Fill Me In #361: I’m on board only because I followed the cool people, not because I understand where the train is going.

Don't tell Ryan, but this week, Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty break into the studio and coerce Brian into the longest episode of Fill Me In ever! And to make it even stranger, it has more puzzle content than usual ... and a lot of it is about cryptic crosswords!

Neville gives a master class on cryptics at about the 44-minute mark, and the all-cryptic-crossword Thunder Round starts about 72 minutes in. The rest? Some Viewer Mail, some musical theater, very little baseball, and perhaps more laughter than you're accustomed to hearing on this show.

The cryptics of this week's Thunder Round are (some of these require paid subscriptions):

New Yorker (9/4) by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon New York Times (9/4) by John Ewbank The Browser (9/4) by Nate Cardin AVCX (8/25) by Nate Cardin Out of Left Field (we don't actually delve into this one, but it was #127) by Joshua Kosman and Henry Picciotto Square Chase #17, "Heist," by Steve Mossberg Wall Street Journal, "Art Gallery" (8/27) by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Go solve them first if you don't want to be spoiled by the Thunder Round.

Other stuff to click:

These Puzzles Fund Abortion Jesse Lansner and Laura Braunstein's "The A's Have It" Neville Fogarty's website that looks like it hasn't been updated in over a year The brand new contest puzzle written by Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty!

You can still get the puzzles from Lollapuzzoola!

If you get bored, write something for the Fill Me In wiki. And if you're feeling philanthropic, donate to our Patreon.

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