XWord Muggles Forum

I satisfied myself thusly: Take the pronouns in grid order:

U
US
SHE
HE
HER

For each pronoun, take the first letter after the letter derived from the previous pronoun:

U
US
SHE
HE
HER

but it didn't make me happy...

I agree this makes it marginally more elegant, and was what I came up with in backsolve after landing on USHER in a moment of clarity while in the...er...well never mind. It does address the otherwise problematic ONE and ME in the themers as well as the already pointed out HE duplication.

It's still really cool.

Stay well all

I had USHER as well, but didn’t get to enter because our internet was knocked out yesterday evening (a car skidded off the road and took out a utility pole, turns out), so I opened up a book instead.

I laid them out as such:
U
-uS
—sHe
—-hE
——heR
And voila, the answer was on the diagonal.

Guess I was on the correct shore after all. And I'm glad I submitted what felt like a BOWL GAMES answer!
I had the pronouns very early on and saw USHER but couldn't figure out the "click" others were mentioning. I thought maybe one of his songs was embedded in the puzzle or clues but I don't know any and was too busy to look up the discography.

flyingMoose wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:18 am

JRS51 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:13 am I felt 28D was a confirming clue. You find an additional letter in each pronoun in successive theme answers, starting with the U in 17A

I think you are saying the same way I understood the mechanism. At each pronoun, you pick up the letter that follows the letter picked up at the previous pronoun.

U .. uS .. sHe .. hE .. heR

But if you eliminate the duplicate letters, you got one from many, or him from them. I might be alone in thinking this was sort of elegant.

zacmoretz wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 8:21 am E43E7A13-608B-4D27-B5DA-05227CD66772.jpeg

Hey! That's my line!

I ME MINE . . .EMINEM

DrTom wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:23 pm

BethA wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:10 pm Schrödinger AND Heisenberg? This is like on the Addams family when Morticia spoke French!

J'espere que vous etes a le meme temp le chat et ne pas le chat de M. Schrodinger, seulement parce que le chat est peut etre mort et j'aime toutes les monde mieux que cinquante pour cent!

But did "le chat" "mieux"?

SewYoung wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:36 pm

LadyBird wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:24 pm Hey Dr. Tom--Stuff You Should Know just released a new podcast on Maggots and Healing. Unfortunately, I can't listen to it because my phone updated yesterday and now my Podcast Addict app doesn't work. Darn technology!

"Darn Technology" is right. Our phones updated the other day and now every time I leave the house I have to turn it all the way off and back on to get internet or even to just make or receive a call. My husband can go into the settings on his to turn wifi back on, but I have to turn mine off. I'm sure there's a remedy, but I'm not inclined to pursue the subject at the moment.

"Darn Technology" is right. I haven't been able to edit my address book distribution lists in Outlook since going to Microsoft 365.

On Saturday night we watched the music videos for all the cited songs. Followed by the Google query "Why do rappers wear clocks around their necks?"

Before solving the grid, based solely on the title, I thought that Sting was the answer because he went from The Police ("them") to a solo star ("him"). Only after filling in the grid did I know that wasn't going to "bee" the answer.

Usher was so clear
Meta tad inelegant.
“U”? Unused pronouns?

Laura M wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 1:06 am Oof, I submitted CHER for overly simplistic reasons. Not feeling too smart today!

I did the same thing! I thought it was sort of like a word ladder.

HunterX wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 8:24 am

DrTom wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:23 pm

BethA wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 10:10 pm Schrödinger AND Heisenberg? This is like on the Addams family when Morticia spoke French!

J'espere que vous etes a le meme temp le chat et ne pas le chat de M. Schrodinger, seulement parce que le chat est peut etre mort et j'aime toutes les monde mieux que cinquante pour cent!

But did "le chat" "mieux"?

Uh-oh -- here they go -- only in French this time!

Janet P wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:38 am Guess I was on the correct shore after all. And I'm glad I submitted what I felt like was a BOWL GAMES answer!
I had the pronouns very early on and saw USHER but couldn't figure out the "click" others were mentioning. I thought maybe one of his songs was embedded in the puzzle or clues but I don't know any and was too busy to look up the discography.

While googling for the singer's name, I noticed that many of his titles contained U for you. (Perhaps they all do these days?)
So I took 17A for "confirmation!"

I also took “U” as confirmation after googgling and finding that several of his song titles start with “U”.
But did anyone think that the crossword may have been constructed around USHER as a little pun or nod to the muggles cry “ASHORE!”? I definitely think so.
Say USHER. Then say ASHORE. They sound alike to my ear.

I listed the pronouns under each other with the beginning of of each under the same letters in the one prior and it yielded the same answer two ways.

I used to have a student I taught braille. He was lived with his grandma because his mom had him at age 12 so grandma was raising both of them. Anyway, the family didn't have much, but the boy was a happy child because he had two things he loved: Usher and grandma's biscuits. And he talked about both every day!!!! Always with a huge smile on his face!!!! (I still haven't heard any of Ushers music though.)