This past Saturday, The New York Times published the 1,000th edition of Connections. It was as much an occasion for nostalgia as for celebration, for who among us has not, at some point, had their brains scrambled by a purple category from the mad-scientist mind of Wyna Liu? Who among us can claim that, given a second chance, we would fare any better at identifying DISTINCTIVE NUMBER OF ARMS (OR LACK THEREOF) or URL ENDINGS PLUS A LETTER? A few days before the Connections milestone, The Times ran a Roman numeral-themed crossword, constructed by Yitzi Snow, in which certain letters carried numeric values that corresponded to the clues. [Total on a chiliagon], for instance, solved to MANGLES — that’s M ANGLES. (N.B.: The clue word is pronounced KHEE-lee-a-gon, beginning with the Greek root for “thousand.” No chiles were involved in the making of this thousand-angled shape.) In Ancient Rome, Saturday would have marked the M Connexionem — assuming they played, of course. As demonstrated by Mr. Snow’s ease in intermingling — intermangling? — words and numbers, it seems prudent for us to keep counting and spelling separate. Besides, we’re in too deep with shorthand now: Business is done via LLCs and LLMs. Emails rely on CCs. No one dares put their trust in MLMs. And when something is delicious, I say MMMMMM — you want me to do math while I’m eating? There’s also a significant capacity for confusion in our existing symbols and gestures. “Star Trek” fans would be devastated to find out that, instead of receiving the royal hand gesture for “Live long and prosper,” we all thought they were saying “High five!” Roman numerals are still put to use plenty. They mark the acts and scenes of play scripts, they tell the time on luxury watches, and they lend an air of sophistication and history to any stone or sign they adorn. And it’s fun to imagine that they might be influencing us behind the language we use — making our words count, literally. From the Archives
This extremely cool Matt Ginsberg Thursday puzzle from Nov. 1, 2018, features one of my favorite types of themes. They’re as difficult to make as they are difficult to solve, but those facts in tandem are what makes me love this puzzle so much. If you need help solving, the Wordplay column can get you unstuck.
Column of the WeekIkechukwu Ufomadu, an Emmy-nominated actor, comedian and occasional host of a short-form web series about words, is this week’s Wordplay guest columnist. He writes: “This Monday puzzle features three back-to-back clues that, for me, unlocked a pleasant wave of 1990s childhood nostalgia. For a few moments, I was whisked away to a (comparatively) simpler time of not-infrequent ‘Brady Bunch’ reruns, the sounds of dial-up internet in the living room and godlike movie trailer voice-overs clarifying when, exactly, one could expect a new film to open at a theater ‘near you.’”
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