Oy!
When we count our blessings as constructors of word puzzles, we place near the top of the list the extraordinary variety of languages that have contributed expressive and charismatic locutions to modern English. And among those varied sources, Yiddish stands out as the origin of countless memorable words and phrases, many without true synonyms.
“Nudnik” – the subject of the quote in this week’s acrostic – is a perfect example. So is its variant “noodge,” found in Answer U. There simply are no other words in English that fully capture either of these terms, though many of us can readily call to mind someone we know who embodies them.
Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yinglish, published in 1989 and the subsequent 2001 The New Joys of Yinglish provide a delightful survey of Yiddish terms that have made it into English parlance. Rosten often embellishes the dictionary-type definitions of these terms with illustrative jokes and anecdotes in ways that add immeasurably to our understanding of their usage.
One note about Clue T. (“Washington or Berlin”) and its corresponding Answer (“Irving”). For clues of this sort – two distinct words that, with the answer, each make a well-known phrase – the NYT generally requires the words in the clue to come either both before or both after the word in the answer. For example, “dinner or wedding” would be an acceptable clue for “bell” because both words in the clue precede “bell” (dinner bell, wedding bell). But “liberty or pepper” would not generally pass muster because the resulting phrases (liberty bell, bell pepper) are not parallel in this manner.
We nevertheless persuaded Will Shortz to accept “Washington or Berlin” as a clue for “Irving,” because of the unlikely fact that both are names of capital cities and therefore might briefly lead solvers down a blind alley before that delightful “aha!” moment – Washington Irving, Irving Berlin! – that comes in unraveling these sorts of small mysteries that word puzzles offer. Let us know what you think about this bending of the rules!
For those of you who are fans of Jonathan Stuart Liebowitz, aka Jon Stewart (Answer M.), here’s a memorable clip that touches on this week’s theme:
When you’re down and out lift up your head and shout “Oy vey!”
A very tricky Acrostic, indeed.
I knew Leo Rosten wrote the The Joys of Yiddish but not The Joys of Yinglish, so after I discovered the theme I believed for a while that the source was The Joys of Yiddlish by somebody else, since I thought the author started with a K (KIEV being my guess for the Ukrainian city). Sorting all this out and finally figuring out the last letter of the puzzle was a D and not another PHUDNIK-related U, was a real pleasure. I’m kvelling!
I don’t mind Clue T at all, but would someone really make chicken soup in a saucepan? That seems like a stretch. (I had “Stockpot” for the longest time.)
I truly have no idea how you make these puzzles. Each one seems like a small miracle to me!
Came here to say that. No, they would not. I figured out it was Rosten pretty quickly. I grew up with “The Joys of Yiddish” and was not familiar with the sequel, so that confused me, plus STOCKPOT.
Oops. Well, being neither Jewish nor any kind of cook, I saw “saucepan” on the word list and was a little too eager to clue it thematically. I googled “saucepan chicken soup” and found a recipe mention them both. As for “The Joys of Yinglish,” on the first Christmas after we were married, Dave (who is Jewish) bought me the book, and my mom bought it for Dave!
Can’t make any soup in a saucepan, Jewish or not.
Another great puzzle, but it was one of the toughest solves that I remember. Usually, I do them in the print version (Parts of the Sunday paper are delivered to us on Saturday, because of the oversized nature of the Sunday edition).
But I had so many false starts and cross-outs (I’m stubborn enough to normally do it in ink), that I finally went to the XWord version online, where I could experiment with words and erase them without a trace, if it was clear they weren’t working out.
The key for me was when I finally suspected it was Leo Rosten. I started to confidently fill in “The Joys of Yiddish”, which was Rosten’s delightful 1968 bestseller. But the title was too short! So I was a little perplexed. (I had not heard of his 1989 “Joys of Yinglish.”)
On the “Washington or Berlin” clueing. I thought it was really clever (and one of the few that I got really early in the game.).
I can see why Will Shortz would want to enforce the rules of crossword puzzling with some rigor (and I hugely appreciate his incredibly capable stewardship of the crossword puzzle over the decades). But why should those rules necessarily apply to the Acrostic? Since time immemorial, the constructors of the acrostic would let solvers know if the answer was multiple words or hyphenated. That would be an anathema in the Times crossword puzzle.
