"Eton Must Change" January 10, 2025

[JRS51]

Well, that went splendidly.

I was concerned that "ETON MUST" becoming ELON MUSK might give it away too soon, and in retrospect I should've used a less risky title. (would be interested to know what percentage of solvers saw that off the bat.) There's a big head-desk aha if you don't see it and work it out later, but might not have been hidden enough so I should've just used another title.

I saw ELON MUSK immediately. I took that as a hint to the metanism as the title so often is. Once I had SPACEX I took the title as confirmation of SPACEX as the answer. I did not think the answer would be displayed so readily in the title that you could skip doing the crossword. I agree that a different title would have helped if ELON MUSK is to be the desired answer.

[Grover]

BTW, I reread my posting earlier and some may read it as being harsh. I mean that in no way. All is in fun and events like this give us even more of a chance to be a community of puzzle solvers.

[OohLaAHA]

Well, that went splendidly.

I was concerned that "ETON MUST" becoming ELON MUSK might give it away too soon, and in retrospect I should've used a less risky title. (would be interested to know what percentage of solvers saw that off the bat.) There's a big head-desk aha if you don't see it and work it out later, but might not have been hidden enough so I should've just used another title.

I also got the metanism right away from the title and the first couple of theme answers confirmed it. I then concluded that Elon Musk couldn't be the answer since it was too obvious and looked for step 2 for a nice AHA moment. Since SPACE X is a famous name, I was convinced it was a lock. I, too, will count this as a win in my personal record-keeping.

[Penny_Keatley]

I submitted ELON MUSK, and felt 80% confident at the time I submitted. I actually never got to SPACEX and just recognized the pattern of "change one letter in each 4 letter word and create the name of a famous person" and applied it to the puzzle title.

[HunterX]

Never even thought that "famous name" would refer to a company. [....] But in this case, we just assumed (and we all know what ass-u-me does) that it was a person.

I just realized why I merely assumed that the "famous name" was a person and didn't even think about SpaceX being a name:

All the themers change to the names of famous people. So my brain just assumed we were looking for another person.

[Mirage]

I did not make the connection of Eton Must to Elon Musk until after I completed the grid, figured out the metanism, and played around with the letters taken out and the letters added, Eton College, Eton collar, and Eton blue. When the aha moment of seeing Elon Musk in the title hit, I looked for confirmation in the grid but never found the Space X connection. Instead I zeroed in on the clue for 27A Tetra-doubled. By changing the two letters T and R in tetra to S and L, I got Tesla. This was confirmation, (okay, weak confirmation) that Elon Musk was the answer. I still stewed over this answer before submitting in the 11th hour last night. Space X does seem to be a more Gaffneyesque solution and I give kudos to those who found it either as the answer or as confirmation for their answer.

[jimbo1]

Muggles up in arms!
Rivals the uproar over the ill fated introduction of Coca Cola’s NEW COKE!

[Aaron]

My process: completed grid Friday night. Saw nothing for the metanism. Came back Saturday. Thought about Alan Alda being oddly close to ALAS ALDI, but got no further. Sunday morning I finally saw other famous names. I noted letter changes.... when my daughter saw where I was, and suggested Elon Musk. (I've promised her half the mug of I win it.) I looked at the letters a bit more, but saw nothing, and couldn't shake the feeling that Musk was the right answer. It accounted for the title and matched the name pattern.... good enough for me. So I submitted and moved on with life.

Congratulations to those who found the SpaceX step. I'll grant that it would have given me pause about the correct answer if I saw it. But from my experience and more importantly, for the first time, my daughter was involved in a solve. If it helps recruit more solvers in my family, the puzzle is a win for me.

Thanks, Matt, for all your work on these engaging puzzles!

[bhamren]

The new "pageant"

[MileHighSolver]

Oh boy…what fun reading for a Monday morning! I missed the Friday afternoon Zoom call because I was at urgent care getting my wrist X-rayed. Should have listened to the wife and not going bike riding the day after a snowfall. I am kinda happy I missed it because I would have been second guessing myself all weekend on the SpaceX vs Elon Musk answer. I just assumed the answer would follow the same construction of the themers, and SpaceX was a clue to solve for a famous name. Good luck to everyone on both sides of the argument!

[Adajeo]

I pulled up the puzzle, looked at the title and thought ELON MUSK CHARGE - hum the answer will be TESLA, SPACEX or DOGE - then I hit print, pulled out my pencil, big pink eraser and struggled with the grid. Hum, 6 themed clues - that knocks out TESLA and DOGE.

When I saw the 3 letter connection and it spelled out SPACEX - I thought - that is so clever Mr. Gaffney - "a famous name" - not necessarily a person. Guess the yolks on me.

[aaugusti]

Well, that went splendidly.

