"Golden Years" - January 14, 2022

[florida_manatee]

Betty White's 100th Birthday is January 17th, 2022, i.e., today

[florida_manatee]

Did anybody else consider "Ben Affleck" as an answer?

[hoover]

Betty White would have been my Hail Mary had I chosen to submit one, but I had no clue how to get there, so I didn't bother. :/

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

The title 'Golden Years' wasn't used in the mechanism, so once we have the last name WHITE, we can assume it points to Betty White because she is known for her role in "The Golden Girls" and for being almost 100 years old. For me, that was enough to lock it in, but I can understand people wanting additional confirmation.

I thought I might have something with BEAST and ESTAR as symmetrical clues that could point to her Golden Girls co-stars BEA Arthur and ESTelle Getty, but since RUE McClanahan isn't found anywhere, I wrote it off as a weird coincidence. Even if Rue had been there, it would have been nothing more than a wink, not a real mechanism for finding BETTY.

[escapeartist]

Did anybody else consider "Ben Affleck" as an answer?

nope!

[maprasad]

I wondered about Shaun White too but wondered if the clue would be "celebrity" for an athlete? Although of course he is one...went with Betty in the end but never figured out how to get there, only got WHITE as many others did.

[Joe Ross]

I thought I might have something with BEAST and ESTAR as symmetrical clues that could point to her Golden Girls co-stars BEA Arthur and ESTelle Getty, but since RUE McClanahan isn't found anywhere, I wrote it off as a weird coincidence. Even if Rue had been there, it would have been nothing more than a wink, not a real mechanism for finding BETTY.

There is a clever muggle with a mechanism like this that wraps up Betty White fairly neatly. It's their work & I'm going to (hope & pray &) wait for them to post it.

[pookie]

Once I found BLACK that was it.
I wasn't going to look for Betty no matter what angst turned up in the comments.
I still remember 1,000 ISLAND DRESSING and
TRIAL JUDGE.

[Jeffrey]

My theory is that Mr. Gaffney was working on the opposites mechanism for a future meta. When Betty White passed away on 12-31, perhaps he tweaked the puzzle to incorporate the news, but couldn’t elegantly work “Betty” into the mechanism. Either way, a fine puzzle, very well constructed.

[JoeS]

Did anybody else consider "Ben Affleck" as an answer?

Yes. But couldn't find any way to get to the two Fs. I tried for thirty minutes, then realized the truth of Black/White.

[LivinaDogsLife]

I gotta believe Shaun White is a celebrity and he’s got a few gold medals and he’s going for his 4th (?) Olympics. Personally, I thought it had to be Betty White before I started the puzzle but I’m still not clever enough to get these multi step metas. So I didn’t submit. I can’t wait to see a better explanation for how to solve for Betty.

[Relic]

I had Betty White on Friday but did not submit initially because I could not account for "Betty". I did submit Betty White before the deadline as a "Hail Mary". I'll be interested to see the official answer from WSJ. Sorta hoping for a shocker. I like @martimeryard's theory.

[whimsy]

I was fairly happy with the answer of (Betty) White.
Except that the grid kept insisting that I FIND whY.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

My theory is that Mr. Gaffney was working on the opposites mechanism for a future meta. When Betty White passed away on 12-31, perhaps he tweaked the puzzle to incorporate the news, but couldn’t elegantly work “Betty” into the mechanism. Either way, a fine puzzle, very well constructed.

I was thinking it may have been the opposite case. Mr. Gaffney may have put this puzzle together before Betty White died, and as today would have been her 100th birthday, she would have been guaranteed to have been in the news quite a bit in the last week during the run up to the big day. He may have kept the puzzle as a tribute, although it wasn't quite as obvious which "White" was the subject of recent news.

[BensMom]

Decided to wing it after solving for “White” and submit Shaun White. Although Golden Years directed pretty clearly to Betty, (and that was my initial guess) I felt like that was just too easy. Or something. Plus, golden years could direct to his gold metals? Maybe??

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

There is a clever muggle with a mechanism like this that wraps up Betty White fairly neatly. It's their work & I'm going to (hope & pray &) wait for them to post it.

Now that you got me to go back and look again, I do see references to a couple last names, also. But, like you, I'll let the person who found them first explain.

[FKelly]

Initially, I thought the celeb might be David Bowie when Google fill a page with references to his album and song 'Golden Years' from 1975. It also was recently his 75th birthday celebrated with concerts in New York and London.
When I saw the mechanism yielding BLACK, I changed course. Applying the mechanism to BLACK yields WHITE. Google alerted me to BETTY WHITE's passing on NYE, but I thought Matt would have us find all 10 letters somehow.

The only way I could think of justifying BETTY was to use the opposites mechanism again on the name of a TV show.
If GOLDEN GIRLS was one of the TV shows, then possibly UGLY BETTY would be the corresponding TV show assuming GOLDEN is approximately the opposite of UGLY.

It's a bit of a stretch, but the only way I could connect WHITE with BETTY using the opposites mechanism.

[jimmyzzz]

I thought one way to get to BETTY is the first name Charlie in one of the key clues is linked to Betty by the word Brown. I couldn't find any other links to any other words linked to Betty

[BEACHEDWHALE]

I've been so busy on the home front that I didn't even have time to solve the grid, but once I read the title Golden Years and the 10 letter clue, I answered BETTYWHITE. It came immediately to mind because my wife and I just watched a great TV documentary about her beautiful life and her dream match with Allen Ludden. It seems that one of her biggest regrets after marrying him was all realizing all the time she had wasted without him before she finally said yes. I have no idea if that is the correct answer but regardless it was the right answer for me.

[burak]

Sometimes the extra confirmation you want comes from the title and the prompt. "Golden" in the title and "in the news" in the prompt made me sure that the answer was going to turn out to be Betty White. This was one of the rare ones where I finished the solve so that I can justify my answer.