Monday, March 2, 2026 - Mmm, pass me another slice of that ol' tres LECHES cake 😋

This was a very pleasing debut crossword by Leslie Benson, who provides, on xwordinfo.com, an amusing description of this puzzle's construction — some of which apparently took place while she was in a "fuzzy hypnagogic state". 

Fuzzy or not, the crossword itself was a smooth solve, and an enjoyable one. Check out the podcast for all the deets.

In addition to the podcast, in honor of Monday we have selected our JAMCOTWA™️ (Jean & Mike Crossword Of The Week Award), and we are going to go out on a limb here and state, with 100% certainty, that you will either agree with our choice ... or not🙄. 

Show note imagery: Behold, a tres LECHES cake so scrumptious that you can put on pounds just looking at it 😀 

Contact Info:
We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com.

Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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 Monday, March 2nd, 2026. So, what did you think of this crossword?

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Well, I liked it.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Good.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

But I have a funny story to tell about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Ooh, do tell.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Because I was right in the middle of doing it, and I had got about two-thirds of it done. And I accidentally hit something on my keyboard and it like disappeared. And so I I like the keyboard or the puzzle?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

The puzzle. Just wanted to make sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

So I like called it up again. And when I did, none of it had been done.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

None of it had been done. It had totally lost all of my answers. Oh no. So So you were starting from scratch. So I was starting from scratch, but I'd already done two-thirds of it. So I just did them as fast as I could. And when I finished, I had finished in four minutes, exactly. Wow. So I'm like, whoa, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah, there's nothing like already having solved the puzzle to speed up your solving them.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

But anyway, so so then I opened the puzzle today to take a look at it. And it was like, wait a minute, you did something wrong here. And it gave me a score of 539.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Yes. So it must have figured out that, you know, what time I had before it disappeared. And then after I did it again, you know, what what was already there and what it how long it took to fill out the rest of it. 539.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

I I'm just envisioning uh a meeting at the New York Times Crosswords headquarters. This woman, Jean, who does this podcast. I'm not sure if that's how he sounds or not.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

I envision him as having a British accent.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

So but I've never had it all disappear. You know, sometimes I've had it. I thought you have had that happen before. Uh-uh. No. No, you've never like No. Uh you know, it'll sometimes some of it will disappear. Like, you know, the last few things you fill out. But this, the whole thing was gone. So that was a first. But um but anyway, it wouldn't give me four-minute time.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I I think you should drop a note to the uh to the support folks.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

No, no, it's all right, it's fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

It's a very, very good time.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So although you read these people, you know, on the on the weekend, the people who do like the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and especially like they'll be like, yeah, I did the Saturday crossword in two minutes and 52 seconds. I'm like, so sometimes I like to do the Monday crossword and pretend it's a Saturday. It's like, whoa, I did the Saturday in eight minutes. Okay, it was the Monday. Whatever it happens to be.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

That's how I I in fact I think many of those people are reporting their Monday times and just claiming they're Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

That's that could be, but you have to think they're honest. So but yeah, I know they do say they do it in very, very rapid time. That's right. Compared to me. You can't even write that fast. Uh-huh. You know, I have the rule kind of like if it takes me more than an hour, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna finish it. You know, I'm not gonna do the rest of it. I'll just look it up.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

But uh I have that same rule, except in my case it's eight hours. Oh, it's if it takes me more than eight hours to do a crossword, it's time to hang it up.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Uh-huh. Now now Sunday's kind of an exception because that it always takes longer, but but you know, like during the week, I I don't really like to spend more than an hour on the crossword puzzle.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

No, I'm I'm eight hours every day of the week. That's my maximum.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Uh-huh. But uh, but you know, lately I've been able to get them done in less than an hour. Even even Fridays and Saturdays. So so I feel pretty good about that. The more you do, the better you get.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yes. Or as some of the people in WordPlay would say, the crosswords are just getting too easy.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yes, I know. It's just like as soon as you do well, you go there and they'll just be like, well, it wasn't you. It was the crosswords. Thanks very much.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Okay, well, either way, I'm doing them in less than an hour. So that's great.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Well, I think there's so many, you know, uh words show up of you know, uh repeatedly, like for instance, we had 34 down here, Indian flatbread, roti. Right. I mean, you probably know that. If you didn't know that already, you now know it like it it's at the tip of your definitely.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yes, yes, that's very true.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

