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.
edot wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 10:10 pm
On a side note, made some delicious homemade fried chicken this evening. Happy to 49 DOWN with anyone who wants some
As you can imagine, blood & blood products are in huge demand. Consider donating, please!
Our local hospitals have stopped drawing blood and the local organizations have minimized blood drives for now. When they open up again, I am sure they will welcome new blood.
That's amazing, Bob! The Red Cross & local organizations have been advertising non-stop the past several weeks. Please check with your local blood center or the Red Cross to see what their needs are.
I'm back on my two-week platelet donation schedule & the staff cannot be more grateful. Fortunately, donor centers have been packed as locals turn out in droves when asked. Perhaps your area has been extremely generous, too, and has filled current needs.
A new push is on for donors who have had COVID-19 and have recovered for Convalescent Plasma Therapy. Their plasma & antibodies are needed to treat new cases.
Some unofficial guidance on hints - which we call nudges
1) Make an attempt. Most won't give nudges until Saturday
2) Nudges are done in private messages. Usually asking for a nudge may be done here but you should get a private message from someone.
3) When you have made contact, explain all the paths you have taken (we call them rabbit holes). You may get responses that you are warm or not or general guidance.
4) Under Board Index/Come Aboard/FAQ Community - Solving Resources there are both suggestions for solving metas in general as well as all the past WSJ contests and their answers.
5) Most muggles who get more than a gentle nudge may claim that they are on shore (solved) although some also stay on the ship (counted as unsolved) but won't submit to the WSJ - however all this is a personal decision.
You might consider putting this up as a separate topic in the FAQ area. Or somewhere prominent. Good concise info all in one short post. All stuff I leaned as I slowly progressed. With new members coming on these days, it would be welcome.
New to the community here—just solved the grid and will work on the meta later, but I can’t make heads or tails of one of the Down clue/answer combos. Can someone explain over PM?
UPDATE: All good now. Thanks for the quick responses!
Last edited by WSJosh on Fri May 08, 2020 9:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Joe Ross wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 7:20 am
As you can imagine, blood & blood products are in huge demand. Consider donating, please!
Our local hospitals have stopped drawing blood and the local organizations have minimized blood drives for now. When they open up again, I am sure they will welcome new blood.
That's amazing, Bob! The Red Cross & local organizations have been advertising non-stop the past several weeks. Please check with your local blood center or the Red Cross to see what their needs are.
I'm back on my two-week platelet donation schedule & the staff cannot be more grateful. Fortunately, donor centers have been packed as locals turn out in droves when asked. Perhaps your area has been extremely generous, too, and has filled current needs.
A new push is on for donors who have had COVID-19 and have recovered for Convalescent Plasma Therapy. Their plasma & antibodies are needed to treat new cases.
I am sure that if I went into Boston the Red Cross center there is open but that is also Ground Zero around here. I checked with a couple of hospitals and they stopped because they don't want anyone there who does not have to be. And no one is running blood drives.
There have been questions on hints and nudges over the past month especially when we had two weeks of challenging metas. Following boharr's suggestion, I opened a topic in FAQ-Community where I posted my thoughts that I captured earlier. Please feel free to comment and add other's opinions on nudges.
maxdegeorge wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 3:08 am
I don't know of this is allowed, but is there any way to find hints? My grandpa used to do this all the time and I want to continue the family legacy but I am so lost on the big answer
max
Some unofficial guidance on hints - which we call nudges
1) Make an attempt. Most won't give nudges until Saturday
2) Nudges are done in private messages. Usually asking for a nudge may be done here but you should get a private message from someone.
3) When you have made contact, explain all the paths you have taken (we call them rabbit holes). You may get responses that you are warm or not or general guidance.
4) Under Board Index/Come Aboard/FAQ Community - Solving Resources there are both suggestions for solving metas in general as well as all the past WSJ contests and their answers.
5) Most muggles who get more than a gentle nudge may claim that they are on shore (solved) although some also stay on the ship (counted as unsolved) but won't submit to the WSJ - however all this is a personal decision.
