Crossnerds

Discussed! NYT crossword puzzles from Weds 2/22/23 (Adam Wagner), Thurs 2/23/23 (Joe Deeney), and Sun 2/28/23 (Will Nediger).

Disgust! Black History Month did not seem to matter to the NYTXW. But racial representation in crosswords matters deeply to us. Find our ep with Kameron Austin Collins here.

Also!

• OPPO: British 1960s bae?
• MS PAINT and Brooke's minicity masterpieces
• Tourney szn approacheth! The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Boswords, and  more TK.
  • Reminisce with the original 'Nerds interviewing Erik Agard back in 2019, right before Erik won ACPT.
• Anigrams.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

SCENE: Season 8. Year of the Rabbit. 2023. Cut to: Rebecca & Brooke, Crossworld's most beloved showgirls, reviewing New York Times crossword puzzles. On this episode...they (we) peruse three (3) puzzles, from 2/2/23 - 2/4/23. Featuring.....:

• Bisexual lighting
• SARD: new year, new gem?!
• On app-lessness
• CUT TO THE CHASE: What, why, how. Jannings escapes ...
• AVCX is not sending people to the moon
• In 2022, 21% of NYTXWs were written by exclusively women (h/t XWord Info)

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

WORDPLAY ON THE FRITZ ⋇ DEFY THE HEGEMONY ⋇ THINK FOR YOURSELF ⋇ DO NOT PANIC

Happy holidaze and welcome back to the show! This week, Rebecca and Brooke calmly discuss four New York Times crossword puzzles published 11/22/2022 - 11/26/22. We also poke a stick at the curious corpus of 😱 LOGIC PUZZLES 😱 such as sudoku, ken ken, and star battles! We are two kra-z kids!!!

Plus:

• Red alert! Reds are red, but violet may or may not be blue: colors, categories, and linguistic relativity vs. universalism in this Nautilus article by Chelsea Wald
• PICTURE cards
• How not to fall for the myth of crossword's 'unwritten rules'
• The joy of connecting the dot dot dots
• Theme queries: emotional risks vs. open submissions (again)

And the Inkubator is available at https://inkubatorcrosswords.com/.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

In this ep, Rebecca and Brooke review New York Times crossword puzzles from 11/9/22 - 11/12/22.

Including!

• The first-ever, no-details-necessary, void-where-prohibited Crossnerds challenge: ⭐ Guess Our Zodiac Signs! ⭐️ Tweet us @Crossnerds or message us to play.

Also!:

• "Reduplicative names" puzzles
• "Reduplicative": redundant?
• Repeated clues: ALLOWED!
• Non-semantic themes
• Letterbanks
• Two takes on GOTTI
• Things that don't look like boats
• Reverse reveals
• The grammar of adverbs (disjuncts, e.g. "Hopefully...")
• Evocativeness in clues
• What sound owls make (hint: it is not "PEEP")

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

👋🤓🎙 Live from Berlin and a Dalíesque sea of toilets: Rebecca and Brooke review the week of 9/12/22 - 9/18/22 in New York Times crossword puzzles, covering such topics as:

• "Noted" in crossword clues
• The world's kickiest animals
• Triple-checked squares
• Does Europe have Daylight Savings Time?
• Green paint
• "Representation Without Transformation" (h/t Sally Hoelscher's USATXW blog)
• Wacky Wednesdays
• Where difficulty comes from (misdirects, vagueness)

And if you don't know the Bob Marley song "Soul Shakedown Party," check it out.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Nerds here! Get yer Spicy Summer 'Ssnerds here! Featuring a husk of future residents (Rebecca and Brooke) discussing New York Times crossword puzzles (we selected 4 from the week of 8/22/22), PLUS PLUS PLUS Lollapuzzoola 2022 (puzzles still available here)!! Sundry chatter also includes:

• The great HOOHA-baloo
• Meta puzzles
• Towns with no business in crosswords
• Stacking elevens
• COVID content in puzzles
• And in hurricane news: WAIT IT OUT, or evacuate?

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Hey bb whats ur sign? In the crossword zodiac, we mean. I bet you're a Gridbearer. The Block? Butterfly (for symmetry)? Anyway, we're both Crossnerds, and in this ep we discuss New York Times crossword puzzles (published 6/6/22 - 6/12/22), as well as the following topics (which are also great sitcom episode/children's book names ™️):

• The Trouble with Tightening Revealers
• We-all Need Will Nediger
• Carly Schuna and the German Wheel
• Question Marks (Again? 😜)
• When Misdirects Fail

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

omg have WE GOT AN EP FOR YOU. 'Twixt our reviews of New York Times crossword puzzles (5/2/22 - 5/8/22), Rebrooka discover:

• The truly absurd history of "Louie Louie" (I chose the Toots version)
• The city of Ur
• Short fill, destigmatized
• #SettlerSaturday
• Why four-leaf clovers are rare 🍀
• Brooke luvs to rollerblade

And if nothing else, pls pls pls experience Brooke's essay puzzle, then go to abortionpuzzles.com to learn about These Puzzles Fund Abortion Too, and then donate and get your puzzlepack here.

