XWord Muggles Forum

Dplass wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:32 pm

DrTom wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 9:18 am Well, the new version seems to have opened the tap. This is what happens when you get so close to a topic you are familiar with and assume that everyone else is too. I would have the same problem (often do) with "Breaking Bad" references. Apparently I am one of about 100 people in the world who did not watch that.

Anyway, thank you all for not gathering with torches and pitchforks.

Tom

I'm with you. Never seen a single second of Breaking Bad or Walking Dead or any Kardashian show. (Or the topic of this MMM, for that matter...)

The "Walking Dead" and "The Kardashians" ... aren't they the same shows?? (sorry any Kardashian's fans, it was a lob and I HAD to hit it!)

This wounded duck has actually done pretty good in the solvers department, particularly considering (A) the peccadillos of the constructor - at least I hope there are venal sins, not cardinal. (B) the technical problems. I know there are still some struggling (the solution will be posted tomorrow simply to allow more time) but so far:
1 Mme
2 hcbirker
3 boharr
4 HoldThatThought
5 MarkWoychick
6 markhr
7 meg
8 edestin
9 HeadinHome
10 woozy
11 Carolyn
12 benchen71
13 DebbieC
14 Dow Kones
15 SJMcK
16 Cinny
17 lbray53
18 CPJohnson
19 CromsFury
20 johnaldape
21 DaveC
22 ChrisKochmanski
23 Bob cruise director
24 Schmeel
25 KayW
26 Ergcat
27 Beth Tyrpin
28 eagle1279
29 Anita
30 mindle
31 LindaPRmaven
32 Cap'n Rick


If I have missed anyone, and it is possible because I have had to backtrack to find all the PMs, please let me know.

Tom

OK, time to end this nonsense. Anyone who was going to solve probably has solved, and everyone else is questioning my continued presence as a constructor after this fun (he said generously) but not well conceived puzzle.

Goodness me, where do I start! Well OK, I’ll start with the solve mechanism:

In the puzzle there were 5 clues that had the dreaded numbers in parentheses. These clues all referred to an answer that happened to also be a servant’s position on one of my favorite British exports, Downton Abbey. Within the answers were also 5 names, well almost 5 names because each had one letter missing. If that letter was added and you anagrammed the word you would get the names of the characters that played that role in the series.
So, SNOBS, but how would I know to set them up in that order? That is where the numbers came in because they told you the position of the letter in the word. Ought to have been simple right, anagrammed words are common, a missing or extra letter is common – but noooooo, I had way too many assumptions and problems with this puzzle. Let me review a few:

1. If you were not an avid Downton Abbey (DA) fan then this became a much harder puzzle and some felt it was another great British drama about servants, Upstairs/Downstairs (UD). I did watch UD but that was YEARS ago and DA was much more current so I thought I was OK.

2. There were several maids, cooks, footmen, batmen and butlers. Being very familiar with DA I took only the main ones and those who you would see every week. Thomas Barrow was a footman for at least 4 seasons and that is how he was remembered, but there were other minor players. He eventually became a butler but Carson is the one all DA fans will always pick as the butler. Mrs. Patmore was the cook, but Daisy did help her and then there was the Dowager’s cook, but none of those were the main character. Bates was Lord Grantham’s “batman” in the military (actually it is why he got the job even though he had a physical handicap). William Mason was Matthew Crawley’s “batman” but that was a minor part.

3. The maid thing was a real zinger because Anna was maid to Lady Mary Crawley and as such had a major role in the house and the series. There were other maids of course but none with her major role. The problem was that she was Anna Smith when she started and became Anna Bates. I could not have two bates (well I suppose I could have and made her associated clue be BATE and find a different meta word) and I did not think anyone would remember her as Anna Smith (which would have meant I needed to find another word than SNOBS) so I went with ANA. A No-No because it deviates from the mechanism.

All in all not a terrible, but still a poorly executed puzzle. I apologize profusely for putting you all through the wringer and will try to do better going forward.

Tom

Oh DRAT, even my reveal is fraught with problems. Obviously it was COOK = TAMPER ( not TEMPER) + O = PATMORE.

Late chiming in due to vacation as well as website subsequent website issues, but I did make it off the couch and rather enjoyed it @DrTom, though I have seen every episode and movie of Downton Abbey, so that helped. No apologies needed, constructors gotta stretch or this crazy art form will get boring over time

I thought Downton Abbey! But there was also The Crown and some other ones that possibly could've worked, so I wasn't sure where to go. I had a feeling that was it, but I couldn't make it work in the end. And...OH! I forgot about Level 1 until just now, haha. (Welcome to my world.)

I will always appreciate your puzzles, regardless! I love when people make metas over things they're passionate about; I think Gaffney loves tennis and that's come in before, I love baseball and math, Ben has done some great Australia stuff, and the like. So it was still cool to see, even if you bested me!

rjy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 12:05 am Late chiming in due to vacation as well as website subsequent website issues, but I did make it off the couch and rather enjoyed it @DrTom, though I have seen every episode and movie of Downton Abbey, so that helped. No apologies needed, constructors gotta stretch or this crazy art form will get boring over time

Thank you. The one benefit of a mistake is that it teaches you something AND keeps you humble. An early stumble taught me a lot about last minute checks after changes to the puzzle and I have not repeated that. When you get to thinking. "hey this ain't so hard" the puzzleverse has a way of slapping your wrists. I will now always consider if there are any major confounders (probably impossible to eliminate minor confounders because there are always so many way to interpret information, confound it).

The one thing this has once again demonstrated is that this forum is a rare bird. If people get mad they do so to themselves. If people are upset, they PM you and let you know. If people are pleased they herald it all over the site - sigh, I want a world like the XWORD Muggles Forum.

MikeyG wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 12:11 am I thought Downton Abbey! But there was also The Crown and some other ones that possibly could've worked, so I wasn't sure where to go. I had a feeling that was it, but I couldn't make it work in the end. And...OH! I forgot about Level 1 until just now, haha. (Welcome to my world.)

I will always appreciate your puzzles, regardless! I love when people make metas over things they're passionate about; I think Gaffney loves tennis and that's come in before, I love baseball and math, Ben has done some great Australia stuff, and the like. So it was still cool to see, even if you bested me!

Mikey, you and Ben and Josh are consistently some of the most inventive puzzlers I know. You come up with some outlandish things that are still eminently solvable and you especially are so dang funny that I often do the puzzle the first time just for the jokes. The only reason you didn't solve this is that I turned it into a semi Kobayashi Maru. It was those darn Klingons that made me do it - I kept klinging on to a faulty assumption.

Oh...a show I never saw, with a mechanism I am bad at...next time DrTom, next time.

Dplass wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 3:11 pm Oh...a show I never saw, with a mechanism I am bad at...next time DrTom, next time.

Moi ausii
Ugh, different country and language.
Now I'm REALLY confused...

In the end, we all love you and you'll always be a welcome household name in the House of Muggle, so thanks Dr. Tom!

As much as I generally enjoy British TV, I never quite made time for Downton Abbey. I think it was just how busy life was for me while it was big here. I got the grid but probably didn't have much hope of solving the meta.

Having said that, looking at the answer now - I admire the cleverness of it. Well done, DrTom!