"Think Different" August 11, 2023

[pjc]

Completely stumped me, but I kind of love it.

And now I have a streak going of the wrong kind - up to 2!

[Colin]

Woke up this morning (post deadline) with one last thought that it might be ADLER/FREUD related, so googled a list of famous psychologists to no avail. Biggest rabbit hole of this contest was the title! Tough one. But I didn’t put much time in so no harm, no foul. Many congrats to solo solvers!

[Ergcat]

Submitted my Hail Mary guess “THOUGHT” at last minute. It’s “THINK” different, 7 letters long, and if I didn’t get the answer I’d be lost “ in thought”. It fit all the criteria! Ha!

Oh well, I had a wonderful wedding weekend so no complaints! Here’s my DD @regfish7 and me!

[LadyBird]

I stand in awe of those who figured this out on their own! My son/ wife were trying to backsolve for BAD MOOD. I was partial to MAD MOOD.

[Scott M]

I spent a lot of time on the rabbit hole of BALL SPORT and the clue about "Crying Game" - Crying = Bawl, Sport = Game. Then the Bawl/SOB connection. Needless to say, this got me nowhere. I did notice the odd 3-letter answers and knew that was a piece, but never got that far.

[ship4u]

We dug pretty deep down this rabbit hole:

I thought sure that the title "Think Different" rather than "Think Differently" was a clue.

Back in the 1990's, Apple had a very successful ad campaign with the slogan "Think Different." Steve Jobs wanted a take off on IBM's slogan "Think" and he wanted "Different" to be considered a noun.

Voila! Matt is telling us to focus on the nouns in the themers! Start digging.

TOOL --> ADZ
ROUND --> MOAT
BUT --> THO
DOWN --> ANORAK
SPORT ---> USFL or PAR

Now it gets really tricky.

WAY? Hmm, the clue for ICE is Roadway hazard.
PAST? Isn't ERA in there somewhere?

14 hours later:

"Send down the ladders! We're outa here!"

[Bob cruise director]

Has the server been having issues this weekend, or is it just me? I've been getting Internal Server Error 500 on and off the past couple of days. My other internet forays work fine. Just the Muggles. And I've seen double posts, and gotten duplicate PM's.

Just wondering. No worries.

I have been getting the same error off and on all weekend

[ship4u]

Has the server been having issues this weekend, or is it just me? I've been getting Internal Server Error 500 on and off the past couple of days. My other internet forays work fine. Just the Muggles. And I've seen double posts, and gotten duplicate PM's.

Just wondering. No worries.

It happened to me many times yesterday. My theory is that it happens when the forum is being visited by a flood of people at once. When I was able to get on, I saw that there were over 200 guests lurking about.

However, those more savvy in technology issues would know for sure.

[Ben B]

Matt was right. I’m in a sad mood right now. But smiling at the brilliance of this puzzle.

[BarbaraK]

In all my floundering, I tried putting the theme entries in an anagram solver and discovered that
FARMTOOL -> ROTFLMAO ! Was sure I was on to something there. But no. Maybe that's the answer to what Matt will be if I can't solve

[HunterX]

Given the title, being the famous Apple slogan, I was also looking for companies for a long time.
FARMTOOL contains ARM
RIGHTWAY contains TWA
DUCKDOWN contains DOW
LASTROUND... Things got murkier when looking at smaller companies such as AST. Is it AST & Science, the satellite company now known as AST SpaceMobile? Is it AST Financial? What about Automated Systems of Tacoma?
WELLBUT... Was this supposed to be LLBean? But they're private, and not known as LLB.
BALLSPORT... Well, there is LLS. But the Leukemia Lymphoma Society is not a company. Does it count?

Took too long to get out of that hole.

[mikeB]

This meta offers two Aha!s for the price of one. First, we have to figure out how to process the word pairs in the seven theme entries; then we have to figure out how to form the answer from those modified word pairs.

