingly, play a huge role in today's theme. The cost of that theme was complexity, but both cohosts agreed that it was worth the effort, as the payoff was huge. Deets inside. A reminder that the NYTimes Crossword makes a great present, and helps keep those little grey ce

Saturday, March 1, 2025 - Hello, March!

Mar 01 2025 15 mins  
March reputedly comes in like a lion, and today's crossword does the same -- parts of it are ferocious, and it seems to have lots of claws. OK, that last bit might not be true, but it certainly was a challenge, especially those clues in the northern areas of the crossword - above the equator, so to speak. But this was a Saturday, and so we expect challenging clues. It was also a Ry

Friday, February 28, 2025 - And now, a PAEAN to today's crossword

Feb 28 2025 15 mins  
Michael Lieberman is an accomplished crossword constructor, having written 27 for the NYTimes. Today's oeuvre had some great clues, including 63A, People may visit them just for kicks, SHOESTORES (ha!); 27D, Like Olympic tracks, LANED (duh!); and 10D, "Enjoy the spread!", LETSEAT (yum!). All in all a great crossword, definitely worth 5 squares on the JAMCR scale. Show note imagery: