XWord Muggles Forum

What a great meta! Right away I knew the shape of the 3 pluses would be involved ( see Hints for Solving Metas here). Going up and down and all around those eventually led me to knee breeches. I had to check that spelling, as Grandma always told me I was “getting too big for my britches”.
Another check of plusfours gave the biggest smile- thus called because they were 4” longer than knee breeches.
Loved that not all of the longest answers were involved in the meta. Point taken for meta toolbox. Thanks Mike- we needed that!

MaineMarge wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:48 am I had to check that spelling, as Grandma always told me I was “getting too big for my britches”.

Same here. "Breeches" did not look like a word at all, but "knee britches" was a natural given "plus fours", so first the dictionary then the submit. Odd: "plus fours" was not a strange word to me at all (all those old English novels), but "breeches"?

I went down the numbers hole. With THREEpeat and plusFOURs in matching positions and SUM in the title, I figured it had to be something about the numbers in the squares in the grid. Or some numbers somewhere. My visual-spatial intelligence is in the low percentiles, so I was at sixes and sevens all weekend.

On Friday I completed the grid and the only clue I had was "plus fours." I had no idea of where to go from there. On Saturday I completed the NY Times puzzle; one of its clues was "one of five depicted in this puzzle" with the answer being "plus sign." (There were five plus signs in that grid.) Bingo! There were three "plus signs" in the WSJ grid and the meta quickly emerged. What a strange coincidence.

Commodore wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:57 am I ordered a full investigation of the + black squares, once I spotted the word "HERE" stretching diagonally between them. Clever hint. Celebrating a correct submission in full dress jodhpurs and Pusser's Rum today.

Aha! So the START and HERE that cross each other in the upper left corner were a hint, after all. I kept trying to think of a clothing item that started with R. Raincoat, rugby shirt......that led to nowhere.

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:10 am I went down the numbers hole. With THREEpeat and plusFOURs in matching positions and SUM in the title, I figured it had to be something about the numbers in the squares in the grid. Or some numbers somewhere. My visual-spatial intelligence is in the low percentiles, so I was at sixes and sevens all weekend.

Me, too. I did lots of work with the grid squares containing 3, 4, and/or 7. Then the clues containing 3, 4, and/or 7. I produced nothing but gibberish.

I was lucky because I didn't have access to a printer, so I drew the grid on paper. In the process, the 3 plusses were very obvious. Right away, knee and beer jumped out as well as ches. In between new granddaughter duties I tried to make sense of it. Finally I asked in a PM if I was going the right way. Sounded like it so I kept looking at it, and finally saw it. At least I had a good excuse for being addled as I am used to a quiet house which a 2, ,6, and 4 days old do not provide!!! Boy, is it fun, but whew!!

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:10 am I went down the numbers hole. With THREEpeat and plusFOURs in matching positions and SUM in the title, I figured it had to be something about the numbers in the squares in the grid. Or some numbers somewhere. My visual-spatial intelligence is in the low percentiles, so I was at sixes and sevens all weekend.

Same here. THREE + FOUR is SEVEN.

The letters above SEVEN (working backwards) in SomeNErVE are
T TAPE.

A "TAPE T" is a an actual article of clothing (a T-shirt that has a logo along a tape down the side or sleeve). So I went with that -- to my mug-less dismay.

How many others scratched their heads about 4 instances of "EAT?"

CPJohnson wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:47 am

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:10 am I went down the numbers hole. With THREEpeat and plusFOURs in matching positions and SUM in the title, I figured it had to be something about the numbers in the squares in the grid. Or some numbers somewhere. My visual-spatial intelligence is in the low percentiles, so I was at sixes and sevens all weekend.

Me, too. I did lots of work with the grid squares containing 3, 4, and/or 7. Then the clues containing 3, 4, and/or 7. I produced nothing but gibberish.

I was right there with y'all. I am kicking myself, because I finally did see the plus signs in the grid and my husband and I used to do Revolutionary War reenactment/living history demonstrations and I have made a number of pairs of knee breeches as part uniforms and costumes. Was looking at the words around those black squares but not the individual letters.

I also tried the idea that ESSEN in the final across position might be a hint to look for S N, as in Some Nerve, SeeiNg red.

Subtle hint from Mike was "THREEPEAT" confirming that three plus signs were involved. The other hints seem rather evident.

Of course like many, I spent quite a while pursing various combinations of three and four and seven with what looked like theme words until I took a fresh look at the grid as a whole and suddenly noticed the unusual presence of three plus signs among the black spaces. Then it was off to the races.

I was unable to post but if you are tracking weekly results, I made it shore and submitted yesterday.

I went down two ridiculous rabbit holes but asked Wendy and she said to try something else. So I redid the puzzle, looked at it for two minutes said "Aha" and got it.

First seeing "summer" in the title and the German word for summer "Sommen" missing an M and then ""EE" which with a T becomes the French word, figured it was foreign words missing a letter. Nope.

Then I saw "TIE" and "HAT" and with Plus Fours gave me 3 articles of clothing. Nope.

Very easy when you just keeps your wits about you.

Richard.

--Repetition of SSE as well as EAT.
--REFRAIN, REGROW,REROLL.

Another funny distraction --Anyone else see Arthur, Len and Rupe(rt) together up near the top? And Kim, Ingred (sic) (K)atie and (L)aura waving coyly in a cluster below, across the room? Come on guys! Just go over and ask them to dance!

But I knew it ultimately had to concern something related to "adding" and I too got very excited when I was able at one point to begin with H-A-N-E-S!

And originally, because of the THREEPEAT and PLUSFOURS (definitely had to be there for a reason) I was really rooting (in the sense of cheering on but also like a truffle pig) for the answer to be ONESIE or TUTU.

After finishing the grid on Thursday, the only "connections" I noticed among the long answers was THREEpeat and plusFOURS. The next day, the three pluses in the grid jumped out at me. The letters at the end of the plusses yielded gibberish, but the letters in the "notches" gave me the answer. Later, I decided I should have read THREE PLUS from the long answers, using the first word of each. That would have provided a "verbal" clue in addition to the "visual" clue of the black squares.

Hmm, the location of 15A and 63A in the grid are complementary? Congruent? Something. Help me, Wendy, et al.

flyingMoose wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:08 pm

Hmm, the location of 15A and 63A in the grid are complementary? Congruent? Something. Help me, Wendy, et al.

Oh, my, but Muggles are finding so many levels of cleverness in this puzzle! (I didn't see most of them.) Would "corresponding" be le mot juste here, Flying Moose?

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 11:46 am I also tried the idea that ESSEN in the final across position might be a hint to look for S N, as in Some Nerve, SeeiNg red.

I can't see the word ESSEN (a crossword staple) without hearing that booming "World at War" narrator talking about the ball-bearing works at Essen.

flyingMoose wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:08 pm Hmm, the location of 15A and 63A in the grid are complementary? Congruent? Something. Help me, Wendy, et al.

This geometry teacher would go with (rotationally) "symmetrical".

In other news, I just did the Muggle Meta Monday puzzle during my break between two algebra classes on Zoom.

I spent a couple of days exploring myriad rabbit holes, including one that involves using every fourth letter of the grid. This begins by spelling out HANES, but then goes no further. It wasn’t until I glanced at the puzzle lying several feet away from me that the three plus signs seemed to jump from the page. Once I saw that, it took less than a minute to solve.