XWord Muggles Forum

Still need 38 more in the last half hour to hit the prediction. C’mon, buzzer beaters!

Answer posted. The two numbers for the synonyms did not help me at all. Once I found the first antonym in the grid with the extra first letter, it was just a matter of forcing the two synonyms to a common antonym. Did I miss something?

While doing the grid, I noticed several synonyms of the specified length in other clues.
34A “You win” (triumph)
96D The Big Easy (effortless)
107A Open for marketing (uncover)
20A Phil of the Greatful Dead (departed)

Searching got me a few more, some a bit of a stretch. It took reading carefully every single clue to get myself to admit that some just weren’t there and I needed to give up that rabbit hole.

Not in a trillion years. KAS 10000000. But wow what a meta. I am even more impressed than usual with Matt’s handiwork. My deep respect to those of you who solved.

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:22 pm While doing the grid, I noticed several synonyms of the specified length in other clues.
34A “You win” (triumph)
96D The Big Easy (effortless)
107A Open for marketing (uncover)
20A Phil of the Greatful Dead (departed)

Searching got me a few more, some a bit of a stretch. It took reading carefully every single clue to get myself to admit that some just weren’t there and I needed to give up that rabbit hole.

It wasn't the way, but I did spend a lot of time trying, and in truth it pointed me to the way so a rabbit hole with an escape route?

T

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:22 pm While doing the grid, I noticed several synonyms of the specified length in other clues.
34A “You win” (triumph)
96D The Big Easy (effortless)
107A Open for marketing (uncover)
20A Phil of the Greatful Dead (departed)

Searching got me a few more, some a bit of a stretch. It took reading carefully every single clue to get myself to admit that some just weren’t there and I needed to give up that rabbit hole.

That was my rabbit hole as well.

It's interesting how minds work.

I saw the large grid & parentheticals & abandoned the thought of a quick solve, moving on to create the Excel form, thinking I (& others) would need it. That took a half-hour. I was taking my time. Unmotivated & assuming I'd be days at this puzzle, I had lunch for another 30 minutes, more-or-less.

The grid took me longer than I thought, but once finished & entered into Excel, the second theme answer & inequality hit me:

MISTREATDEPARTED (WRONG + LEFT ≠ RIGHT): WRIGHT

"AHA!" aloud, & I had it solved within a couple of minutes, even if I didn't have every synonym figured, placing 30th in 2 hours & 10 minutes.

Completely shocked. Shoulda-woulda-coulda finished in an hour, if given full attention from the start. 75 to 90 minutes, maybe, with creating Excel form. Not complaining nor bragging, in any way, but amused at how certain puzzles can solve quickly & others take a lot of effort & smacks to the head.

I wonder if others will have differing synonyms, not that it matters. It seems that there might be possibilities.

DrTom wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:43 pm

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:22 pm While doing the grid, I noticed several synonyms of the specified length in other clues.
34A “You win” (triumph)
96D The Big Easy (effortless)
107A Open for marketing (uncover)
20A Phil of the Greatful Dead (departed)

Searching got me a few more, some a bit of a stretch. It took reading carefully every single clue to get myself to admit that some just weren’t there and I needed to give up that rabbit hole.

It wasn't the way, but I did spend a lot of time trying, and in truth it pointed me to the way so a rabbit hole with an escape route?

T

it gave me enough to skip the rest of that part of the mechanic and move on to the next part..... it was definitely a force fit answer.

My first strategy was looking for slightly-off synonyms and antonyms in the grid, like AMUSE for MISTREAT. Change one letter and it's ABUSE. Similarly LABOR, WORN and WORK.
After that didn't go anywhere, Effortless = Easy was the first synonym I came up with and somehow "hard" was at the front of my mind because I had wanted "Chard" to be "Cheese" when doing the fill. Then it was a matter of backsolving from the answers that could have their first letters chopped off. And there were a lot in addition to the correct ones -- spies from espies; redo from Fredo; care from scare; win from twin!
Awesome puzzle.
Here are a few more vacation photos from Ricketts Glen State Park in northeastern PA:

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:05 pm My first strategy was looking for slightly-off synonyms and antonyms in the grid, like AMUSE for MISTREAT. Change one letter and it's ABUSE. Similarly LABOR, WORN and WORK.
After that didn't go anywhere, Effortless = Easy was the first synonym I came up with and somehow "hard" was at the front of my mind because I had wanted "Chard" to be "Cheese" when doing the fill. Then it was a matter of backsolving from the answers that could have their first letters chopped off. And there were a lot in addition to the correct ones -- spies from espies; redo from Fredo; care from scare; win from twin!
Awesome puzzle.
Here are a few more vacation photos from Ricketts Glen State Park in northeastern PA:

Wow, now you’re in my neck of the woods literally and figuratively. I’m originally from the Scranton area and have been there numerous times in my youth. As a matter of fact I think that is where someone tried to drown me teaching me (unsuccessfully) to water ski.

wrong/left/right -> (W)RIGHT was my first inkling too. It put me in mind of this lyric:

Still we bumble our way
Through life's crazy labyrinth
Barely knowing left from right
Nor right from wrong

("As We Stumble Along" from The Drowsy Chaperone, which my kid's HS put on a few years ago. As Trix, that line was one of her solos, so I got familiar with it!)

As I was solving the puzzle, CHARD kept catching my eye. So when I looked for things to fit the triple numbers, EFFORTLESS/TENDER -> EASY/SOFT -> C-HARD was my immediate toehold.

The others I got were:
SOMBER/HENCHMAN -> GRIM/HEAVY
MISTREAT/DEPARTED -> WRONG/LEFT
SMOOTH/STANDARD -> EVEN/NORMAL
REGARDING/LABOR -> ON/???????

I never did come up with a good 7-letter synonym for LABOR but H-OFF was pretty obvious by that point. I did all this to find SWITCH in the hour I have between puzzle drop and my standing online Friday bridge game. But I couldn't see how SWITCH tied to the title. I figured for a week 4, there might well be an additional step where we had to SWITCH something else, so I let that percolate in my brain for a while. But I finally decided that was all there was and that perhaps the SWITCH was to find the pairs of synonyms and then to one antonym that matched both pair elements.

Did anyone come up with a good LABOR synonym?

And boo-hoo. No pizza from Matt today. I guess I'll make other dinner plans...

I visited any number of online synonym finders and the best one I could find for LABOR was WORKING. It wasn’t especially satisfying, but it was a good antonym for OFF.

KayW wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:39 pm
Did anyone come up with a good LABOR synonym?

I used WORKING, as in, George is off today, i.e., he's not working.

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:22 pm While doing the grid, I noticed several synonyms of the specified length in other clues.
34A “You win” (triumph)
96D The Big Easy (effortless)
107A Open for marketing (uncover)
20A Phil of the Greatful Dead (departed)

Searching got me a few more, some a bit of a stretch. It took reading carefully every single clue to get myself to admit that some just weren’t there and I needed to give up that rabbit hole.

My impression is that when key words are in the clues, they are usually the first word in the clue. That doesn't apply when they are all members of the same category, e.g., names of sports teams. As I say, that's just my impression. People with better memories than mine (i.e., just about anyone) or a database of solutions, please comment.

KayW wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:39 pm As I was solving the puzzle, CHARD kept catching my eye. So when I looked for things to fit the triple numbers, EFFORTLESS/TENDER -> EASY/SOFT -> C-HARD was my immediate toehold.

The others I got were:
SOMBER/HENCHMAN -> GRIM/HEAVY
MISTREAT/DEPARTED -> WRONG/LEFT
SMOOTH/STANDARD -> EVEN/NORMAL
REGARDING/LABOR -> ON/???????

I never did come up with a good 7-letter synonym for LABOR but H-OFF was pretty obvious by that point. I did all this to find SWITCH in the hour I have between puzzle drop and my standing online Friday bridge game. But I couldn't see how SWITCH tied to the title. I figured for a week 4, there might well be an additional step where we had to SWITCH something else, so I let that percolate in my brain for a while. But I finally decided that was all there was and that perhaps the SWITCH was to find the pairs of synonyms and then to one antonym that matched both pair elements.

Did anyone come up with a good LABOR synonym?

And boo-hoo. No pizza from Matt today. I guess I'll make other dinner plans...

In the end I just assumed that SWITCH went with the very last of the Synonym/Antonym trio's ON OFF SWITCH. It would be interesting to hear Matt's explanation.

I don't think this was as tight as some Matt puzzles, and gerund or not I still don't think working was the best choice for LABOR, but it was overall very satisfying.

Welp...guess I'm buying my own pizza.