"I Really Don't Need This!" - September 13, 2019

A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
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MikeMillerwsj
Posts: 286
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:46 pm

#241

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

This was a complicated puzzle! I'm biased of course but I thought it was breathtakingly ingenious: In a 15x15 grid, you have 10 theme words, in symmetrical pairs, all examples of things that clutter your house, all of which can make a new word with an inserted letter, and the letters spell out, in order, the queen of uncluttering. Whew.

We had a robust 1455 entries, and an impressive 93% correct. Only a few repeat wrong answers: Taylor Swift (7, no doubt alluding to her song "Blank Space," and Kevin Spacey (3). Also Diana Ross, Ashton Kutcher, Rachael Ray, Don Rickles, and lots of others.

And congrats to this week's winner, Frances Yang of San Francisco! (see victory lap above!)
GlennG
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Aug 08, 2019 12:48 am

#242

Post by GlennG »

Jim and Anita wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:26 am Like Brian Davidson, we found the lack of vertical integration troubling. In the end, while we were glad to solve the meta, we held it up and asked "does this give us joy?". . . hmmmm.
Definitely not, for me. Worst. Meta. Ever. And that's saying something.
31 Down
Posts: 130
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 1:16 pm

#243

Post by 31 Down »

I really didn't need this meta.

Never heard of her. While I was onto the mechanism, the 3 or 4 words where the blank could be filled with multiple letters threw me off since I had nothing to back-solve. Not a fave.
Thomas W (since there's already a Tom W)
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CPJohnson
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#244

Post by CPJohnson »

GlennG wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:40 pm
Jim and Anita wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:26 am Like Brian Davidson, we found the lack of vertical integration troubling. In the end, while we were glad to solve the meta, we held it up and asked "does this give us joy?". . . hmmmm.
Definitely not, for me. Worst. Meta. Ever. And that's saying something.
Any meta I solve gives me joy. :D
Cynthia
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Julie O
Posts: 102
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Location: Clarendon Hills, IL

#245

Post by Julie O »

HowardHuddleston wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:45 am It never occurred to me to leave the spaces blank and fill in new words without integrating them with the verticals. Instead, I doubled adjacent letters and tried to anagram the extraneous ones (quite a headache).
I had the same headache.
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Tom Shea
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:37 am
Location: Freedonia, NH/VT/HI/Earth

#246

Post by Tom Shea »

Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 8:25 am
CPJohnson wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:57 am
Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:08 am By the way, can someone explain to me what a "tidiness celebrity" is or does. Is it kind of like your mother yelling at you to clean up your room?
Marie has built an empire telling people how to declutter their living spaces.
My question is why you need someone to tell you how to clean up.
Industry calls it 5S. Been around for ages. Put things you need closer to you based on how often they are used or how important the purpose is, and discard useless things.

I highly recommend it for both tool sheds and kitchens.
Rufus T. Firefly
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Tom Shea
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#247

Post by Tom Shea »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:55 pm This was a complicated puzzle! I'm biased of course but I thought it was breathtakingly ingenious: In a 15x15 grid, you have 10 theme words, in symmetrical pairs, all examples of things that clutter your house, all of which can make a new word with an inserted letter, and the letters spell out, in order, the queen of uncluttering. Whew.

We had a robust 1455 entries, and an impressive 93% correct. Only a few repeat wrong answers: Taylor Swift (7, no doubt alluding to her song "Blank Space," and Kevin Spacey (3). Also Diana Ross, Ashton Kutcher, Rachael Ray, Don Rickles, and lots of others.

And congrats to this week's winner, Frances Yang of San Francisco! (see victory lap above!)
...and I thought that Taylor Swift could be easily replaced by a blank space.
Rufus T. Firefly
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BrianMac
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:45 pm
Location: Connecticut

#248

Post by BrianMac »

FrancesY wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:43 pm Omg. Slept in today and didn't realize all the controversy over this puzzle. Then checked my email and...wait for it...I won the mug! The only explanation I can think of for the multiple possible letters making new across words is, ala Marie Kondo, choose the one that "brings you joy."
Congrats!! Be sure to post in the Mug Winners thread when it comes!
JimmyJam
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 6:38 pm

#249

Post by JimmyJam »

gfindli wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:09 am
oldjudge wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:13 am The elegant solution I was looking for apparently does not exist. For some of the blanks there was only one choice. For others there were multiple choices. Getting the right answer was not difficult, but there should have been an elegant way of getting there. There should have been a reason contained in the puzzle that made you choose PAIN rather than PAWN, or TIME rather than TIDE or TILE. I think this was an unusually poor job by Matt.
Concur. Someone here suggested it was the first alphabetical letter of the choices. But what about the word PAAN instead of PAIN.

Normally it seems like the meta requires a system that maps to only one solution.
I’m right there with you both. I think this meta would benefit from some tidying up.
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ImOnToo
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#250

Post by ImOnToo »

Emmaa wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:22 am
ImOnToo wrote: Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:41 pm
ImOnToo wrote: Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:22 pm Oh, good grief. Post enlightenment strikes again.
I’ve been looking at this off and on since Thursday with nary a clue.
I posted that I was lost and, BAM! On shore!
🏖🍹
I’m also laughing at myself for all of the gymnastics I attempted for four days. 🙄
Do share!
One of the MANY rabbits I chased..
I found 10 “regular” grid answers with double letters. I thought the doubles might fit into the spaces that were giving me fits. Thought that maybe, in order of use, they might spell something.
Konnie
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mheberlingx100
Posts: 517
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#251

Post by mheberlingx100 »

FrancesY wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:43 pm Omg. Slept in today and didn't realize all the controversy over this puzzle. Then checked my email and...wait for it...I won the mug! The only explanation I can think of for the multiple possible letters making new across words is, ala Marie Kondo, choose the one that "brings you joy."
Awesome! Really cool that I could turn to my wife today and say “Your sister won the mug!”
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Bob cruise director
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#252

Post by Bob cruise director »

FrancesY wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:43 pm Omg. Slept in today and didn't realize all the controversy over this puzzle. Then checked my email and...wait for it...I won the mug! The only explanation I can think of for the multiple possible letters making new across words is, ala Marie Kondo, choose the one that "brings you joy."
Frances

Congratulations. Always great to have a muggle win the mug.
Bob Stevens
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pgw
Posts: 90
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:24 pm

#253

Post by pgw »

JimmyJam wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 8:35 pm
gfindli wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:09 am
oldjudge wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:13 am The elegant solution I was looking for apparently does not exist. For some of the blanks there was only one choice. For others there were multiple choices. Getting the right answer was not difficult, but there should have been an elegant way of getting there. There should have been a reason contained in the puzzle that made you choose PAIN rather than PAWN, or TIME rather than TIDE or TILE. I think this was an unusually poor job by Matt.
Concur. Someone here suggested it was the first alphabetical letter of the choices. But what about the word PAAN instead of PAIN.

Normally it seems like the meta requires a system that maps to only one solution.
I’m right there with you both. I think this meta would benefit from some tidying up.
To each their own; I thought this was an especially good meta from Matt, so much so that I wondered "why did Matt sell this gem to WSJ rather than run it on his own site?." The fact that some of the blanks could be filled in in more than one valid way meant you had to do a tiny bit of extra work to intuit which of several possibilities would lead to a solution to the larger metapuzzle - sort of like figuring out a troublesome spot in downs-only solving. To me, this aspect was a feature, not a bug.
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Al Sisti
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#254

Post by Al Sisti »

Yes ^^^
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