Kudos to Buck Showalter, NY Mets manager, who was named NL Manager of the Year yesterday — the first Met manager to win the award in their 60-year history.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia means “fear of long words.” It’s a real thing that can lead to learning disorders and all the other stuff that any phobia can cause. It contains the root “sesquipedalian,” which means “long word.”

I’m going to start keeping a bag in my head for things that make life worth living. I’ll put that word in (along with Zoey’s face).

That word came up today in relation to the puzzle, which is all about unusual words that don’t mean what you might think they mean. In five places the clue has a crossed-out part (the meaning you might think the answer has), and then the true meaning. For example, for ARCTOPHILE, the crossed-out part is “Devotee of polar regions.” It certainly seems to mean that from “arcto.” But in fact it means “Lover of teddy bears.” Amazing, no? “Arctos” is Greek for bear.

It seems ridiculous to have a special word for a lover of teddy bears, doesn’t it? Now, strigiformesphilia, on the other hand, the love of owls, is a very important word.

Another good one from the puzzle is PANTOPHOBIA, which means “Fear of everything,” from “pan.” It doesn’t mean “Fear of trousers,” the crossed-out clue. (Ha!)

And MANDUCATES means “Chews” (like masticates); it doesn’t mean “Elaborates condescendingly to a female,” sort of along the lines of “mansplaining.”

This theme led the redoubtable LMS to come up with some other words that don’t mean what you might think they mean: A proctologist does not study “analogy.” Someone who opens bars and taverns is not in “puberty.” And the bajillion kids whose tears and screams ruin the annual picture on Santa’s lap do not suffer from “claustrophobia.”

My favorite clue/answer today was at 32D: “Nail polish brand with the shade ‘I’m Not Really a Waitress.” (Answer OPI.) Here’s what it looks like:

Is that the best ever name for a nail polish color? I think it would make a better lipstick. LMS says: “If you squint, almost any entry in the grid is a contender for lipstick shade these days: UNWISE, OK GO, SPA DAY, START, IT’S ON ME, GOD YES, ICY HOT, ACID TRIP, GUAC.”

I’m not sure that last one works for me. The rest are “full speed ahead,” especially GOD YES. (BTW, the clue for GOD YES was “resounding agreement.”)

Another good clue/answer was right up there at 1 down: “Para alpine sport equipment.” “Para” as in Para Olympics — for athletes with a disability. The answer was SIT SKI, the ski equivalent of a wheelchair.

The puzzle was pretty short on names. There was Timothee Chalamet and Diane Rehm, the first of which I barely knew and the second (journalist/podcaster) not at all. Here’s the handsome Chalamet with his enviable mop of hair:

Rehm is a former public radio talk show host. She got into a bit of a pickle over an interview she conducted with Bernie Sanders. Here’s the discussion in wikipedia:

“On June 10, 2015, Rehm interviewed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and stated that Sanders had dual citizenship with Israel; this was not true. Sanders denied that he holds dual citizenship, but Rehm repeated her assertion as a fact. Sophia Tesfaye of Salon pointed out that Rehm apparently fell for an anti-Semitic canard and did not successfully fact-check her information. In The Times of Israel, Gedalyah Reback stated that the interview was controversial because Rehm seemed to have accused a Jewish U.S. presidential candidate of maintaining secret Israeli citizenship.

“Rehm apologized in a statement released later that day. ‘On today’s show I made a mistake. Rather than asking Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact. I want to apologize as well to all our listeners for having made an erroneous statement. I am sorry for the mistake. However, I am glad to play a role in putting this rumor to rest.’

Jewish Journalist Josh Marshall called her apology ‘a total crock.’ Jewish Law professor David Bernstein found it strange that both Rehm and her producer fell for what he felt was an obvious anti-Semitic hoax. He speculated that frequently-heard strange accusations about Jewish supporters of Israel may have played a role. Elizabeth Jepsen, NPR’s ombudsman, took issue with both Rehm’s interview and apology: ‘Far from putting anything to rest, Rehm has now taken a falsehood from the fringes of the Internet and moved it into the mainstream conversation.’”

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When Sanders was running for president in 2016, I heard an interviewer ask him if he felt capable of handling “the emergency phone call at 3 am.” Sanders replied: “I am usually up at that hour to go to the bathroom.”

Let’s end today with a special shout-out to friends Lizzie, Robert, and Susan, long-time citizens of Bernie-land. Hi guys!