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Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Happy belated Spring Festivals! We are celebrating with a new round of New York Times crossword puzzle reviews (4/18/22 - 4/24/22). Also featuring:

• A crossword for everyone(?)
• Punchline revealers
• Using a curated list to source a puzzle: 👍/👎?
• Oil wrestling

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Rebecca and Brooke are returnt like the U.S. Football League, except that our sporty forte is tackling NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLESSSS (from 3/28/22 - 4/3/22)!! Also in this ep:  Americanisms, Bacchanalia for marginalia, and fie-ing the ex who absconded with intimacy (which may or may not have been a STAGED disappearance 👀).

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Happy Spring, sweet (and bitter) peas! 🌱 Your favorite average-but-clean wee lasses celebrate the season by coming for the bloggers and continuing to review New York Times crossword puzzles (from 3/14/22 - 3/20/22). Discussed:

• Brooke's new Tinder bio
• Littering is bad
• ... as is toxic crossword commentary
• Mini vs. fun-size
• Knowing < learning
• The brassiere cup debate (it's CUP for grabs?)
• Patti Varol at the LAT crossword 🎉

Links

• "After You've Gone" by Joyce Bryant
• Portia Lundie on being a Black female constructor (WaPo)
• Women's History Month crosswords collection in the Washington Post
• Erica Hsiung Wojcik on the Expanded Crossword Name Database (NYT Gameplay)
• Ryan McCarty's McGrids

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

So, all the things, mm? Alllllll the things. Anyway, here is another episode, featuring, as usual, Rebecca and Brooke's reviews of the New York Times crossword puzzles (2/28/22 - 3/6/22). Also discussed:

• What's in a crossword theme?
• Whenfore a question mark clue?
• Teresa Teng
• Unchecked squares.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Another week (2/21/22 - 2/27/22), another seven New York Times crossword puzzles reviewed! Also featuring:

• Kelly "Wintertime" Kapow!ski and the Rugrats grandpa ("new LOU, who dis")
• Rebuses
• Chocolate v. candy
• Theme queries and the crossword submission process.

Check out These Puzzles Fund Abortion Too and donate here!

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Grab some refreshing ADES and Cool American-flavoured snackies and settle into this stripped-down sesh of Classic R&B: Rebecca and Brooke reviewing the last week of New York Times crossword puzzles (2/14/22 - 2/20/22). Discussed:

• Holes (rabbit, rat, worm, and on a green)
• Non-solver fans of this podcast(???)
• The history of TEA as "gossip"
• What makes a theme "tight"
• Narrative crosswords, such as Kim Vu's affecting AVCX
• ALTE
• Ableism

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Well, well, well, if it isn't our favorite puzzlemaker/film critic/bowl made with love and erotic spirits, Kameron Austin Collins! Buckle up for Rebecca, Brooke, and Kam taking down the last week of New York Times crossword puzzles (1/31/22 - 2/6/22, which includes Kam's 2/5 stunner of a puzz).

Discussed:

• Wereproblems
• -onyms
• Tasers (Batman Returns stun gun scene)
• ENRON clues
• Kitchen items (PARERs,  peelers, mashers, bowls)
• The art of appearing effortless
• High beams in NJ: literally everybody, all the time

And continued PSA: RiRi is still only worth 25 points.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify and comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Hang on to your aardwolves, you're going on an xword xventure: Crossnerds' first-ever MEDLEY WEEK [emphasis on the "eeek"]!!! We've selected seven luscious puzzles from seven gorgeous professional crossword outlets that are *not* the New York Times:

• Universal
• American Values Club ("AVCX")
• Inkubator
• The New Yorker
• USA Today
• The Atlantic
• The Washington Post

Don't worry, we still love you, NYTXW. We'll be back with the usual next time.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify and comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

That's one small step for man, one glaring lack of steps for non-menkind: i.e., another week (1/10/22 - 1/16/22) of New York Times crossword puzzle reviews. That's ANO from me! Featuring:

• Circular nose breathing
• Tails
• [Unrelated] Baby's barnyard bovines
• Dataaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify and comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Season 7 2022 LET'S GOOOOOOO! Let's get through today, every day. Together! With Rebecca and Brooke. Who, this week, review New York Times crossword puzzles from 12/27/21 - 1/2/22! Including:

• KISSING BUTT
• The heroic efforts of the NYTXW Editorial Team
• OAT clues
• LOU clues
• Vague clues
• Shout out to all the pears; and
• Beating the "Sunday 140-word cap" trap.

Adam A-aronson's other-other AA plus-plus puzzle puzzle is here.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify and comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Wrap up 2021 with a bow and these BIBIMBangin' reviews of the New York Times crossword puzzles published 12/13/21 - 12/19/21! Rebecca and Brooke also talk about list themes and a puzzle's purpose. YAY ME! Yay WE.

Ross Trudeau's essay, The Necessity of Filling Certain Boxes, is on his puzzle blog, Rossword Puzzles.

 

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify and comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

Is the Big Apple big enough for two major crossword puzzle outlets? Liz Maynes-Aminzade, the first-ever Puzzles & Games Editor at The New Yorker, drops in to Xnerds HQ to celebrate the magazine's inaugural Cartoons & Puzzles issue (December 27, 2021) and its new(ish) foray into puzzles and games.

TNY's digital offerings include the Name Drop trivia game. Subscribe to its crosswords newsletter for forthcoming goodieeees!

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in SPOTIFY and comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!