"Be Transformed" - June 3, 2022

[Bonnibel]

I enjoyed this one so much I put together a graphic using Joe Ross’ excel sheet (what a great set of tools built in there!)


BE TRANSFORMED WSJ.jpg

The only thing I would add to the explanation is that the just the first 4 letters of each "transformed" themer were used to match up to the corresponding clues.

Brilliant!

[Laura M]

Oh wow, that was so clever I never had a hope of getting off the ship! Congrats to the solvers!

[escapeartist]

Nope to the nope.

I was digging rabbit holes on the wrong ranch.

[Jace54]

Pig latin has always been my kryptonite in crosswords, followed by spoonerisms.

[LadyBird]

I'm surprised that they didn't mention in the official answer that "BE" in pig Latin is transformed to EBAY.

[hcbirker]

I was so certain that the clue at 58 Across was a hint. Four themers and trying to make a quatrain poem out of them. A classic rabbit hole that my brain would not let go of. And I hate pig Latin for some reason.

[JeanneC]

Uh, no. I did “Rick” based on:
R—psi from first long clue is a rate;
I—Annie from next long clue is an imp;
C—yin from the end of the third long clue relates to Misey and the actor Caan;
K—“magic fish” for Old Bay seasoning in the last long clue from the painter Klee clue.

Congrats to the solvers. You really earned it this week!

[Abide]

I really liked the mechanism and title confirmation, but the SEQUEL in the middle felt like an "odd man out" with the others all at the start. If the metanisms aren't all in the same area, usually you might see two theme entries that place the gimmick in a different area, so you'd have a 2/2 symmetry. Also "Annie Mae" bugged me - Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock. I couldn't find any authority she was ever known as Annie Mae, either by "childhood friends" or anyone else.

[Bonnibel]

I don't see this as Pig Latin.

Although all 4 themers contain 2-word phrases ending in the AY sound (as does Pig Latin) - that's not the complete mechanism.

For example, OLD BAY becomes OLD-yay AY-bay.

If this meta was meant to be based in Pig Latin I think the title would have been different.

[FrancesY]

I think the Pig Latin is applied to the clue word BOLD, which becomes Old Bay.

[yodarkrutch]

Got the rhyme but didn't see the pig Latin. Rather typical, I'm afraid.

I'm concluding this isn't a skill set I'm keen on developing. I'm outta here.

yk

[Bonnibel]

I think the Pig Latin is applied to the clue word BOLD, which becomes Old Bay.

Point well taken!

I did get the meta pretty early this time, and that approach had not occurred to me, not even after I solved it.

For me that would be going the long way around and I might never have found my way.

I love this forum...so many solvers that are way out of my league, and everyone is really nice about it.

[mheberlingx100]

My spidey-senses started tingling at All Way (it’s a 4 way stop in my book) and Annie Mae (clue/answer seemed deliberately odd). I saw the pig Latin in these two and then looked for the other two.

I’m sorry to say one of the first thoughts after understanding the mechanism was a Three Stooges short where they are trying to teach Curly pig Latin. The best he could do is say his own name as Curly Que.

[Tom Shea]

I have a classmate – computer science guy who was one of the original xml developers. (That’s a big deal)

He listed on his resume several programming languages. The last one he lists is pig Latin.

[KayW]

I was lucky to think of the Pig Latin sound in the rhyming parts of the theme answers, and to happen to spot BOLD in the clues while looking at OLD BAY. After I got to EBAY, I spent some time looking through the puzzle for some references to indicate we should apply that metanism. As someone pointed out in Sunday night's zoom, there was a grid entry 38D Xray for Rex, e.g. (PIG LATIN) in the 5/13 WSJCC "Buzz Cut". Maybe that would have been TOO obvious but an indicator like that in this week's puzzle would have made it much easier for many to solve.

And I was surprised to learn this week how many people were unfamiliar with Pig Latin. I guess all those hours I spent watching the Three Stooges as a child finally paid off.



Or maybe I was lucky to be cloud-gazing this week...

[Tom Shea]

My spidey-senses started tingling at All Way (it’s a 4 way stop in my book) and Annie Mae (clue/answer seemed deliberately odd). I saw the pig Latin in these two and then looked for the other two.

I’m sorry to say one of the first thoughts after understanding the mechanism was a Three Stooges short where they are trying to teach Curly pig Latin. The best he could do is say his own name as Curly Que.

Not the right one, but couldn't help but think of it:

[Joe Ross]

Despite the glaringly obvious theme entries, I spent two hours 'transforming' "be" and finding the deepest rabbit hole in several three-lettered grid entries using two letters of ARE. I finally stopped when I made a joke so bad about Aretha Franklin that I made myself groan out loud.

Picking it up, again, I said, "Oh. Pig Latin. Huh."

[TMart]

I got it pretty quickly. 4 letters, 4 theme answers, what do they have in common? Saying them out loud got me right to the answer once I saw that the common thread was the rhyming -AY words.

[ship4u]

We solved without knowing about Pig Latin.

After writing out the long answers (as I was taught by fellow muggles) and noticing the rhyming words, it seemed to me that ANNIE MAE and OLD BAY was a clue to focusing on the rhyming word and the word coming before it:
ALL WAY
ANNIE MAE
EQUAL SAY
OLD BAY

We stared at that for an hour trying to figure out how to "transform" them. We went back to the clues to look for something unusual (again using my muggle training) and I was struck by 14A, the series of S's in SEQUEL Starring Sigourney. Then, WALL and BOLD popped out and we were off and running.

[Flying_Burrito]

I spent about 1 hr disecting Annie Mae (btw, brilliant reference to childhood friends by MG to obtain the 'Annie') as i was intrigued about a (F) Annie Mae or Mae to Be Transformed to Bae. The self repeating of Annie then led me to the initial aha with Mannie. Allw and wall were easy but it took me a little bit longer for Sequels. Just brilliant construction