Re 50A, Woodrow Wilson and Gordon Brown received PhDs almost a century apart (from Johns Hopkins and the University of Edinburgh, respectively). Both doctorates were in History. I wonder about referring to them as “honors,” though, as they were both earned degrees rather than honorary awards. I certainly wouldn’t argue that the PhD made either man a more effective leader, but I do think we’d be better off if politicians knew more about the past than is currently fashionable.
@Jannicut I had the same reaction to the “honor” description.
@Jannicut I think that saying “degree” in the clue would have made it too easy. YMMV. !!!! !!!! !!!!
@Steve L Surely including “degree” isn’t the only alternative? I raised a concern about the clue but did not rewrite it. Do I have more faith in the creativity of the crossword editorial staff than you do? I wouldn’t have thought so, based on the large number of your comments I have read over the years. I’m a little surprised you chose to pick a nit that wasn’t even there.
Random thoughts: • Just a reminder, that English is not Zhouqin’s native language. • When I looked at CAT DAD and ELF HAT, my brain shouted, “Seuss!” • Speaking of the brain, I never cease to be amazed at how it works behind the scenes, at how it is initially stymied by a clue, then, later, when I look at the clue again, the answer pops out. This happened maybe five times in this puzzle. • Some lovely sounding answers: LILAC, GELATO, ROTELLE, TAURINE. • ELOTE is a relatively new crossword answer. As best as I can tell, among all the major venues, it first appeared in 2021. • GONGXIFACAI was a supreme challenge for me, a long no-know in which I needed crosses for every letter. That it filled in correctly is a testament to the constructor and Times team. Bravo, all! CC, your puzzles are always so junk-free, smart, fresh, and have the stamp of high quality, no matter what day of the week they appear. I am so grateful for you, and for today’s splendid solve!
@Lewis Another lovely part of this xword, is it's left-right symmetry.
Happy New Year everyone. Here’s to a happy healthy auspicious year of the dragon for all!
This was tough. CAT DAD was adorable and this GEN-X-ER appreciates a shoutout. But it was tough.
@Sam Lyons I still don't get how WORE, 23 Across, is connected to rocked.
35A: for future reference, pool balls are RACKED, while brains are WRACKED. Tricky idiom.
@Inchoate But Earnest I knew that! But forgot it when I filled in the answer.
Etymologically, brains are more often RACKED than wracked, but in current usage either works. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/rack-vs-wrack" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/rack-vs-wrack</a> ................................ shipwreck clothes rack
@Inchoate But Earnest That's what I thought!
I was on the right wavelength tonight! I saw Zhouqin's byline and the clue for 16A and thought, YEAR OF THE DRAGON and it fit so I was off to a good start. That didn't stop me from having problems in other areas--like COMICON for MEGACON and figuring out how to spell GONG XI FA CAI, but it all worked out nicely. Happy New Year to all!
@Liz B me too! Fastest Saturday solve ever. Long time player, first time commenter
@Susan Welcome! Yours is the first comment, too. I didn’t set a personal best, but it was close. Even faster than yesterday, and that was a relatively quick solve. I was amazed that I got GONG XI FA CAI spelled correctly. I was confident about GONG XI, but the rest depended entirely on the crosses.
@Liz B. How many different versions of the phrase are there? I learned it as "Gung Hei Fat Choi " from the local restaurant. Happy Lunar New Year to all! Peace and prosperity.
Reason #1 I love crossword puzzles? Had zero knowledge of GONGXIFACAI. Or SETTOS. Or a few others. But the crosses got me to all of them and took me home. No Google machine needed. Nice one! Gong xi fa cai!!
@CCNY There was a SET TO in the emergency department where I volunteer yesterday; something about a patient attacking someone... I didn't get the details, but I saw the aftermath, and it was a good example to explain SETTO. Or, SET TO.
I don't recall ever seeing a comment that scolded a constructor with: Even though I knew all of these [proper names or songs or movies or TV casts], there were too many and it's not fair to expect others to know them. Or, I knew all of those really hard geographical locations, but it wasn't fair to others to use them in a puzzle. Or, (Fill in the blanks) Complaints about clues, unless they are flat out wrong, seem baffling. We come to the puzzles not just to use our memories, but to use our brains. The idea that it's unfair to use Google or Wikipedia or a dictionary or a thesaurus to search for a fill is as limiting as requiring a constructor to use only clues that we already know.
