"Drawbacks" - October 2, 2020

[dudeski]

On shore. Double espresso me.
Tonight, I believe I’ll enjoy a nice Laphroaig 18.

[otlaolap]

As many are noting, this is a tougher grid than usual. For a long time I have had a rule when solving grids, here and elsewhere. I start by filling in a word somewhere selected after thought and mental presolving, and then require that every additional filled-in word be a complete word connected to an already-filled-in word. If, subsequently, I discover that I must change a word (not as rare an occurrence as I would wish), and that word was used as the original connection for another word added subsequently (i.e. it was the only link at the time the other word was added), then I have failed in my mission. On this grid I failed.

[Georgeall]

Staring... staring.... staring... bang! I'm ashore.

[Georgeall]

Staring... staring.... staring... bang! I'm ashore.

[JPMalone]

OOF THAT GRID! It hurt my head so much I had to sleep on the meta, but sure enough it showed up this morning.

[spotter]

On shore. Couldn't see anything yesterday, but this morning it came right to me. Agree the grid was tough, but I managed to solve it without google. The reason for the mechanism only made sense in hindsight.

[wordsmith]

TGIF everyone! I have an answer that seems really clever...but is someone available for a reality check before I begin my meta happy hour? Thanks!

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Safely ashore! Tough grid but Meta not so bad. Isaac, it's early so make mine an Irish Coffee!

[C=64]

🏖 The grid seemed easy enough; parsing the answer to 31D was the hardest part.

Did the grid Thursday night, got a snack at 4AM and thought "Hmm, it's a Shenk puzzle, I should look at [thing]," then got up at 8AM and looked at [thing] and knew I was close. I jumped off the boat and thrashed around in the water a little bit before sighting the beach and heading for shore.

[Bob cruise director]

Good Friday morning muggles. The constant flow of muggles to the shore does not represent those of us who are in the staring mode. And it is after the past couple of weeks when I thought I had this meta stuff down pat.

We have 4 on the ship and 49 on the shore.

Good luck to everyone.

[SewYoung]

On shore after a brief stumble. Tidy puzzle this week.

I'm still stumbling around in the dark. I keep bumping into things, but not the right things.

[Eric Porter]

I've spent quite a bit of time trying different things, but I'm still hanging out with Isaac.

I don't even see where to start.

[TPS]

parsing the answer to 31D was the hardest part.

It took me 3 letters but I got 31D on my own - now 31A - I cross solved to get that but still have zero idea what it means. I secretly wonder if that is the real hidden answer in this puzzle.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who explained 31A to me - I realized I had a typo in 5D which was a least part of the issue.

[SeanS]

Ashore. This one came to me quickly once I finished the grid.

Pennsylvanian Muggles- apparently our friends at Yuengling are bottling the "Hershey's Porter" that was available on draft only last year. Very excited for this, hope Isaac can get his hands on a few.

[Laura M]

Whatever it is that (most of) you saw, I'm just not seeing it. Hoping for post-enlightenment!

[Homer Buckle]

Solved the grid, now working on the meta with Isaac.

[PeterLeea1a]

Got to this one a bit late. Tough grid. Not sure how I feel about the meta, but it is a 100%er.

[Gman]

At sea.

Not sure where to start. It's early though.

[ADS]

Ashore. I know I am the latest of many to say this: tough grid, easy meta.

[Richard]

Count me as got the grid but can not see where to start the meta.

Maybe some more staring.

Richard