"Inside Out" May 16, 2025

[Bird Lives]

A rabbit hole that ended much too soon: After finding the movie titles (double-checking on IMDB), I searched the grid for Step Two. And there it was. The entry at 7D is PIANO, the perfect complement to the PLAYER of “Ready Player One,” making either PLAYER PIANO or PIANO PLAYER.

Were there other entries that fit with the missing words? Of course. The NEVER of “Tomorrow Never Dies” teams up with 55D to make NEVER EVER. Now on to the rest. But that’s where the trail went dead. I mean, you’d think that with 75 entries in the grid, one of them could surely team up with WITH. How about WITH ONION (burger order)? WILL could combine with 25D to make WILL WOES (probate problems). Why not PRIVATE YAKS or WIDE RICE (like wild rice, or an alternative to short grain or long grain)?

But alas, these are not colloquial expressions, and I was forced to think of something I usually repress – searching the clues.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Do you remember the “Put a Little Spin on the Ball” puzzle that debuted March 20th? That was almost exactly two months ago. Your Rabbit has had three doctor appointments and a haircut since then. It was also the last time he nominated a story for the Golden Rabbit Hole Award.

Eight weeks now and nada, zip, zilch…you get the idea.

He certainly appreciates Bird Lives story (#301), but alas, it came up short. So, you may ask yourself, “How will he ever get out of this week’s post?”

The good news is the answer to Mr. Gaffney’s “Inside Out” puzzle is COCOON – and that gave him an easy exit via movie trivia.

“Cocoon”, the 1985 sci-fi/comedy/drama followed a group of elderly people rejuvenated by aliens. The movie received two Oscars – one for Best Visual Effects and the other for Best Supporting Actor who was …. wait for it…

… Don Ameche.

And we have one-degree-of-separation from Don Ameche to CARMEN MIRANDA in the 1941 film “That Night in Rio”. Here’s the clip, enjoy, and see you next week.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is COCOON. Each theme answer points to a three-word film title: the first word is the film’s first word; the second is an anagram of the film’s third word; and the film’s second word can be found in exactly one clue. For example, CRADLE CORK points to “Cradle Will Rock,” with CORK anagramming to ROCK and “will” in the clue to 1-Across (CLOT). The others are: “Dances With Wolves” (ONION, 3-D); “Ready Player One” (CHESS, 38-A); “Eyes Wide Shut” (ODES, 40-A); “Tomorrow Never Dies” (OLEG, 62-A); “Saving Private Ryan” (NORA, 65-A). In grid order, the first letters of those answers spell the contest answer.

The trail to this solution had some twists and turns! But our solvers rose to the occasion: We had 1,671 entries, with an impressive 92% correct. Other guesses included TRADING PLACES (24), BACK TO THE FUTURE (11), THE OUTSIDERS (8), RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (3), and FIELD OF DREAMS (2).

Congrats to this week's winner: Sal Massa of Kingston, NY!

[Bird Lives]

The Rabbit laments the lack of entries of late that might qualify for his Award. Is there really a dearth of Rabbitworthy stories? Or is the Rabbit getting pickier and rejecting as “coming up short” perfectly good material that he might once have accepted. The data support the former hypothesis. It’s not the Rabbit, it’s us, and it’s the WSJ. We’re getting smarter or they’re dumbing the meta down.

I borrowed the spreadsheet that @BarbaraK and @Bob cruise director have been compiling and looked at the number of entries and percent correct for each week this year. (The spreadsheet had data going back to 2016 and much more sophisticated graphs, but I’m keeping it recent and simple.)
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A dip in both lines means a harder puzzle. Fewer people got an answer they could submit, and of those who did submit, more were incorrect. The explanations for those incorrect answers are what the Rabbit feeds on. But since March 20th, the Muggles have been shooting at 90% or better except for that weekend of golf (two under PAR) which brought many wrong answers but all with mechanisms that were variations on the actual one or in some other way too uncomplicated.