And so I I think that definitely helps. But as you go towards the to the end of the week, you know, I mean the clues become so intense, and they do throw in lots of stuff that you haven't seen before.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

That's yes. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

But there are only so many ways you can combine words. Uh-huh. Unfortunately, there are many, many, many ways.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

That's right. We also had a rerun with 29 down. Uh uh Obsessor over the precious in Tokyan War. Tolkien. Tolkien War, yes. Uh-huh. Smeagol.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yes. That was when was Smeagol in? Was it yesterday?

SPEAKER_02 5:11

I believe it was yesterday. Wow. Or maybe Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Smeagol's making a comeback. Yeah. I wonder when Gandalf's gonna make wait, they did have Gandalf. Didn't they have like Gandalf versus down at Hagrid full beard? All right. I predict tomorrow, Bilbo or Frodo. Or maybe Samwise Ganges. That's right. Let's see. There was a theme. I can tell there was a theme because of all the gray squares. That is true.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

We had a theme with four themed clues, and they each had grayed squares at the beginning of the answer. Uh, and then we had a revealer right in the middle. Uh the answers to the themed clues were four shadow, strike gold, action plan, and timber wolf. And see they don't seem to have anything in common, but the the parts that were grade were the for, strike, action, and timber. And the revealer clue was acknowledging, acknowledge during a broadcast essay, and a hint to the shaded squares, and that was give a shout out. So all of those grade words are things you shout. For, strike, action, and timber. So that's very clever.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

So I for from golf, timber from when you're cutting down trees. Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Action on a movie set, movie set, and strike in a in a baseball game. Oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

That was good? Yes. It was by Leslie Benson and it was a debut.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Oh, really? Yeah. Well, very good, Leslie.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yes, indeed. And there were lots of other great clues in the grid. We had Tenacross, that was Happy as a Blank. And I debated between Lark and Clam. Oh, uh-huh. I I wanted it to be Lark, but it turned out it was clam.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

It was clam. I had something else. Happy as a oh, I can't remember. Crossword sulfur? Uh-huh. Podcaster? Um, no, but um my daughter was looking over the shoulder, my shoulder, and she said, it's clam. I said, no, I think it's happy as a or happy as I can't remember what I thought it was gonna be. A pig and a poke? No, no, but uh anyway, it it did turn out to be clam.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Right. Because if it had been, for example, Lark, then 10 down, Daniel Blank 007 portrayer would have been LaReg as opposed to Craig. That is correct, yes. We had 13 down, bikes with small engines, mopeds. Yep. And I thought, boy, I don't really hear much about mopeds anymore.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

You know, when we lived in Missouri, we lived in a very small town.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

You lived in Missouri?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

We did a long time ago. Oh, yes. Um, and it seemed like there were lots of mopeds, but it was a small town, and so you know, not a lot of traffic. So I think a lot of bus service. I think, yeah, no bus service. I think a lot of teens and a lot of the university students had mopeds. But yeah, around here you don't see them at all.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

No, it's this is Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

They cross-country ski everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

They drive their mopeds around their F-150s. And if anyone from Wisconsin was really offended by that, you're not really from Wisconsin. Because the Wisconsinites are all rolling in the aisles here. Uh let's see here. We had 34 across, which was there's not there's no such thing as bad blank publicity, and the answer was as bad. So there's bad. There's no such thing as bad publicity. I don't think that's true. I think many of the people in the Epstein files would think, you know, I really didn't need this publicity.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

So it's not a done deal. But most of the time.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Most of the time.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Um we had 35-down sci-fi series with a ton lord traveling in a TARDIS, Doctor Who. Doctor Who. I just one day I hope to get back into that series. Sort of lost me in recent years.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

It's it was a fun show to watch.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

And I'm sure it still is.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah, well, I think that we should just bring back David Tennett. Uh 41 Across Trey Blank Cake was Leche.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yes. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Which is I think it's Leche. Leche?