@dutchiris I asked my husband a question he thought just "came out of nowhere." Of COURSE it did! I'm doing a crossword puzzle. "I don't do those." But, do you know the answer to my question? "If I tell you, that's cheating." Nevermind. I'll Google it. "That's cheating!" 🤦♀️
@dutchiris I always say it’s not cheating, it’s learning. I try to avoid researching, but sometimes it happens.
Cat dads are purrfect parents. (I'm not kitten!)
Mike, Sorry to see your catty remark, probably offered last night in an alley, was caught in the emu filter and only released this afternoon. With emus, practice does not make purrfect.
Hmm. You RACK pool balls and you WRACK your brain.
Si, si, C.C.! Happy New Year! Great reason for a tougher than usual Friday to let this fine weekend puzzle fall on the right day. Not the year of the emu
My solve was 14 minutes slower than my average. This was a difficult but very satisfying puzzle for me. I didn't know the first names of the Olympians, and I had "OHISEE" instead of "OKISEE", so I thought there were some athletes out there whose first names were Herri! The Chinese greeting was completely unknown to me, and I got it from the crosses. Always good to learn new things!
I know it’s Saturday, but really, I’m supposed to know Chinese now? This was painful.
@John … and any Chinese puzzle solvers are expected to know ‘English’ any other day. Besides which, it’s Chinese New Year. There are bound to be certain phases along social media and news outlets if we pay attention to.
@Jemm apologies and correction. Lunar New Year.
This puzzle was a blast! And it reminded me that this is my Chinese zodiac year!
I'm surprised that so many people found this puzzle unusually easy. It took me a looooong time to get some of the entries. And I sure didn't know how to spell that greeting. Used the crosses, and still misspelled it. Ah, well. My computer started acting up again, and I couldn't get to WP yesterday. I looked and looked for links, but can't find any. I hope no one missed me. Or maybe I hope they did. The clue for NAIL is nothing short of brilliant. Made my (XWP) day! Didn't know MEGACON. I guessed at the CON part when I first got to the clue, but there are so many CONs out there with people dressed up in costumes, that I can't keep track. Toyed with MAGACON for a bit (thinking MAGazines, but had to rely on the crosses. Yes, CC, you stumped me. So when I finally got stuff, I rejoiced and felt smart and competent! Great puzzle. Thanks.
@Deadline Yes, you were missed. The emus are never missed. ********************** **********************
@Deadline Were you looking for the link to Thursday’s Wordplay? Here it is: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2024-02-09.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2024-02-09.html</a> I keep the following link bookmarked. It says wordplay but it actually takes you to all of the gameplay offerings : <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/wordplay" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/column/wordplay</a> Of course, you were missed! Good luck with the computer. I’ve had two BSODs (blue screen of death) this week. Ugh!
GONG XI FA CAI. That one seems to be a bit out of bounds. Just a bit.
@Pat My wife is Chinese so I am very familiar with the expression. But the problem for me was figuring out how to anglicize the spelling, especially since it makes a big difference if it’s Cantonese or mandarin. So I tend to agree.
@Pat I don't see why it would be out of bounds. It was pretty easily accessible through crosses and we got to learn something!
@Pat Disagree, especially on a Saturday. I absolutely didn't know if, and had to rely on crosses--some of which were tough! But I got there. What surprises me in the comments is how many people seemed to know it cold; it's a reminder that everyone's wheelhouse is, well, theirs--i.e. individual.
I’m Gen-X and yet I could not figure out GENXER to save my life. Luckily my life was not in danger but completion of the SW corner most definitely was. MEGACON threw me for a loop because all my geek friends, whom I love, are always going to Dragon Con or Comic Con, and "comic" fit. But I knew something was amiss because the crossing word had to be AÇAÍ, the superfood counterpart of Oreo :)
Fun bonus puzzle to figure out what the 61A might have been in the original. (See Constructor Note). I’m guessing YESSIR instead of KOSHER, but I’m usually wrong about such things. A lovely New Year’s puzzle and great to see CC here any day of the week. Fun to remember KERRI Strug’s Olympic heroics, and of course learning Chinese is a bonus. The juxtaposition of TEARS STAIN (evoking the Trail of Tears) and BLACK HILLS is poignant. Indeed, the puzzle is chock full of beauty and whimsy. Thank you, C.C.!