If things don't change, well, be forewarned of the musical selections in weeks to come. You might call this the Miranda warning ("You have the right to remain silent, but any fresh fruit you're wearing on your head may be used against you.")

[woozy]

The Rabbit laments the lack of entries of late that might qualify for his Award. Is there really a dearth of Rabbitworthy stories?

I heard rumors about an obscure movie from 80s. You take the anagrammed entry such us WOLVES and find an alternative entry such as YAKS and take the first letter of the clue H.

I tried to follow through with that but gave up. But I have heard there is an obscure movie from the 80s this way somehow.

....

Also anecdotal but it seems the metas are getting standardized. We haven't done a good follow a winding path through the grid and get a list of thirteen species of hardwoods in years! And the idea that maybe we are suppose the jump checkers over letters in a kings path seems just inconceivable in these times.

[HeadinHome]

Forgot to finish this one yesterday… just looked at it again and figured it out (and submitted, not realizing contest was over). Well at least I finished! ( :

[Sleepy]

The first word of the title is one of those magic words that can have a special meaning in meta-world: INSIDE might implicate the interior portions of key entries, or perhaps suggest we shift certain strings toward the center of the grid. (We’ll see.) The prompt has the feel of one of those specifications that instigates a Final Click but does not aid in the early parts of the solve. Then, as we work the grid, we might notice that our first long entry is clued with a “?”, which often suggests that the constructor is stretching to contrive a couplet of words that don’t usually appear together; this might be done to achieve some artifact in the entry, such as a particular letter string needed for the solve. Those who are curious might be scanning the remaining clues to see if this might be a pattern. Sure enough, the six long entries are clued similarly, thus confirming there are six themed entries and telling us which ones they are. As we work the grid, we note that all six key entries consist of two words – again, words that don’t usually appear together. Once the grid is done, we might scrutinize the six key entries for suspect letter sequences. No joy there, but we can’t help but notice one of the second words – then another, then all six of them – are anagrams of English words. By now, our brain’s Happen-to-Notice light is flashing continuously, as we discover that we’re looking at six three-word movie titles, each of whose “INSIDE” word has been left “OUT” of the entry. This vindicates the title, but our brain’s Now-What? light is flashing, as we wonder how to glean the puzzle’s answer from what we’ve discovered. First things first: We won’t be working with the words and letters in the entries, but rather the “inside” words that were left “out”. Recent experience has us thinking about Alternate Entries, where we might find clues alternatively satisfied by those six words we’ve unearthed. Not this time. The next thing to check is the incidence, among the clues, of any homonyms of those six words. Bingo. Each of those omitted words is present in exactly one clue, so that gives us six entries to look at, then Whoosh! Very clever is the way the title, prompt and key entries work together over time to reveal the movie theme – one might say they act cinegistically. Hat’s off to Matt for a great meta which, like every meta that came before it, is not like any meta that came before it.

Did anyone else see the connection with the puzzle title to the solution? The “inside” of a cocoon will eventually come “out”, as a beautiful butterfly! Either a coincidence, or another example of the genius of Gaffney’s puzzles. I thought for sure this would be mentioned in the MikeB explanation.

[Bird Lives]

Did anyone else see the connection with the puzzle title to the solution? The “inside” of a cocoon will eventually come “out”, as a beautiful butterfly! Either a coincidence, or another example of the genius of Gaffney’s puzzles. I thought for sure this would be mentioned in the MikeB explanation.

Yes, I alluded to it in my "Ashore" comment (#172).

[mikeB]

Did anyone else see the connection with the puzzle title to the solution? The “inside” of a cocoon will eventually come “out”, as a beautiful butterfly! Either a coincidence, or another example of the genius of Gaffney’s puzzles. I thought for sure this would be mentioned in the MikeB explanation.

Great catch, @Sleepy! A Final Click indeed.