Good luck
p.s. this appears to be a toughie so there are a lot who are on the ship
Joe Ross and steveb (thank you both!!) put in tons of work compiling and maintaining this most useful page. When I'm stuck - which I already am, hopelessly, this week - I scroll through that and focus on the puzzles by the constructor in question. It's interesting how each constructor's style becomes apparent when you skim dozens of their puzzles at once.
And I'll add my other perpetual (MONOTONOUS?) thanks to BrianMac for setting up and maintaing this forum and Bob Cruise Director for attempting to herd all us cats each week.
p.s. I add this caveat - as entertaining and informative as past puzzles are, they have not yet yielded this week's secret to me! Still LAS.
edot wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 10:10 pm
On a side note, made some delicious homemade fried chicken this evening. Happy to 49 DOWN with anyone who wants some
I'm heading to edot's to replenish (& to sneak a peak at the grid...)!
20200508 JR Hoxworth.gif
As you can imagine, blood & blood products are in huge demand. Consider donating, please!
Joe thank you so much for all your donations! I am sure homemade fried chicken would be a great replenisher. Sadly I have neither fried chicken nor peeks at meta solutions to 49 DOWN with anyone this week. Not even myself. LAS.
You’ll find me in the stern garden all day (weekend?). With a few side trips to see Isaac. Will worry about the 36A later.
Come on back and 18D!! (or a 57D )
My avatar this week is a tribute to the brave men and women who are fighting this virus at all levels and for the people who are volunteering at all levels and for those keeping the stores open. And thanks to the pilots of the F-15 Eagles who flew over hospitals throughout Massachusetts on Wednesday.
and a warm welcome to our newest muggle - WSJosh
Currently we have 10 on the ship and 22 on the shore - a far cry from the last couple of week.
Now I will go back to bashing my head against Maine Marge's garden at the back of the ship.
On shore. Definitely harder meta than last week and the answer was very satisfying. Oy, now I have to leave Gaffneyland and pick up all the tasks I’ve neglected. I’m already having puzzle withdrawal... Til next week dear muggles!
This has become my Thursday evening addiction on my tablet.
Puzzle done but meta elusive this week. Will continue to work on it but only from Friday’s paper. That way, if I get frustrated and throw it across the room, I don’t need to pick up any pieces.
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
The grid was thoroughly enjoyable, and if that's as far as I get this week, I'm still appreciative! I've printed the completed grid and the pdf file, and am headed off to tour the ship. I don't know when I'll have access to the internet again, but if I catch the rabbit, I'm packing a wrench to submit my answer by tapping on a pipe in Morse Code.
Joe Ross wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 7:20 am
As you can imagine, blood & blood products are in huge demand. Consider donating, please!
Our local hospitals have stopped drawing blood and the local organizations have minimized blood drives for now. When they open up again, I am sure they will welcome new blood.
That's amazing, Bob! The Red Cross & local organizations have been advertising non-stop the past several weeks. Please check with your local blood center or the Red Cross to see what their needs are.
I'm back on my two-week platelet donation schedule & the staff cannot be more grateful. Fortunately, donor centers have been packed as locals turn out in droves when asked. Perhaps your area has been extremely generous, too, and has filled current needs.
A new push is on for donors who have had COVID-19 and have recovered for Convalescent Plasma Therapy. Their plasma & antibodies are needed to treat new cases.
I am a pretty regular blood donor. Went to Nepal last Fall and was in a region that has not had malaria for years but the Red Cross wants me to wait a year before giving my O- CMV- blood.
I have been chasing rabbit holes all over this grid--I'm about ready to "go ask Alice". I'm going to treat this extended stay on the ship like a pelagic birding trip--maybe I can pick up a lifer or two while I'm strolling the deck. When I tire of that, I can head in for a drink and game of checkers with Isaac.
Last night, I dreamed that I solved the meta. Maybe I really did, but I can't remember the particulars of the dream.
LAS.
)
Will continue to work on it but only from Friday’s paper. That way, if I get frustrated and throw it across the room, I don’t need to pick up any pieces.
