“Weird Al” Yankovic Co-Wrote Today’s New York Times Crossword

Debra L Rothenberg/Getty Images

“Weird Al” Yankovic Co-Wrote Today’s New York Times Crossword

Debra L Rothenberg/Getty Images

National treasure and dweeb-culture avatar “Weird Al” Yankovic has spent decades perfecting the art of the food-based pun; his novelty-song breakout “My Bologna,” based on the Knack’s “My Sharona,” came out more than 38 years ago. And Yankovic is also enough of an English-language dork that, in 2014, he turned Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” into “Word Crimes.” So it follows that “Weird Al,” like so many of the rest of us, is a devotee of the New York Times crossword. And it also follows that he’s found a way to sandwich (sorry) some food puns into it.

First things first: If you’re not up on the New York Times crossword app, it costs $6.95 per month, and it’s absolutely worth it. Maybe it’s ridiculous to pay for the privilege of filling out crossword puzzles when you can always just pick up someone else’s discarded newspaper, but that app is about as addictive as apps get, and it’s probably a more productive use of your time than Candy Crush or whatever. You can sign up for it here.

Yankovic co-wrote today’s crossword with regular crossword creator Eric Berlin. It’s a Wednesday puzzle, so it’s right in the sweet spot: Not as unchallenging as the Monday version, not as maddening as the Saturday one. And yes, Yankovic included a generous handful of food-based puns, all of which are based around “cheesy” movie titles. For example: The clue is “Cheesy 1987 thriller?” (The answer, of course: Feta Attraction.)

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