What do the photos above have in common with the opening word of a popular holiday song?
The idea for this week’s acrostic sprang from our enthusiasm for the works of Jhumpa Lahiri. We have read quite a few of her books, including the recent ones that she wrote in Italian, her third language. In Other Words eloquently describes her passion for her new adopted language and her journey toward fluency. Although the book seemed replete with promising quotes, precious few of them contained the elusive (but required) letter J.
The quote we chose — about the many dimensions of both words and people — inspired us to undertake a new construction challenge (just as we did a few weeks ago with our all-rhyming puzzle). Many acrostics clues offer more than one “way in” to their answers, of course, but Dave’s goal here was to generate — from the quote’s set of letters — an entire suite of words for which Jane could give two clues that relate to two distinct meanings (or nuances) of each word. While we always strive to sprinkle themed clues and answers into our puzzles, we now had to adhere to our theme with every one of the 24 clue/answer combinations. Refining this word list took quite a bit longer than usual — and involved some, um, spirited debate.
We opted to use no proper nouns, as people or places happening to share the same name, for instance, seemed unrelated to the spirit of the theme. We also limited ourselves to single-word answers, even though plenty of multi-word answers could have fit the bill (e.g., “hot dog” could be clued with both “show-off” and “ballpark staple”). Maybe another time . . . stay tuned!
As fellow word lovers, you probably had as much fun as we did pondering how these words’ different meanings connect to each other. But by its two-ways-into-each-answer nature, this puzzle may have struck some as too easy or the word list itself as insufficiently esoteric. Did the provocative quote and the puzzle’s meta “reflection” of its theme compensate?
Which answer do you see reflected in the pair of photos above?
Great puzzle. Loved the cluing! Just the right amount of head-scratching and “Aha” moments. Thank you so much!
Clue W for the pics?
Wonderful(!) clues in this puzzle – my favorite thing about acrostics is to be made aware of a word’s different meanings. Second favorite thing is to ponder the quote and possibly be introduced to another author.
Thanks for another great one!
I found it harder than usual to get started on this one, in part because I didn’t know the alternate meanings of some of the words, e.g., clue A1, E2, in part from, e.g., reading “desert” as a noun instead of a verb. But somehow it all came together anyway, in much the usual time. I am so happy to have this continuing supply of acrostics!
Loved the solve with the double clues – just the right blend of cleverness and challenge.
Loved how the clues “mirrored” the theme of the quote as well as the title of the book. Very well done!
I’ve been doing the Times crossword puzzle for just short of 50 years, and the acrostic for nearly as long (going back to the Thomas Middleton era!). Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon were splendid — as are you two!
This latest puzzle was a delight, with its multiple definitions. (I never knew “panoply” could also mean a full suit of armor.)
Since the Times inexplicably killed the commentary and comments on variety puzzles, I’m very grateful to this website (which, surprisingly, I only discovered recently).
Too easy?? Hardly! I had few answers at first pass, and If it wasn’t for picking up some plurals, “-ings,” and “thes” (though one turned out to be a “too”) I would have gotten nowhere…Then I recognized “language” and the rest came faster. For a while I thought you were using an. alternate spelling for “forebears.” I should have known that wasn’t likely!
Definitely not too easy – a bit harder than usual for me. Halfway through my first pass at the clues I figured the double definitions had to be a theme thing. It was fun to discover the connectionand the dual definitions gave the puzzle a bit of cryptic flavor. I thought I had an argument with you on one and then discovered it was my error and you, of course, were correct. And I’m very annoyed with myself since Word F should have been a gimme and it was one of the last I filled in.
I liked this puzzle a lot. I have always had an interest in figures of speech, and the theme of this puzzle (single words with multiple meanings) is closely related to a number of rhetorical figures of speech with rather strange names: zeugma, syllepsis, antanaclasis.
