"You'll Never Solve This One" - October 21, 2021

[Colin]

Had 6/7ths of the letters and decided it needed a further step because… what word begins with”MW”? Given the season it is a fun meta! I hope a Muggle wins the mwahaha mug!

[Deb F]

Huh! I had it and didn't know it. Just like Sharkcicles! Until later, good luck, Muggles.

[kimberlysg]

I can't believe I actually had the answer but didn't think it was right, so I didn't bother submitting! Oh well, on to next week. Kudos to everyone out there who solved it!!

[technohumanistteach]

"Ack" was what tripped me up. For "Sorry to hear that" I had "sh", took the "a" from "ash", and submitted a big, sloppy kiss "Mwaaaah".

[RussHiggins]

I had (H)OOPS for 'sorry to hear that' and (H)ACK for 'big mistake', but I felt these two were a little iffy. Fortunately they share the critical letter, so I stumbled to the correct answer!

[TeaJenny]

Does submitting the correct answer with an exclamation point count? My logic:

1. The answer is an exclamation. Therefore, it requires an exclamation point.

2. It was more fun to submit it that way.

[mflaminio]

Almost had this and knew I was on the right track. Bah and ack tripped me up but also couldn’t see anything that would make sense out of the letters I had. Nice meta!

[HunterX]

Does submitting the correct answer with an exclamation point count? My logic:

1. The answer is an exclamation. Therefore, it requires an exclamation point.

2. It was more fun to submit it that way.

I'm sure they'd see that you obviously figured out the correct answer, whether there's an exclamation point or not.

If they weren't too busy sending me an email to say that I'd finally won the mug, that is! Mwahaha!

[CPJohnson]

Count me in the Bwa-ha-ha camp. After finding OOPS in HOOPS, the next thing I saw was AHA in BAHA, to match with Surprise. So I thought of Dilbert, and when I needed BAH to match up with Bedamned, I just used BAHA twice. Didn't even see the "boo" in Boom.

[TeaJenny]

Does submitting the correct answer with an exclamation point count? My logic:

1. The answer is an exclamation. Therefore, it requires an exclamation point.

2. It was more fun to submit it that way.

I'm sure they'd see that you obviously figured out the correct answer, whether there's an exclamation point or not.

If they weren't too busy sending me an email to say that I'd finally won the mug, that is! Mwahaha!

Congratulations!

[HunterX]

Does submitting the correct answer with an exclamation point count? My logic:

1. The answer is an exclamation. Therefore, it requires an exclamation point.

2. It was more fun to submit it that way.

I'm sure they'd see that you obviously figured out the correct answer, whether there's an exclamation point or not.

If they weren't too busy sending me an email to say that I'd finally won the mug, that is! Mwahaha!

Congratulations!

Too soon! The email hasn't arrived yet. I know it will... someday.... after all the many answers I submitted.... it just HAS to be this week.... (Pleeeeease....)

[Hidden in 3D]

Just didn't have time to pull this one together. Too busy working on final details for the fundraising luncheon I mentioned last week. I found BOOM,
WICK, HACK, BARR and HOOPS, but I couldn't decide if ick or ack worked better for "when something is disgusting". Like @Plymouthrock, I wanted Oh No to work with ONHOT, for "when someone suddenly shares unpleasant news" but knew that wasn't up to Matt's standards. I'm blaming this miss on FLS - Fundraising Luncheon Spreadsheet-itis.

[RPardoe]

For those who aren't into pulp villains: Evil Laughter (Wikipedia)

[DrTom]

Here's another spoiler...

Will's Pandora this week has a clue that says "Let me think" and it is a 3 letter answer, HMM of course.

Isn't coincidence just the darndest thing.

[TeaJenny]

I'm sure they'd see that you obviously figured out the correct answer, whether there's an exclamation point or not.

If they weren't too busy sending me an email to say that I'd finally won the mug, that is! Mwahaha!

Congratulations!

Too soon! The email hasn't arrived yet. I know it will... someday.... after all the many answers I submitted.... it just HAS to be this week.... (Pleeeeease....)

Here's hoping this is the week!

[CPJohnson]

Just lobbying for a second acceptable answer.

[JJD]

Early on, I read the Theme as a clickbait headline, which seemed to fit my understanding of Matt’s sense of humor.
I found the BOOm first because I made a Halloween connection with it, except I got 2 letters from ONHOT = ONO + HT. (ONO being a common grid answer.)
[now I realize that the inelegance of the 5-letter HOOPS led me to think another 5 letter grid entry would be used. I’d definitely say ONO instead of ACK on hearing unpleasant news from someone.]
And then I anagrammed the resulting 8 letters to WHAT A HAM!”, which would be a fitting reply to the clickbait theme, and Ham being a synonym for Show Off, and clearly this Theme was showing off about how clever it is.

I’m very satisfied with the “aha” feeling I got in finding the correct mechanism. And my ‘alternate’ answer.

[Flying_Burrito]

Me after receiving Mike Miller's email today (has not happened yet, but if it happens....)

[FatJack]

Hmm...I figured out 6 out of 7 fairly quick, bounced back and forth between ACK and upside down OHNO. Couldn't figure out an "exclamation" with either combo. Maybe sour grapes, but not convinced that "MWAHAHA" is a legit word. But then again many of you got it so, yeah, I guess it's sour grapes.

[mheberlingx100]

Hmm...I figured out 6 out of 7 fairly quick, bounced back and forth between ACK and upside down OHNO. Couldn't figure out an "exclamation" with either combo. Maybe sour grapes, but not convinced that "MWAHAHA" is a legit word. But then again many of you got it so, yeah, I guess it's sour grapes.

I checked with Mr. G on a few of these, just to make sure theme answers were consistent with clues. And “mwahaha” was listed in some online dictionaries.