XWord Muggles Forum

zacmoretz wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 10:43 am Hi folks. Figured it was the right thing to do to introduce myself since I have been lurking for awhile. I am an attorney in Charlotte North Carolina and I try to do the puzzle each weekend with my aunt Norma who is 85 and lives in Charleston South Carolina. We usually communicate back and forth via text throughout Friday and the weekend in trying to figure out the grid and the contest. We are far from puzzle people and usually don’t get the contest right, and are simply amazed at those of you who do. Once in a while we get lucky and that sure is a good feeling. But most importantly it is a great way for she and I to stay connected. Cheers to all and thank you to those who maintain the forum and those who post all the thoughtful commentary - especially the contest answer explanations which we typically need each week!

You don’t happen to have a daughter or niece who is a Federal Law Clerk in Florida do you?

Welcome aboard. We always welcome lurkers to join the clan.

@TPS Nope.

zacmoretz wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:39 am@TPS Nope.

I know someone here in Florida w/ the last name Moretz from NC and she is an attorney so I thought you might have been related.

I don’t think I know her, but we are all originally from the North Carolina mountains around the Boone area. You can ask her that, I bet we are related somehow.

Hello! I'm Carolyn from Sacramento, a long time lurker and recent recipient of hints on a couple puzzles so I thought I should introduce myself. I'm a retired ICU nursing instructor, birder, recent crossword addict, French language student, mom of two grown kids, wife of retired doc and lover of travel. I do the WSJ, MGWCC and PGW each week with varying degrees of success. No mug yet, but maybe someday.....

Hi all!
I’m Doug in Starkville,Mississippi. Traveled the world playing music for years. In 2006 my wife and I moved here to help my aging parents and I got a real job teaching music.
I’ve done crosswords for years. All those years on the road...
New to this meta thing though.
Great seeing you all here!

saxodoug wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 10:15 pm Hi all!
I’m Doug in Starkville,Mississippi. Traveled the world playing music for years. In 2006 my wife and I moved here to help my aging parents and I got a real job teaching music.
I’ve done crosswords for years. All those years on the road...
New to this meta thing though.
Great seeing you all here!

Oh Good! Finally someone else in Mississippi. I live in Meridian. My husband is a professor at the Meridian branch of MSU and we both volunteer at the MSU Riley Center. If you ever come down for a performance there (or anything else in Meridian), please get in touch.

Hi!
We love the Riley Center. What a beautiful venue!
I’m originally from Columbus,MS and we have a family farm in Noxubee county,about an hour north of you.

Hi! I'm Tori in NYC. I have been a contest regular for about 2 years and finally decided to join the cruise. Someday I hope my WSJ mug will join my Jeopardy! water bottle in my kitchen trophy cabinet.

tori.l wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 12:35 pm Hi! I'm Tori in NYC. I have been a contest regular for about 2 years and finally decided to join the cruise. Someday I hope my WSJ mug will join my Jeopardy! water bottle in my kitchen trophy cabinet.

Welcome and good luck with the mug! I am going to reveal my ignorance... does the Jeopardy! water bottle mean you appeared on the show?

KayW wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 3:58 pm

tori.l wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 12:35 pm Hi! I'm Tori in NYC. I have been a contest regular for about 2 years and finally decided to join the cruise. Someday I hope my WSJ mug will join my Jeopardy! water bottle in my kitchen trophy cabinet.

Welcome and good luck with the mug! I am going to reveal my ignorance... does the Jeopardy! water bottle mean you appeared on the show?

Yes, that was what Tina Fey has called a "backdoor brag." Once the challenge of getting on Jeopardy had been met, however, I lost all interest in the show... I think that's when I started putting all of that trivia energy into crosswords!

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to be here!

Carolyn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 7:53 pm Hello! I'm Carolyn from Sacramento, a long time lurker and recent recipient of hints on a couple puzzles so I thought I should introduce myself. I'm a retired ICU nursing instructor, birder, recent crossword addict, French language student, mom of two grown kids, wife of retired doc and lover of travel. I do the WSJ, MGWCC and PGW each week with varying degrees of success. No mug yet, but maybe someday.....

Welcome! I am also a fairly new member of this site. Your profile sounds alot like mine. Retired ICU nurse (not instructor), birder, mom of two grown kids, lover of travel, hoping for a mug. No French lessons though!