Well, both D’oh and Hey, I was right! Didn’t realize that CC actually linked to her original version. ——- — -
@Puzzlemucker I loved your "Is It a Thing" ditty so much yesterday, I'm inspired to add to it a bit because this puzzle lends itself to it. Hope you don't mind and my elf's hat off to you! IS THAT A THING to be a CATDAD? The very idea gets me upSET TO the point I'll ask Cat Lady Marget to see if she's also this mad. In Williamsburg the hipsters serve LILAC GELATO with a beer "infused" with ACAI. I tell the Chinese server GONG XI FA CAI but she's a GEN Z'ER and says "Yo mack, step back, pay with yo EWALLET, sir. Else get some cash (there's an ATM FEE)." Showing my AGE, I say "OK I SEE" (but don't see at all and have to CONFER with my son: "This is all so INANE, I can't even pay without taking the MCAT." "DAD," he replies, "is this your thing, this new fad of playing the TEEN, can't RACK your brain, look at you, ORANGE NIKE SNEAKERS, TEAK- framed glasses, flirting like a MEGACON nerd, quoting the latest Sara SHEPARD, a cross of Dame EDNA & a TEN year old geek!" "Is that a thing?" I said in reply. I left to get a YEAR OF THE DRAGON tat on my back )near the one of an ORANGE KITKAT) from a KOSHER dude's parlor in hipster Bed-Stuy... I think that's as far as I can take it. :-)>
Just so someone knows they’re not alone: I had a very difficult time with this solve! It was wonderfully constructed, but a few spots just had intersections of multiple things I’d never heard of—luck of the draw, I guess! (Still finished, but I admit I did peek at Chopin’s nationality on Google to break open the west block)
@Stephen PS, I still don’t understand 43A, despite knowing both teams and what cities they’re based in. I got CDT with the cross (and brute forcing SCO_TS for 30D) but Googling after the fact still isn’t making it clear. Can someone more sports literate help explain it to me?
I’m not sure I buy HASNT as “informal,” but I’m not going to harsh the Saturday chill by belaboring the point. A fun puzzle for Lunar New Year — and with a language lesson, to boot! GONG XI FA CAI, y’all!
@Barbara Prillaman Agree about HASNT. When I got the H, it was my first thought for “lacks,” but it sounds pretty Dickensian (not a bad thing!) next to average modern speech. What say, you, emus?
@Barbara Prillaman When I worked for the Texas Legislature, I sometimes had to write legal memos. One of my reviewers would replace every contraction I used with the formal verb form. It was kinda annoying.
@Barbara Prillaman contractions aren't formal English. We have to pull them out of all our reports and other documents submitted to clients
As a regular MEGACON attendee (who just returned from it last weekend), I never expected to see my yearly pilgrimage show up in the vaunted NYT crossword! In fact, I needed almost all the crosses before my brain clicked and shouted, “Megacon! Wait, MY Megacon? Surely not.” It wasn’t until I read the Wordplay article that I indeed knew my little con had graduated to nationwide fame (something I should’ve realized when it became the second largest fan convention in North America). 谢谢 for a fun, crunchy crossword!
Good puzzle! Also, 79 puzzles in the NYT is nothing short of amazing to me. Congratulations!
Gung Hay Fat Choy everyone, which is how I always saw it. So I had trouble figuring out the mandarin version in this puzzle. I did appreciate the new year shout out since I am year of the dragon. Managed this one in sub-average time with no help, unless you count confirming elote and rotelle were correct. Never did figure out how nail could be right, until I saw the column. that had me doubting the whole east side for awhile, especially tearstain which was on odd word to me. I knew taurine was an amino acid first found in bovine tissue so that helped. Just wondering, what US president had a PhD.? Probably honorary. Pretty sure it isn't Trump.
@K D That's the Cantonese way I learned it. I enjoyed getting it through crosses.
KD, Woodrow Wilson. It was not an honorary degree. emus do not receive honorary degrees
According to Robert Nathan, a WEAN was one of an ancient civilization known to its members as US and whose capital city was known as "Pound Laundry." For more detail, see his article in the November 1956 issue of Harper's, "Digging the Weans." It was adapted into the book "The Weans" (1960).
@Fact Boy You always bring up the most interesting and often obscure topics. This is no exception. For those wondering what on Earth FB is talking about here, I recommend digging up the original 1956 piece from Harper’s. It’s a little complicated to directly link to it {some pay walls) but this will get you there and to a 1950’s radio broadcast about the Nathan article: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7apj747m" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/7apj747m</a>
I always appreciate a puzzle that I can learn a new word from, and still solve from the crosses.
