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Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:28 pm
by DaveWa
Al Sisti wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:58 am
oldjudge wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:50 am
Al Sisti wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:35 am
Well I did it to myself again. I was in such a hurry to get on the shore, I stopped when I found GRILLED CHEESE. My streak, which went back to Dec 2017 (you remember that one, right? A little thing called PAGEANT?) is over. Serves me right. Ah well, Thursday is another day.
Not to worry, you will still be a first round pick in the meta draft.
Well, there's that... Actually I'm taking this better than the old me would have (back when the Cowboys used to lose only a couple games a year, no one could talk to me for days after a loss. In the past few years, that would have amounted to a lot of "silence"). The only thing that would be a bummer would be if this is the week that mine is the first entry they pull.
You raise an interesting question. Would Mike notify you if indeed your entry was the first to be pulled but since you didn't have the correct answer they had to pull another one? That seems like a bit of rubbing salt in the wound but I think I'd like to know if I were in that position (I think!!).
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:31 pm
by Wendy Walker
Hey Flying Moose -- any chance you went to a certain wilderness camp by that name in Maine? If so I'll bet we have some friends in common.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:47 pm
by MikeMillerwsj
Greetings from a very rainy blustery east-coast puzzle headquarters today.
Lots of entries this week and lots of near-misses. We had 1728 submissions, about 70% correct. 139 of you came close with HAM AND CHEESE, plus another 44 for HAM AND EGG, 21 for HAM, and 6 for HAM ON RYE. Plus OREO (8), CUBAN (3), and a larder full of others.
Congrats to this week's winner: Jarrod Van Hoogstraten of Gonzales, La.
Thanks as always to Robert, Barbara, Wendy and the other super-helpful folks who swoop in with answers on this site and wsj.com/puzzles.
Stay safe and dry, solvers!
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:06 pm
by MajordomoTom
I was trying to figure out a HAM and BEEF sandwich that would fit the theme.
My wife then asked why he used what he did for the clue in 40A ... and that helped us find AGRA and then the rest of the answer.
no eggs included.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:13 pm
by Bob cruise director
MajordomoTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:06 pm
I was trying to figure out a HAM and BEEF sandwich that would fit the theme.
My wife then asked why he used what he did for the clue in 40A ... and that helped us find AGRA and then the rest of the answer.
no eggs included.
Also for new muggles, if a clue looks wordy or oddly worded, look closely. Most times the clue is something about the location of the Taj Mahal for Agra
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:14 pm
by Bob cruise director
DaveWa wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:28 pm
Al Sisti wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 1:58 am
oldjudge wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:50 am
Not to worry, you will still be a first round pick in the meta draft.
Well, there's that... Actually I'm taking this better than the old me would have (back when the Cowboys used to lose only a couple games a year, no one could talk to me for days after a loss. In the past few years, that would have amounted to a lot of "silence"). The only thing that would be a bummer would be if this is the week that mine is the first entry they pull.
You raise an interesting question. Would Mike notify you if indeed your entry was the first to be pulled but since you didn't have the correct answer they had to pull another one? That seems like a bit of rubbing salt in the wound but I think I'd like to know if I were in that position (I think!!).
I believe that the answer is NO. They just pull another one until they get the right answer.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:35 pm
by TPS
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:14 pm
I believe that the answer is NO. They just pull another one until they get the right answer.
I'm new here so they may have said other wise but my guess is that there is no "pulling" involved. Since they have an online submission portal it is probably integrated into a database/spreadsheet that just sorts the answers and picks a random correct one and then sorts all the answers into categories that they can review. If they aren't doing it that way that's a lot of wasted time and effort.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:51 pm
by Gman
I saw Chi and Rho (early references to Christ), which coupled with Ham, Egg and that this weekend was Easter Weekend, I answered Monte Cristo
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:26 pm
by Bob cruise director
TPS wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:35 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:14 pm
I believe that the answer is NO. They just pull another one until they get the right answer.
I'm new here so they may have said other wise but my guess is that there is no "pulling" involved. Since they have an online submission portal it is probably integrated into a database/spreadsheet that just sorts the answers and picks a random correct one and then sorts all the answers into categories that they can review. If they aren't doing it that way that's a lot of wasted time and effort.
We asked before thinking it was something like you said but it is not as automated as you would think.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:39 pm
by Homer Buckle
I was stuck down some rabbit holes with this puzzle until I went on a walk. My subconscious kept playing Simon and Garfunkel's song "Bookends." When I got home, I saw it right away! Gotta listen to the subconscious!
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:35 pm
by Schmeel
Toby wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:01 am
I've enjoyed this discussion of what to call the ends of a loaf of bread. In Hebrew, one word is "neshika" which means "kiss" and probably refers to the fact that the ends of old fashioned bread loaves get stuck together while baking. It brought back long-ago memories of the unsliced Jewish rye bread we ate as children. It would have a small black and red label (I think it was a union label) pasted right on the crust, like a postage stamp, that was hard to remove. My grandmother told us children it would make us smart if we ate the label, and so we did. I think she was the smart one.
BrianMac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:00 pm
DBMiller wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 2:25 pm
Crusts, but heard of heels. Wife is Canadian and calls them croûtes, which translates to crusts.
