XWord Muggles Forum

The timing of this week's answer is touching to me as it coincides with the passing of writer Norton Juster, whose works were published by Random House. My favorite works of his were "The Phantom Tollbooth" and "The Dot and the Line." May he Rest In Peace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dot_and_the_Line

I went down the SHOE hole for a minute, but on a whim googled "pre order your copy now" to see if perhaps that was the slogan of a company. It wasn't, but the fourth result down was about an upcoming book published by...you guessed it...RANDOM HOUSE.

As soon as I saw that it clicked.

lacangah wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 7:19 pm The timing of this week's answer is touching to me as it coincides with the passing of writer Norton Juster, whose works were published by Random House. My favorite works of his were "The Phantom Tollbooth" and "The Dot and the Line." May he Rest In Peace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dot_and_the_Line

Berkeley Breathed said in a social media post that Norton Juster influenced him for his strip Bloom County. That’s why one of his main characters is named Milo.

KayW wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:36 pm

sharkicicles wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:01 am
Believe it or not (and, believe it, due to that map...) I am in the 2nd ward!

Well, howdy "neighbor"!

Maybe if/when things get back to normal, we can meet to chase rabbits down The Rabbit Hole... a 2nd ward watering hole

RabbitHoleAvatar.JPG

While not as meta-themed, you will always be welcome at the Inner Town Pub by me as well

BethA wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:27 pm My wild guess before starting to fill the grid was XEROX, emphasizing “copy” in the title. Didn’t seem likely once I saw that there were 6 theme entries...

That was my first thought as well and the 6 theme answers stopped me from heading down that rabbit hole.

HARSHOUEVRE
HORSDOUEVRE
That's what jumped off the page for me. Change two letters and get something that's sort of a pre-order. That appetizer turned out to be the French delicacy hareng rouge. I don't know whether Matt intended it as such, but I spent a lot of time looking for other "pre" items before I finally saw the house.

When I finally saw the mixed up HOUSES, I immediately thought of TOLL HOUSE. I must have had cookies on my brain. You mix up cookies, and the repeated HOUSE was kind of a TOLL. Then I noticed the RANDOM letters pre-HOUSE. Ok that makes more sense!

I submitted Stochastic Dwelling.

Ah, man! I saw all of the H's in the clues and thought of a company that had a lot of H's in the name...I considered Publisher's Clearing House...thinking that perhaps it didn't necessarily have to be a book company but it does sound like one. Eventually, I settle on Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

I did not submit my wrong answer as was not entirely convinced I figured anything out at all...

I went through the "H" hole, the "hordoerves" hole, the "shoe" hole and a few other holes I can't even explain before noticing the random "house"s.
"

Working???