XWord Muggles Forum

I think we may have been spoiled by "Left Up in the Air" a few weeks ago.
My history is limited (less than a year), but it seems that the title refers to the mechanics or to the answer, but not necessarily both, though it is great, and often quite clever, when both come together.
I think the vague prompt ("four-letter word") may also have contributed to this one feeling shakier than most.

I am also a mathematician, though I teach high school not elementary level, and I was today years old when I first heard about number bonds.

I probably couldn't have come up with Handy as a Smurf if you asked me straight up, but I was a kid when they were first a thing, so when I was scanning the clues for something to match Handy, it clicked in the recesses of childhood memory.

I've read the solution a couple of times now, but I still don't understand the mechanism or how it relates to the title. (Movies are involved, apparently, which for me is usually a death sentence.)

Dozens of rabbit holes, all uselessly mathematical. This one was simply beyond me.

lxp wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:39 am Knowing nothing about smurfs, I checked out the wikipedia entry and found them quite interesting. They are Belgian in origin and are referred to as Les Schtroumpfs (Smurfen in Flemish).

This magnet is my favorite souvenir from my last trip to Brussels (it's on my fridge and confuses many visitors):

Plymouthrock wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 7:52 am Look up definition of bond as it applies to mathematics.
I plan to refer to number bonds every chance I get,
I figure I can work it into golf, bridge, pickleball…
Endless.

Thanks. I've done a lot of math, but somehow have never heard of number bonds.

My joke answer was that 1+1+5 = 7 = 007, therefore the answer is Bond.

math degree, 4 kids through elementary math in the past 10 years, never heard of number bonds.

but I was satisfied with bond/join/link/add as the explanation and felt confident in my answer.

Doug C wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 8:38 am I got stuck on HANDY. 25D (ADEPTS) and 56D (ABUT) both worked. But what to do with A O N D?
I didn't like that combo.

I too was drawn to ADEPT for HANDY and struggled with AOND at first, but then I realized it was ADEPTS, which doesn't match part of speech, and I kept looking. After ruling out every possible grid answer I ended up coming back to the Smurfs as a possibility.

Zobo3737 wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:30 am

Damaged wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:02 am

Should I know "Handy Smurf"? And I'm familiar with Wanda, but the movie is what, pushing 40?

I’m pretty sure almost no one knew Handy was a Smurf. Thank you, Google.

Since HANDY didn't have me immediately thinking Smurf, I searched the grid strictly on a synonym level even though that was not the path given I already had the other three. This led me to BRAINY as a possible even though not quite perfect option. Then I re-read the clue and made the Smurf connection. Never seen Fish Called Wanda either but I somehow knew it was a movie. Who can say why these things stick in one's head?

So yes, I am saying I needed no searching and no, I am not saying that is reason for congratulation. It just is.

Zobo3737 wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:30 am

Damaged wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:02 am

Should I know "Handy Smurf"? And I'm familiar with Wanda, but the movie is what, pushing 40?

I’m pretty sure almost no one knew Handy was a Smurf. Thank you, Google.

Of course there was a Handy Smurf -

Now I can tell my mother that Saturday morning cartoons as a kid weren't a complete waste of time after all

woozy wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:46 am Seems pretty heavy in the pop culture doesn't it? ALL of the mechanisms (well, maybe one isn't) are a pop culture reference

That put this one right in my wheelhouse. I had a childhood friend who had tons of the PVC collectible Smurf merchandise before the American cartoon show was launched, I grew up on "Star Wars", I've seen both The Black Keys and The White Stripes, and "A Fish Called Wanda" is a classic, which now I feel like I need to watch again.

I knew we were looking for a 4-letter word, and the "5" in the title likely meant to look for 5-letter words, of which there are exactly four in the grid: IDAHO, ELLEN, RELIC, TRADE. If you take the first letter of each of those words and anagram them, you get RITE - which of course happens to be WRONG! BUT - The equation in the title is also WRONG, so my solution of RITE should be RIGHT!! Right!?

Dickie_Dunn wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:17 pm

Zobo3737 wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:30 am

Damaged wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:02 am

Should I know "Handy Smurf"? And I'm familiar with Wanda, but the movie is what, pushing 40?

I’m pretty sure almost no one knew Handy was a Smurf. Thank you, Google.

Since HANDY didn't have me immediately thinking Smurf, I searched the grid strictly on a synonym level even though that was not the path given I already had the other three. This led me to BRAINY as a possible even though not quite perfect option. Then I re-read the clue and made the Smurf connection. Never seen Fish Called Wanda either but I somehow knew it was a movie. Who can say why these things stick in one's head?

So yes, I am saying I needed no searching and no, I am not saying that is reason for congratulation. It just is.

Watch the movie it is flat out hilarious!