My wife turned me onto the Yiddish term "krycek" (not sure of the spelling; pronounced "cry-check"), which I have adopted. It struck me as funny because there was an X-Files character with that name and he was a bit of a "heel." I've always wondered if that was the inspiration for his name, but have never been able to confirm it.
I've heard the term "leshika" (with an l, not an n) used in Hebrew in addition to "neshika". The Hebrew Academy's website says the source for that term is unknown, but it may stem from the Polish "calusek" which according to the website also means kiss and is used colloquially in Polish to refer to the ends of a loaf of bread.
And in Yiddish it sounds about right - I've seen "okraytshik" used for the end of a loaf.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:51 pm
by CPJohnson
BethA wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:57 am
In my earlier meta days, I would get frustrated trying to use ALL of the puzzle title, when sometimes only part of it is significant. So this time, I just used the BETWEEN as important and ignored the MEALS.
I agree....sometimes only part of the title applies.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:00 pm
by Guy
My first attempt was at "rarebit" but only through a very convoluted, missing steps, etc. process, then I "sliced" the letters of 49A "CE" and "SOF" and out popped "REU" then by resorting to the aforementioned convoluted, missing steps process got a "B-E-N", and settled for Reuben....one of the meta-solving rules which my misses prove out, but I continue to fail to grasp during the hunt, it's almost always a 10O% with well-defined logical steps.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:54 pm
by BarbaraK
damefox wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 8:58 pm
LesY wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 8:42 pm
damefox wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:42 pm
Ashore! Also hungry.
Damefox, I just received your Inkubator crossword - congratulations! Can’t wait to solve it!
Thank you!! Hope you like it!
I signed up for the trial subscription so I could do your puzzle. Loved it!!
I raised an eyebrow at the intro in the email where it said you "eventually hope to construct meta crosswords". Don't they know about your science center metas??
Please keep letting us know when you have puzzles available.
And I hope any other muggle constructors will also point us at any published puzzles you have and take up Brian's offer to post here anything you have that's not going to the public at large.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:34 pm
by eagle1279
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:26 pm
TPS wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:35 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:14 pm
I believe that the answer is NO. They just pull another one until they get the right answer.
I'm new here so they may have said other wise but my guess is that there is no "pulling" involved. Since they have an online submission portal it is probably integrated into a database/spreadsheet that just sorts the answers and picks a random correct one and then sorts all the answers into categories that they can review. If they aren't doing it that way that's a lot of wasted time and effort.
We asked before thinking it was something like you said but it is not as automated as you would think.
I hope it's not a database from the online submission portal, because I submit my answers via email. Maybe that's why The Mug has evaded me!!
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:25 pm
by MajordomoTom
It's been implied (tried to find the post(s) which did the implying, not successful) that the process is:
1. pull an email at random from all submissions (no details on how a random email is selected)
2. check to see if the answer is a match. If yes, done.
3. if not, repeat steps 1 & 2.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:50 pm
by SewYoung
MajordomoTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:25 pm
It's been implied (tried to find the post(s) which did the implying, not successful) that the process is:
1. pull an email at random from all submissions (no details on how a random email is selected)
2. check to see if the answer is a match. If yes, done.
3. if not, repeat steps 1 & 2.
In a comment by Mike Miller on the Puzzle page of the WSJ website very soon after the meta puzzles started, this was his description of the process. Don't know that I could ever find it again, but someone in the comments asked how it was handled and that was Mike Miller's response.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:04 am
by Bob cruise director
eagle1279 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:34 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:26 pm
TPS wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:35 pm
I'm new here so they may have said other wise but my guess is that there is no "pulling" involved. Since they have an online submission portal it is probably integrated into a database/spreadsheet that just sorts the answers and picks a random correct one and then sorts all the answers into categories that they can review. If they aren't doing it that way that's a lot of wasted time and effort.
We asked before thinking it was something like you said but it is not as automated as you would think.
I hope it's not a database from the online submission portal, because I submit my answers via email. Maybe that's why The Mug has evaded me!!
I think that there is a lot of manual processing merging those who submit on line vs email.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:27 am
by damefox
eagle1279 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:34 pm
I hope it's not a database from the online submission portal, because I submit my answers via email. Maybe that's why The Mug has evaded me!!
I often wonder if the WSJ has even gotten my submission. I used to submit via the online form, but then I switched to email because I convinced myself the online form wasn't submitting my answer at all. Even just an automated confirmation message from the WSJ that your response was received would be nice.
Re: "Between Meals" - April 10, 2020
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 11:15 am
by Joe Ross
damefox wrote: ↑Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:27 am
eagle1279 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:34 pm
I hope it's not a database from the online submission portal, because I submit my answers via email. Maybe that's why The Mug has evaded me!!
I often wonder if the WSJ has even gotten my submission. I used to submit via the online form, but then I switched to email because I convinced myself the online form wasn't submitting my answer at all. Even just an automated confirmation message from the WSJ that your response was received would be nice.
I agree about a confirmation being nice. I email & copy myself, if only to assure myself that I have entered.
I do remember WSJ staff discussing the online form versus email. There is no difference, since the online form generates an email to the same account,
crosswordcontest@wsj.com