MGWCC #726 - “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others”

[woozy]

There I am at #581.... And my new Wednesday Warrior Badge (don't think I'll bother trying to repeat that achievement any time soon....)

I am wondering if there *is* anything more to the mechanism or if this is a Betty (who else?) White issue. [That is... "of course, it's XXXXX; what else would it be" and no more explanation than that.] Although I'm pretty sure there's a mechanism I'm just not seeing. Although if there is, I think it's a pretty tough one for a week 1 (although the answer itself is perfect paced).

[Joe]

The answer and write-up are posted on Fiend now.

I don't how many of you had the same problem I had. I ran through the puzzle so fast that I didn't even see the clue for 41D: What our contest answer means. Ans: GOODBYE

THAT clue (which I completely didn't notice), combined with the eight four-vowels-and-a-consonant words in the themers, gives a 100% lock for the answer: ADIEU.

[woozy]

So Joon https://crosswordfiend.com/2022/05/04/mgwcc-726/ seems to think the mechanism was "5 letters words with 4 vowels and only one consonant that means 'goodbye'" and that any mention to Wordle was superfluous. I thought Wordle was essential in that that each of the entries were two five letter words that "hit" the meta fairly hard... but I couldn't determine from the Wordle clues he we'd deduce the one that hits it exactly. Joon's make sense as it'd make the title pertinent. However I am somewhat put off by the dismissive "Wordle's not important" whereas Matt implied "It's all about the Wordle". And I guess mechanisms of "the themes fit a pattern, so the meta is another thing that fit the pattern" always leave me a little cold as the nitpicker in me always figures one could find several other things that fit the pattern if one tries hard enough.

So.... what do you think?

[burghman]

I knew it without digging too deep because I’m addicted to all variations of Wordle, but still tried to figure out the mechanism… I thought there were other hints - lots of French references, lots of rhymes, some pretty close words (ADUE, AUJUS), and CAJUN crossing AUJUS smack dab in the middle to reinforce the French thing. Combine those with the goodbye clue and the obvious theme answer patterns to perhaps land on the mechanism?

[BrennerTJ]

4 Vowels / 1 Consonant + means 'goodbye'

[burghman]

A question for discussion regarding WORDLE:
What 5-letter word do you think would be the most difficult to guess? My vote: PYGMY.

One time that I didn't get it in 6 was when I had _ATCH on turn 2, having used LATCH, and getting green on the last four letters. I still hadn't tried B, a second C, a second H, M, P or W, and ran out of turns. There are plenty of fairly common words that differ by just one letter, like this example. Something like that would get my vote for most difficult.

Then your third guess should be CAMPS

Good call! I’ve been playing Wordle in “hard” mode for weeks, which doesn’t allow something like this but I’m going to use this strategy with the other *ordles. Thanks.

[MikeM000]

Doing the .PUZ file, I saw all the A & U in the long answers and when I saw the GOODBYE clue my first thought was "Au Revoir". Then when I read the 5-letter prompt in the .PDF, I picked Adieu over Adios because I figured the "common Wordle starter" meant to maximize the vowels. (My starter only has 2 vowels and I'm at 99%, so whatevs.)

Then 20 minutes later, after my name was on the board it occurred to me that all of them had the 4 vowels and 1 consonant.

Then 20 minutes after that it occurred to me that I hadn't done the Wordle yet and for giggles I used ADIEU for my starter and I had a terrible time extracting LARVA on my 6th try.

[lbray53]

I like Wendy Walker's theory as described in the comments on Diary of a Crossword Fiend.