XWord Muggles Forum

Posted: **Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:02 pm**

Good evening friends! I am Matt, originally from Philadelphia but living in Massachusetts now. I am 29 and work in marketing at MIT. I am relatively new to the WSJ Crossword Contest -- I've done the NYT (especially Sunday) for a while now, but am new to the meta-solving scene. I find it to be such an interesting and clever way to look at crosswords (which I already love

). Happy to be a part of the crew here!

Posted: **Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:35 pm**

Hi all, I’m new to crosswords though have always enjoyed word puzzles and brain teasers of all descriptions. My husband and I are taking a year off, which unfortunately coincided with COVID, quashing travel plans. So that means languorous mornings thoroughly digesting the paper and tackling the crossword together.

While we can generally complete the crossword itself, I’m really struggling to wrap my brain around the Friday puzzle. Hoping to see some patterns or general rules appear about where to start. Any suggestions for newbies? Are there common terms that point you in a certain direction?

Looking forward to honing this skill, exercising my brain and learning from the community.

Cheers!
Kerri

Posted: **Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:51 pm**

Bellinghamster wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:35 pm Hi all, I’m new to crosswords though have always enjoyed word puzzles and brain teasers of all descriptions. My husband and I are taking a year off, which unfortunately coincided with COVID, quashing travel plans. So that means languorous mornings thoroughly digesting the paper and tackling the crossword together.

While we can generally complete the crossword itself, I’m really struggling to wrap my brain around the Friday puzzle. Hoping to see some patterns or general rules appear about where to start. Any suggestions for newbies? Are there common terms that point you in a certain direction?

Looking forward to honing this skill, exercising my brain and learning from the community.

Cheers!
Kerri

Hi Kerri, and welcome aboard.

I’m new to this also and have found great tips for solving in the FAQs - Community / Solving Resources section that comes immediately below this one. It really helps to get a feel for how these meta puzzles work. There are also links to past meta puzzles and answers. Trying to solve them is useful practice.

Posted: **Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:11 pm**

Bellinghamster wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:35 pm Hi all, I’m new to crosswords though have always enjoyed word puzzles and brain teasers of all descriptions. My husband and I are taking a year off, which unfortunately coincided with COVID, quashing travel plans. So that means languorous mornings thoroughly digesting the paper and tackling the crossword together.

While we can generally complete the crossword itself, I’m really struggling to wrap my brain around the Friday puzzle. Hoping to see some patterns or general rules appear about where to start. Any suggestions for newbies? Are there common terms that point you in a certain direction?

Looking forward to honing this skill, exercising my brain and learning from the community.

Cheers!
Kerri

Welcome and it you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Which Bellingham are you in?

Posted: **Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:54 pm**

Thanks for the welcome and tips! I'll check out the resource section. Practice puzzles sound like a great approach.

I'm in the beautiful Pacific Northwest--Bellingham, Washington.

Posted: **Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:20 pm**

Hello, I'm Jack! I'm from New Jersey. I'd been solving for a year or so, but fell off recently. I was a lurker of the comments back on the WSJ site (often in hope of inspiration), and was so fascinated by the language of the group that I actually wrote a paper about the muggles for a social media class haha. Anyway, I'm trying to get back into solving the metas and have been struggling, half due to rust and half due to not doing them with a partner anymore, so hoping finally joining in the community for real (and not just watching from afar) will help!

Posted: **Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:31 am**

JMac wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:20 pm Hello, I'm Jack! I'm from New Jersey. I'd been solving for a year or so, but fell off recently. I was a lurker of the comments back on the WSJ site (often in hope of inspiration), and was so fascinated by the language of the group that I actually wrote a paper about the muggles for a social media class haha. Anyway, I'm trying to get back into solving the metas and have been struggling, half due to rust and half due to not doing them with a partner anymore, so hoping finally joining in the community for real (and not just watching from afar) will help!

Uh, yeah, so, we're just, uh, going to, um, have to, er, go ahead and, uh, insist that you, um, post that paper...

