Wednesday, March 18, 2026 - A cracking good Wednesday crossword

Welcome to Jean and Mike to the New York Times Crossword.

Hi, I'm Jean.

And I'll learn Mike.

And today we are doing the crossword for Wednesday, March 18th, 2026.

So on what is either eed, eave, or the day before eed, eave?

Yes.

Which is fun to say.

Did you do the crossword?

I did do the crossword.

And did it bring you much joy?

Uh, well, I don't know.

I would say joy.

Oh.

Uh, certainly respect.

Uh-huh.

I certainly respected this puzzle.

Oh, good.

Mm-hmm.

And what did you respect it for?

Well, I thought it had some rather challenging answers for a Wednesday puzzle.

Mm-hmm.

Where you just don't usually see on a Wednesday.

Uh-huh.

Even some you don't even see on a Friday or Saturday.

So you would say it was crunchier than usual?

Oh, definitely.

Definitely.

I guess you could say that.

Mm-hmm.

If crunchy means more difficult.

More difficult.

Yeah, more chewy.

Yeah.

It took me longer than it usually does to do a Wednesday.

Mm-hmm.

But I learned it.

I thought it was really that clues were just really interesting.

Yes.

I found it.

Yep.

I agree.

Uh-huh.

And the theme was kind of silly, but it worked out.

Mm-hmm.

You wanted to talk about that silly theme?

Okay.

Um, the theme we laid related to the game, a bingo.

Bingo.

Oh, bingo.

And the, um, the answers to the clues that had an asterisk in front of them all had actual bingo calls in them.

If you pronounce them the right way.

Possibly the incorrect way.

So the theme, there were five theme clues.

And they were Ruby Tuesday, benignly, that'd be wonderful.

Um, unbeaten and baby formula.

Mm-hmm.

And all of them have, have a bingo clue.

So Ruby Tuesday, B2, B2.

Uh-huh.

Yes.

So you really had to look, you really had to look hard and long for those bingo clues, but they were in there.

Yeah.

Um, and so I thought that was rather, rather clever.

And, um, and then the last clue that was 66 across, you got it.

Or a possible cry after hearing the calls hidden in the answers to the start clues.

Mm-hmm.

And of course they were all b numbers, which are the lower, lower numbers like, I guess, you know, maybe one to fifteen or so.

But, um, but anyway, yeah.

So that was the old bingo theme.

A bingo theme.

I don't think we've ever had a bingo thing before.

Not that I recall.

Uh-huh.

I was trying to remember the last time I played bingo.

I believe William Pitt, the younger was prime minister of Britain.

That's how long ago it was.

Oh my.

Oh my.

Do you remember the last time you played bingo?

I do.

It was just a couple of years ago.

A couple of days ago.

No, but anyway, yep.

That's the old bingo theme.

Well, in addition to the theme, I thought there were a lot of terrific, terrific clues.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

I would agree.

I'll start with the ones.

I'll work my way up to the really exciting ones, but even one across a young grasshopper, Nymph.

Nymph.

Did you know that?

I think we've seen that before.

Nymph.

A clue like that.

But I did not remember it.

Uh-huh.

Actually, it's appeared only a total of 22 times.

Wow.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

The five-down was meal cooked in simmering broth.

I had it starting with hot, and then peeled.

I was going to be hot foe.

Uh-huh.

Oh.

You know, the soup.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

Which I figured might be a simmering broth.

Yes.

But in fact I was hot pot.

Hot pot.

Yes.

Did you get hot pot right away?

I did.

Oh.

Okay.

But I had done most of the crosses, so I had much of the legs.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

I loved in the middle of that, we had 20 across.

