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MMMDCCCLXXXVIII

Let's break it down:

• MMM = 3000
• D = 500
• CCC = 300
• L = 50
• XXX = 30
• VIII = 8

3000+500+300+50+30+8=3888, and that's our final answer.

MMMDCCCLXXXVIII (3888) is famously the longest number you can write using standard, non‑overlined Roman numerals.

🧱 Why 3888 is the longest in standard Roman numerals

Classical Roman numerals (the everyday kind we use today) follow two constraints:

1. No overlines

Overlines multiply a numeral by 1,000, but those are considered extended notation, not standard.

2. No more than three repeats

You can't write:

• IIII (must be IV)
• XXXX (must be XL)
• CCCC (must be CD)
• MMMM (not allowed at all)

Because of that last rule, the largest number you can write without breaking the repetition rule is:

3888 = MMMDCCCLXXXVIII

It maximizes every digit:

• Thousands: MMM = 3000
• Hundreds: DCCC = 800
• Tens: LXXX = 80
• Ones: VIII = 8

Each place value uses the longest allowed sequence of symbols.

Jim here, sitting in for Jeff Chen who is performing in both the Winter and Summer Olympics, in different sports.

This one is easy, right?

Whoa, Jim, you know better than that! Your life experiences, including the percentage of your life you devote to crosswords, are uniquely your own. You know things that I don't, and vice versa. But still. 1-Across has to be IMHO, and 5-Across is clearly SPACE FORCE, so before we've completely settled into our Eames puzzle chair, we've got two Across answers and the first letter of fourteen Downs. Fortunately, my ego boost was temporary, as the rest of the puzzle provided more resistance.

TELENOVELA ("soap in Mexico") ought to be a constructor's dream word, with its alternating vowels and useful consonants, Jeff tells me it's more common in other venues, but this is only its second appearance in the NYT. Juliet CAPULET is a prototypical "star-crossed lover." (I hope I didn't spoil the ending.) REAL MATURE is an evocative phrase. "Chains of churches" describes literal ROSARIES.

Pro tip: "Home" as in "Standing at home" often refers to baseball. "Course" as in "Course pro" often refers to either golf or meals. Other seemingly odd words like "shell" often refer to food, although not pasta this time. You "put away shells" at a TAQUERIA. Poke is often food too but, PSST, it's a literal finger poke today.

Are you Team Stridex or Team OXY? I have no opinion.

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.