Solution: Egg-shaped brain structures - NYT Crossword

This is the only entry that was new to me today, and it’s a Times debut in plural form (its singular counterpart is also a puzzle rarity, and has appeared only once in an acrostic). “Egg-shaped brain structures” are THALAMI, plural of “thalamus.” I am not unused to seeing the singular term, but it is considered a “paired structure,” so we each have two THALAMI relaying information from our senses (except smell) to our cerebral cortex. My sense of hearing thinks this word must sound like someone with sigmatism placing an order at Zabar’s.