XWord Muggles Forum

mikeB wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:36 am What a great meta. For me, the term TABLE in the title had three involvements. The first was to suggest the Periodic Table of the Elements, which points to using the atomic symbols. The second was to implicate the contents of the Periodic Table itself (Caution: rabbit hole ahead!). The third was the synonymity of DISCREET and UNDER THE TABLE, which for me offered no help getting to the solution but did serve to authenticate the solution once it was found. My rabbit hole, after trying to make something of the eight letters in the atomic symbols, was to download the Periodic Table itself to try to work it using UNDER as a hint. Putting the meta aside for a few hours, I returned and “noticed” AG and AU in the grid, and that was that. My lesson learned: Always expect a term of directionality (such as UNDER) in the title to refer to the crossword grid (or possibly to the clue list); don’t try to apply a hint like that to a resource outside the puzzle, like the Periodic Table. Rabbit holes always look relevant until they don't.

BethA wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:26 am Also considered something similar to that Sealed Envelope puzzle — envelope could be found in the grid, encircling another square to get its letter. There were several tantalizing occurrences of most of the letters of TABLE, not quite all, and not in the upside down U shape I was looking for, it could have surrounded on 3 sides an answer letter.

boharr wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:09 am Looking at the retro-engineering of this puzzle, I think Al probably solved it in less than 8 minutes and took time out for a Guinness before he posted.
Tables..

boharr wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:09 am Yeesh. Took me an hour to get to Periodic. I had kitchen table, dining table, picnic table, end table, bedside table, card table, poker table, bridge table, writing table, pool table, ping pong table, multiplication table.

LadyBird wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:38 am I had a dream last night, not of a meta solution, but of a Muggle potluck dinner.

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 9:40 am

boharr wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:09 am Looking at the retro-engineering of this puzzle, I think Al probably solved it in less than 8 minutes and took time out for a Guinness before he posted.
Tables..

No doubt about this solving scenario, IMO. I remain in awe of the quick logic & recognition that Al and several other muggles consistently display in their super-solving efforts. Rather than disparage their results, they should give us hope.

boharr wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:09 am Looking at the retro-engineering of this puzzle, I think Al probably solved it in less than 8 minutes and took time out for a Guinness before he posted.
Tables. Yeesh. Took me an hour to get to Periodic. I had kitchen table, dining table, picnic table, end table, bedside table, card table, poker table, bridge table, writing table, pool table, ping pong table, multiplication table.

To fully explain my path, I got to @boharr's point after fully investing myself in idea that "Table" and the standard, longest-Across Theme Entries had to play. My list of tables agreed with his almost perfectly.

Since the element abbreviations in the Periodic Table are short and, therefore, flexible, and since none of the other tables presented themselves within the TEs, I built a table of my own, re-sorting the elements by their important abbreviations. After identifying all elements in the TEs and reviewing the letters "Under" them, I found DISCREET.

Proud of myself for gutting through this, I mentioned it to a muggle who had solved much sooner. Their pointing out the metals in the TEs' clues was a "gutting" of an entirely different manner.

This was an excellent puzzle, Mr. Shenk!

mikeB wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:36 am What a great meta. For me, the term TABLE in the title had three involvements. The first was to suggest the Periodic Table of the Elements, which points to using the atomic symbols. The second was to implicate the contents of the Periodic Table itself (Caution: rabbit hole ahead!). The third was the synonymity of DISCREET and UNDER THE TABLE, which for me offered no help getting to the solution but did serve to authenticate the solution once it was found. My rabbit hole, after trying to make something of the eight letters in the atomic symbols, was to download the Periodic Table itself to try to work it using UNDER as a hint. Putting the meta aside for a few hours, I returned and “noticed” AG and AU in the grid, and that was that. My lesson learned: Always expect a term of directionality (such as UNDER) in the title to refer to the crossword grid (or possibly to the clue list); don’t try to apply a hint like that to a resource outside the puzzle, like the Periodic Table. Rabbit holes always look relevant until they don't.

BrianMac wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:34 am I'm blown away that anyone solved this without noticing the elements in the clues.

BrianMac wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:34 am I'm blown away that anyone solved this without noticing the elements in the clues.

BrianMac wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:34 am I'm blown away that anyone solved this without noticing the elements in the clues.