XWord Muggles Forum

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:32 am**

I was lucky in that as I was solving online (before Joe published his spreadsheet), the ARGO clue scrolled right by DEARGOD so I knew what the method would involve before the grid finished.

Thanks again to Brian - who literally made muggledom possble, and to everyone else who makes it such a friendly and fun community.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:37 am**

Limerick Savant wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:32 am BTW

There is a house in New Orleans
Devoted to Degas
His mother’s family came from there
But sadly not his pa.

.
The Cotton Exchange, New Orleans, 1873
.

.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:37 am**

I looked at the grid and immediately saw Edgar Degas in the top right corner and the bottom left. I couldn't get that out of my head but I couldn't figure out the mechanism. And it wasn't fulfilling at all to just see the letters. Then I thought it was a trick so I burrowed around in the holes until finally I focused on the shows that were mentioned in the clues and found them framing Edgar Degas in the grid. Very tricky and fun. It brought me back to early days in calculus class. There was no satisfaction in getting the right answer unless I understood 100% how I got it. Hope everyone had a happy easter

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:58 am**

Well, well, well.. I got this but without grokking the mechanism. Degas wraps around the black bar in the NE and Edgar is anagrammed in the top row. Seemed like too much of a coincidence... and it was!

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:03 am**

HunterX wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:23 pm
KscX wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:05 pm
Cindy N wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:59 pm There was one bit of inelegance in the grid construction, but otherwise spot on.
I’ll bet we are on the same page with that. Look forward to seeing what others have to say.
I am guessing I know what the two of you are referring to. And at first I considered it inelegance as well. But there are two reasons I came up with why it wasn't an issue for me. Or at least that was my rationalization.

ALI was my issue - it appeared twice AND the two intersected. It just made me feel like I was missing something after I had the mechanism and answer. Although not “framed” and it was the only title in a down answer, still bugged me.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:04 am**

Man, am I glad I didn't spend time agonizing over this one. Movie titles. Never noticed. Puzzle makers use so many entertainment clues anyway, and I know so few of the answers (wasn't there an answer here one time that was CRUNK? <--sic! ) that I usually just blow by them and try the cross clues.

Good news, though: got back my sea legs.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:17 am**

Very nice. I too saw EDGAR/DEGAS in many places-just never got the mechanism. It didn't help that I couldn't unsee the two WOOD 'picture frames', resulting in my incorrect submission of GRANT WOOD (American Gothic). GRANTed, that answer was not particularly elegant, but it felt a little better than a total guess. Good luck on the mug!

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:18 am**

debbierudy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:43 am
escapeartist wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:49 am The weird thing was having "DEGAS" stuck in my head the whole time

7A & 63A perhaps, along with 17A & 65A

I don't know, funny how that works...
Me too!

Me three

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am**

I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:38 am**

Never made it to shore. I was so far down different rabbit holes (I blame the Easter Bunny), and I knew it... but couldn't climb out. Kicking myself for even trying things that were actually part of the solution, but not in the right way (looking for letters framed inside others, looking at the clues with quotation marks, etc.). Sometimes it's just one of those weeks. I couldn't see the trees for the forest, and "painted" myself in a corner by not thinking outside the picture frame.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:53 am**

My first rabbit hole was noticing the TWO identical clues, "a bunch." Tried like heck to make something out of the answers, TONS and SCADS. Then proceeded to alliteration, like "Sibelius's Symphony" and "Exclamation of epiphany." Nada, natch. Thank goodness I spotted TRON in PATRON, followed quickly by ARGO in DEARGOD and not-so-quickly by WOO, ALI, and RAN. And I, too, had the subliminal DEGAS experience like several other Muggles did, thanks to the letters in the bottom-left and upper-right corners.
Much gratitude to Brian and thanks to all Muggles for making this Forum a wonderful haven!

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:02 am**

I now see that the films were listed in the clues - I probably would have noticed that if I hadn’t been struggling with the grid so much. And when I came back to the puzzle my first effort was actually to try to find “ Shows” like “Cheers” but when I failed to find another “TV Show” I discounted the importance of that part of the title and focused on the “Two” part and started looking at the numerous answers that were two words.

Although who knows - someone even told me that Sherwood was a theme answer and told me WOO was one of the “shows” but since I had never heard of WOO I had no idea what that meant or what I was supposed to do with it.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am**

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............

What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:31 am**

You know, I never noticed the two ALIs mentioned until I went back and looked (subsequent to a discussion I had in a PM). Turns out there were also two WOODs (one up one down). Those could have been an inelegance or they could have been a "signpost up ahead, you are now entering the META zone"?

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:36 am**

To go along with the two "woods," there is a "deer" and "dear" that complete the frame so to speak. Stared at that for a bit.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:36 am**

Never made it to shore. I saw the odd picture frame made up of two pieces of wood and two homonymic deer, but it surrounded gibberish and its form wasn't replicated anywhere else in the grid. Saw a Sal Dali in the top left, but that was clearly coincidence. All that remained was a repeated playing of "Blue Suede Shoes" in my head all weekend ("One for the money, two for the show...").

- Paul

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:37 am**

One thing really helped me solve this one -- I thought back to last week, and many people saying that if you can't describe the meta mechanism in one sentence (or maybe two), you probably aren't on the right track. That got me out of a deep rabbit hole (trying to line up the black boxes in the grid to form a picture frame), because I couldn't even begin to succinctly describe the mechanism to get there. So I ditched that and went back to basics -- look hard at the clues. And there it was -- 5 short movie titles in quotations. Felt that couldn't be a coincidence. Lesson for the week -- don't overcomplicate and always, always look at the clues!

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:43 am**

Hunnerdpurcent! We're all winners. Nicely done, Cap'n Brian. Coat o' anti-fouling paint for our flagship! Sail on, USS Muggle!

This crew raced through the grid, then fixated on Grant WOOD. But no "click!" No "Aha!" On a beach, but hmmmm. Waited until Sunday to submit. Kept peeking at the grid. Found DALI, and then multiple instances of EDGAR DEGAS, dripping over black bars, (much like surreal Dali clocks.) EUROPE seemed to rule out the two WOODs, so sent in a volley of Eddie D. last night. "Movies? Huh?"

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:01 am**

hoover wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:34 am

While I was looking at the doubled letters, I noticed that 7D and 19A cross and contain the same word WOOD going north and east starting from the same W. That makes me think of GRANT WOOD, but I don't see anything to clue American Gothic, pitchforks, or Iowa.

Lots of good rabbit holes in this one!

I saw the COUPE just a little below and it kept making me think of that cute couple.

Tried too to get Utrillo out of that WOODEN/DEER frame.

And then there was SGTS, as in John Singer. But as DrTom might say - I had no time for them.

Finally caught on to the movie titles.

Posted: **Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:09 am**

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am
anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............
What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

And we have a winner!

Of course, the competition was, much like Dr. Tom's driver, a race to the bottom

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