Saturday, March 14, 2026 - GOTTA like a crossword with GOTTA and ATTA 😉

Welcome 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 Saturday, March 14, 2026.

So this was a Saturday Crossword, and it was by Cameron Austin Collins.

Did you suffer accordingly?

No.

No?

No, actually, I found it quite an enjoyable solve.

Yes.

It was a good challenge.

It reminded me of things from my past that pulled up some nice memories and some things

I remembered by learning high school and things like that.

So yeah, I enjoyed it very much.

I'm going to try and guess some of the things you learned in high school.

Let's see.

You learned that, one across, behave like an ass was Bray?

No, I have done that.

I'm just, just, um, listening to fairy tales that had doggies.

Okay.

Let's see.

You learned that 20 cross skuh short for school whose symbol is the Native American war leader

Oceola was FSU.

Oh, I know.

You learned that in high school?

You didn't learn that in high school?

I learned that.

Oh, how about that?

I had colleagues that came from Florida State.

So yes, they, they had that.

I think it was a seminal.

I mean, that was their mascot, you know, with the, you know, Florida State seminols.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah.

But I didn't realize that the, uh, the name was, um, what they say it was 20 across, um,

Oceola.

Right.

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

Mm-hmm.

But I didn't know they were the seminols.

Like I always got to be Florida State.

Uh, surely you didn't learn five across 18th century British PM William Pitt EG.

The answer was Wig.

Wig.

Yeah.

W-H-I-G.

I went for Tori.

Me too.

Cause I knew it had to be the, you know, Tori or Wig.

Right.

And I went for Tori.

Yes.

But no, it was Wig.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm okay.

Although, uh, surely they didn't teach you nine down classic meat sauce, ragu.

I don't think so.

Today's class will be on ragu.

And then we'll have an exciting non, uh, version later in the week.

Uh-huh.

How about 37 across, uh, they croak as, as soon as they grow up polywags, uh, yeah,

I'm not really sure what a polywag is.

It goes up to be a toe.

Oh, mm-hmm.

See, I figured these were animals that just like died immediately.

No, no, no.

They're toads.

You have frogs or, uh, tadpoles and toads are polywads, I believe.

Mm-hmm.

I believe that.

See, I went for Mayflies.

Cause those are, of course, of the flies that they, they, you know, they, they pop out

of whatever they pop out of.

Yeah.

And they die immediately.

Uh-huh.

They live like, no, they don't die immediately.

They live a few hours.

Well, that's pretty close to immediate.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

I think if you would ask your average Mayfly, they would consider that to be not enough

time.

Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm.

Another thing I, I remembered from, I was going to say the high school of college, 32

across writer of the 1969 hit The Boxer, Paul Simon, remember that.

But you didn't actually learn that in school.

No.

Uh-huh.

I suppose you could have, you're going to have like a music appreciation for flies.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Cause there's a lot to appreciate in that song.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Right above that, we had 31 across 007 feature of 1979 moon raker.

Moon raker, yes.

Is that like a vehicle that travels on the moon?

No, that was just the name of the film.

I don't, I don't know.

I haven't seen that film.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

And we had, let's see, 17 across, like Thunder Dell, the monster slain by Jack the

giant killer.

Right.

Two headed.

Uh-huh.

I learned that as a child.

New?

Yes.

Uh-huh.

And it sounds like, uh, I don't know, something to do with Dell computers.

Thunder Dell.

Uh-huh.

Our top of the line model.

Mm-hmm.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

I liked 48 across, where travelers might take the plunge on vacation, hotel pool.

Right.

Yeah.

Very good.

And the one beneath it was fabulous.

52 across.

Inner tube?

Close your mark.

In test time.

Yeah.

I wondered if it was going to be like something, you know, um, medical.

It was.

Mm-hmm.

So, uh, we had, uh, we had a couple of, uh, interesting phrases.

Five down was, uh, some deflections for arguments, say, what about is them?

Yes.

I never really heard of that.

I never really heard of it.

But that's what it is.

What about is them?

And then 28, uh, down was just go along.

Roll with it.

Yes.

Roll with it.

Yeah.

We had 33 down, which I plan to investigate after this podcast, social media community for

avid readers, book talk.

Yes.

That sounds fun.

Like TikTok, book talk.

Let's see.

There's also good reads.

I'm familiar with that.

Uh-huh.

I'm familiar with book talk.

Well, probably people just recording videos of them reading books.

It's really boring, unless they read about it loud.

Uh-huh.

39 down.

Distort was twist.

I had to work to get that for some reason, just didn't come to mind.

Uh-huh.

And they had a couple of debuts here.

35 down.

Animal identity and role play for Sona.

Yes.

I thought that was very interesting for Sona, said a persona.

Yeah, I started off with persona and then had to sort of backtrack.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I like 14 across.

Recipient of a key to the city's sake, local hero.

Local hero.

I got hero first and then had to figure out what kind.

Uh-huh.

But, you know, they didn't give us one damn counter order BLT.

That was, this definitely was not as difficult as Cameron, Justin Collins could make it.

It's still good clues.

Oh, they were great.

A lot of fun.