But first things first. The clues are starred to identify the theme entries – very handy for me, but maybe unnecessary for more seasoned solvers. So we know which seven entries to focus on. Here is where the title comes in, and it is quite informative. First of all, it is an imperative sentence. That’s unusual, but we’ve seen it before. It tells the solver to DO something. But do what? We’re told to Think Different. Oh my, that isn’t proper English! We expect to see an adverb for Think; as in, Think Differently. Well, meta constructors have many wonderful gifts, but poor command of English isn’t one of them. So this faux flaw must be intentional – and a hint. We turn to the colloquial form, which is made proper by an implied phrase: [in terms of]. So we’re instructed to Think [in terms of] Different. This is a real eye-opener, given we have seven pairs of words and we’re trying to figure out what to do with them. Thus enlightened, we have an easy task to find the opposites lurking there. Once we have seven pairs of modified words, it strikes us that we’re still at least one Aha! away from closing the deal. We can’t make sense out of just the exchanged letters, so we have to search in the clues or the entries for help. A quick scan of the clues yields nothing. However, while I vainly searched there, my brain (which often processes solves while I’m busy looking busy) nudged me with a tip about NDA and WCS and their connections to respective word pairs, then Whoosh!

Were I more perspicacious when it counted, I could have saved time by looking in the Northwest and Southeast corners of the grid, where endogenous hints often (but not always) appear. This meta is a classic in that regard. There’s where I would have found OFD and WCS, the first and last Down entries – and found myself on the fast track. If only. This meta is unusual and very cleverly constructed, with two distinct steps, each of which is just as complex (and Aha!some) as many single-step constructions. Hats off to Mr. Gaffney & Co. for offering this double treat.

[chriscross]

My first rabbit holes started out from the premise that "Think Different" was meant to be interpreted as "Think Outside the Box." Which I know has been done before, but I thought the starred answers would point to another answer in the grid that could be extended past the grid. (I knew ADZ could be spelled as ADZE and thought maybe that would be the FARM TOOL).

I gave that up with SAIL PAST though. I have a puzzle calendar that about five times a year has a puzzle where you have to produce antonyms given a pair of words by changing one of the letters in each of the words. I noticed FAIL/PASS and was completely open to trying that with the others, and it paid off (though the others weren't easy to figure out!). I think because I've done these kinds of puzzles before I was more open to seeing it and stuck with it longer. It was an impressive construction, especially since even my calendar doesn't try to make the two-word phrases a real phrase (they settle for something like SIGHT HEAVE).

[caf.caf]

Congratulations
To the meta solvers! I’m
Totally amazed:)

I (on the other hand) spent the weekend with the rabbits…

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Nah

[MaineMarge]

I’ve had trouble signing in. It doesn’t accept my user name for a few tries. And logs me out as I am liking a post. Not always but frequently. Seems ok this morning.

[OGuyDave]

[[ Note: the date above is incorrect. It should read Thu Aug 14, 2555 10:00 am ]]

Got it!

TFTXWD

--
OGuyDave

[Joe Ross]

Has the server been having issues this weekend, or is it just me? I've been getting Internal Server Error 500 on and off the past couple of days. My other internet forays work fine. Just the Muggles. And I've seen double posts, and gotten duplicate PM's.

Just wondering. No worries.

I've had those issues, as well. I've found that clearing my cache eliminates the problem, albeit, briefly. The error message tells you to notify the site administrator, so please consider the site administrator notified herewith. The party of the first part is notifying the party of the second part, subject to all claims under international law, though I reserve the right to pursue whatever legal remedies are afforded to me under the Geneva Convention and the Boy Scout pledge.

I also received several Internal Server Errors earlier in the weekend.

I have been getting the same error off and on all weekend

It happened to me many times yesterday. My theory is that it happens when the forum is being visited by a flood of people at once. When I was able to get on, I saw that there were over 200 guests lurking about.

However, those more savvy in technology issues would know for sure.

I’ve had trouble signing in. It doesn’t accept my user name for a few tries. And logs me out as I am liking a post. Not always but frequently. Seems ok this morning.

This issue has been known & ongoing for a few weeks. Fate has had it that it hasn't been fixed, yet, but it will be soon. Apologies for the delay.

Four years & four months ago the amazingly generous @BrianMac founded Xword Muggles when the Wall Street Journal limited commenting on its sites to subscribers. The muggles moved here.

This site is changing hands from Brian to a tiny non-profit, for entertainment corporation controlled by a volunteer six-member board of directors, which includes Brian MacDonald. We will also have a new volunteer and experienced administrator. Details on all of this when the board can herd itself to meet and discuss the future, finally, once the legal and practical details are completed.

