How’s That Spelled?
For our fellow word nerds – and we know there are many of you out there in the acrostic-solving community – we devoted this week’s puzzle to the glorious vagaries in the ways words in the English language may be spelled.
In quite a few cases, the variants occur because people in the United States and the United Kingdom persist in spelling certain words according to their own lights, e.g., meter vs. metre, theater vs. theatre, labor vs. labour, etc. We love how these charming differences have resisted the general trend toward globalization. Or is that globalisation?
In other cases, alternate spellings exist simply because the lexicographers say they do, seemingly to have a bit of fun with us. For example, “tabu” is an acceptable if “less common” spelling of taboo. Merriam-Webster accepts both “judgment” and “judgement.” The list goes on.
We believe that we have achieved a “clean sweep” in constructing this puzzle, in that every clue/answer pair contains a word that can be spelled more than one way. Where the answer requires a British spelling, we signaled as much by including some British element in the corresponding clue. Let us know if you spotted all the words in question.
We stumbled on the quotation at the heart of this acrostic while reading a remarkable collection of essays and speeches by the author and historian David McCullough, whose daughter and longest-serving research assistant compiled and published History Matters after McCullough passed away. If you’ve enjoyed any of McCullough’s many books, we think you’d like this collection of works as well.
For a video this week, here’s an old favorite from The Beatles, referenced in Clue A. Lots of gobbledegook phrases — and erroneous subtitles!