Every now and then, a certain language factoid circulates on my social media feeds that goes something like, “You can’t spell [blank] without [blank].” And however those blanks are filled, the resulting phrase is intended to be a pithy observation: You can’t spell “business” without “sin.” You can’t spell “believe” without “lie.” Nevermind the fact that you can’t spell “business” without “bus” — while a pithy observation about taking public transit to work, it isn’t as snappy. These phrases are both the means and the ends, which is to say that the point of them seems to be the mere fact of their existence. Is it really so profound that you can’t spell “believe” without “lie,” considering that you also can’t spell “homeowner” without “meow”? I don’t think so, though cat-owning landlords may disagree with me. Cynical as I am about these meme-y insights in the wild, I have nothing but admiration for such wordplay in crossword puzzles. The New York Times Crossword is where quirky linguistic phenomena like palindromes, kangaroo phrases and grammagrams shine. Constructors can wink at us unabashedly with clues about words being “aptly” hidden within other words or phrases. EDEN is a [Word aptly hidden in “unspoiled enclave”]. APE is an [Animal aptly found in “banana peel”]. Whether or not these facts would impress your friends at a dinner party, they never feel stale in a place where wordplay can exist for its own sake. Any idiosyncrasy of the English language, if presented without further comment, is destined to grow stale. One can laugh charitably only so many times at the observation that “the ‘b’ in ‘subtle’ totally is,” or marvel at how the word “empty” reads the same when some letters are removed, before a “been there, done that” boredom sets in. And if there was ever a case to be made for word puzzles, here it is: They change. Connections has featured a handful of “WHAT [LETTER] MIGHT MEAN” categories, but I’ve never seen them coming. Many of you have solved tens of thousands of themed crosswords, but I challenge you to show me two that were alike. Spelling Bee can use the same “honeycomb” of letters but change the center letter, and it’s a game you’ve never seen before. Now, if only there were a way to conclude today’s newsletter with some punchy and shareable observation. How about “You can’t spell ‘playing a game’ without ‘gaga,’” because it was about going gaga over games? Or “You can’t spell ‘linguistic phenomena’ without ‘no men,’” because a woman wrote this? If you have any better ideas, send them my way. Wait — that’s it. You can’t spell “send them my way” without “end.” Solve the Midi
Cryptogram |
