XWord Muggles Forum

Got there last night with the nudges. Super payoff that was indeed harmonious.

I'm totally a week behind! I didn't start this one until yesterday morning and saw the mechanism shortly after completing the grid. Then my day got crazy and I didn't finish finding all the synonyms/antonyms until this morning. (Though I did visualize HELP right beside SOS as I was dropping off to sleep last night and hopped out of bed to put that one on my list! Still surprised at myself that I was able to drift off to dreamland without obsessing over adding the finishing touches.) The answer came quickly after my first cup of coffee, and I promise I never looked at the nudges. Thanks for another fabulous puzzle, Josh!

madhatter5 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:51 pm Solution:

45A was a cryptic way of saying that Yin, the symbol of agreement, contains synonyms of words found outside the symbol - while Yang, the symbol of disagreement, contains antonyms:

Code: Select all

    YIN                  YANG
 
 SOS -> HELP          CUT -> ATTACH
 IRE -> RAGE          EGO -> MODESTY
 AGED -> OLD          SOUTH -> NORTH
 PIC -> IMAGE         SHUT -> OPEN
 OFT -> USUALLY       BIG -> SMALL
 

To arrive at the final answer you need to take the first letters of these words and intertwine Yin and Yang (starting with Yin) to get HARMONIOUS

It also didn't hurt that you told us which set goes on which side (for those less familiar with the "placement") so I knew to put the "likes" (synonyms) on the left or I'd have ended up with AHMRNOOISU which may well be the Sanskrit or Hindu version of Yin and Yang....

Loved the puzzle when I finally caught on (I was being Yanged Yin the wrong direction initially).