Make like a hot dog, pant.

that was very good make like a hot dog yes yeah quite nice and then 15

across game to play when the spirit moves you Ouija Ouija or Ouija I never

thought of Ouija as a game but I guess I guess I mean I mean there's no

real no real ending to Ouija boards it just you just use them until you're tired

of asking questions well the last time I played that was before the last time I

played bingo so I definitely did not recall that yeah I vaguely remember you

put your hands on a some sort of a disc or something yes and push it around

the board well supposedly you're not pushing it supposedly some spirit is

moving it but I always had a feeling that the other person was

I played Ouija yeah I think Occam's razor needs to be deployed here if you

think the spirits moving it or your friend is kicking the board it's

probably your friend right and uh-huh boy 26 across stump me and that was one of

the theme clues without malice be ninely I'm like wow I couldn't think of any

word that meant without malice but be ninely does I tell you one that was a

great challenge to me 16 down 16 down was indulgent lazy and the answer was

Langerus I have no idea how to spell this and even looking at the correct answer

LA and GU OR OUS right it looks totally wrong yes I know the only word that

looks like a typo uh-huh I mean we have this very impressive Langerus at 16

down and then we had 12 down play a bit of horn say Tudor yeah Tudor I love

that the two extremes from the very dignified to the Tudor uh-huh next

to Tudor we had 11 down casting groups Covens yeah that was good uh-huh and 11

across or that offers one L of a ride CTA yes Chicago Transit Authority

knows of the elevated trains uh-huh well it's all of the buses and and

elevated trains all the subway everything that moves through Chicago really

yeah I thought it was just the elevated oh no huh those are just called the

L L trains but but the Chicago Transit Authority that that's like you know

controls all the public transportation yes and it's also the real the real name of

the group Chicago right I think they started out kind of a CTA but really I think

yeah and then they just called themselves Chicago after the lawsuit no doubt

we had 27 down that was uh quote human beings for one reason or another may hide their feelings

but a blank does not earn us anyway and the answer was cat cat yes that was quite cute

very long quote that is a long coat yeah Ernest didn't believe in uh in

parsimony when it came for writing mm-hmm yeah another one that kind of stumped me for a while

was uh 26 down take ones leave that was a bow out yes bow out uh we had 28 across numbers on

botella divino and that was enos that's right and I I just I decided after the fact that botella's

divino is Italian possibly for bottles of wine that's right and enos is years right mm-hmm was that

in fact Italian um I think so maybe Spanish it it looks kind of Spanish but I don't really know

bottles of wine in Spanish one of those like in one of those languages is is year in Spanish I do

know that okay so all right well I'm gonna go for spanish or Italian I've narrowed it down to a

continent uh we had uh let's see 28 down was a Renaissance fair tipple ale that's right I like the

word tipple tipple mm-hmm let's see 41 across that was uh as you may take a spin in this two two

right that was a lot of fun clues uh there were there were we had like 51 across um I had no idea where

to go with this it covers a fair amount of ground without moving mm-hmm area right that's great uh

yeah there were just a lot of fun ones I found it quite impressive yes I liked all the French 43

down do a do is casserole four and then we had uh 57 down month after Avril and that's meh

for me right yes so it's like finally they brought my language back oh as listeners can tell

that it's not really my language but I'm closer to being bilingual in French than and then

Spanish which is not saying a lot 50 oh sorry I like 63 across got in a row or yes that was great

and 59 down that's the kicker leg yeah well I I had one mistake in this in this crossword that took me

forever to find oh no because uh 42 across was Kentucky blank annual horse race since 1875

and I had an old starting with OA and I thought oats the Kentucky oats which I know would be a

good name for a horse race because they'd probably get oats at the end of it they might yeah

but that meant that 38 down luau instruments informally was euths no they're not they're not I learned

that a much later after I'd finished the rest of the crossword then in fact the uh Kentucky race

was the Kentucky oaks that is quick and then the uh luau instruments informally were the euths

that's right but great crossword yeah it was by Adam Vincent his seventh since 2020 maybe not a huge

number but it's quality very very much so yeah and uh yeah I he's done Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday but yeah just just fun fun clues every oh one other one we have to mention this uh 62

across save on wedding invitations in a way he low yeah I just delightful I had he and I that oh

he lied you know or email email your invitations yeah no it was he low yeah so well done Adam

I think this deserves five squares on the jams oh yes definitely all right we are unanimous

isn't this that is it for today then thanks everyone for listening remember we love feedback

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you're listening to this podcast yep we will be back again with our cutting edge analysis of

Thursday's crossword tomorrow bye bye