LadyBird wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 12:54 pm

Carolyn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 7:53 pm Hello! I'm Carolyn from Sacramento, a long time lurker and recent recipient of hints on a couple puzzles so I thought I should introduce myself. I'm a retired ICU nursing instructor, birder, recent crossword addict, French language student, mom of two grown kids, wife of retired doc and lover of travel. I do the WSJ, MGWCC and PGW each week with varying degrees of success. No mug yet, but maybe someday.....

Welcome! I am also a fairly new member of this site. Your profile sounds alot like mine. Retired ICU nurse (not instructor), birder, mom of two grown kids, lover of travel, hoping for a mug. No French lessons though!

If Twilight Zone has taught us anything, it's that you two might be the same person. Has anyone ever gotten a photo of you two at the same time? Hmmm? Didn't think so. QED.

zacmoretz wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 10:43 am Hi folks. Figured it was the right thing to do to introduce myself since I have been lurking for awhile. I am an attorney in Charlotte North Carolina and I try to do the puzzle each weekend with my aunt Norma who is 85 and lives in Charleston South Carolina. We usually communicate back and forth via text throughout Friday and the weekend in trying to figure out the grid and the contest. We are far from puzzle people and usually don’t get the contest right, and are simply amazed at those of you who do. Once in a while we get lucky and that sure is a good feeling. But most importantly it is a great way for she and I to stay connected. Cheers to all and thank you to those who maintain the forum and those who post all the thoughtful commentary - especially the contest answer explanations which we typically need each week!

Welcome! I was born and raised in Charlotte, my parents were, too! (That's pretty rare). My family moved to the Winston-Salem area 14 years ago when my husband changed jobs. We love it here. Much better traffic situation than in the Queen City!

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 1:02 pm

LadyBird wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 12:54 pm

Carolyn wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 7:53 pm Hello! I'm Carolyn from Sacramento, a long time lurker and recent recipient of hints on a couple puzzles so I thought I should introduce myself. I'm a retired ICU nursing instructor, birder, recent crossword addict, French language student, mom of two grown kids, wife of retired doc and lover of travel. I do the WSJ, MGWCC and PGW each week with varying degrees of success. No mug yet, but maybe someday.....

Welcome! I am also a fairly new member of this site. Your profile sounds alot like mine. Retired ICU nurse (not instructor), birder, mom of two grown kids, lover of travel, hoping for a mug. No French lessons though!

If Twilight Zone has taught us anything, it's that you two might be the same person. Has anyone ever gotten a photo of you two at the same time? Hmmm? Didn't think so. QED.

Here we are--having a nice chat

Another pair of lurkers now joining the Muggles. Introducing ourselves as M and M, pretty much a classic Muggle pair, retired from cerebral occupations and happy with garden, grandchildren, traveling, and life in the Northeastern mountains.

We are also very happy to try this puzzle each week. We've been at them over a year and have lots of good luck in solving them - our skills are different so where one fails, the other can leap to the rescue. Overall, our record is good, though we have had some duds, such as Russian Doll. (Really? with clandestine anagrammed right into the word "self-contained"? A sad week for us - the first time that we actually submitted a wrong answer, as opposed to just giving up.) But we have loved getting some of the tricky ones, and that has restored our confidence enough to actually stop lurking and join the fun.

Isaac, it's a pleasure to meet you. And the beach looks mighty nice.

I am Larry from Wisconsin. I retired 1/1/20. I have been a crossword fan for a long time. The WSJ puzzles have been very helpful in getting me through the transition from my job, particularly during this pandemic situation. I think I am starting to understand how the Contest Crossword works, as well as this forum. Maybe as I get more comfortable with solving and using the forum I will even attempt to add an avatar!

lbray53 wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 1:52 pm I am Larry from Wisconsin. I retired 1/1/20. I have been a crossword fan for a long time. The WSJ puzzles have been very helpful in getting me through the transition from my job, particularly during this pandemic situation. I think I am starting to understand how the Contest Crossword works, as well as this forum. Maybe as I get more comfortable with solving and using the forum I will even attempt to add an avatar!

Congrats on your retirement... but you got gypped. Half the fun of being retired is being free to do what you want when everyone has to work. Okay, it's way more than half.

Hi all,
I'll likely be more of a lurker, especially as I have a strict first-in-first-out policy for my puzzle backlog. I've been solving NYT puzzles for 16 years and other sources for 3 now, and probably have about a 20% hit rate on metas. Currently based in North Carolina horse and golf country, but spent most of my 20s in Washington, DC. I manage a daily newsletter at https://crosswordlinks.substack.com/ that attempts to compile each day's crosswords and related puzzles for solvers, with an emphasis on independent constructors.