"Nutcases" November 8, 2024

[escapeartist]

Filbert? Lol had to backsolve and google that one

[Yoda66]

I took the mechanism one step further (see NNE corner, where SEED is encased) and submitted TAUT (taut = not relaxed, tense) which is a condition of someone who is a nutcase

[whimsy]

I took the mechanism one step further (see NNE corner, where SEED is encased) and submitted TAUT (taut = not relaxed, tense) which is a condition of someone who is a nutcase

Wow! I love this! It's sort of the anti-pageant.
And true to your mantra: "You must unlearn what you have learned."

But you certainly provided an excellent case for your answer!

[mikeB]

The title gets us off to a good start, and it stays with us until the final click. NUTCASES is the slang for a person with delusions, but linking a meta crossword to such a topic would seem unthinkable, so right away we look for a double entendre. To find that, we need to split the compound word apart. We start with CASES, since it is plural and therefore more likely to point to multiple occurrences in the mechanism. By one definition, a case means an example, as in “It was a case of mistaken identity.” The title would thus be reinterpreted as NUT EXAMPLES, suggesting we look for multiple names of nuts. If we haven’t already done so, this is a good time to complete the grid. Meanwhile, we take a moment to reflect on what the prompt is telling us. We’re looking for a four-letter word, so we scan the grid. We do not find four entries identifiable by length or position as theme entries, nor do we see any entries that are, or that contain, the names of nuts. Hmmm. This brings us to a second definition of case, which is a container. Well, a nut is contained in a shell, but that won’t get us to four of anything, so we turn things inside-out: Maybe the nuts are the containers. Well, we had already found there are no nut names to be seen in the grid. However, recalling that we had to split the title word to get to this point (splitting words seems to be a side-plot of this story), we scan the grid for promising fragments of nut names. We might notice -MOND as in almond, or CASH- as in cashew, and so on. Spotting any of those eight fragments leads quickly to four nut names, split between neighboring grid entries, and each containing a (split) word that turns out to be an alternate entry. We consider the corresponding primary entries’ initials in clue order, and we’re there. The title helps again with the final click, as the four located nuts are “examples” of seeds. What an ingenious meta, especially the way the title (a triple entendre, no less) keeps on collaborating right to the end.

[Jace54]

Filbert? Lol had to backsolve and google that one

I had a flashback to the following George Costanza quote: “You know what I love? How there's two nuts named after people. Hazel... and Filbert.”

Would have been awesome if hazel had also been in the grid!

[straffin]

Anyone else catch the error in the clues?

I've come to understand that there's not so much an error as a subtle difference of meaning that's easy to miss and hard to tease out.

When is a "2013 Oscar winner" not a "2013 Oscar winner? When one is a 2013 film that's won an Oscar (which was awarded in 2014 for films released in 2013) and one is a film that's won an Oscar that was awarded in 2013 (which was awarded for films released in 2012). Does 2013 describe the film or the award? I'd say that it's entirely up to the author and can only be drawn from context (of which there is precious little in the space allowed for a crossword clue). So...

(I think a reasonable analog would be "purple people eater"... is this a "purple eater of people" or an "eater of purple people"? The world may never know...)

[HellZiggy]

Once I found the four nuts, and the words that were enclosed, it was a pretty quick jump for me to figure out what to do with those four words. I'd started the puzzle right of the bat at 1 across wondering if it was BARN or SILO. Turns out it was both!

[ELSavage]

Filbert? Lol had to backsolve and google that one

I remember from Christmas, when I was a kid, we would have that bowl of mixed nuts that you had to crack open yourself. There were walnuts, almonds, pecans and those two "weird" ones. It must have been one of my grandmothers who explained that one of them was a filbert - which seemed like a very grandmotherly word to me at the time. Years later, I realized that I had attached the name to the Brazil nuts rather than the hazelnuts, but either way, the funny name stuck in my head.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is SEED. Each of four rows of the grid contains the name of a nut encasing another word: CASHBAR/NEW is BARN inside CASHEW; PESTO/RESCAN is STORES inside PECAN; FILLIN/EBERT is LINE inside FILBERT; ALG/RAYMOND is GRAY inside ALMOND. Those encased words satisfy clues for other answers (BARN>SILO, STORES>EATS, LINE>EDGE, GRAY>DRAB). The first letters of those answers spell the contest answer.

We had a big turnout for this one with 1,816 entries. And a big success rate: 96%. Excellent work, solvers!

Incorrect answers included FOOL (4), TENT (3), ARIL (3), NUTS (3) and a handful of others. Congrats to this week's winner: Corrie Shumaker of Omaha, Neb.!

[The XWord Rabbit]

Nary a Muggle was left on the ship this week, so your Rabbit would never have guessed there’d be a nomination to talk about, but life takes strange twists -- like the ending of a certain football game yesterday. A 9-0 record now. Amazing!

Oh, yes, back to Mr. Shenk’s “Nutcases” Puzzle. A very solid nominee this week from Yoda66 (Post #302). Simple, but it checks all the boxes for a legitimate rabbit hole. Bravo, Yoda66!

And we even have an ending! Will wonders never cease?

In olden days back before there was a thing called “earworms”, there were TV jingles. One of the “wormiest” was this:



It first aired in January 1977. The lyrics “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t” were inducted into the Advertising Slogan Hall of Fame in 2003. Your Rabbit is so grateful ... Thanksgiving came early. Until next week, then.

[Zobo3737]

Anyone else catch the error in the clues?

(I think a reasonable analog would be "purple people eater"... is this a "purple eater of people" or an "eater of purple people"? The world may never know...)

Eater of purple people. There’s a line in the song where the PPE says, “I wouldn’t eat you because you’re too tough.” Apparently, purple people are tender.

[straffin]

Eater of purple people. There’s a line in the song where the PPE says, “I wouldn’t eat you because you’re too tough.” Apparently, purple people are tender.

It's even clearer than that, I've discovered! The line before "too tough" clearly answers the question:

I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line?
He said eating purple people, and it sure is fine...

My point still stands, though. You can't tell without context that a crossword clue can't provide (but lyrics can).

[M and M]

Tricky and clever. Glad to be ashore, but getting a little nervous that next week's will be a whopper, after this week and last.