Friday, October 23, 2026 — Happy Mole Day🧪😁

This was an excellent and challenging Friday crossword by Katie Hoody, who is well known for her excellent and challenging (predominantly Saturday) puzzles. Today's might've been nominally on Friday, but both cohosts thought it was "Saturday-ready", with a sea of sneaky clues engineered to entrap the unwary. Besides those mentioned in today's episode, we had clues like 26A, Band at a Jimmy Buffet concert?, LEI (wow!); 30A, With whom one pools pounds for quarters, FLATMATE (brilliant!!); and 52D, Remedy for deflation, PUMP (ha!). And, trust us, there was more where that came from! Deets inside. Show note imagery: Some always fashionable MARYJANES from litlookz.studio. We love feedback! Send us a text... 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!