I was concerned that "ETON MUST" becoming ELON MUSK might give it away too soon, and in retrospect I should've used a less risky title. (would be interested to know what percentage of solvers saw that off the bat.) There's a big head-desk aha if you don't see it and work it out later, but might not have been hidden enough so I should've just used another title.

We opened up the puzzle Sunday morning one the plane coming back from running the Walt Disney World Half Marathon (humblebrag), and as soon as I saw “Eton Must” I turned to Kasia and said “that changes to Elon Musk, and once we find the theme answers the next step will be to change letters in each one.”

[MikeyG]

Before stating anything, I think it's worth mentioning how passionate this community is and how much we love puzzles. They are a uniting force that can bring people together - even if, in the case of metas, there might be a disagreement as to what the ultimate answer is! I think that's part of the fun at times, and this meta ricocheted around in my head like ping-pong balls all weekend.

My brain did not see Musk's name from the title immediately; ETON is one of those names that can easily anagram to, say, NOTE/TONE. So, already, we have - and maybe there's a term for this - anagrams that both relate to something in a similar way (like LEMON/MELON). That was where my brain was headed going into the puzzle.

Then, we see the silly themers - BEAD PITA didn't do much for me immediately, actually, and I was bouncing around the grid - when ALAS ALDI came up, I think I saw ALAN ALDA, BRAD PITT, okay. I then went back to the title, wondering how this related, and I saw ELON MUSK immediately. "Oh, haha, that must be the answer then." Makes sense, since it matches the 4/4, so off I went to submit - and I did! (I think I had VERB WAND at this time, and I was wondering if maybe the 4 letters, 2 old and 2 new, would be something - nothing with BDAG, though EART could be TEAR, perhaps.)

I expected the beach would start filling up after then, but there was a bit of a gap, and then I started getting worried that maybe I missed something (not the first time - won't be the last!). And I was thinking about that all through my shift, until I had a half-hour later to myself to think. So, I decided to muse on the 2 + 1 = 3 strategy, got out my notepad, and saw SPA spell out, and I was like, "Uh-oh, I missed something! But the title does give us a 4/4 name!"

And, then, SPACEX appears. And then we have the ultimate dilemma, which was definitely echoed elsewhere in these comments: "Does A confirm B, or does B confirm A?"

I'm trying to think what I would've done at this point, had I seen this path. The 4/4 thing would've been too much for me to ignore, so I likely still would've still went with ELON MUSK, with SPACEX as the confirmation. Initial solving time was about 7 minutes, but I changed it to 12 minutes, even with this path. I would feel a bit disingenuous going about it this way, but it's a bit like the hide-and-seek analogy that Matt has alluded to before (i.e., if you're hiding behind the door during the hide-and-seek, and they check there first, game over easily - but not if the person doesn't check and goes on a wild goose chase throughout the house!).

With the title coming into play, I did think of "The Joyce Is Yours" (also referenced previously), but I'm pretty sure the grid came into play there to get ROLLS first, if I recall correctly.

Trying to think what I would've done, re title. Maybe "I'm Changing My Name!" with ETON and MUST at the first- and last-across positions? But still the SPACEX mechanism? I wonder if anyone else was in my camp, in retrospect. People who didn't see Musk alluded to in the title, started solving, glanced at the title without catching SPACEX, and then got the intended answer.

Regardless, I think we'll all remember this one and all the spirited discussion generated over time. I often remember where I was when solving metas and when I finally grokked them, the way some people might know where they were the first time they heard a certain song.

Finally, two special obvious thank yous:

@MattGaffney, you are a creative genius, and I think your puzzles are works of art. You have given me so much joy these past five years, and the meta is alive and well. Grateful for you!

And, then, everyone else here. This forum is a wonderful place, and I'm thankful that I get to count so many of you as friends. Your love of puzzling is evident, and it's been a blessing interacting with you all over the years. Here's to much more puzzling ahead!



Mikey G

[Red Inker]

I figured it was Elon Musk, probably because I never saw the "SPACEX" bit...

But I also spent forever trying to make sense of all the letters from the changed names. And I wondered if "ETON MUST CHANGE" referred to the college, Eton, which is apparently not co-ed... So I wondered if the answer might be something about accepting women at Eton... Very silly.

Anyway, noticing "ETON MUST" = "ELON MUSK" was the only thing that pointed me towards the name changes in the fill.

Fun one, but not totally satisfying.

[aaugusti]

I pulled up the puzzle, looked at the title and thought ELON MUSK CHARGE - hum the answer will be TESLA, SPACEX or DOGE - then I hit print, pulled out my pencil, big pink eraser and struggled with the grid. Hum, 6 themed clues - that knocks out TESLA and DOGE.

When I saw the 3 letter connection and it spelled out SPACEX - I thought - that is so clever Mr. Gaffney - "a famous name" - not necessarily a person. Guess the yolks on me.Screenshot 2025-01-13 124259.png

The old Wheel of Fortune line “person does not always mean proper name.”

