XWord Muggles Forum

🏝 I got my money’s worth.

SeanS wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:12 pm Ashore! That one took me longer than I'd like to admit. I'll take beer: multiple, cold, and domestic.

My twins turn 5 tomorrow so I'm smoking a brisket overnight tonight to celebrate...supposed to get down to 36 degrees here overnight, so wish me luck!

My twins are 31 (boys). Enjoy them at this age!

hcbirker wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:24 pm

SeanS wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:12 pm Ashore! That one took me longer than I'd like to admit. I'll take beer: multiple, cold, and domestic.

My twins turn 5 tomorrow so I'm smoking a brisket overnight tonight to celebrate...supposed to get down to 36 degrees here overnight, so wish me luck!

My twins are 31 (boys). Enjoy them at this age!

My twins are 26 (boys). Enjoy them at this age!

LizD wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:09 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2020 10:17 pm

LizD wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:04 pm I'm back at it after a long hiatus, and rewarded with a fun trip to shore! Cheers!

I finally found you - welcome back - we missed you

Hi Bob! Were you looking for me?!

As we have migrated from the WSJ comments to this blog, I have tried to associate the muggle's blog names with their WSJ comment's name so I don't double count our clan size. When you made the comment that you had not been here in a while, I knew I recognized the name so I searched on my excel file. Am I correct in that your husband's name is Bill and it looks like a Dutch name?

hcbirker wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:24 pm

SeanS wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:12 pm Ashore! That one took me longer than I'd like to admit. I'll take beer: multiple, cold, and domestic.

My twins turn 5 tomorrow so I'm smoking a brisket overnight tonight to celebrate...supposed to get down to 36 degrees here overnight, so wish me luck!

My twins are 31 (boys). Enjoy them at this age!

Before we were married, my now wife wanted to know if there were twins in my family. I think that was one of the hurdles I have to pass. The answer was that there were not. There are now as my nephew has four year old twins.

Ashore!

I wish we could get better at this - perhaps this is like playing bridge - after 40 years you might get 'respectable'!

Anyhow, the weekend awaits - hoping the smoke from the Cameron Peak fire (Colorado) doesn't prevent outdoor activities!

Rita and George

Completed the grid fairly quickly this time, started listing things I thought might work along the side, but wasn't having much success. But today after work, I was sending a quick note to someone and telling them what I had so far in solving. To be honest, this has turned into one of my most successful solve methods when I'm stuck. "Tell me what you've found" and as I start typing it out, I look at the puzzle and go oh...wait....yeah...ok...and by the time I finish the email, I've solved - or at least found the right start. This time it took me right to the beach.

And I still have the weekend ahead of me!!!

A few pieces of guidance on getting help which we call nudges. There are a wide range of sensitivities as far as when and how much. There are a couple of topics with many of our thoughts. One is under Come Aboard/FAQs- Community/Solving Resources/Guidance on Hints/Nudges and the other is under Acapulco Lounge/Nudge Requests

A quick summary (but look at both locations as there is a lot of good thoughts)
1) Make an extended attempt to solve the contest. We have from Thursday at 4 pm to Sunday at midnight. A request on Friday morning sends the message that you have not made a serious attempt
2) Send a PM to someone. You don't have to know the person but look at the pros at the top of the leaderboard from week to week. When you post a general request, no one knows whether you have gotten a lot or none.
3) Although the prize is only a mug, most of us take some pride in solving the meta. If you feel (and there is a lot of grey here) that the nudge has become a full fledged coast guard transport to the shore, most of us will acknowledge that we are on the shore but not submitting to the WSJ.

Last thing, in addition to nudge etiquette, there is a huge amount of advice and techniques for solving metas including techniques and all of the past WSJ crossword contests which are great for learning.

Really last thing, with amazing regularity, the daily WSJ puzzles incorporate many of the terms that have evolved here including nudge, Isaac, and others. A coincidence?? After you do these for a while, you find that there are very few coincidences.

Above all we are here to enjoy, make friends and feed our passion.

Cindy N wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:50 pm Completed the grid fairly quickly this time, started listing things I thought might work along the side, but wasn't having much success. But today after work, I was sending a quick note to someone and telling them what I had so far in solving. To be honest, this has turned into one of my most successful solve methods when I'm stuck. "Tell me what you've found" and as I start typing it out, I look at the puzzle and go oh...wait....yeah...ok...and by the time I finish the email, I've solved - or at least found the right start. This time it took me right to the beach.

And I still have the weekend ahead of me!!!

This has worked for me too. Sometimes I find I have to go back to edit what I've just written because the solution or path has revealed itself.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:11 pm Good Friday noon muggles

Again, a warm welcome to our newest muggles - Flananigans and Franklin.Bluth. We are up to 776 who have posted that they are on the ship or shore at least once.

And we have 9 on the ship with Isaac and 66 partying on the shore.

Last thing - I have PM'd a couple about direct references to the grid answers. These may or may not help someone solve the meta but they make getting the grid answers less enjoyable to most. Could we all look at our posts to make sure that we are not pushing the boundaries.

Also make sure that you have it set up to receive a PM as that is the best way to communicate without drawing attention to the issue.

Thanks, Bob -- we were thinking the same thing.
Rita and George

I just had my Aha Moment! I'm on shore, but I'll wait until 5 pm to celebrate with a small libation. I have to show at least a little bit of discipline.

Well, I MARched quickly through the grid, but I am now SHuffling rather haphazardly through the meta and bumping into all sorts of WRong answers. And the weekENd is not as young as it seems.

I would really like to finish it up today as I have an early morning birding trip tomorrow (it's the Big Day Bird Count) and then we are off to explore Open House Chicago. We won't be able to go inside and behind the scenes this year, but there are still some fun things to see. I always thought this was just a Chicago thing until last year. We were at Trinity College in Dublin last year about this time and saw signs for Open House Dublin. So we adjusted our plans for the day a bit to take advantage.

Ashore!

Got it after staring at it for a while.
שבת שלום to fellow members of the tribe.
I think I'll celebrate with some Manischewitz wine

Ashore, sipping on a Newcastle Brown Ale. But not a full bottle as my wife needed some for a beer-cheese dip...

Is there a way to change the difficulty rating that I gave this puzzle? Fat fingers on the Kindle selected the wrong number of stars, and site won't let me change my vote.

Most of P.G. Wodehouse's works are in the public domain and many can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg to (say) your Google drive. See URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/783. I highly recommend the three Jeeves books that are there, The Inimitable Jeeves, My Man Jeeves, and Right Ho, Jeeves. As someone here has said, it's almost necessary to read these books with a British accent in your mind.

Best to all,
JAQT

Made it to shore! A personal record for time!

On shore!! Beautiful weekend for some fall foliage! Is it just me or do the leaves all fall in the span of two weeks each year??

On shore!

Hi Bob, No 51A for me.....Happy to report I am ashore! Both grid and meta solved!