Crossword Blog & Answers for November 8, 2024 by Sally Hoelscher

There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today's puzzle before reading further! EIEIOConstructors: Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg

Editor: Amanda Rafkin

Shannon & Will: When making crosswords, constructors typically work from an established set of words and phrases called a wordlist. Each constructor refines their wordlist to their own taste over years of constructing puzzles, but even the most perfectly curated wordlists will still be missing some hidden gems. When we first sent this idea to Amanda for consideration, we proposed CELINEDION, SELFINSERTION, and FRENCHIMMERSION - all phrases that were on our wordlists and fit the EIEIO theme. Amanda pointed out that FRENCHIMMERSION is a little less solid as a phrase compared to the other two, since there are immersion schools for many different languages. She asked us to dig a little deeper. When re-examining our wordlists turned up no further good options, we decided to hack our usual process a little bit to see if there were good options out there we weren't accounting for. So first we went in search of strings of EIEI and IEIO to see if there were any results we could combine with another word to make a solid phrase. We found EINSTEN and using that as the base to search the internet beyond our wordlists, we came across EINSTEINBROS and this puzzle was saved. Thanks for solving with us!

EIEIO: Each theme answer has the vowel pattern E-I-E-I-O: CELINE DION, SELF-INSERTION, and EINSTEIN BROS.

For some reason, I have "Old MacDonald had a farm..." going through my head. This is a clever and interesting theme, which nicely provided AMUSEMENT. Thank you, Shannon and Will, for this delightful puzzle.