Monday, March 9, 2026 - May we have the envelope, please?

0:00Welcome to Gene and Mike, to the New York Times Crossword. Hi, I'm Gene. And I'm Mike. And today we are doing the Crossword for Monday, March 9th, 2026. So, on the day after International Women's Day? Yes. How did you find today's Crossword? I found today's Crossword as a Monday. As a Monday? Because it was Monday. We found? And it was a pretty typical Monday. So, and it was just so refreshing to read one across and know the answer right away because after Friday and Saturday and even Sunday, it was just good to know that first answer. One across constellation word before major or minor. Ursa. I knew it right off. So, that was great. So. I'd like to, I'd like to want to actually come down one down like expired parking meters unfed. Unfed, yes. Thank you. Mm-hmm.

1:00Yep. But no, this was an enjoyable solve and not too hard, but done pretty quickly. The theme looked pretty straightforward. It was very straightforward. But the sad thing is when you click on the revealer, none of the themed clues light up. It's so hard to make sure I can find them. The answers to the theme clues, they were starred, so you knew they were themed clues. But the answers were field hockey at 16 across, stone age at 25 across, foster dog at 35 across, and buried pie at 51 across. And the revealer clue was 60 across, which was a academy award category or a hint to the starts of the answers to the starred clues. And so you had field, stone, foster, and buried.

2:03And so, of course, the answer to the theme clue or to the revealer clue was best actress. Because those are all the last names of women who have won the best actress academy award. And I'm so bad at names. Let's see. The first must be Sally Field. Sally Field. Emma Stone. Emma Stone. Emma Stone. Okay. Jody Foster. Right. And Halle Berry. Halle Berry. So anyway. It was clever. It was clever. Mm-hmm. But very much a Monday theme. Right. Very much a Monday puzzle. Oh. Did you have any, so I presume you didn't have any serious problems anymore than great? No where. No where. How about with 40 down, more brawny, beefier. Beefier. No, got that. Got that. See, I went for burlier. Oh. You know, you're more burly. I don't know. I don't know. It worked for the last three lectures. As pretty much any answer that is grammatically in tune with more of something.

3:07Well, that crossed with a 55 across a Zimbalus Jr. of 77 Sunset Strip. And that was Ephraim. Or as I would pronounce it Elrum. No, it was Ephraim. Ephraim Zimbalus Jr. Right. So I had the F, and I had the Bs, and the IEL, so I had it better be beefier. And that E came out of 39 down, Canadian province north of Montana, Alberta. That is right. I bet Alberta is feeling pretty happy right now with gas prices and oil prices just soaring. Oh yeah. Finally, we can sort of enrich our coffers again. Let's see. We had, do you know, I'm showing you a new three down, Bobby Peter or Greg, to Carol Brady, Stepson. Stepson, yes. I bet we have an entire generation of listeners who have no idea what the answer to

4:09had otherwise are dieted. Really? Yeah. She's like, Stepson? I don't know that. It was that Brady. We had the classics. We had a six down partner of nips, tucks, tucks, yes, that was funny. And let's see. We had pencils down, time, 42 across. That's right. There's a good clue for time. Yes. Very good. Very good. And I liked how they had 43 across double Decker EG was a bus. Cross with 37 down, double lead woodwind player was oboist. Oh. Yes. That's true. That was sort of the doubling area of, I believe you get double points if you answered correctly there. I mean, this gravel hand. Uh-huh. I like 30 across, encourages to buy a more expensive model, say, upsell. Yes. I don't know that I've ever heard that term upsells. Oh, okay. It makes sense. It happens to me all the time.

5:09Mm-hmm. I see. You're looking at that car. Wouldn't you rather have a semi? Well, 26 down, small castle tower. I wanted to be rampart because I'm not really good at castle parts, but it turned out to be turret. Turret? That is correct. That was like 44 down. Now you listen to me. See here. See here. Yes. That's a good phrase. See here. And in that same sort of tone, 22 down, gosh, gee. Yes. That's a good Monday, kind of, little gosh. I think more people need to say, gosh, I think if you've heard more government officials saying, gosh, that's a good question, probably get arrested for that. I'm not entirely sure why, but let's see, 56 across. This was new to me. Plastic Ono bands. Happy blank. War is over. Xmas.

6:09Yes. I presume they pronounced it Christmas when they sang it. You know, I don't think I've ever heard that song, but I've heard of it. Really? Yeah. Which war were they referring to? I believe Vietnam. Oh, OK. Yeah. There's probably another band that wrote the song, Cheer Up, There'll Always Be Another War. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. 41 down. A gimmie for me, Bugs, Bunnies, Supply, Carrots. Yep. I knew that one too. But it was a good clue. I mean, sort of fun. Right. There were a lot of fun clues in here. This was by Christina Iversen and Andrea Carlon Michaels. Well, they're always good. Yes. And I think that accounts for the quality of the clues there. I also like 14 across. I blanked Ben a contender. Cut off. Yes. Cut of Ben a contender. My favorite phrase. I couldn't have been a contender. So all right. Well, I contend that we are done with the crossword. OK. But it is Monday, which means it's time for Jim Cartwag.

7:11Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do. He'd seen in my crossword the week award. That is right. Where we look back to the crosswords of the previous week and pick out what we deemed to be the very best. That is correct. And this week we had quite the competition. We did. There were some good ones this week. And there were some severely tough ones this week. There were. This week though, we picked Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday because of its very unique cluing for the theme. The theme clues included three or four, no, two or three items that were alike and then a blank or two. And then you were supposed to think of a phrase that described the missing item in the series there. And the series there. So for example, we had Persian, blank,

8:11oriental, and Navajo. And the phrase that described that was cut a rug, cut a rug, one rug missing, so cut a rug. Another one was seven down. Metro, blank, sports, lifestyle. And that was skip a beat because those are all news beats that they would have at a newspaper, some kind of television news show or whatever. So we had cut a rug, skip a beat, miss the mark, take the cake and pull some string. Yes. So yeah, that was the theme and it was very clever. Indeed. And this puzzle was by Wayne Bergman. Right. Wow, what a clever pooling there. Yes. So Wayne, congratulations on winning a jam cutwa and congratulations, by the way, on your second New York Times password. If you feel so inclined, drop us a line

9:13crossword podcast at iCloud.com with a shipping address and shirt size and we will have a jam cutwa certificate and some magnificent Northeast Wisconsin swag available nowhere else. We need to wait towards you in no time. That is correct. That is it for today then. So thanks everyone for listening. We will be back again and hope you'll join us for our analysis of tomorrow's crossword as well as tripletries. As well as tripletries, thank you very much. Thank you very much. All of that will be happening tomorrow. Bye bye.