nytxw

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!

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!

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!

What even IS a Thursday crossword these days? Is a Thursday crossword, like time itself, "only a stubbornly persistent illusion"? A memory? A fable? 😱 Whatever it is, we're talking about the last "week" of xword puzzles in the New York Times (12/6/21 - 12/12/21). 

NPR on "POC"

The Trouble with Tribe ... and the glory of Quest.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s 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!

Gratitude, greetings, and Happy Chanukah/Hanukkah 5782! R&B here, gifting you the miracle of our thoughts on the New York Times crossword puzzles from 11/22/21 - 11/28/21. Including:

• Baby's first rebus
• The next installment of the "who ate the last cookie" drama
• Rosalind Franklin was a Boss
• Big crossnews from the American Values Club!

 

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s 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!

To Bork, or not to Bork? That is not the question. The question is, what will Rebecca and Brooke SAY about the last week (11/15/21 - 11/21/21) in New York Times crossword puzzles? A sampling:

• The Great Alfred Nobel Obituary Mixup
• How to make grid art
• CHEETO: implications for Mento?

Happy [Un]Thanksgiving! Namaste.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s 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!

You and your lawn decorations better get into Crosstume: Rebecca and Brooke are Rebacka, reviewing New York Times crossword puzzles from 10/25/21 thru 10/31/21. Included: the Great David S. Pumpkins SNUB of 2021, the NYT's Amazon Alexa obsession, urchin injuries, and guff. More worms, mama!

Read about zombies' Haitian roots here, in the Atlantic.

 

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s 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!

From Beelzebub and the shillelaghs we're esporting to lead pipes, "so-what" clues, and that blasted Off!: it's a whirlwind tour of New York Times crossword puzzles from 10/11/21 thru 10/17/21. 

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s and comment in Apple Podcasts!  Comment @ 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 reunite IRL to bulk up our crossword podcasting r*sum*s by discussing New York Times puzzles from 9/27/21 - 10/3/21. We ask Important Questions Of Our Time (WHO IS EATING THE COOKIES???), explore kangaroos (mutual sniffing), the history of diagonal symmetry in the NYT (abridged), and how to use the puzzle as a platform (if you want).

Will Nediger's indie puzzle roundups are on his blog, Bewilderingly Puzzles.

Ready the snow scythes and bring in the beakers! Rebecca and Brooke review the New York Times crossword puzzles from 9/20/21 - 9/26/21. 

• The Crossword Collaboration Directory is a beautiful thing!!
• Among other sources, here is CNN's piece on Ole Miss.

Go forth and clue responsibly.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s and comment in Apple Podcasts! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either. Please and thank you!

L'jai alai'm! In this episode of New York Times crossword puzzle reviews: lovin' on some diagonal symmetry, crossword cocktails*, RiRi, and GAY PORN. Cruciverbs from 9/13/21 thru 9/19/21. 

Join the crossword Discord (d/b/a Crosscord)!

*Cocktails suggestion box: @Crossnerds.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s and comment in Apple Podcasts! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either. Please and thank you!

Rebecca. Brooke. New York Times crossword puzzle reviews. August 30 thru September 5, 2021. EOM.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s and comment in Apple Podcasts! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either. Please and thank you!

Join Rebecca and Brooke and Oscular The Grouch as we crack up and open the last week in New York Times crossword puzzles! August 23-29, 2021.

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s and comment in Apple Podcasts! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either. Please and thank you!

Whether you're a teehee, a tehee, a heh heh, har har, haha, or a ROFLcopter, all laughs are welcome this (and every!) week, as Rebecca and Brooke review the New York Times crossword puzzles from 8/16/21 - 8/22/21. 

The Lollapuzzoola puzzles and Twitch stream are still available at bemoresmarter.com. 

Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s and comment in Apple Podcasts! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either. Please and thank you!

⭐️✨Star stuff everywhere!✨⭐️ That is what you can expect from this stellar. New. Episode. Of. What? CROSSNERDS! Rebecca Neipris and--in-person in our NYC "studio"--Brooke Husic review the last week in New York Times crossword puzzles (7/19/21 - 7/25/21). Pardon the tangentialos...

If you like us, please rate us stars and comment in iTunes! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either.

Word-upped

• Lollapuzzoola: https://bemoresmarter.com/lollapuzzoola/ 
• Brooke's puzzle site: xwordsbyaladee.blogspot.com 
• Adam Aaronson's puzzles: https://aaronson.org/crosswords/ 
• Ricky Cruz's Cruzzles: https://cruzzles.blogspot.com/

Have you ever wondered...

