MGWCC #789 — “Solve for X”

[OGuyDave]

Got it.

While submitting, I mentioned a concern, probably the same as @Kwyjibo's in Post 57. Then looked at it again and I think I see what's going on here. If I'm right, then I think this one is another marvelous creation.

TFTXWD

[HoldThatThought]

I would caution those who are railing against this puzzle to wait for the final reveal. Whether you eventually decide that the metanism is "fair" or "reasonable", or "one of your least favorite" is up to you, but suggesting that it is flawed is saying only that you have grasped part of the solution, and when the full reveal is posted, you may well have a change of heart.

I'm reminded of a very old, non-meta themeless that I recently solved in one of those collections of previously published NYT puzzles. As I work through these books, I often like to check my "personal" difficulty rating against the ratings of the well-known blogger "Rex Parker" (yes, I know he's a polarizing figure), and some of his daily commenters.

In this one particular puzzle, the correct fill for the clue "Teetotaler's order at a bar?" was "Adam's Ale", a term that I only know from many years of crossword solving.

A good dozen or more commentors raged against this unfamiliar pairing; "I don't know where in the world they sell this stuff, but I can assure you that it's not sold here, and there's no way I could be expected to know about this!", "Why do they make this swill, anyway. If you don't drink alcohol, just order a soda or a cranberry juice!", "You would never see me drinking any of this kind of crap!"

Though I've never encountered the phrase in the wild, "Adam's Ale" is some kind of humorous slang for water. The swill that shouldn't be made, isn't available in some commentor's neck of the woods, and a product you would never catch some other person drinking.

This may not be your favorite Gaffney of all-time, but the full solution is logical, and unflawed.

You'll see.

[woozy]

I would caution those who are railing against this puzzle to wait...l. Whether you eventually decide that the metanism is "fair" or "reasonable", or "one of your least favorite" is up to you, but suggesting that it is flawed ...

....


This may not be your favorite Gaffney of all-time, but the full solution is logical, and unflawed.

I think I need to point out I never claimed the meta was flawed or unfair. I just said I hated it.

For that matter I never said the GO WEST WSJ puzzle was a bad puzzle or unfair. I just said it was extremely flawed (which didn't affect its solvability and enjoyability which where quite high).

[HoldThatThought]

My comment was not directed at any one person or comment, and I apologize if you, or anyone else, feels singled out.

I was speaking only to the overall thematic suggestion in this thread that "Matt may have missed one".

[BrennerTJ]

[Joe]

I don’t hold any grudge against Matt or the meta. Which is, as always, brilliant. I just found it incredibly difficult.

[TMart]

The “side-door” I saw was that there were quite few four-letter entries that ended in -ia, -ie, -ii and
-io. Since the X was in the second spot of 72A, which was obviously some sort of key, taking the second letter of each of those entries spelled WHOLESALER. But I didn't understand the rest of it - I just took the second letter of the weird four letter entries and got an answer that fit, so it had to be it.

Then after going back and looking again, I realized that 72A meant:

CXIV= <consonant> <X> I <vowel>

and finding the grid entries that satisfied that equation and solving for X gives the same answer. I only unwittingly recognized part of the equation at first, but that was enough to solve it.

[DrTom]

Well, I have to say I thought the puzzle rather brilliant. I had seen the odd CXIV and had no idea how to parse it, BUT I had also seen the odd fill of words that had ??IA, I mean there were a LOT CHIA, FOIA, GLIA, LEIA and the one that was the tip off HSIA. I had to go back and correct that because I knew it was XIA but thought that there must be some other list that made it a 4 LETTER WORD. Going for an alternate, and MUCH less used, name for something from a MG had to be somehting of note; he just doesn't do that. As a amateur constructor myself you are warned against the alternate or archaic spellings UNLESS you need it for the mechanism (not just the fill) so that was a flashing red alarm.

I did need help convincing me not to submit WHOLESALDER (which of course was just silly), but thought "Gosh, how do I resolve EDIT" until I got a MEGa lift from a Muggle who gave me the CXIV meaning. I'd like to think I would not have submitted WHOLESALDER no matter what, but I've done dumber so who knows.

I know people are going to say that this was a really difficult week 2, but if you saw the signposts, you rally did not need the "mechanism" to solve (except to eliminate EDIT of course), and if you grokked the CXIV it was a breeze. I mean if you ask me, the guest puzzle "They Turn Into Superheroes" was harder than this (again brilliant but harder).

[Katiedid]

I saw other "meanings" in the grid. C=SEA, I=WON and V=OAR (V being a logic symbol for OR). But of course, that didn't lead to finding X, so thanks Dr Tom for nudging me in another direction.