(Welcome!)

Posted: **Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:08 pm**

I joined a little while ago (how long ago? I couldn't say... life post-covid has been a time warp) but never properly introduced myself! I'm Alana and I live in Oregon. I'm new to meta puzzles and started doing the one in the WSJ around March or April of this year. Now I'm hooked and normal crossword puzzles kind of bore me. Is this a common side-effect of meta puzzles?:)

Posted: **Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:24 pm**

Gpiggies wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:08 pm I joined a little while ago (how long ago? I couldn't say... life post-covid has been a time warp) but never properly introduced myself! I'm Alana and I live in Oregon. I'm new to meta puzzles and started doing the one in the WSJ around March or April of this year. Now I'm hooked and normal crossword puzzles kind of bore me. Is this a common side-effect of meta puzzles?

Yeah I think it kind of is. However, as I always say, any puzzle is better than no puzzle at all, but some puzzles are better than others.
If you haven't gotten into cryptics, you must try those. They are VERY addictive.

Posted: **Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:08 pm**

Hi all,

Just found this forum and joined up for the Friday WSJ puzzle banter. I am a semi-retired banker in North Carolina. Excited to be part of the fun!

Posted: **Sat Sep 05, 2020 9:01 pm**

Hi, I'm Naresh Kumar. I'm semi-retired and live in New York City.I've been doing crossword puzzles for 50 years, off and on.

Posted: **Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:30 am**

Hi everyone, not sure how I hadn't heard of this forum until now! I am a crossword solver and constructor, with most of my puzzles published in the NYT so far. I live in NYC and have been working in financial compliance for the past several years (though I'm open to new paths!). Looking forward to meeting people here

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2020 2:16 pm**

daniraymon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:30 am Hi everyone, not sure how I hadn't heard of this forum until now! I am a crossword solver and constructor, with most of my puzzles published in the NYT so far. I live in NYC and have been working in financial compliance for the past several years (though I'm open to new paths!). Looking forward to meeting people here

And we are thrilled to have you. Most of the discussions related to the WSJ meta contest on Friday (comes out on line Thursday just after 4 pm on wsj.com) with our success failures and random other thoughts. There also is discussions on many other metas on the other links in the blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Bob

Posted: **Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:52 am**

Good morning all. My name is Randy and I am a retired Fortran compiler optimizer. Now I putter.

Posted: **Fri Sep 18, 2020 7:48 pm**

otlaolap wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:52 am Good morning all. My name is Randy and I am a retired Fortran compiler optimizer. Now I putter.

I took a Fortran class in college in 1991. This makes me feel both very young and very old.

Posted: **Fri Sep 18, 2020 8:17 pm**

C=64 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 7:48 pm
otlaolap wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:52 am Good morning all. My name is Randy and I am a retired Fortran compiler optimizer. Now I putter.
I took a Fortran class in college in 1991. This makes me feel both very young and very old.

I took a Fortran class in college in 1975. Is it still used?

Posted: **Sat Sep 19, 2020 9:59 am**

Rookie here finally solved first meta (with help from a friend)... now I’m hooked!
- Robert (aka Fishoutowater)

Posted: **Sat Sep 19, 2020 10:10 am**

Fishoutowater wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 9:59 am Rookie here finally solved first meta (with help from a friend)... now I’m hooked!
- Robert (aka Fishoutowater)

You really have no idea how hooked you are! It is a fabulous addiction.

Posted: **Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:02 am**

C=64 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 7:48 pm
otlaolap wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:52 am Good morning all. My name is Randy and I am a retired Fortran compiler optimizer. Now I putter.
I took a Fortran class in college in 1991. This makes me feel both very young and very old.

You are still very young. I haven't seen Fortran since high school in 1973.

Posted: **Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:11 pm**

Fortran in high school in late 70s, then variations in college into 80's. Remember almost none of it, except those damned punch cards & the IT majors, with boxes & linear yards of them, stacked, taking priority over my measly dozens of single cards, trying to get through a mandatory intro class, or two.

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