XWord Muggles Forum

Hi everyone - my name is Kathy and I live in Orange County, CA. Started doing the WSJ crosswords a few weeks ago. Just solved my first meta today so I thought I'd make it official. I love all of the information I've gained from this forum for crossword solving and other topics as well (food and drink). I am married and the proud mom of 4 awesome grown-up kids who are all foodies with me! Cheers and Go Bears!

CopperRiver wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:15 pm Hi everyone - my name is Kathy and I live in Orange County, CA. Started doing the WSJ crosswords a few weeks ago. Just solved my first meta today so I thought I'd make it official. I love all of the information I've gained from this forum for crossword solving and other topics as well (food and drink). I am married and the proud mom of 4 awesome grown-up kids who are all foodies with me! Cheers and Go Bears!

Welcome! ...and you are talking about "Da Bears", right? Who else would someone in CA be rooting for?

CopperRiver wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:15 pm Hi everyone - my name is Kathy and I live in Orange County, CA. Started doing the WSJ crosswords a few weeks ago. Just solved my first meta today so I thought I'd make it official. I love all of the information I've gained from this forum for crossword solving and other topics as well (food and drink). I am married and the proud mom of 4 awesome grown-up kids who are all foodies with me! Cheers and Go Bears!

Hi Kathy and welcome to the group. Congratulations on your first solve. Make sure that you do two things 1) send an email to the WSJ at crosswordcontest.com with your contest answer in the title. You don't have to have anything in the body of the email. If you win you will get an email from the WSJ on Monday or Tuesday. 2) go over to the contest page on this blog - WSJ crossword puzzle contest/missing links and as a minimum post that you are on the shore. Normally I only look there to count the number on the ship or shore.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask either in a PM or if it is not a spoiler in the week's comments. As you have seen, the comments cover almost anything you can think of.

Congratulations on raising 4 kids. Two was enough for us.

Bob Stevens

Thanks Bob and congrats on your two "angels"!

Hello! The cruise director just nudged me on the weekly Zoom call to introduce myself. I am more of a lurker than a poster, but that may change. Here are my crossword credentials: Participated in the ACPT and Lollapalooza, guest blogged for Rex Parker, and attended the first (and I think only) cross-Atlantic New York Times Crossword Journey on the Queen Mary 2. I was introduced to the WSJ meta by a friend a couple years ago and I love it, as well as Matt Gaffney's. I've tried constructing puzzles and hope to get more serious about it now that I am semi-retired. I am also writing a mystery novel that includes a minor crossword plot point. Over the past 35 years I worked as a writing teacher, researcher, union organizer, civics educator, operations manager, and volunteer specialist. I live in Edmonds, WA, which is on Puget Sound north of Seattle, and within fleeing distance of the Canadian border. I look forward to spending more time with you all!

You guest-blogged for Rex Parker?? Wow! I’ve been getting so much pleasure from his kitten pics on Twitter. I don’t do the NYT puzzle anymore, but I often wonder how Will feels about Rex and his righteous quest for more diversity in the world of crossword constructors.

pamster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 9:09 pm Hello! The cruise director just nudged me on the weekly Zoom call to introduce myself. I am more of a lurker than a poster, but that may change. Here are my crossword credentials: Participated in the ACPT and Lollapalooza, guest blogged for Rex Parker, and attended the first (and I think only) cross-Atlantic New York Times Crossword Journey on the Queen Mary 2. I was introduced to the WSJ meta by a friend a couple years ago and I love it, as well as Matt Gaffney's. I've tried constructing puzzles and hope to get more serious about it now that I am semi-retired. I am also writing a mystery novel that includes a minor crossword plot point. Over the past 35 years I worked as a writing teacher, researcher, union organizer, civics educator, operations manager, and volunteer specialist. I live in Edmonds, WA, which is on Puget Sound north of Seattle, and within fleeing distance of the Canadian border. I look forward to spending more time with you all!

I read a crossword-themed mystery once where an antique weapon collector was killed, and the protagonist trapped the murderer by having a room full of suspects solve a crossword puzzle he had constructed (which the reader had to do too). When I whipped through the grid, I got absolutely flummoxed in the whole southwest corner... talk about Naticks! (and speaking of Rex Parker). Anyway, the SW corner was *all* about antique weapons, and the only one who correctly filled it out was the only one who knew all about those references..."jambiya"... "kukri"..."katana," etc.... and hence the murderer.

Hello I'm Michael, living in Boston. My solving diet is currently 100% variety puzzles and cryptics, and I just started writing small cryptic variety puzzles with metas. Happy to learn more.

mokelfish wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:18 pm Hello I'm Michael, living in Boston. My solving diet is currently 100% variety puzzles and cryptics, and I just started writing small cryptic variety puzzles with metas. Happy to learn more.

Oooh, that sounds like fun! I know I've seen you on the Next Door Comics stream. Welcome!

mokelfish wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:18 pm Hello I'm Michael, living in Boston. My solving diet is currently 100% variety puzzles and cryptics, and I just started writing small cryptic variety puzzles with metas. Happy to learn more.