Unfortunately, a previous technical contractor hired to fix problems such as the current hasn't responded to requests. Also, with site ownership in limbo, pro tem, and the need for the new admin to evaluate and get up to speed, the connection problem continues. It will be fixed, soonish.

DO NOT EXPECT DRASTIC CHANGES, except for those you create for muggles.

Brian conceived of, created, and put forth his generous efforts to this site and the expanding framework of its various boards & topics. Brian worked tirelessly & alone for a long time.

Similarly, every feature and aspect of this site was born & reared the same way, by a muggle with an idea & the temerity to put it to work:

• @Bob cruise director was the first in piloting the muggles on the WSJ site and continuing here, to this day. @Wendy Walker assists when Bob cannot host.

• @yourpalsal conceived of & led the first year of the Tuesday night Zoom sessions, which Bob continues to lead.

• Bob also organized & hosted @MikeMillerwsj, Mike Shenk, & @MattGaffney in a fantastic Zoom presentation on how they create metas & how solvers can approach solving them, PLUS Bob will host this October 28th's Zoom session with Matt Gaffney.

• @SteveB has saved, stores, and makes available to muggles every WSJCC PDF ever created.

• The variety/HEX/acrostic/cryptic crowd, including @ChrisKochmanski, Jay @oldjudge, @Richardb, @Meg, and many others, are loyal to posting & discussing these confounding (to me) puzzles.

• @ricky posted his Lexicon Devil puzzles.

• @bcimmet posted his Fill Me In Podcast puzzles.

• Josh @madhatter5 posted his Madhatter's Enigma on a Wednesday metas, with many, many others filling in for him as he finishes grad school, @DrTom chief among them.

• Will @AnswerPfinder posted his Pandora's Blocks metas, assisted by @hashbrown.

• @mikeyg posted his Pun of a Kind metas.

• @benchen71 posted his Metas on a Tuesday.

• Don @ship4u created this site's VERY popular Zoom group solving sessions on Friday afternoons & Sunday evenings.

• Peter @Abide & @Al Sisti started the Muggle Meta Mondays, then expanded into the Sunday Summer Substitute, this year, to fill-in for Will's post-grad break & to give all muggles the opportunity, expert coaching, and encouragement to create & post metas. @Cap'n Rick has joined Al & Peter in the past year as the number of creators has grown.

• Ed @Guffman created & recruited incredible talent to enhance @The XWord Rabbit and The Golden Rabbit Hole Award.

• Emma @damefox and Will have posted links to their podcasts.

• Emma @damefox and Will @AnswerPfinder, along with a great group of creators, created the fantastic Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer.

• Tamara @BrennerTJ has raised reveal creation to an art form.

• @KayW, @boharr, and @Abide work quietly behind the scenes as board moderators, with @hcbirker stepping up to help post reveals.

• Not meant for last nor to diminish its great benefits to all muggles, @miked of crosshare has created a fantastic crossword site, crosshare.org, which muggles use to create metas & puzzles. Muggles support crosshare in a big way (I hope). crosshare makes the Xword Muggle site so much better.

Not listed are all of you that make a great audience and the reason everyone volunteers their time and efforts, nor the many others who help support all of the features listed above.

NOTE: Money is not an issue. Brian has transferred (or is transferring - one of those pesky turnover details) enough funds to run the site, as it is, for two or three more years.

[Hidden in 3D]

@Joe Ross, thank you for this wonderful post. I often think about the fact that we Muggles are spoiled by this fantastic forum. We tend to forget about the many people who work tirelessly to make this the phenomenal site that it is. But I also notice that you didn't mention one very important person who absolutely must be recognized for the many hours that he devotes to the XWord Muggles Forum - and that would be YOU! You and everyone you listed are true heroes. Thank you ALL!

[mheberlingx100]

I was thinking opposites from the start. In the theme clues I saw far, right, last, well, ball, down, and past. So I tried to come up with something using near, left, sick, first, strike, up, and future. Wasted a lot of time down that rabbit hole!

Then I saw warm/cool and day/ night. Had to back solve for dusk/dawn.