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Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:47 am
by tim1217
I got SOAP right away and figured (right away) that the only logical 10-letter entertainment category had to be SOAP OPERAS, without even realizing that it also fit the same mechanism. And that’s my ‘unsatisfying’ issue with this meta. After finding SOAP, you could actually get the answer without any further work. At least in WONDER TWINS you had to work to find a cartoon duo that fit the answer into the same mechanism.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:01 am
by Bird Lives
DrTom wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:52 am
Joe Ross wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:28 am
BarbaraK wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:54 pm I don’t love the title, but I can’t think of a better one.
GRID REGIRD ?

GRAD REGARD ?

Let's try to pry another mug out of Matt & Mike by offering a better puzzle title. :D
Well one that would have helped would have been TUNA NATURE because that at least would have given me the ER for OPERAS!

OLTL TOLLED

DOOL NOODLE

ATWT WATTLE

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:04 am
by steveb
After I found SOAP, I interpreted HALF in 1A to perhaps be a hint that we would get only half the answer directly and need to infer the rest. So I submitted SOAP OPERAS and mostly stopped looking for letters that would confirm OPERAS. I say "mostly" because after some people implied that they had found confirmation for the second half, I looked for that a little while longer. Maybe the confirmation was just the realization that SOAP OPERAS follows the 4, 4+2 pattern of the theme answers and the title.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:17 am
by Colin
Well, I guess “ER” is a SOAP OPERA. Maybe that’s it?

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:55 am
by Obie J
Just out of curiosity I wrote a little program to scan a small lexicon for words matching the 4-6 pattern with soap. Here is the result:

soap adopts
soap aprons
soap operas
soap parson
soap pastor
soap pathos
soap pianos
soap postal
soap potash
soap soaped
soap sophia
soap vapors

So I think "soap operas" is a pretty safe bet.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:17 am
by ErikThor
A couple things that I'm not sure have been mentioned yet: Once I had the word SOAP, I looked back to the title. I immediately thought of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle operas which set me on a quest looking for operas hidden in the grid. No joy. Well, a quick Google search of "Soap opera character XXXXX" while tossing in the names Steph, Mona, Adam, and Ethel hit paydirt.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:40 am
by matthewmoravec
I really wanted to announce I had a shoe ashore!

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:40 am
by Geoduck
I'm still unclear on how some people got part 2 but not part 1.

How did people get OPERAS out of the puzzle?

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:57 am
by Meg
It’s not an uncommon strategy to apply a technique several times to entries in the grid, and then apply it one more time to get the meta. I remembered this after I removed the romaine from my face.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:44 am
by eagle1279
I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to anagram FERKNSNAAN to a form of entertainment before I found the path to SOAP. :lol:

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:09 am
by MajordomoTom
Other possible titles which will produce the needed/desired "ER":

MATT MATTER

or

GAFF GAFFER

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:10 am
by Bird Lives
What's general sentiment here on clues that are deceptive at first-- e.g., 48D, 43A, 46A? I see them as providing the pleasure of mini AHA moments.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:13 am
by MajordomoTom
on that, I spent a TON of time staring at 40A, the presence of the K and R made me crazy to try to unpack something from the rest of the letters. Plus it's so unusual a grid entry that ... IT HAD TO MEAN SOMETHING.

Or not.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:14 am
by MajordomoTom
MajordomoTom wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:39 pm If I'd not been "spelling challenged" (more later on that), I'd have had this either Thursday night or Friday morning.

But ... I fixed that and it fixed my answer.

I do like Matt Smith ...
remember ... FEZZES are cool.

I was expecting to be slapped down for this posting.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:37 am
by Dennis
I think I am happy I did not spend a whole lot of weekend time on the second and third steps!

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:45 am
by MajordomoTom
SHAM REHASH
THAT THREAT

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:30 pm
by OGuyDave
Try as hard as I could, I just wasn't able to get STRIPTEASE to work as a solution.

But TFTXWD anyway.

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:46 pm
by MarkL
OGuyDave wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:30 pm Try as hard as I could, I just wasn't able to get STRIPTEASE to work as a solution.

But TFTXWD anyway.
Nor COW TIPPING

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:15 pm
by maprasad
Perhaps the AN from "Grid Daring" and the ER from "Soap Operas" are ANswER? :)

Re: "Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:24 pm
by howardl
Replying to Eagle who spent time "trying to anagram FERKNSNAAN". I have a rule in solving these (attempting to solve): if there is an anagram necessary to the answer it is very short and obvious, so looking for anagrams to a 10 letter sequence means you are barking up the wrong rabbit hole.