[Fogway]

I lumped together the four changed letters from each of the six theme clues/answers. Changing ALAS ALDI to ALAN ALDA yielded the letters SINA, which made no sense until I rearranged them as ISAN having noticed that the answer to 61D was ISAK -- one letter different from ISAN and thereby giving me the letters K and N to work with.

Alas, after unsuccessfully working this methodology with the other five letter combinations, I had an "aha moment." "Aha, it's a rabbit hole."

[DBMiller]

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - Shakespeare
"Rose is rose is a rose" - Gertrude Stein
"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into" - Oliver Hardy, and W.S. Gilbert

I read the title of the puzzle and immediately thought of Elon Musk. "Can't be", thought me, 'tis too easy."
Well if it is, there's going to be a ton of correct guesses... But there must be more to this.

So I finished the grid, and went, "Yep, just like changing the title to Elon Musk, change each themer to a famous person's name."

After finding all the names (Vera Wang was my last, got stuck on finding a HERB to fit. I had 6 groups of either 2 or 4 letters, depending on how you looked at it. Neither group looked good, but as a group of 4-letters each (2 pre-change, 2 post), I looked for 4-letter answers in the grid that had one letter changed. That worked for the first 4 themers, but died a horrid death as it didn't work for the last two sets.

Undaunted, I found the 3-letter answers where the first two came from the post-change letters and the 3rd letter was new and they spelled SpaceX.

Great, SpaceX is the NAME of a company, and we weren't asked for a famous PERSON. So SpaceX should be the answer, yes? Adopting the CYA principle, I submitted "SpaceX via Elon Musk" as my answer.

After Friday's Zoom, I was even more convinced that the answer would not be just hidden in the title. Why even bother doing the grid?

On Sunday night, I forgot I had already submitted, and sent in "SpaceX" as my answer, this time without the "Elon Musk" addition.

-DB

[FlurinaX]

Well, that went splendidly.

I was concerned that "ETON MUST" becoming ELON MUSK might give it away too soon, and in retrospect I should've used a less risky title. (would be interested to know what percentage of solvers saw that off the bat.) There's a big head-desk aha if you don't see it and work it out later, but might not have been hidden enough so I should've just used another title.

I did not go down the SPACEX path but jumped right to ELON MUSK once I saw what was happening with the theme answers turning into names. If I had found SPACEX I probably would’ve submitted that. But my curiosity about “Pageant” that everyone has been mentioning is killing me! Could someone please direct me to the history of that one because I don’t remember it. Thanks again to Matt and Mike and everyone at WSJ puzzle central. Thursday puzzle drop is (fortunately or unfortunately?) the highlight of my week!

[whimsy]

Enjoying so many of your posts about the variety of answers, and particularly the posts emphasizing our camaraderie.

But it's Space Camp for me.

Elon Musk seemed so obviously in the title as a step 1, pointing to how to approach the themers, that having it also be the answer feels too much like this --

https://www.facebook.com/eastbayrabbit/ ... 535711523/

[Ergcat]

Well, that went splendidly.

I was concerned that "ETON MUST" becoming ELON MUSK might give it away too soon, and in retrospect I should've used a less risky title. (would be interested to know what percentage of solvers saw that off the bat.) There's a big head-desk aha if you don't see it and work it out later, but might not have been hidden enough so I should've just used another title.

I did not go down the SPACEX path but jumped right to ELON MUSK once I saw what was happening with the theme answers turning into names. If I had found SPACEX I probably would’ve submitted that. But my curiosity about “Pageant” that everyone has been mentioning is killing me! Could someone please direct me to the history of that one because I don’t remember it. Thanks again to Matt and Mike and everyone at WSJ puzzle central. Thursday puzzle drop is (fortunately or unfortunately?) the highlight of my week!

From Bob cruise director
Cruise Director
Being Pageanted
#1 Post Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:08 am
Periodically you may hear one of us mention that we were pageanted on a puzzle.

December 29, 2017, the crossword was constructed by the nefarious Marie Kelly (alias for Mike Shenk and an anagram for Really Mike) and entitled PLAY GROUNDS. The answer to the contest was "a kind of competition". It looked very simple with seven long answers containing the names of college bowl games. So most of us entered something like College Bowls.

However there was a second level to the contest. If you took the first letters of the cities that all the bowls were played in they spelled out Pageant (see below).

Rose Bowl – Pasadena
Cotton Bowl – Arlington Texas
Fiesta Bowl – Glendale AZ
Sun Bowl – El Paso Texas
Peach Bowl – Atlanta Georgia
Sugar Bowl – New Orleans
Outback Bowl – Tampa

So Pageant’ed has come to mean a puzzle where you get hoodwinked by the simplicity and there is a second level.