Relearning trivia from childhood is a great benefit of completing metas. I had forgotten about Handy Smurf but never again! Just like the Wonder Twins meta from the 12/06/19 puzzle “Then and Now”.

Streroto wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 2:11 pm

Dickie_Dunn wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 1:17 pm Never seen Fish Called Wanda either but I somehow knew it was a movie. Who can say why these things stick in one's head?

Watch the movie it is flat out hilarious!

"Look! It's K-K-K-Ken, c-c-c-coming to k-k-k-kill me!"

I understand that one reason the movie worked so well was that Cleese and Chrichton wrote the script, assembled the cast, and raised all the money, thereby handing a complete package to the production company. (As I recall Cleese telling it.) So they got to do it the way they had written/planned with no interference.

"Aristotle was not Belgian. The principle of Buddhism is not 'every man for himself'. And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up."

I'm sure there are people, in the world and in muggledom, who know nothing about Smurfs, Star Wars, fish movies, or 2000s bands. They really have my sympathy this week. If one of the xANDy words strikes a chord, you can google the rest. (Lando was the one for me.) But if none of them are familiar and you think Lando isn't even a word, it would be easy to assume that was the wrong path and go dig elsewhere.

As for bonds, don't know anything about number bonds, but
- chemical bonds keep atoms together
- marital bonds keep spouses together
- adhesive bonds keep materials together
So the answer seemed like a good fit to me

Once I had OND, I determined that the only letters to fit were B, F, and P. There was no word starting with F, so that was easily discarded. For P had Pronto, Pie, Plie, and Peon. Pronto was the closest to Handy, but not really good. That left B and quickly led to a search of the Smurf family. Wow, that's a big family!

That’s Handy Smurf (right) pictured with Hefty Smurf. You can tell the difference between them as Hefty has a heart tattoo with muscles and Handy has overalls and a pencil behind his ear. This isn’t rocket science, you know.

Well, we certainly learned more than we ever imagined about Smurfs, didn’t we? It was all courtesy of Mr. Gaffney and his 1+1=5 puzzle. Four across clues had a second five-letter answer with the word “AND” buried inside. The first letters of the puzzle entries to those clues spelled out the meta: BOND.

Let’s begin with an honorable mention, and that would be Colin (Post #218) for creating a Smurfopedia, as it were. Did you know there was a “Passive/Aggressive Smurf”? You can read more about him here:

https://smurfsfanon.fandom.com/wiki/Pas ... vey_Story)

Such is the minutiae that fascinates your Rabbit. But on to our sole nominee – and that would be Alvibu67 for this brief but on-the-nose Rabbit hole story:

"I knew we were looking for a 4-letter word, and the "5" in the title likely meant to look for 5-letter words, of which there are exactly four in the grid: IDAHO, ELLEN, RELIC, TRADE. If you take the first letter of each of those words and anagram them, you get RITE - which of course happens to be WRONG! BUT - The equation in the title is also WRONG, so my solution of RITE should be RIGHT!! Right!?"

Sometimes the Metagods hand your Rabbit a gift and this was just such a week. Thanks to You Tube we have every “Bond, James Bond” in 100 seconds. Until next week…

BarbaraK wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 4:50 pm I'm sure there are people, in the world and in muggledom, who know nothing about Smurfs, Star Wars, fish movies, or 2000s bands. They really have my sympathy ...

@BarbaraK, you make me feel better. I saw Star Wars in 1977. The rest of these are revelations.

The XWord Rabbit wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:18 pm That’s Handy Smurf (right) pictured with Hefty Smurf. You can tell the difference between them as Hefty has a heart tattoo with muscles and Handy has overalls and a pencil behind his ear. This isn’t rocket science, you know.

This made me laugh harder than I should've.

The XWord Rabbit wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:18 pm Thanks to You Tube we have every “Bond, James Bond” in 100 seconds. Until next week…

Great anthology - thank you @The XWord Rabbit.
In England decades ago, there used to be (maybe still is?) a company making writing paper products that was called Basildon Bond. Sharing a house while at uni, my housemates and I used to say (as a joke):
“My name is Bond… Basildon Bond. Let me come to your room and envelop[e] you”
This was just one of many plays on words we messed with and the combined result of our warped senses of humor, not enough time spent studying, beer and probably a couple of James Bond movies too many. The line was never used, to my knowledge, as an 007-style chat up line! Though…..

My first thought for this one was the two letters immediately surrounding the AND, because of RANDY, but then the rest didn't make sense. Once I got on the right track, I had to google the Smurfs because I was in high school and/or college when they were first popular in the U.S.
I didn't have to google Lando, not because I'm a Star Wars fan but because he was in a LEGO set or two.
I saw A Fish Called Wanda on the big screen in first run.
I was already primed for BANDS because I hadn't known that either the White Stripes or the Black Keys was a duo in the first place so I only knew them as bands.