Different puzzles, different rules. Just my two cents.
Loved “Washington or Berlin” and I’m glad you persuaded Will to bend on that one!
Not Jewish, don’t know much Yiddish, but the words in the puzzle were fair, and just became more delightful and surprising as we went along. I knew it could be saucepan, but you need a big pot for your chicken soup. East side story was a surprise. Thank you for another great puzzle!
The acrostic only appears in the print edition, which I get each week. Except today we are iced in. If anyone can make a copy to send to me, I would love to have it. I doubt I can leave home before Wednesday. If anyone can send it, post here and I will send my email. Iced in in Little Rock
Hi Ellen — you can also find our acrostics (and much more) at http://www.xwordinfo.com. There’s a small annual fee …
No problem with clue T. I thought there was some guy named Irving Washington that I had never heard of.
Thanks – i needed the laughs from that Jon Stewart video today. Remembering some Yiddish this was the easiest acrostic I’ve ever done. The Irving clue was fine. The saucepan made no sense. Otherwise great puzzle, thank you!
This was the hardest acrostic I’ve done in a long time. I went wrong in so many ways I can’t list them all here, but eventually it came together. I had so many cross outs that my grid was almost unreadable. I really miss being able to do the acrostics on line.
Seeing JONSTEWART in the puzzle was a treat. He graduated from my high school seven years after I did.
I had the same experience, Marshall. Very tough. But much easier when I abandoned the print version and went online. As Dave and Jane say a few comments up, you can solve it online right here on this website, for a small annual fee for membership.
OMG…The Daily Show clip is hilarious!!
Another absolutely fantastic puzzle from Jane and Dave.
5 stars!
I’ve been doing NYT Acrostics regularly for a couple of years now (I get home delivery of the Sunday NYT mostly so I can do the puzzles on paper!), and the Acrostic is my favorite. I wish it came out weekly instead of bi-monthly! I always admire the time and trouble (and cunning) it requires for you to create these for us. I can now do more and more of them “closed-book,” as it were, and I love the challenge.
I have to tell you, though, that this week’s was difficult to the point of frustration. I was maybe ¾ finished and finally gave up and started Googling clues … and I STILL can’t find some of them.
“Saucepan”?? Who makes chicken soup in a saucepan? And calling a latke a “fritter” is really stretching the definition of “fritter” (it’s normally considered a potato pancake); I was able to guess it by context, but I was shaking my head.
What the heck is the prairie dog vocalization? I know it starts with a “Y” because it’s part of YIDDISH, but after trying and throwing out the main descriptors of “bark[-ing?],” and “chuckle[s?],” the only term I can find even by searching online is a “Yip-Jump,” which is hyphenated (and you don’t indicate that) but even then, the J doesn’t seem to fit. “Yip-yips”? But your clue indicates that it’s singular.
For Clue Z: I searched (and searched and searched) online for any variation of “Hebrew” (or anything at all, really) that fits there … I’m out of ideas. It’s either something so stunningly obvious that I’m a schmo, or it’s too abstruse for the likes of me. Clue S: no idea what the tropical yam is (again, even after resorting to the Internet).
I’ll have to wait until this coming Sunday, I suppose, to look at the solution in the Sunday magazine. And in the meantime, I find it too frustrating(ly inaccurate), and I’m setting down my pen. I suppose that makes me a — well, whatever Clue X is.
Kudos to those who completed it!
Make soup in a soup pot, stock in a stock pot, and sauce in a saucepan. (Just had to be a noodge…)
I am a longtime acrostic fan who always uses the print version and just found this website as I was working on a blog post about my love affair with acrostics (or double-crostics, as I still call them) in honor of National Puzzle Day, January 29, which also happens to be my birthday. You can find it at https://thevivaciouslilac.blogspot.com/, posted January 31, 2026. Anyway, the January 25 acrostic was a challenging delight — rewarded by the moment when I rememerbed that Leibowitz is Jon Stewart, or when I looked at an odd combination of letters and said to myself, could this word possibly be NUDNIK?!