Thousands of crossword solvers stared at their grids on August 28, 2025, stumped by a seemingly simple clue. “Recently dated,” 17-Across, ten letters. What could possibly fit?
The answer was GOODENOUGH. And no, that wasn’t a mistake.
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The Answer That Didn’t Make Sense
Joel Woodford’s debut Thursday puzzle for the New York Times threw solvers a curveball. The clue appeared straightforward until you tried connecting “recently dated” to GOODENOUGH. Nothing clicked. Hundreds of crossword fans hit the forums asking if there was an error.
There wasn’t. The puzzle had a trick built into its foundation.
Woodford constructed the entire grid around Spoonerisms, a form of wordplay where sounds swap positions between words. Read “recently dated” as “decently rated,” and suddenly GOODENOUGH makes perfect sense.
Three other clues followed the same pattern:
• “No guts” became “go nuts” for FREAK OUT
• “Battle carriers” translated to “cattle barriers” for CHAIN-LINK FENCES
• “Packed lunch” switched to “lacked punch” for FELL FLAT
The revealer sat at 66-Across: SPOONERISM.
The Science Behind the Name
GOODENOUGH wasn’t just clever wordplay. The answer honored John B. Goodenough, who made modern technology possible through chemistry most people never think about.
In 1980, while heading the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at Oxford University, Goodenough identified lithium-cobalt-oxide as a cathode material for rechargeable batteries. His breakthrough doubled battery capacity and made lithium-ion technology commercially viable.
That discovery now powers billions of smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles worldwide. Sony commercialized the first lithium-ion battery in 1991 using Goodenough’s cathode design.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry at age 97, alongside M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. Goodenough became the oldest Nobel laureate in history. When asked about the achievement, he told reporters at the University of Texas at Austin, “Live to 97 years old and you can do anything.”
He continued researching battery technology until his death on June 25, 2023, one month before his 101st birthday.
How Spoonerisms Work in Crosswords
William Archibald Spooner, an Oxford don in the late 1800s, regularly mixed up sounds when speaking. His verbal slips became famous: “Three cheers for our queer old dean” instead of “dear old Queen,” or “Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?” rather than “customary to kiss.”
Crossword constructors borrowed his name for this wordplay technique. The puzzle type requires solvers to mentally rearrange sounds before the clues make sense.
XWordInfo, which tracks every New York Times crossword published since 1942, confirmed this was Woodford’s first accepted puzzle. Getting a Thursday slot as a debut constructor demonstrates the quality of his work. Will Shortz, who has edited the Times crossword since 1993, typically reserves Thursday puzzles for themes with creative twists.
Why Thursday Puzzles Matter
The Times follows a weekly difficulty curve. Monday puzzles offer gentle entry points for new solvers. Tuesday and Wednesday ramp up gradually. Thursday introduces thematic tricks like rebuses, Spoonerisms, or unconventional grid mechanics. Friday and Saturday drop themes entirely, focusing on tough clues and obscure vocabulary. Sunday brings the largest grid with elaborate themes.
Woodford’s puzzle measured 15 by 15 squares with 78 total answers. The grid included 38 black squares and used 22 of 26 letters, skipping only J, V, X, and Z. According to XWordInfo’s metrics, the puzzle scored at the 64th percentile for grid flow among all Thursday puzzles in the modern era.
Solvers reported mixed completion times. Those who caught the Spoonerism theme early finished quickly. Others spent 20 to 30 minutes wrestling with answers that seemed disconnected from their clues.
What This Puzzle Represents
Crosswords work best when they teach solvers something new while entertaining them. Woodford’s debut accomplished both. It introduced a wordplay technique some solvers had never encountered, and it celebrated a scientist whose work changed how billions of people live.
The crossword community values puzzles that honor achievement without being heavy-handed about it. GOODENOUGH fit naturally into a themed grid, requiring no forced clues or awkward fill. The answer worked as wordplay first, tribute second.
That balance matters. Goodenough spent 37 years at the University of Texas at Austin, mentoring graduate students and searching for better battery materials well into his nineties. His persistence embodied his surname. In a field where most researchers retire by 70, he kept working until 98, convinced the next breakthrough remained within reach.
His name appearing in a Thursday NYT crossword brings that scientific legacy to an audience who might never read chemistry journals but solve puzzles every morning with their coffee. Good wordplay sticks with solvers. This answer will too.
