Explanation: There are eight 8-letter compound words in the pattern 4, 4. Each of these compound words can be broken up further with a four-letter grid entry to form a...compound compound word, I guess? For instance, HOMEROOM = WORK (homework, workroom), TIREMASK (yes, this is a thing - but it was the most contrived entry, I'll admit!) = IRON (tire iron, iron mask). So the new word gives us two additional compound words and/or phrases. The initial letters of these inserted words spell the apropos WISHBONE, an item that is often broken up in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday! Finding the words that worked was a bit of a challenge, but feel free to leave more in the comments! Happy turkey day, everyone!
Loved this one. I almost backsolved to FISHBONE based on 15-A. Then thought about the title and found the W.
lbray53 2s · 2024-11-24T00:00:54.307Z
So fun! Took me awhile but finally saw it. Great construction.
ALSO thanks for the gift card.
Carolyn 4s · 2024-11-24T00:39:09.123Z
That was fun! Many happy memories of breaking the turkey WISHBONE after Thanksgiving! And, thanks again for the gift card. Now I can buy myself a crossword mug ;)
whimsy 8:14 · 2024-11-24T00:31:00.065Z
The first thing I thought of after successfully test-solving was the PBS show about the Jack Russell terrier that I used to watch with my kids back in the day. "What's the story, Wishbone." But then I quickly realized how close we were to the holiday -- Oh, right!
Loved the puzzle, Mikey -- It's just about the furthest thing from being a turkey!
Fun puz! I saw them, but started to make up some of my own: home show/showroom; flip note/ notebook... haha :D Love the Thanksgiving theme. Have a good one, MikeyG!
Yes, I had those in my list as well as HIGH HILL CARD, LOVE SHOW SONG, DOWN LOW SIDE and some even more inventive. I also tried making new words like GRIDIRON, LIMAPEAS (I mean why should BEANS have all the fun)....
The puns were predictably awful (so I loved them) and the puzzle predictably delightful. I had sooo many false starts yesterday/last night: HOMEROOM (Ha HOMER, lets look for MARGE), NATASHA (is there a BORIS?), three similar AHA entries, that cannot have been by chance (turns out it probably wasn't), a clue that says AHA is the way you solve, Ok, there is SIS (probably someone that heard "Break it up you two") TET, AHA so HIE??? There are plenty of same letters separated by other letters....to heck with it I'm going to bed. Then Mr. Subliminal takes over while brushing my teeth: TIRE IRONIRON MASK (since TIREMASK was about the most forced of them all) - OF COURSE and that was what the AHA clue was AH and HA. I did not run out to solve it (it was 2:30 AM) but literally slept on it. This AM I started searching in earnest, certain when I got an S and an I that it was going to be SIBLINGS, but I should have known Mikey would be topical - WISHBONE indeed, I WISH they were all so FUNNY so they would appeal to my FUNNY BONE.
MatthewL 🤓11:53 · 2024-11-24T18:06:30.030Z
Saw nothing yesterday, but picked it up again and saw it almost immediately. I'll admit the SSS helped put me in the right frame of mind. Thanks for the puzzle, Mikey!
Bird Lives 3s · 2024-11-24T20:21:08.793Z
Impressive. And you did it the hard way -- with the letters in order of the derivative entries rather than the order of the themers. (I made a quick wrong guess -- I saw GRID and IRON directly across from one another.
HeadinHome 🤓3:45 · 2024-11-24T20:37:16.965Z
Love these treasure-hunty kind of puzzles! I was going to try to come up with one of these but couldn’t… which makes it all the more amazing that you thought of 8, and ALL the words uses are 4 letters. Wow.
imontoo 6s · 2024-11-25T03:06:52.559Z
Nice workout, Mike! Really enjoyed it.
Meta World Peace 4s · 2024-11-29T16:45:34.123Z
Once I realized what was going on, my first guess for the "tying-together" final answer was something like DISSOLVE. Yours is better, Mikey--and extra appropriate with the "stuffing" needed for those in-between words!