"Joint Filing" April 11, 2025

[ZazooD]

EXCEPT! Shoulder is not a hinge joint.
BUT! Fun puzzle, nonetheless!
Cheers!

[Ergcat]

EXCEPT! Shoulder is not a hinge joint.
BUT! Fun puzzle, nonetheless!
Cheers!

Agree! I was looking for FINGER or TOES (the other hinge joints) for the longest time ! But… it was a fun puzzle nevertheless!

[Lee-Ann]

Mate was the answer that I came up with on Thursday afternoon, but it felt too easy. Happily, I submitted on Sunday anyway. I was looking for wrist... I thought "ELPASOAN" was too random not to be involved somehow. It seemed to me that more had to be done to find the answer.

[FatJack]

Argh! I found the ankle, knee and elbow, but since ATE aren't in bride, groom, spouse, couple, etc. I wandered off. Never considered looking right to left!

[prasantv]

If anyone wants a good example of "so close yet so far....." - I found the right letters and came up with "TEAM"

Also - found a few ancillary dead-ends as well - both "LEG" and "ARM" can technically be found using the same mechanism. Not exactly as clean as the others hinge-wise, but another silly rabbit hole to have fallen down into -

[Bobj]

If anyone wants a good example of "so close yet so far....." - I found the right letters and came up with "TEAM"

Also - found a few ancillary dead-ends as well - both "LEG" and "ARM" can technically be found using the same mechanism. Not exactly as clean as the others hinge-wise, but another silly rabbit hole to have fallen down into -

With a little finagling, you can find HIP (in the center), TOE (also in the center) and TOE (in the SW). Thought the RIST in the upper center *must* be WRIST and I had a wrong grid entry somewhere. I couldn't find SHOULDER until I was told to keep looking.

[pjc]

This is the kind of puzzle where I wish the hint included "4-letter word" so that I would have known to stop looking

[Deb F]

Happy Monday, Muggles! I told you my answer was either perfect or insane. Well, it was the latter. Actually not a surprise to me as I hadn't a lot of confidence in it. Stick with me. I submitted Mr. & Mrs. T. I did try finding 'hinged' words but the solution eluded me. Instead, I got hung up on how many instances of T's there were, highlighted especially by Tee and Tau. My husband, noted how many T's were in the puzzle then, looking for something to make it fit (never a good idea), I saw 18-A and 7-D 'hinging' at MRARS. Mr and Mrs right? Seemed like a good, not perfect, idea at the time! Isaac, I'll have a Bloody Mary please.

Cheers, all. Have a great week.

[bhamren]

Argh! I found the ankle, knee and elbow, but since ATE aren't in bride, groom, spouse, couple, etc. I wandered off. Never considered looking right to left!

I had ATE also and figured it had to be MATE so I tried backfilling. I looked at the M spots MANY times until Shoulder jumped out at me. I was trying with fewer letters in my first few looks.

[JeanneC]

Noticed the rubbing elbows in the lower right corner. Got my “m” from “womb” and the “e” from “woe”. Never saw “shoulder” but still got the right answer.

[HunterX]

Argh! I found the ankle, knee and elbow, but since ATE aren't in bride, groom, spouse, couple, etc. I wandered off. Never considered looking right to left!

I had ATE also and figured it had to be MATE so I tried backfilling. I looked at the M spots MANY times until Shoulder jumped out at me. I was trying with fewer letters in my first few looks.

I also did some back-solving. After getting the T and the E, I started looking for an M and an A in corners.

[DrTom]

This is definitely a case of too much information made me stupid.

I could not find the last joint (SHOULDER) to make MATE because the shoulder is a ball and socket joint not a hinge joint. I never assumed there would be three of the themers in the bottom and only one up top and decided I was just missing the three top ones which would spell INMATE - certainly someone who would file a JOINT return...

Sigh....

[Janet]

I didn't solve it! I missed going around the corners.

[Al Laubenstein]

Wonder if anyone submitted META?

[LeslieO]

I found MATE, but then I saw HI(L)P in the center and thought there must be more (SOUL MATE? LIFE MATE?) Couldn't find anything else that made sense, so I finally submitted MATE.

[otlaolap]

I found ATE pretty quickly, but could not find anythng to complete it. Figured the answer had to be either MATE or INMATE (filing from the joint?). Backsolved backsolved backsolved staring at that M at the end of SERUM. Went to Google: began typing S E R U R when Google's autosuggest screamed "SERURALA" -- just the thing I was looking for! Hit enter. Drat. Not a real word. Much later, like a day or so, came to read the forum just to wallow in my failure, and saw a post -- you know who you are -- which also talked about backsolving and then finally finding. So I gritted my teeth and said I will look at all Ms, even those that differ in the pattern of the answers that yieldied ATE. Well, there is only one other M in the top half of the grid. Stare stare stare . . . then five to ten seconds of mortified screaming as I realized what I had missed. (My wife made no comment on this.) Fortunately this happened on Saturday, so I could submit. But I feel a small twinge of regret that I did not recognize that M on my own.

Very nice puzzle as usual, with a memorable and engaging device.

[MButterfly]

Noticed the rubbing elbows in the lower right corner. Got my “m” from “womb” and the “e” from “woe”. Never saw “shoulder” but still got the right answer.

Same here, thought it was odd to have two elbows, but it worked.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Your Rabbit fondly recalls an old Wall Street Journal interview with Chris Harris, one of David Letterman’s longtime staff writers. He said how difficult it was to write something funny on days when nothing newsworthy happened:

“… And then, you pick up the newspaper and see that Fabio was hit in the face by a goose while riding a roller coaster.” (March 30, 1999) Here’s a clip to refresh your memory:



Well, Mr. Shenk handed your Rabbit a “Fabio” puzzle this week. No nominees, unfortunately, but subject matter that was pure gold.

Four hinged body parts: SHOULDER (10A & 10D), ANKLE (27D & 42A), KNEE (46A & 47D) and ELBOW (63D & 69A). Buried in the “joints” of those pairs are four letters that make up the solution: M-A-T-E.

SHOULDER seemed to be the most challenging of those words, judging from your responses. Technically it’s not a “hinge”, but in a case like this, your Rabbit always turns to pop culture for an answer.

“You Tube” offers up a number of great versions of the tune “Dry Bones”, most of them sung by the Delta Rhythm Boys. It was a huge hit in the 1950’s and also featured in the movie “Rain Man.” Strangely, while the “shoulder bone” is mentioned in the lyric, it’s the “elbow bone” that goes missing.

Your Rabbit was ready to post one until he found this priceless version sung by the great Fred Gwynne -- a Harvard graduate in 1948, a police officer in “Car 54, Where Are You?”, Judge Haller in “My Cousin Vinny” – and best of all, the patriarch of the family at 1313 Mockingbird Lane -- Herman Munster. Enjoy, and see you next week.

[Gman]

I found MATE, but it felt too easy. Of course, TEAM is an anagram of MATE, so I spent way too much time thinking of whether is was TEAMMATE, MATE or TEAM. Alas, I settled on MATE after a friendly confirmation.

[Sloane]

EXCEPT! Shoulder is not a hinge joint.
BUT! Fun puzzle, nonetheless!
Cheers!

Agree! I was looking for FINGER or TOES (the other hinge joints) for the longest time ! But… it was a fun puzzle nevertheless!

Same!