XWord Muggles Forum

Outsmarted myself. Tossup between the President, and the FIRST and FOREMOST Supreme Court Chief Justice to hold the Warren name. Also, Earl Warren did much work on the FIRST Amendment and the Bill of Rights. Finally, in the tossup went with the extremely weak clue of 5 - down & 25 down.

Oyez, Oyez! Congrats to all who shaved with Occham.

My sandbar disappeared with the tide. I too had EARL WARREN because 1) First and Foremost means Supreme, 2) working up from the bottom using last names, Gere has a double E, Yoakam a double A, Parker a double R, and Call a double L. I ruled out Harding as too easy. Oh well, there's always next week.

Fascinating rationales for Earl Warren. I think we Muggles should band together and find a cure for cancer or solve the Middle East dilemma - lots of very creative and hyper brain-power.

Apart from CD Bob's sage advice re: Occam's razor, Earl Warren was not in my running simply because his claim to fame is as a jurist, not a politician.

I thought foremost just meant they were important people, i.e., U S presidents.

Some really interesting and thoughtful comments.

Getting to WARREN was not complicated because the title "First and Foremost" confirmed for me that part of the exercise. Among its other definitions, "Foremost" can mean either "Leading" or "In First Place," so I coupled the "First" names in the grid with the "Foremost (i.e. "leading") letters in the matching surnames of U.S. Presidents. As to choosing between Earl Warren and Warren G. Harding (I can't visualize the latter's name without a middle "G," as would be the case for me with Edward G. Robinson, even though that was his stage name), I submitted Warren G. Harding because, again, I assumed that "WARREN" would need to be a first name in order to be parallel to the form of the grid.

Stu K

I hedged my bet by submitting Warren and throwing myself on the mercy of the WSJ court

I like the previous comments about Earl Warren as a possible answer. He was one of my three answers. I also had Warren Burger there, 32A RONALD MCDONALD was screaming at me as the confirming click for that!

The “noted US politician” description made me nervous, with no other confirming click that it should be a president. But I went with Warren G Harding just because all of the theme answers were presidents.

Two weeks ago we had FIVE GUYS. Last week we had five more guys. This week we have six guys! Guys are very nice, but come on!!

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:53 am I hedged my bet by submitting Warren and throwing myself on the mercy of the WSJ court

A good ploy that I had considered, but went with Harding largely because of the title. I was surprised Matt went with something like this, truly a judgement call.

Being that all the clues were first names of presidents, I knew that was no coincidence and automatically went for a president with the first name Warren. Once we've done a fair share of metas, we often think too far rather than just far enough.

Think it's fair to say we witnessed a warren of rabbit holes this weekend!

All-Presidents pushes Harding over the top, but still, "noted U.S. politician" is a phrase you'd definitely use to describe Earl Warren but not Warren Harding.

If we're going to get technical:
pol·i·ti·cian /ˌpäləˈtiSHən/ noun
a person who is professionally involved in politics, especially as a holder of or a candidate for an elected office.

Earl Warren would only qualify as a politician because he served as governor of CA between 1943 and 1953....which most Americans are not even aware of.

You see, we were always better off when we left politics out of it

The two IKE's at 11D and 44D kept niggling at me because I considered Eisenhower a more noted politician but Harding was a better fit for the meta. Funny, I never even thought of Earl Warren. Now I see what everyone was so hesitant!

Maybe a tipping point clue? Dawes 6(D )was a Harding Cabinet member - per Mr. G, not any knowledge of history on my part!

hcbirker wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:29 am

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:24 am Well, Warren Harding, glad I held that razor to my throat! I vacillated (as I am sure many did) between Warren Harding and Earl Warren. The Warren was easy, and the First obviously referred to the FIRST name (foremost I am still wondering about), as the rest of the puzzle had. But I ran into trouble because Earl Warren was the 14th Supreme Court Justice (First and FOURmost), was one of the foremost defenders of the 1st Amendment etc. but I had to make fewer assumptions to chose Mr. Harding. Elizabeth Warren never entered the bidding because she was not a former politician. Then there was Warren Peays - oh, no wait that's a book...

But all the other entries were presidents. So it was a slam dunk. (Heidi)

Yeah until you sprain your wrist when the dunk hits the rim! (speaking metaphorically of course, the rim would have to be fairly low and about the size of Rhode Island for me to accomplish a dunk other than a bagel)

I ended up with Warren G. Harding because of the first names being presidential. But I will say that there really should have been a more resounding click/AHA for this. I was particularly flummoxed that it was the LAST names that spelled WARREN.
First and Foremost does carry the connotation of supreme, as others have noted. Earl Warren, in addition to holding office as the attorney general and then governor of California, also ran for the presidential nomination a couple of times. He was definitely a worthy-of-note politician! He was promised the SCOTUS appointment by Eisenhower after the 1952 election and went on to support the First amendment, etc.
After wandering around history for a while and discovering that Warren Austin was the first U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. after serving as a U.S. Senator from Vermont and Dr. Joseph Warren played a significant role in the American Revolution, Isaac was about to cut me off!
Hope someone from our Muggles group is the winner

lusophile wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:14 am My sandbar disappeared with the tide. I too had EARL WARREN because 1) First and Foremost means Supreme, 2) working up from the bottom using last names, Gere has a double E, Yoakam a double A, Parker a double R, and Call a double L. I ruled out Harding as too easy. Oh well, there's always next week.

I’m really glad I never noticed the double letters!

I'll repeat myself at the risk of being rude: the answer is easy if you take it logically. The six long entries all follow the same pattern: first name, you supply the last name of the president. When you get the first letters of those six guys, and they spell out WARREN, apply the same formula.

So who got the mug?

i also considered Warren Burger, because he was was sort of political and appointed by Eisenhower to the DC Circuit and by Nixon to the Supreme Court. But went with the first choice, Warren Harding, because it was a better fit.

Lots of political Warrens to choose from:

Warren Harding
Earl Warren
Warren Burger
Warren Christopher
Elizabeth Warren

I don't see how you can say any U.S. President is not a "noted politician." Dying in office is notable in its own.

Finally, I found it interesting that only Woodrow Wilson prevents this from being an all-Republican puzzle. I thought for a while that's where the meta may have been heading.