A dragon of a puzzle, fire and brimstone and all that, but one full of illumination, from the mundane (SCOTTS) to the impressive (PHDS), with LESSONs from so many fills. At first I thought GONG XI FA KAI was some kind of MEGA CON, a fill filled with mistakes, but it all worked out and after reading the column?—OK I SEE, OH DEAR it was LILAC pure and KOSHER all along. Welcome back, Zhouqin Burnikel, and gong xi fa kai to you! (Enjoy your veggie jiaozi and taro.) cakes!
@dutchiris Ms. Blanchett spells it CATE. It's good to see you in the Comments!
As usual, I didn't find this one as easy as most everyone else. In fact, I was just completely stuck around 51a (never would have gotten that) and just flat out cheated to fill it in (googled the 'nyt answer' for it), figuring I'd have some errors somewhere else anyway, but... nope - got the happy music. I shouldn't count this one. I think I'll probably just let myself fail on tomorrow's puzzle just to get back to a zero streak. (I'm at 29 days at the moment). Couldn't help but wonder how difficult it would have been to fit TET instead of TEN at 58d. Seems like it would have been a nice touch. Oh, and... THETETOFFENSIVE is 15 letters. Never been in a puzzle and not even in the Xword Info answer lists. A bitzer prized by that. ..
@Rich in Atlanta "I didn't find this as easy as most everyone else". Rich -- I frankly don't believe the majority of the braggarts here. While a do-able puzzle, there are too many "issues" in a puzzle like this to not hang up the vast majority of solvers. Internet anonymity breeds bad behavior. Finally, don't forget constructors have every resource in the world available to them and likely weren't aware of many of the clues/answers in their own puzzles before construction.
Rich, I would not have expected C.C. to include TET. A puzzle about Tet would not have GONGXIFACAI. Two thousand years... Kenneth, Rich's "most everyone else" was reference to posters he knows, not "a vast majority of solvers." He knows the posters well. He knows himself well. ..........................
@Rich in Atlanta I was surprised to come here and see so many say it was easy. It was very difficult for me. I ran out of time to spend on it and hit "reveal puzzle". When I saw the answers I knew I wouldn't have finished even if I spent more time on it.
May Sir ORANGE INANE, in this YEAR OF THE DRAGON, once again have to face the reality of I, SECOND. Et tu, emu.
Okay, slept so much better that I feel almost human ...and it's a good thing! What a stellar puzzle! My biggest problem was that American English has so many transliterations? (Translations? Versions? Spellings? Atrocious renditions?) of the Tet/Lunar New Year greeting that it's virtually impossible to know this outright. It is certainly not the same version that Palo Alto Friends' Nursery School taught in 1983-86. CC Burnikel had so many misdirections and sly clues (and I fell for every one of them) that this took me a good long while. You might say that I *WRACKED* my brain. OH, DEAR. I am not up to reading justifications on that last bit at 35A.
@Mean Old Lady My synopsis, MOL: I fear we've been relegated, without benefit of due process, to the coven of the "smug" & "derisive"
@MOL So glad to hear you're feeling improved!! It may be that the version of the greeting you remember, like me, is the Cantonese transliteration; CC used the Mandarin one. (And yes, "transliteration"! IMHO.) Regarding RACK, I just found -- and posted in a reply to AP Nerd, above -- this very interesting article on the difference: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/rack-vs-wrack" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/rack-vs-wrack</a> TL/DR: There is much debate, which I take as it being okay to use either! But NYT Style Guide (mentioned in the article) uses it as seen in the puzzle.
Brains are not RACKED; they are WRACKED. (Unless, I suppose, Igor is preparing them to broil.)
@TTaylorEditor once I figured out that brains and pool balls are not SMOOTH, the left side of the grid fell into place nicely. I still think SMOOTH would've been a more clever answer to the clue.