Very entertaining.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

And, you know, the fact that I was able to get one across and one down, then, you know,

that just made that whole corner so much easier.

You had the first letters of, you know, five different, five different, uh, other answers.

And so, uh, so yeah, that's always nice.

You get a little foothold there and then it makes it a lot easier to fill the rest in.

Right.

So, I mean, I had to work there.

Cause for instance, two down, subject of outdoor paintings by Renoir Monet and Horner.

I went for rainbow.

Cause I figured, although paint rainbow surely, but it was robot.

Robot, yes.

Also, the, the problem I always have with this three down follower, acolyte.

I want to spell acolyte with two C's.

Oh, no, no.

For no apparent reason.

Uh-huh.

And then, uh, vulgarians, four down.

Yahoo's.

Yes.

You vulgarians, you.

That's a great, great phrase.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yep.

It also goes along with Lixie.

Did we have five in today's crossword or is that yesterday's?

Which one?

Five.

Uh, no, that wasn't today.

That was, I think that might have been yesterday's.

We probably owe our listeners an explanation of why we didn't have a podcast yesterday.

Oh, okay.

We'd like to apologize for a lack of a podcast yesterday, but it was Friday the 13th.

And in keeping with the spirit of Friday the 13th, we had bad luck.

And one of us fell asleep.

So, in terms of bad luck, it couldn't be a lot worse.

We were in a chair at the time, and we're not going to reveal which one of us.

The one who does all the technical stuff for the podcast.

So, otherwise, the other person could have done it on her own.

Thanks for not revealing that.

Thanks for keeping that a state secret.

Or a provincial secret as the case may be.

Uh-huh.

But anyway, yes.

Uh-huh.

I woke up and it was the new crossword was already out.

Yeah.

It's good.

Uh-huh.

Anyway, apologies.

Well, it's been a long week.

It was a good crossword, and it had fired it.

I'm pretty sure.

No.

No, it didn't.

I don't think so.

That was yesterday.

That's what I'm saying.

Oh, Fridays.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

I'm going to assume it had fired here.

That's okay.

It did.

Uh-huh.

Actually, hang on.

Uh-huh.

Yes.

To Lady Macbeth.

Uh-huh.

Was fired.

46 down from yesterday's crossword.

Uh-huh.

We probably should only cover one crossword at a time to avoid massive confusion.

Uh-huh.

Um, on Saturday's, uh, 21 down was surprised me.

Noted series with over 200 Emmys and an Oscar.

And that was Sesame Street.

And of course, the Oscar was Oscar the Grouch, but.

But, uh, that is phenomenal.

200 Emmys, that that show has one.

Yeah.

And, uh, I mean, I didn't grow up with Sesame Street.

That came, you know, after I was already in school.

Our kids did and, you know, they really liked it and all of our kids could read and sound

to ten.

And count.

Sometimes be all that.

Yeah.

Well, they just liked the Muppets too.

I mean, the Muppets are so entertaining and they made learning funds.

Right.

I'm sure well-deserved 200 Emmys and I don't know where Sesame Street is now.

I don't think it's on PBS anymore, but we always watch it on PBS and that was great.

Wonderful show.

And it was a great clue.

I mean, and an Oscar.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Wonderful.

I had to pause to figure out 41 across 23 across the view of 1999.

So I had to figure out 23 across, which said 41 across maker.

Yes.

Thank you very much, Cameron.

And it was Toyota for 23 across and then Tundra for 41 across.

I think that's their big SUV.

Ah.

I'm pretty sure.

Could be.

Something cut or diffused 24 down.

I was like, sounds like a bomb or a scene turned out to be tension.

Right.

Uh-huh.

And then eight down, really, really believing eight down God-fearing.

God-fearing.

That was his interesting answer.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Strands from a litter or question mark 11 down was cat hair.

Cat hair.

That was good.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

And auditions was reeds.

Uh-huh.

I wasn't ready for that.

Well, I thought, you know, you try for something, but anyway, uh-uh, and then 16 across

shocked, shocked was a gap.

Yes.

I went for a gas.

Oh, yeah.

I went for a gasp.

Yeah.

Because a gasp, I think, has an H in it.

If I recall correctly, A.G.

A gasp.

Oh, yeah.

It has an H.

But a gasp.

Like.

Yes.

That.

That was close.

I can't tell we were.

You're fed.

I'm fed, but I have to change it.

24 cross.

I mean, just, just a great example of how to word a clue when you want people to not get

it.

Top option.

And it was T.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And it was just like, what's the shirt off?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

It was just a really fun puzzle.

Right.

Lots of great clues.

And yeah, I enjoyed it.

And this was Cameron Austin Collins, 26th New York Times Crossword since 2014.

He has always done Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

That's his special thing.

He likes it, talent.

Yep.

Yep.

Well done, Mr. Collins.

Yes.

All right.

That is it for today, then.

Okay.

So thanks, everyone, for listening.

Yes.

Hope you're enjoying this podcast.

Let us know crossword podcast at iCloud.com.

Some days crosswords out.

We promise not to fall asleep, but we will do it and talk about that crossword tomorrow.

Bye-bye.