Welcome to the muggles. There are a lot of us from the Boston area here.

pamster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 9:09 pm Hello! The cruise director just nudged me on the weekly Zoom call to introduce myself. I am more of a lurker than a poster, but that may change. Here are my crossword credentials: Participated in the ACPT and Lollapalooza, guest blogged for Rex Parker, and attended the first (and I think only) cross-Atlantic New York Times Crossword Journey on the Queen Mary 2. I was introduced to the WSJ meta by a friend a couple years ago and I love it, as well as Matt Gaffney's. I've tried constructing puzzles and hope to get more serious about it now that I am semi-retired. I am also writing a mystery novel that includes a minor crossword plot point. Over the past 35 years I worked as a writing teacher, researcher, union organizer, civics educator, operations manager, and volunteer specialist. I live in Edmonds, WA, which is on Puget Sound north of Seattle, and within fleeing distance of the Canadian border. I look forward to spending more time with you all!

Great to have you. We love both lurkers and commenters.

My brother lives in the San Juan Islands for 10 years in the 70's and 80's. It is beautiful there.

Hi Matt here. Just started "doing" metas after joining MGCC, but seem to have a hard time remembering my thought process between finishing the puzzle to reading the answer. Just discovered WSJ has a meta contest and thought I'd try, hoping that I can get faster feedback between being lost and seeing an answer. Only been doing crossword puzzles a few years now.

flamingbear wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:34 pm Hi Matt here. Just started "doing" metas after joining MGCC, but seem to have a hard time remembering my thought process between finishing the puzzle to reading the answer. Just discovered WSJ has a meta contest and thought I'd try, hoping that I can get faster feedback between being lost and seeing an answer. Only been doing crossword puzzles a few years now.

Welcome, Matt!

Hi, my name is Rick. I was born and raised in central Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State back in the 80's. Following grad school at UMass Amherst, I've been living in Nahant, Massachusetts for the past 30+ years. I recently retired from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where I worked as a Systems Analyst and Project Manager for the Department of Fish & Game.

I own a boat - a 26' Seaswirl Striper WA - and I fish both recreationally and commercially for striped bass and bluefish in and around Boston Harbor. The fishbones avatar that I use is also my boat logo. The letters "WI-FI" stand for "Wicked Fishah!" - my boat name. I'm thinking about getting a Captain's license someday and possibly running small fishing charters.

I've been doing crosswords for several years now, and I used to construct them for our (now defunct) town newsletter - "Nahant Harbor Review". The meta puzzles take crosswords to a whole new level, and I've recently begun to try my hand at constructing them. We'll see how that goes!

Greetings to all,

My name is Diane and I'm from Meridian, Mississippi. I began the WSL crosswords awhile ago thanks to Lisa. She printed copies and brought them to our book club meeting at her lake house. I'm a retired teacher, current gardener, and constant reader (especially Anthony Trollope). I really enjoyed meeting all of you at the Muggles group tonight. My internet is unstable so often that I don't know how much I will contribute, but I do love to listen. Thanks for making me feel welcome.

Diane Reynolds

Diane wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:49 pm Greetings to all,

My name is Diane and I'm from Meridian, Mississippi. I began the WSL crosswords awhile ago thanks to Lisa. She printed copies and brought them to our book club meeting at her lake house. I'm a retired teacher, current gardener, and constant reader (especially Anthony Trollope). I really enjoyed meeting all of you at the Muggles group tonight. My internet is unstable so often that I don't know how much I will contribute, but I do love to listen. Thanks for making me feel welcome.

Diane Reynolds

Welcome. The Small House at Allington is what got me hooked years ago.

Diane wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:49 pm Greetings to all,

My name is Diane and I'm from Meridian, Mississippi. I began the WSL crosswords awhile ago thanks to Lisa. She printed copies and brought them to our book club meeting at her lake house. I'm a retired teacher, current gardener, and constant reader (especially Anthony Trollope). I really enjoyed meeting all of you at the Muggles group tonight. My internet is unstable so often that I don't know how much I will contribute, but I do love to listen. Thanks for making me feel welcome.

Diane Reynolds

Great to meet you last night and welcome to the clan. Keep an eye on SewYoung for us.

Hi all,

I've been hovering around this forum for a couple weeks now, but just saw this board today. My name is Eric and I live in Washington, DC. I started doing the NYT crosswords around the middle of last year, and when quarantine forced us all home in March I started doing them every day and started (still do) really looking forward to 10pm each night when the new one comes out. I stumbled across the existence of meta puzzles around 3 weeks ago and am hooked already. Subscribed to Matt Gaffney's weekly puzzle, and was already subscribed to WSJ.

One question I have so far - is there any method to the weekly difficulty of the WSJ puzzle (similar to how Matt Gaffney's puzzle ramps up each week during the month)?

cherikee wrote: ↑Thu Aug 06, 2020 3:01 pm Hi all,

I've been hovering around this forum for a couple weeks now, but just saw this board today. My name is Eric and I live in Washington, DC. I started doing the NYT crosswords around the middle of last year, and when quarantine forced us all home in March I started doing them every day and started (still do) really looking forward to 10pm each night when the new one comes out. I stumbled across the existence of meta puzzles around 3 weeks ago and am hooked already. Subscribed to Matt Gaffney's weekly puzzle, and was already subscribed to WSJ.

One question I have so far - is there any method to the weekly difficulty of the WSJ puzzle (similar to how Matt Gaffney's puzzle ramps up each week during the month)?

Welcome! I'm a Virginian, so almost a neighbor.

The WSJ difficulties are random.

Hi, my name is Grover and I have been doing the WSJ Friday Crossword for about four months. I am finding them very entertaining - maddening even when the answer doesn't find me. I've managed to solve six of the last eight, but Color Code and Rename That Tune really blew me away. As others have noted, experience does help and I am gaining more confidence each week.