KLC

@laura far be it from me to tell you how you’re allowed to feel, but this seems like a reach. i’m sure it’s very much on your radar as the identity of the deceased is relevant to your life, but i didn’t even remember where that unfortunate incident had taken place, if i ever knew it.

@Times Rita it’s often remarked there’s two kinds of people when it comes to crosswords: those who like learning new things and those who like to complain. i agree IZZATSO was a truly wild entry, but just because you don’t know the LOGICAL FALLACY of NO TRUE SCOTSMAN doesn’t mean it’s some out there or even widely unknown concept. at least it’s in english (unlike the logical fallacy you agree wasn’t too difficult simply because you already knew it)!

@Charles Nelson Reilly this sentence is a shakespearean invention, and while he didn’t have any latin, BRUTE, not brutei, is indeed the proper vocative of BRUTE so i don’t know what you mean with this comment. can you elaborate?

@Paracelsus both terms are used, and both are readily understood, so, while it’s certainly your prerogative to prefer one over the other, no single human gets to determine how others use language. fwiw merriam-webster defines amnestic as amnesic, linking to its entry, and adds it can mean causing amnesia as well as just suffering from it.

@Tiffany the terms refer to different styles of coverings. the hijab is the scarf that (usually) covers all the wearer’s hair but reveals the whole face. a niqab is worn over nearly the wearer’s whole head, leaving just a slit for the eyes.

@Chet by no means is the spelling gaea purely crosswordese. it’s a bod standard alternate spelling of the name that’s even cited at the top of her wikipedia page.

@Jody i just put in all 4 letters, no spaces or extra characters, and it was accepted

@Ιασων AEGIS is loaned entirely into english so retains the greek spelling. PEDIATRICIAN is an english word derived from greek roots so uses english spelling rules, particularly of the american dialect, since the nyt is an american company. and if we wanna get really pedantic, they’re both spelled wrong because the greek is αἰγίς or παῖς, both using iota, not eta or epsilon.

@jo english speakers say “no problem” in lieu of “you’re welcome” all the time, but this usage is really dependent on the generation of the speaker. millennials and younger think “no problem” is more polite than “you’re welcome”, actually.

@SBK that’s a shame for you! i maintain it is one of the most perfectly written scripts of all time and every person in it plays their part superbly. it’s absurd and surreal and very funny.

@Nancy RAM is the manufacturer of many a pickup, but it hasn’t become a generic term for pickups like mack has for semis. it’s a dodge company spinoff.

@Darren alumni are associated with particular years of a school’s history, i guess, as the class of 2024 or whatever

@Emily this comment helped me find the error message preventing me from solving the whole puzzle; i had MeLTS instead of MoLTS. it’s obvious now but i just couldn’t see it!

@Kelson so the swing just references that we have to “swing” through which one we’re reading for a given direction?

@James Meek in real estate ads, a bathroom is often referred to as just a bath, as in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. but it’s definitely not common parlance

@H.E. it seems strange to say only the genitive Éireann is acceptable as a name when the nominative Éire not only exists but is still used on postage stamps, passports, and coinage. erin is merely poetical and derived from the dative Éirinn.

@Ken Burk pearls before swine is a biblical allusion from the new testament gospel of matthew. as for the regional references, i’m not sure why people think it’s inappropriate for a paper set in nyc to reference its own region

@Jeff B MD when i first filled it in i heard like someone who natively speaks spanish saying “stop” with their usual accent! i’ve never heard estoppel, as the other commenter mentioned, but m-w says ESTOP is the archaic version

@Erin "I'm walking here" is something Jesus could have said as he walked on water in the Sea of Galilee, one of his miraculous feats. Dorothy Gale is the full name of the main character of The Wizard of Oz, who has to walk the yellow brick road to find the Wizard to return to Kansas. And Neil Armstrong is famously one the the very first people to have ever walked on the moon, and their base of operations while there was in the Sea of Tranquillity, which gave the base its name.

@Matt this is not the point of your post, but “rebus” is not a word that can be made plural by changing the -us to an -i as it’s actually already a plural form. it means “by things”, as in, it’s a puzzle solved not by words but by things.

@Patrick J. yeah but it's wrong, and i don't think an english dictionary is really a legitimate source for a latin form (as evidenced by the fact that the OED is wrong here). the (ancient roman) latin word for octopus is polypus.

@chris i was also struggling with the OTOE/MOMOA cross because i originally had MaMOA; thanks to your comment i completed the puzzle

@Graphic i’m not mick, obviously, but heaney’s translation has become the standard translation in academic settings since its publication.

@Bill you’ve beaten me to it! “et alii” is the full latin phrase of the “et al.” that ends a list of 3 or more authors in a works cited so yeah the masculine is corrected because it refers to authors, which is a masculine word in latin

@Bruce this comment helped me spot which letter i had off to get the puzzle to solve; thanks!

@Grant it’s a standard literary device taught in both ap latin & ap lang, and, while the exact greek name might be unfamiliar, its structure isn’t. jfk’s famous “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country." is chiasmus

@Barry Ancona to be fair, at least italian and english both use the latin alphabet. chinese uses such a complicated writing system it’s posed a significant problem for several nation’s literacy goals. it’s so complicated that korea invented their own alphabet rather than continue to use it.