Last Sunday I literally was clueless about a New York Times crossword puzzle clue: "Menace named after an African river." The answer was five letters long. WHAT WERE THEY?!?!
I finally did figure out the answer from the crossing words: Ebola. And that's how I learned the origin of the name of this frightening virus, which is making headlines this year because of an outbreak in West Africa.
I was curious whether other infamous global health ailments have appeared in the Times crossword. So I asked puzzle editor (and NPR puzzle master) Will Shortz. "Crosswords tend to avoid unpleasant subjects like diseases — but occasionally the names do slip in unavoidably," he wrote in an email.
Shortz graciously provided a list of all the New York Times crossword clues he's published for Ebola and other diseases on a short list I sent.
Here they are, with the number of times they've appeared. They're kind of like a haiku of disease — and they definitely are enlightening. So that's what malaria means!
Vaccine target [2]
Sabin's study
Challenge for F.D.R.
F.D.R.'s affliction
Salk vaccine target
Bygone epidemic cause
Salk's conquest [3]
F.D.R. affliction
Old disease
Salk's target
Modern term for "Roman fever"
Fever cause
Tropical woe [2]
Sub-Saharan scourge
"Bad air," literally
This has never appeared in a New York Times crossword because answers must have at least three letters.
Also a no-go because MERS is plural French for "seas." So that's what the clue would be.
Outbreak of 2003
2003 disease scare
Headline-making illness of 2002-03
Modern epidemic
Menace named after an African river
African virus [5]
Virus that arose in the Congo
"The Hot Zone" virus [5]
Virus named for a river [3]
"The Hot Zone" topic [2]
Jungle menace
Deadly virus [5]
Fatal virus
Nasty virus
Virulent virus
Dangerous strain [2]
Dreaded virus
African scourge
African threat
Zaire menace
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