Virtual Togetherness Through Partner Crosswords

[bright music]

Okay, we're gonna solve a puzzle together,

which, I should just say is humiliating for me.

Because you are a champion solver, right?

Like, do you have a trophy room in your house?

[small crowd applauding]

You could though.

[relaxing music]

Okay, 1-Across, Nick Jonas single that opens with the line,

I don't like the way he's looking at you.

Jonas Brothers are a serious void in my--

Oh. I don't know a thing.

I feel like it might be jealous.

That's seven letters, and it fits,

and it sounds like a song.

Okay, 3-Down, literary source of the phrases,

foregone conclusion and green-eyed monster.

Pretty sure that that's Othello?

Love it, yes.

'Cause he's jealous.

Ew, little intertexuality there.

So, we can write this.

I feel good about writing that.

Okay.

Do you know the Gutenberg Galaxy author?

Marshall McLuhan.

Oh.

Wait is that gonna fit with that, oh, yeah, it does.

Well, it's M.

Give me my sports.

Yeah, sports, we'll go to sports.

6-Across, he played on the 'Dream Team' with

Larry, Michael, and Magic.

Christian Laettner?

I don't know.

That's gotta be Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson.

Right? Charles Barkley?

As far as I know, they didn't--

Does it fit?

It does fit.

Disorienting edit, in cinema.

Jump cut.

Jump cut, yeah.

Love a good, I love a good smash cut.

[Anna laughing]

I didn't mean to say that in like a weird way.

I just--

[Anna laughing]

All right.

We're doing this.

We are definitely doing this.

7-Across, parts of some sleeves?

Oreos.

Oh, it's usually Oreos.

[laughs] It's usually Oreos.

Let's do 2-Down.

No fewer than.

At least?

Obviously.

I figured out the sleeves.

Oh, tattoos!

So good. That's a really good clue.

Brava, brovo.

4-Down, they're right under your nose, question mark.

Oreos.

[Anna laughing]

What is it?

Sinuses?

And like usually, when you say right under your nose,

it's, like, not under your nose.

It's not literal.

It's a double fake.

It is a double fake.

Ta-da!

We did it.

[lively music]

I've met a lot of my best friends through it,

'cause there's just people with this similar interest,

to build off of.

That I care about this weird, like, tiny thing.

Like, yeah, how many letters are in a word?

Yeah, no, it's totally arbitrary,

and not interesting to most people.

And yet, it can somehow bring us all together.

Yeah. In a really charming way.

I would say that's something that I love about

the crossword community, is that I've never actually,

I feel like solving is really competitive,

and can be like, ugh, toxic competitive.

But constructing is never competitive.

I really, I mean, maybe that has not been your experience.

I have beefs.

[upbeat music]

I have a crossword meet cute.

I wanna hear your crossword meet cute.

My college boyfriend was really annoying

about crossword puzzles.

He would go to the, like, campus cafe every night,

and he would have The New York Times Crossword puzzle

in print, and sit there, and not talk to anyone,

but just sort of, like, ostentatiously solve the puzzle.

And I just remember it being, like, symbolically important

that he, like, let me help him solve it.

And everyone knew that that was a big deal, besides me.

Then we just started solving together.

He's actually the person that, like,

encouraged me to send off my puzzles to The Times.

When you solved together, with him,

was it like, would you recommend that as an activity.

Well, we're not together anymore.

[Erik and Anna laughing]

[upbeat music]

So, we're gonna give each other words to clue,

and we're gonna try to come up with an easy clue

and a hard clue, for the same answer.

Okay.

The word is friend.

So, I actually had a hard time with this.

I also had a hard time with this.

So, why was this so hard [laughs].

I don't wanna think about why this was so hard.

I know, exactly, okay.

Okay, so, I'll do my easy clue for a friend.

Go.

Emergency contact on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

[game show music]

So, good. Thank you.

I just have

Blank of the show.

Nice. Thank you.

Okay, hard clue for a friend.

Translation of compa.

Is that hard, I don't know.

I don't know if I've ever seen a clue of that form.

But, yeah, it works.

This would be edited for sure [laughs].

Great.

Term that Facebook algorithms stretch

to its definitional limit.

Great.

[Anna laughing]

I like that a lot.

The next word is family.

All right, so what's your easy clue for family?

Okay, to make it easy,

I think it needs a parenthetical, maybe.

So, I would do chosen blank.

Bond sustaining many L-G-B-T communities.

I would say it's gettable without the parentheses.

Okay.

What's your easy clue?

It's all relatives.

Nice.

[sit-com style laughing]

Okay, my hard clue is homo, e.g., or for example.

Like the scientific family?

Like the scientific family, like Homo sapiens.

Fast and furious theme?

There's always room for family.

Would that get you there?

I love that. Cool.

That's awesome.

The word is share.

So, an easy clue for share would be

word with ride and file.

Easy word, easy clue.

Demonstrate caring.

That's nice.

Okay, hard clue, this is not that hard, maybe, I don't know.

Command to a toddler?

[child whimpering]

Yeah, it's good.

I'm literally looking over to my editors every time,

and I'm like, Do you guys like it?

[Anna laughing]

Tell me if this works.

Go in group therapy.

Oh, got it.

Yeah? Yeah.

It's your turn in group therapy, so you share.

It's, I get it, I'm there with you.

That clue would get edited, it's fine.

They can't all be winners.

Next word, co-op.

Building with a board?

Cool, yeah. Is that easy?

That would get me there.

What about you?

I don't know, like campus building with a hyphen,

is that a thing?

Yeah, yeah, building with a hyphen.

Here's my hard one, but it's bad.

Go blank.

Go co-op?

Yeah, is that not a thing?

Oh, yeah, it goes co-op.

Whoa, that's really hard, and good.

Yeah, it's too hard. No, it's not.

You don't just wanna have like--

So, my hard clue for co-op is,

where to share food but not break bread?

You share your food in a food co-op, right?

Right.

But you don't break bread in a food co-op,

because you don't eat there, and also it would be weird to,

like, walk around the store breaking the bread.

[bread breaking]

[both laughing]

That's really stupid.