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!
As a Chicago resident, with the White Sox going forward in the postseason after the Cubs’ meltdown, the Rate Field clue told me this week’s theme was baseball. Then I wondered what Thomas Jefferson had to do with baseball. It took me a while to climb out of my rabbit hole. Sneaky trick, says I.
Much harder to unravel this one in my estimation. Had to resort to looking up A. and E. Got S. without any trouble. Tricky, very tricky.
David McCullough was certainly one our greatest (and most joyously readable) historians. My dad, Peter Schwed, a longtime editor at Simon & Schuster, signed McCullough to his first book, The Johnstown Flood in 1968, and remained his editor for his next two books, The Great Bridge (the extraordinary story of building at the Brooklyn Bridge) and The Path Between the Seas (about the equally extraordinary planning and construction of the Panama Canal).
McCullough included in his acknowledgments in those books exceptionally gracious expressions of gratitude for Dad’s mentorship, editing skill, and steadfast belief in him before he became a household name. They remained friends long after Dad retired, and McCullough gave a deeply moving eulogy at Dad’s funeral.
I usually solve the puzzle in the print edition, which we get delivered on Saturday. But I found this one more challenging than usual, so I went over to xword, where you can experiment with fill more easily than with pen on paper.
Wonderful, enjoyable quote. Andrew Jackson famously misspelled “Europe” as “Urope.” During the 1840 election, political opponents falsely claimed that Jackson wrote “O.K.” on documents to mean “oll korrect” (all correct).
I can’t imagine how I would have done this one on paper! I started out badly by misremembering the order of those lyrics. HOLY ROLLER also fits! UPTOWN was one of only 2 correct fill-ins on first pass -at least I picked the right THEATER spelling…And I couldn’t remember the Bond title, which irritated me. Nor did I catch on to the unique flavour of this puzzle for a very long time. So, the most laborious acrostic I can remember. But I’d still like to think I solved it with honour…thanks, Jane and David!
Shoot. There’s an unwanted “correction” in the above. An American prejudice in my word processing!
I had trouble finding my footing in this one. The spellings of ANAEMIA and HALFMETRE had me off balance, and I compounded the problem by using grumpy instead of CRANKY. It also took me a good while to suss out the theme of the quote. But ultimately I spelt everything correctly and all became clear. Bonus points for using gobbledegook in the clues.
David McCullough, a great American historian. This acrostic is a fitting tribute to his recent passing. It was VERY challenging as it took quite some time to unravel the different spellings. History Matters is a very appropriate gift for history readers.
Late getting to the puzzle, but I wanted to make sure to thank you for this challenge. I’m proud of myself for being able to finish it after having only five entries to go on at the start: anaemia, swath, theater, gasses, taboo. And then it was a matter of luck with pattern recognition, e.g., the “T” of “theater” led me to guess “the,” whose H, happily prompted “homestand”- bonanza! And so on. I didn’t think to look for names until very very late in the day. Thank you for the fun!
Hi – I didn’t know how else to reach you two but I just wanted to send a note to say how much joy these puzzles bring me. I only recently discovered them on the xwordinfo site and am working my way backwards through them (now in October 2024) and I just think every one is a masterpiece. Thanks for bringing me (and I presume many others) so much entertainment.
Been busy so I’m late. Got MOJO FILTER and thank goodness for my eraser ✏️