On an unrelated issue, I have always wondered whether it would be possible to construct an Acrostic puzzle in which the first letters of each line on the completed grid, read downward, followed by the last letters of each line on the completed grid, read downward, constitute a “secret” message that might be related to the theme of the puzzle.
I have also wondered whether one could create a three-dimensional Acrostic, though I have no idea how that would work.
Dashing
Dear Friends — Thanks once again to all of you who have written in so far. We are glad that this acrostic seems to have tickled the fancy of those who commented, which makes us think that it was worth the extra challenges it presented during the construction phase.
One of you mentioned that you learned at least one new definition in completing the puzzle. For the record, we also learn a lot when creating acrostics, particularly as Jane undertakes research in pursuit of interesting clues. Indeed, that is one of the great joys we have in this endeavor — learning new things.
Another of you suggested that it might be possible to create an acrostic “in which the first letters of each line on the completed grid, read downward, followed by the last letters of each line on the completed grid, read downward, constitute a ‘secret’ message that might be related to the theme of the puzzle.” What a fun idea! The problem we see in implementing this idea is that we have very little ability to adjust the quotation in such a way as to achieve this result. Now, if we used a quotation of our own — that is, not one from some other author — it might conceivably be possible to embed some secret message. But then the “author/source” aspect of the acrostic would become problematic. Hmmm … I guess we need to keep noodling on this suggestion.
Kudos to our commenter who noted the connection between the photos of a dashing young gentleman and of runners poised to go dashing around a track. Too bad we couldn’t find an image of a one-horse open sleigh.
See y’all in a couple of weeks,
Jane and Dave
I really liked the double definitions! Nice job! Starting out, I didn’t find the clues easy at all: I was able to get only 7 (E,F,N,O,T,U,X). But luckily their letters, once in the grid, suggested the opening phrase as well as four of the longer words elsewhere – enough to give me the traction I needed. Thank you for the fun.
Your explanation of the process of creating this Acrostic reveals how much more meaning was contained in the puzzle.
It inspires me to look even deeper next time. I found this one rather difficult (as opposed to last time, when I had little trouble and was staring to feel a little cocky!) but I persevered. I love the moment when you can feel everything tip and you know you’re going to solve it. So much fun!
I spoke with Jane a few days ago suggesting, one musician to another, that I’d appreciate musical clues. A few days later I happened on the Hex acrostic of 3/5/2006 (xword) and was astonished to discover that each of the 26 clues had a musical connection, though some quite tangential. Of course it was undoubtedly easier for me to solve than it would be for some non-musicians.
Your gifts are much appreciated. Whatever the NYT pays is, I’m sure, not enough.
Was away, so late doing this acrostic. I needed research to get started, although there were a couple I should have cottoned on to sooner, but I really enjoyed the process. Wowed at the double definitions. Tergiversâtes was a new one. Again, wow!
june 16 was just about right for me, enjoyed the double definitions. went back and did June 2, which i’d somehow missed, and found it much more challenging. ymmv and different strokes, of course. i’m in awe of your abilities to create these great puzzles and so appreciative that you’ve picked up right where hex, and now caitlin, left off. and big thanks to xwordinfo.com for jumping into the void created by our nyt abandonment.
This is the first time I’ve solved an acrostic on-screen, just joined XWord. This week’s acrostic was definitely “not too easy!” Took me twice as long to solve as usual. Not whining! That makes it better — prolongs the experience. I love a puzzle where a couple of arcane movie or Broadway references are used — helps me get the puzzle started. But the “double definitions” are challenging, and after reading Dave & Jane’s notes, it really deepened the respect I have for puzzle creators
Why was the error check removed from the acrostic puzzle?
The link is replaced with a button.
I got feedback that the old error-check method showed the problems and then disappeared too quickly. Now, the wrong letters are highlighted as long as you press and hold the button.
Great puzzle! Love all the double meanings (and learned a few!)
Master puzzle setters; I think you two are having as much fun as we are!