@TTaylorEditor I feel like the definitive answer lies below. OED: rack (v.) ?1507– --intransitive. To undergo stretching, strain, shaking, or dislocation. Chiefly Scottish in early use. Now rare. --To pull or tear apart, separate by force, break up. Also in extended use. Also figurative. --1583–transitive. to rack one's brain (also brains, wit, memory, etc.): to make a great effort to think of or remember something. --"Racke not thy wit to winne by wicked waies." W. Byrd (1583)
@TTaylorEditor Oof yeah was not a fan of this spelling
Disliked this "puzzle" because it was more a test of trivia and proper names. I liked learning about the Chinese new year, but anyone who isn't Chinese has no chance of figuring out the phrase. Likewise, I had "Oh I SEE" instead of "OK I SEE" (the former being far more common than the latter), and could only catch my mistake by googling the Olympians. Ditto for SHEPARD, MEGACON, ELOTE, SCOTT'S and BLACK HILLS. Likewise, "is that A NO" could have easily been "is that all", "HASN'T" could have been "has no" and __ clothing could have been anything. Too much "guess what I'm thinking". Definitely not a fun crossword, and more of a slog, only completed to keep my streak alive.
At 1A I automatically thought 1920s. Gotta stop that now I guess.
@Louise Hand up for that....thought of RUNS on the banks, lines for the lone teller, Bonnie and Clyde bank-robber teams, etc.
@Louise: Couldn't "20s" refer to twenty dollar bills, which are dispensed by ATMs?
Whenever I solve a Friday or Saturday puzzle especially unusually quickly, I like to hop on here and see if a lot of others similarly breezed through the puzzle or if this was just a puzzle where the clues were in my wheelhouse of knowledge more than average. Sometimes it is both . . . the puzzle can be objectively and subjectively easy (or difficult). At any rate, I enjoyed this one as well as its relative lack of 3-letter crosswordese. And being a Gen Xer born in 1976 (a Dragon year, so I was aware 2024 is as well), I happened to get 16A right off the bat, which opened the puzzle up very quickly for me (especially for a Saturday).
Also struggled with our "sort of" revealer and did check to see if GONGXIFACAI was a debut and it is. Got me thinking of other instances of non-English phrases. I suppose we've had plenty of Spanish, French and other *words* but a full phrase? Not sure how to even search for those examples but will give it a try. A proper workout with some very nice chewy bits. Many thanks.
@John Laissez les bons temps rouler comes to mind. I'm pretty sure I've seen that here, in various forms.
@John I would make the distinction between foreign phrases in languages that use the Roman alphabet and those to at do not. The former are more likely, usually having just one canonical spelling, but with transliteration there can be many variants in English, making it much more difficult to fill in (especially for a phrase with multiple words) - unless there is a commonly accepted predominant transliteration. 🤓
I hated this puzzle until I loved it. Such fun! More from Zhouqin Burnikel, please!
Tough one for me, a relatively new crossword solver (but word lover and daily queen bee addict). I fell into the same OHISEE/HERRI trap, and muddled my way from CHI to CDT thanks to the cross. I don't see anyone on the longer side posting their time, so I'll be brave and admit it was a whopping 2 hours. But I made it in the end! I long for the day when I can measure these weekend solves in minutes. The only one I'm still a little stumped on is 33A. Why regulation followers = OTS ? Occupational therapists? Something else?
@Ross Regulation as in a ball games when regulation play ends with a tie. It’s followed by OT aka over time.
@Ross baseball fan here scannning the comments looking for something about CDT, still not getting it, can you help me?
I certainly did not find this easy; yet I finished well under my average, strange. My key to completing was when my husband woke up and gave me Chopin’s birthplace. That little AREA was pure agony for me until then. I dutifully read all the comments before mine, so I’ll provide a little index of repeated topics: WORE (see Barry’s note a few down) Faster-than-normal finishes for some/more difficult than usual for others The age-old popular-culture answers bad versus good debate. (My take at this point, as I begin to feel veteran-ish, is bring it on, because whether I know them or not, it gives more tooth to the puzzle in general. But that’s just me…) BTW, CATDAD is hilarious to this dogmom!
@Kate I'm waiting for Andrzej to stop by and express his joy for 23D. To be honest, I keep mis-remembering that Frederic Chopin was French.
When the puzzle authors send me the cash, I will take Mandarin lessons. Until they do this for everyone, Anglicized Mandarin phrases have NO PLACE in English crossword puzzles.
BW, No TAMALE for you. ................. emu barrier
@BW, Interesting and curious. This was Mandarin romanization, an official Chinese system that uses the Latin alphabet. It was no more English than it was French or Portuguese. But I am curious about where you draw the line. I assume you would accept the Latin "et cetera." Was "dan" clued as a judo rank OK? It was Japanese romaji but is fairly familiar to American audiences. How about Anglicized French, as in "cliche"?
fun and challenging! I loved NIKE crossing with SNEAKER, ACAI crossing with the Chinese greeting which ends with ACAI, and (kit) KAT crossing with CATDAD. Plus, ELFHAT!