• What makes a crossword, like, good, from an editor's-eye view
• If Laura Braunstein (@laurabrarian) is good at karaoke
• What Laura Braunstein’s favorite emoji is
• Whether there is a more graceful option than crying yourself to sleep at night when you’ve had your a** handed to you at a crossword puzzle tournament?

YES? ME TOO THAT'S SO AMAZING THIS PODCAST IS FOR YOU!!!!!!!

Welcome to Crossnerds' SERENITY NOW special! To distract you from living your worst nightmares, we hit the (digital) books and get absolutely learnt with Laura Braunstein: accomplished constructor, speed-solver, and commentator, plus founder and editor of The Inkubator, which publishes puzzles exclusively by women (cis, trans, and woman-aligned).

Looking for MORE FUN STUFF TO DO?

1. VOTE
2. Wear a mask
3. Subscribe to The Inkubator (@InkubatorXWords) at inkubatorcrosswords.com
4. Take Laura and Jesse Lansner's free online crossword-constructing classes on November 17, 2020 or December 15, 2020.

1.  

XOXOXO,

Xnerds.

Welcome to Crossbirds! We've ALIT beside Sid Sivakumar (@sid_sivakumar) who, in just the last three months, made his debut (6/22), dibut (8/8), and tribut (9/3) in the New York Times; celebrated the yearniversary of his indie crossword blog, Sid's Grids; and contributed puzzles to several charity packs and to xword tournament Lollapuzzoola. Meanwhile, I was eating a popsicle. We gab about the wonders of the crossword community, the beauty of indie publishing, and Important Topix such as:

• Lexical gatekeeping
• The dangers of specialization
• Constructor credit as a commodity
• Crosswords vs. Scrabble
• Sizeism (in puzzles, ahem)
• Cryptics in India, Britain, and the US

SUPPORT Crossnerds ON PATREON!

Then visit some of the indie sites word-upped in this episode:

• Themelesses: Bryan Thomas on Puzzles That Need A Home
• Clues to make you smile: Amanda Rafkin's Brain Candy
• Freshest fill: Adam Nicolle, luckystreak xwords
• Puzzles by Crossword Jesus: A-Frame Games
• Brain-benders: Stella Zawistowski's Tough As Nails
• Liz Gorski's Crossword Nation
• Brendan Emmett Quigley
• Happy Little Puzzles by Matthew Stock
• Paolo Pasco's Grids These Days
• Master puzzle newsletter by Matt Gritzmacher

2 many DEBUT!!!!s 2 count in our first-ever two-part episode, which features our first-ever female guest (Brooke Husic) and is accompanied by Rebecca's first-ever crossword puzzle (available here)!! Did we mention: !!!!!!!?!?!

Since solving her first New York Times just six months ago, Brooke's taken Crossworld by storm, publishing in USA Today, the American Values Club Crossword, and several other indie outlets in the last month alone.

Many thanks to Sid Sivakumar (who recently made his own DEBUT! in the New York Times crossword) for hosting the Crossnerds collabzzle on his site, Sid’s Grids.

https://www.sidsgrids.com/post/puzzle-38-crossnerds-themeless-by-brooke-husic-rebecca-neipris

For the 45-year-old kid in all of us, Pro puzzler Eric Berlin (@puzzleeric) joins for a FAB! NEW! EP! of

✨📣🤓🤘!!Crossnerds!!🤘🤓📣✨

Eric shares his earliest memories of mysteries, the joy of word games, the pleasure of co-solving, and a list of his favorite outlets and constructors.

Word-upped in this episode...

• Eric Berlin's Social Distancing Puzzles (benefiting Feeding America)
• Puzzlesnacks
• The New York Times Crossword
• Evan Birnholz's Sunday WaPo crosswords
• Joon Pahk's Outside the Box variety puzzles
• Nathan Curtis on Patreon
• Thomas Snyder's Grandmaster Puzzles
• Crosswords, variety puzzles, and cryptics in the Wall Street Journal

Stay safe and healthy, dear listeners!

Situationships. Popyrights(?). Emu eggs. Rampant mispronunciations. These are but a taste of the ingredients that flava-ed the last week of New York Times crossword puzzles (11/20/19 through 11/27/19). Here to help you digest them all are your trusty (vs. crusty) nerds du jour, Rebecca and Nate Cardin. We're so thankful for your listens and support. Please dig in.

If you like us, please give us all the stars and comment in iTunes! Or just keep listening. Or both. Ideally both. But we'll take either. Happy holidaze!