SPEAKER_02 9:31

I think.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

It looks vaguely French, maybe, although there could be Spanish or it could be some entirely different um alphabet-based language. So we had 44 down. I found this very mysterious. Sharper, acuter.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Which one is that? 44 down. Oh, yes. Uh-huh. Acuter. Acuter. Acuter, yes. More acute.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

I acuter. I've certainly heard of more acute, but I've never heard of acuter. I think they invented that for the purposes of this crossword. Could be. I think what happens is they they they they get to a certain point where they're stuck. They head over to Wikipedia and add it as an entry.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Is this a word?

SPEAKER_00 10:13

No, no, they it is a word. They they change history then. No. I I am certain that um Leslie Benson would not do that. And the editors wouldn't allow it either. That's right. Uh I liked 48 Across. That was the uh sequence of steps to accomplish a goal, action plan. I just like the phrase, action plan.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Action plan.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

I have an action plan. I don't actually act on any of my action plans.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Have you ever been on a committee or in a group that has had an action plan?

SPEAKER_00 10:41

No.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

They are no fun to write. Really?

unknown 10:44

No.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

No. We need an action plan. Okay. Okay, what do we put on it? Uh duh.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

We'll just do stuff until we'll do stuff until we get it done.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

And then that the clue for um timber wolf, wild canid of the Great Lakes region. I like the word canid.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yes. Yes. And that's us in Northeast Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Do we have a lot of timber wolves around here?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

We do have wolves. I've heard people say they've they've seen them. Like, you know, in their backyards.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Hope they don't try and attack all the deer that are.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

They better watch it. Those deers are friends. I I'm also hoping for the word cryptid to make a reappearance.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

We haven't seen that in a while, but I'm ready for it. The minute they mention cryptid.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

We've seen it in the clues, but we haven't actually seen it as an answer.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Ever? Cryptid?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Oh, yeah, but not lately. Right. Lately, yeah. But in the clues. Yes. We've seen that.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Like yeti or maybe leckness, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yeah, usually for Yeti.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Uh Sissi Sisacross was there for. I went for thus. Oh, uh-huh. And then eventually got around to the correct answer of Urgo. Urgo, yes. All right. I think that is it for the crossword. Okay. But it is Monday.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Which means it's time for Jam Cotwa. The Gene and Mike Crossword of the Week Award. Yes. Where we delve into the archives. Actually, we go back for the previous week and pick out what we deem to be the very best crossword. And this week we picked Wednesday. Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Although it was a tough choice because we had so many good puzzles this week. I really enjoyed all of them.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yep, I agree. The quality was very high this time.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Right, right. But those break dancers just, I don't know, that was just so clever and something so different that I I just thought that could be our jam contra this week.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

I agree. Mm-hmm. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yes. And um, and that uh the that puzzle, uh the theme was was breakdancing. And there were actually three little um brick dancers that represented various um letters. Letters, uh-huh, in the in the grid. And that you actually use them for the down clues. Yes. So so anyway, it was just um just just delightful. It wasn't a difficult puzzle, but uh and and once you figured out what they were doing with those little little uh figures, um, it was a fun solve. Yeah. So so yes, we had um grade squares that if you answered the puzzle correctly, they spelled out different kinds of dances like disco, tango, and ballet. But within each of them was a little um silhouette of a break dancer. And so they were break dancing, break breaking up the dance uh word that was in within the uh the answer there. So in disco it was between the I and the S, uh in tango between the T and the A, and in ballet between the E and last T there. So, but uh just very clever. And it was by Brad Lively. Yes. So very good, Brad.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Congrats. Yes, indeed. And if you feel so inclined, Mr. Lively, drop us a line, crossword podcast at iCloud.com. Include a shipping address and a shirt size, and we'll have some lovely Northeast Wisconsin swag as well as a t-shirt, as well as a signed jam cotton certificate winging its way towards you in no time at all. That's right. That is it for today. Okay. Thanks everyone for listening. Drop us a line, crossword podcast at iCloud.com. Let us know how you did on this crossword. Let us know what you think of this podcast. And we will see all of you again tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Bye bye.