This was a wonderful puzzle. Not easy, but well-constructed and cleverly clued. I can imagine people having some difficulty with a long Chinese entry, but I could say the same thing about entries in German, French, Spanish, or other languages that sneak into our vocabulary (like ROTELLE and KOSHER). They are familiar to some people, but for the rest are a "learning opportunity". In this case, GONGXI FA CAI was fairly easy to get from crosses anyway. And now it's in my vocabulary.
How was anyone that is not Chinese supposed to get 51 across?? My company actually celebrated lunar new year so I was able to get the reference but to know the greeting for it?? And how to spell it! Seems a little ridiculous for a clue that took up so much real estate.
English has 50K words. I wish the puzzles would make use of the very rich English lexicon instead of relying on proper names. This is just lazy puzzle setting. NYT: please improve!
@Manhattan Funny you should make this comment today, about a puzzle that has rather few proper names, but the question remains: Why do you believe that proper names do not belong in a crossword puzzle? Proper names have been part of crosswords since the beginning; in fact the very first clue (ie 1A) of the very first NYT puzzle in 1942 was a proper name. Since this is a normal feature of American crosswords, your characterization “lazy setting” is inappropriate. Or is it just that it’s not your personal preference, so you conflate your preference with the reality of all crosswords past and present? And BTW, English has about 400,000 words, not 50,000.
For whatever reason, I flew through this. Clearly, today I am a genius. All bets are off for tomorrow. And that speed was despite being unable to think of Polish cities other than Krakow and Gdańsk for several minutes. And having no idea how to spell GONG XI FA CAI beyond GONG XI. There were a number of clues that made me smile, but my favorite was NAIL. My first thought for “digital canvas” was NFTS, but NAIL is above and beyond.
Fun puzzle and definfitely more challenging for me than the usual Saturday (of late). I just want to mention that I solved 31A, but thought of it in terms of the Pentagon's top secret 'Areas' (e.g, Area 51), since such 'Areas' are, plainly, numbered. Maybe I read too much sci-fi....
I didn't get much filled in on my first pass. Thankfully, the downs were kinder to me... although 14D "House speaker's place" had me fooled for a while. (Great clue!) There were a few unknowns and interesting trivia, it was definitely a "learning experience". :)
What kills me is the derisive and smug certitude of some people's criticisms. I feel like the definitive answer lies below. OED: rack (v.) ?1507– --intransitive. To undergo stretching, strain, shaking, or dislocation. Chiefly Scottish in early use. Now rare. --To pull or tear apart, separate by force, break up. Also in extended use. Also figurative. --1583–transitive. to rack one's brain (also brains, wit, memory, etc.): to make a great effort to think of or remember something. --"Racke not thy wit to winne by wicked waies." W. Byrd (1583)
@APNerd Thank you for this! I must confess I really hesitated on 35A, convinced the word needed the W at the start. I entered RACKED, got the "almost there" message... And like others, eventually found my problem was with 7A, and 35A was fine! This article on the Merriam-Webster website has a really interesting discussion of the etymology: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/rack-vs-wrack" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/rack-vs-wrack</a> And includes this important point in the second sentence: Some ... usage guides provide a way of dealing with this question that has a certain brutal charm: just stop using the word wrack. This is the method that is advocated by The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, which points out that wrack is archaic, and then informs the reader that they should simply “substitute a modern synonym.” // This is The New York Times' world; we're just playing in it! 🤓
Okay, that was easy for me, because I speak Mandarin. In fact, I used the phrase in 51A just last night, when I picked up my Kung Pao chicken and jiaozi. (Steamed dumplings.) Xie xie, CC, for a timely puzzle. Actually, I think you're more likely to see gong hai fat choi, which is the Cantonese pronunciation.
@Grant thanks for providing the essence of commentary about one of the oddest Saturday puzzles I’ve seen since the Maleska days. “It was ok for me because I speak Mandarin” should never be said about a puzzle in an American newspaper. No disrespect to Chinese lore, well-known words and terms, or imagery. If one needs to be able to speak Mandarin to solve a puzzle easily, it is by definition unsuited for a newspaper. Except perhaps a Chinese language newspaper.
I started by entering YEAR OF THE DRAGON, but it was mostly all a real struggle after that. At least I have a fair amount of company today, and of course a Saturday is supposed to be difficult. 3 for Wordle though which cheered me up.