XWord Muggles Forum

BrianMac wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:15 am Thanks to everyone who has solved so far.

Here is your current leaderboard:

1. woozy
2. Bird Lives
3. Meg
4. RPardoe
5. markhr
6. Laura M
7. boharr
8. MarkWoychick
9. Dannyvee
10. joequavis
11. BarbaraK
12. benchen71
13. ChrisKochmanski
14. Bbaack

And here is our new Cavapoo (King Cavalier Spaniel x Toy Poodle), and my new office mate, Lola:


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MaineMarge wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:13 pm Still in the bag with the cat, so I don’t know anything about any flaws. But I do know lots about flawers.

BrianMac wrote: ↑Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:42 pm Hi everyone, and sorry for going AWOL on this thread. I was laid up most the second half of the week with the Martian Death Flu. Luckily it was not COVID and I am now 90% recovered. Here is your updated leaderboard (sorry for not responding to everyone who submitted answers):

19. hoover (sorry for the omission)
20. michaelm
21. Anita
22. Jeremy Smith
23. Thurman8er
24. Darth
25. Wendy Walker
26. dudeski
27. MaineMarge
28. MikeM000
29. Dplass
30. whimsy
31. auee89
32. cbarbee002
33. Beth Tyrpin
34. Naptown Kid
35. Alvibu67
36. MamaE
37. MikeyG

And here is your solution grid:


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The answer to the meta is NAMESAKE, which is derived by taking the first initial of the first name of each of the eponymous words that make up the 8 longest across answers. Schmeel kindly provided the following summary:

CHAUVINIST - named after Nicolas Chauvin.
DECIBEL - Alexander Graham Bell gave his name to the cause.
CICERONE - The ever so eloquent Marcus Tullius Cicero's name is the muse for this word.
MIRANDA - Ernesto Miranda, Mr. Rights himself, got off the hook, and forever his name is remembered.
WALMART - Sam Walton named the company after himself.
BLOOMERS - Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Mrs. Rights this time, got an article of clothing named after her.
DEGAUSS - K, I mean Carl Friedrich Gauss, the Prince of Mathematicians, is recognized here.
SILHOUETTE - Etienne de Silhouette lent his name to this artform.

I tried to make the puzzle limited to "real" words like SILHOUETTE and CHAUVINIST. BOYCOTT was another favorite. But I couldn't quite get there and had to go with WALMART (my least favorite) and MIRANDA, which is not really a word separate from the name. Even DEGAUSS was a too much like PASTEURIZE for my taste - too connected to the individual. But hopefully those "cheater" words provided a bit of a toehold into a puzzle which was already a very Google-dependent solve for most.

The "fatal flaw" that I think everyone picked up on is that Gauss first name is actually spelled Carl. I did a bit research into this trying to figure out why some websites do list him as KARL (although it's about 20:1 against). It seems in 1902 the German Senate passed a resolution attempting to bring conformity to some non-standard spellings in German at time, one of them being the use of C or K for the hard K sound. This resolution make K the standard letter for hard K sound and C the letter for a Z sound (German speakers and/or historical linguists can chime in with more detail or corrections). It's my theory that the websites that spell Gauss' name with a K (one of which I obviously referenced when constructing the puzzle) are trying to adhere to these new rules. However, most seem to honor the way Carl actually spelled his own name, which was with a C, and seems to be to be obviously correct.

Needless to say, I was pretty gutted when test-solver-extraordinaire Al Sisti pointed this out to me about a year ago. I couldn't find a suitable replacement for the K word and didn't have it in me to start the puzzle over fresh. So into the trash it went. However, every few months, Al would mention it to me and say why don't you bring that one back out? So thank Al for that and thanks everyone for solving. Next MMM will be a special Halloween treat from BirdLives that I understand may arrive a day early. So watch this spot!


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