[sharkicicles]

Definitely needed the zoomers for this one, but once explained the CXIV mechanism was pretty terrific, I thought.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I saw other "meanings" in the grid. C=SEA, I=WON and V=OAR (V being a logic symbol for OR).

I'm glad I didn't know that V = OR in logic, or I would have really been stuck! I did fall down the SEA, WON rabbit hole and kept looking for "strike" or "kiss" or something else for X, and something for V. I also got caught by HSIA as an alternate of XIA and CHIA containing CHI (x), and the two "for"s (4?) in the clues. Did "For quite some time" translating to IN WEEKS set off anyone else's radar?

With those on top of the possible math interpretations (Four squares?), I needed a nudge to get me out of the rabbit holes. I had noticed the odd four-letter fills, but I figured it was just standard crossword-ese and never came back to chase it. A reminder to myself to write all the oddities down and then look at them more carefully when rabbit holes come up empty.

[Joe Ross]

I saw the mechanism & highlighted all of the 4 C_IV words, but talked myself out of it before completing.

[Laura M]

Surprising how polarizing this one was. I'm in the "one of my favorites!" camp.

[Kwyjibo]

I did need help convincing me not to submit WHOLESALDER (which of course was just silly), but thought "Gosh, how do I resolve EDIT"...

I also hacked my way through WHOLESALDER to get the finish. I assumed the CXIV was some sort of template, and then found the numerous words with I in the 3rd spot. That got me WHOOLEALDER. Then thought the final A clue referencing 4, I dropped the O from DOING. Now at WHOLEADER. Then spotted the 4 letter HSUA and thought if the U was and I then I would have an S. Reading the down clue, duh, it's LIPA not LUPA. So that got me to WHOLESALDER, which I recognized WHOLESALER in there and too much of a coincidence. So I submitted that. I justified it by saying if I swapped in the O from DOING and drop the O from FOIA, which along with EDIT shares a line with the theme answers.... VOIlA!

Ugly, ugly solve, but it extends my streak to 4 in a row when including the last two WSJ puzzles.

After I submitted I wondered if the II & III from WWII and PARTIII were references to the 2cd & 3rd spots to look at...but could never resolve EDIT.

[Joe Ross]

Surprising how polarizing this one was. I'm in the "one of my favorites!" camp.

Agree 100% about it being a great meta. I'd be more charitable if I hadn't been so blind. My fault, not Matt's.

[woozy]

Surprising how polarizing this one was. I'm in the "one of my favorites!" camp.

Not all that polarizing as I am the only one who seems to have disliked it. Otherwise the response seems to be uniformity positive.

[MikeyG]

I guess if it wasn't Gaffney's intent, then we could argue with the side door, haha. I personally don't see recognizing **IV words as a side door, but I can understand those who did. I think it would be nearly impossible parsing CXIV as what it was really meant to (kudos if you did!!) without noticing any of the fill at all. Upon noticing a few **IA words, then it dawned on me that the V meant "vowel," since the X letter position of those words wasn't doing anything in and of itself.

All in all, despite some pretty awkward fill, this was an absolute delight, though I'm hoping for a legitimate Week 2 next week to make up for it, haha.

[DCBilly]

I got a great nudge to the effect of "look at the weird fill in some of the four letter entries." After that I quickly got Wholesaler but then I saw Edit and started to worry. Wholesalder?? That in turn made me notice that Wholesaler worked if you only used the entries ending in a vowel - then, click click I got the mechanism and confirmed the answer.

[Bird Lives]

I think it was a Week 2 because there was only one step: take the second letter of all the 4-letter entries that end in i-vowel.

Slightly off-topic. I have a friend who claims that he majored in philosophy in college and was drawn to phenomenology, and that the title of his senior thesis (this was many decades ago) was "I Can Get It for You Husserl."

[KayW]

DNF for me - I had a very stubborn blind spot on this one. While looking at all the four-letter entries, I saw W(h)ARHOL in the second letters:
WWII
CHIA
DANL
ARMS
AHAB
FOIA
PLIE

but could not see any reason to use those letters, nor why WARHOL would be clued as someone who deals with big numbers.

I saw all the **IA words but couldn't think why they would play, and for some reason never noticed WHOLESAL(D)ER there.

Because of the title, I was overly fixated in the wrong way on the X in CXIV and got very excited when I saw CHI-a and learned that the HSIA dynasty was more commonly spelled XIA.

Ironic that in solving a WORD puzzle, it never occurred to me that C=consonant and V=vowel. A very clever template metanism that I just absolutely refused to see, until led to it by the nose by some more smarter muggles. And I decided that I needed so much help that I declined to submit.