"2+2=5" - February 28, 2020

[Bob cruise director]

Our Friday report is a little early. We have 54 on the shore and 4 in the ship's bar plus innumerable others searching out the rabbit holes.

by the way, does anyone know if they still have Sadie Hawkins dances in high school? Do high schoolers even know about Sadie Hawkins

Bob,

Is that a Crossword Champion beer stein?

If it is, it is for Tim and not me

[steveb]

Done and done.

[femullen]

Ahoy, all you land crabs on the beach. I'm new here, newish to metas, and both amused and mystified by your idioms. I gather that being on the beach means you've solved the meta-puzzle; If you haven't solved it, you're at still aboard ship. I don't understand what's behind this imagery, but I assume it's not fond memories of Iwo Jima.

I generally solve the Friday puzzle, and I've solved exactly two metas in the several months I've been looking into this. Most Monday mornings I look at the solution and think, "That would never have occurred to me."

This week is typical: puzzle was straightforward, except I'd never heard of Audrey Tautou or her movie. Meta? Opaque. And I'm a mathematician. But then, early in life I was a sailor, so I feel right at home in the ship.

[lacangah]

On shore.

My algebra teacher had a phrase he used in 'math' class near the end of a test: "You have 5 minutes - take your time but hurry up." I've used this at work in slightly different contexts; I think there's a word bingo on me and that is one of the entries

Good luck to all,

[BrianMac]

Ahoy, all you land crabs on the beach. I'm new here, newish to metas, and both amused and mystified by your idioms. I gather that being on the beach means you've solved the meta-puzzle; If you haven't solved it, you're at still aboard ship. I don't understand what's behind this imagery, but I assume it's not fond memories of Iwo Jima.

Welcome, femullen!

Start here: FAQ - Community, and here: Muggle Overview.

Explore the forums and let us know if you have any questions.

[tbmet]

Where can I find answers to previous Friday contests?

[FISHMAGIK]

Crossword Finished....I cannot ever get these. UGH

[Guy]

ashore

[ALS]

Got the click on my second look. Ashore.

ALS

[gdshort]

On shore. Had a feeling that a maths degree would be superfluous with this one!'

[Bob cruise director]

Ahoy, all you land crabs on the beach. I'm new here, newish to metas, and both amused and mystified by your idioms. I gather that being on the beach means you've solved the meta-puzzle; If you haven't solved it, you're at still aboard ship. I don't understand what's behind this imagery, but I assume it's not fond memories of Iwo Jima.

I generally solve the Friday puzzle, and I've solved exactly two metas in the several months I've been looking into this. Most Monday mornings I look at the solution and think, "That would never have occurred to me."

This week is typical: puzzle was straightforward, except I'd never heard of Audrey Tautou or her movie. Meta? Opaque. And I'm a mathematician. But then, early in life I was a sailor, so I feel right at home in the ship.

Welcome to our strange little clan. The group has been growing for about 4 1/2 years and as a result we have developed some local lore. On the tab Come Aboard/FAQ-Community we have explained most of these as well as posted all the past contests and solutions.

Briefly as detailed in Muggle Overview under FAQ-community, when we started we were in the same boat that you were and Sally Schott started the Lost At Sea cruise for those of us who did not get the answer. What evolved was that if you did get the answer you were on the shore enjoying the Tiki Bar. Quickly what evolved was that those of us on the ship gravitated toward the ship's bar where the bartender quickly became Isaac from the TV show the Love Boat (hopefully you have heard of this show otherwise many of us will feel really, really old). Isaac's picture graces the top of our blog.

Also there are explainations of being Pageanted and the KAS scale. There are also some very good hints for solving the metas. If you get into these contests, there are other subscription contests that get talked about in "other Meta Crossword Puzzles" as well as other things in the various tabs.

If I missed anything or was not clear, please feel free to ask.

And welcome to the group.

[Joe Ross]

Where can I find answers to previous Friday contests?

Board Index < Come Aboard < FAQs - Community < Past WSJ Crossword Contests & Solutions

[Bob cruise director]

With a little assistance, well maybe more than a little, um to be frank a stiff shove in the right direction, I have made it to shore. Enough to make the weekend free and to make me improve the odds of others winning the mug by not sending in my answer.

[tim1217]

I seem to get the challenging metas fairly quickly and struggle over those that everyone says are easy. Taking a break and revisiting doesn't help. All I see are the same old rabbit holes. I'm most likely over-thinking it, but that has always been one of my strong suits. In the meantime...

...about an hour west of me there is an eagle's nest on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. The nest is in a tree on the property of the Arconic company. 11 years ago a pair of eagles (since name Liberty and Justice) built the nest and have fledged eaglets every year since. Arconic installed a live cam with an amazing view. I watched last year as Windy and Storm were hatched and raised. Unfortunately the Spring rains caused flooding that knocked out the cam, so we all missed the pair fledging. Liberty and Justice are currently mating and Liberty should be laying an egg or two very soon. Zoom in for a fantastic look. If you don't see them in the nest, check back. Before the eggs are laid, they spend time away from the nest hunting for food and gathering more materials for the nest.

https://www.arconic.com/eaglecam/

[howardl]

I'm on shore. I was ready to despair thinking that this was going to be one of those that is just too hard, when suddenly the meaning of the title hit me over the head, and I found one answer, then another, and I was on my way.

[DBMiller]

I seem to get the challenging metas fairly quickly and struggle over those that everyone says are easy. Taking a break and revisiting doesn't help. All I see are the same old rabbit holes. I'm most likely over-thinking it, but that has always been one of my strong suits. In the meantime...

...about an hour west of me there is an eagle's nest on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. The nest is in a tree on the property of the Arconic company. 11 years ago a pair of eagles (since name Liberty and Justice) built the nest and have fledged eaglets every year since. Arconic installed a live cam with an amazing view. I watched last year as Windy and Storm were hatched and raised. Unfortunately the Spring rains caused flooding that knocked out the cam, so we all missed the pair fledging. Liberty and Justice are currently mating and Liberty should be laying an egg or two very soon. Zoom in for a fantastic look. If you don't see them in the nest, check back. Before the eggs are laid, they spend time away from the nest hunting for food and gathering more materials for the nest.

https://www.arconic.com/eaglecam/

Cool. I was born and raised in the Quad Cities. Tried to go down to the river to photograph eagles the last time I was back home, but didn't have any luck.

[DBMiller]

Done and done. More like an "Oh, duh!" moment, than an "Aha!".

[Anita]

Got this one very quickly (grid only half-filled!) yesterday over lunch. I forgot to post then.

[juliet]

I was winding my way through the ship on my way to the bar, but made a wrong turn and ended up wandering around for quite a while before finally finding myself in line for the shore party! Now I'm in line at the tiki bar!

[Bob cruise director]

Where can I find answers to previous Friday contests?

You came to the right place. Thanks to Joe Ross, we have a library of all the previous contests and answers.

Go to Come Aboard/FAQs-community/Past WSJ Crossword Contests and Solutions.

and welcome to the group