XWord Muggles Forum

DBMiller wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 9:29 am My only hiccup (That caused a minor delay), was that APexes could be TOPS and APproves could be STETS.

Took a moment to realize that the clues for both didn't match, and therefore MAXES and YESES should be used.

I had exactly the same problem, using TOPS rather than MAXES, but it took me more than a moment to realize it was fitting within the clues that mattered. Got there eventually.

I was really hoping the answer would be METAPHOR.

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 10:51 am I was really hoping the answer would be METAPHOR.

Me too, Wendy! My biggest rabbit hole was trying to reverse engineer METAPHOR ... META with AP in the middle was just too perfect!

Favorite GL:

Group of men and one woman on horseback getting ready to hang a criminal.
Sheriff: “Who brought the rope?”
Blank stares all around.
Woman, digging through her purse: “Just a minute!
I know I’ve got one in here somewhere.”

Thank you for that ..... I had Okays and Tops and they seemed perfect so I didn't doubt them. Really threw me off. Very creative puzzle. Congrats to all who sailed ashore so quickly.

Wendy Walker was hoping for METAPHOR. Me, when I saw the title AP English, I was hoping the answer would be my favorite rhetorical device: APOPHASIS, which begins with AP. It means saying something while at the same time saying that you're not saying it. For example, a politician saying, "I'm not even going to mention my opponent's connections to the Gambino crime family or the stash of kiddie porn rumored to be on his computer." Or maybe that's PARALIPSIS, which begins with PA.

EVJ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 11:29 am Favorite GL:

Group of men and one woman on horseback getting ready to hang a criminal.
Sheriff: “Who brought the rope?”
Blank stares all around.
Woman, digging through her purse: “Just a minute!
I know I’ve got one in here somewhere.”

Yeah, that would be me. I found this odd collection in my bathrobe pocket the other day:

An ingenious contest from two visitors to our usual rotation--thank you Pete and Michael! We had a big and successful turnout: 1767 entries, about 80% correct (higher than our typical 75%).

Incorrect guesses included PREFIX (58, partial credit), PAPER (27), ALLITERATION (23), PARTICIPLE (18) and APPEND (14, counting all forms of that word).

Congrats to this week's winner, Tyler DeFroscia of Bangor, Maine!

I forgot to post here on Saturday after I got the answer. I thought it was a “just right” level of difficulty (several rewarding steps, kept me moving forward and thinking). Definitely needed the asterisks!
I suspected the word SYNONYM after about step 2, but couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the two T’s I had in the mix — TOPS (for apexes) and TWIN JET (for Apache). Finally switched to MAXES, which got me close enough to suspect that TWIN JET was wrong. I had seen NAVAJO, but hadn’t thought of that as a synonym .. thinking surely that would be objectionable to some in those tribes? So I looked up their relation to each other and learned how closely related they are. Interesting!

I just want to give this newbie Muggle a hug. He or she just wrote to me: "And this is what is confusing to me about solving these metas. Sometimes we are supposed to look at the first letter and at other times, we are supposed to take the last 3(?) letters. Nowhere in the puzzle are we clued about which path to take. Same applies for intermediate steps; in this case, we were supposed to somehow know to look for synonyms of starred answers. It could have been antonyms as well or anything else for that matter."

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:14 pm

EVJ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 11:29 am Favorite GL:

Group of men and one woman on horseback getting ready to hang a criminal.
Sheriff: “Who brought the rope?”
Blank stares all around.
Woman, digging through her purse: “Just a minute!
I know I’ve got one in here somewhere.”

Yeah, that would be me. I found this odd collection in my bathrobe pocket the other day:

That copper looks suspicious. Hope the other part is in a safe place...

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:14 pm

EVJ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 11:29 am Favorite GL:

Group of men and one woman on horseback getting ready to hang a criminal.
Sheriff: “Who brought the rope?”
Blank stares all around.
Woman, digging through her purse: “Just a minute!
I know I’ve got one in here somewhere.”

Yeah, that would be me. I found this odd collection in my bathrobe pocket the other day:

We all want to see you wearing the robe and cat-eyes glasses on Zoom, tomorrow night, plus the heater to which that brass belongs hanging out of a pocket.

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 11:37 am Wendy Walker was hoping for METAPHOR. Me, when I saw the title AP English, I was hoping the answer would be my favorite rhetorical device: APOPHASIS, which begins with AP. It means saying something while at the same time saying that you're not saying it. For example, a politician saying, "I'm not even going to mention my opponent's connections to the Gambino crime family or the stash of kiddie porn rumored to be on his computer." Or maybe that's PARALIPSIS, which begins with PA.

That is quite possible, I am originally from NE Pennsylvania (remember my miner tale) and I think I went to school with Berdoulie Paralipsis, another Lithuanian like me.

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:23 pm I just want to give this newbie Muggle a hug. He or she just wrote to me: "And this is what is confusing to me about solving these metas. Sometimes we are supposed to look at the first letter and at other times, we are supposed to take the last 3(?) letters. Nowhere in the puzzle are we clued about which path to take. Same applies for intermediate steps; in this case, we were supposed to somehow know to look for synonyms of starred answers. It could have been antonyms as well or anything else for that matter."

How did you respond?

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 10:51 am I was really hoping the answer would be METAPHOR.

I wanted onomtopoeia - I used that in English class all the time - LOL

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:39 pm

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:14 pm

EVJ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 11:29 am Favorite GL:

Group of men and one woman on horseback getting ready to hang a criminal.
Sheriff: “Who brought the rope?”
Blank stares all around.
Woman, digging through her purse: “Just a minute!
I know I’ve got one in here somewhere.”

Yeah, that would be me. I found this odd collection in my bathrobe pocket the other day:

We all want to see you wearing the robe and cat-eyes glasses on Zoom, tomorrow night, plus the heater to which that brass belongs hanging out of a pocket.

And the backstory of why Wendy has a shell casing (looks like a .22) in your bathrobe pocket

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:35 pm

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:23 pm I just want to give this newbie Muggle a hug. He or she just wrote to me: "And this is what is confusing to me about solving these metas. Sometimes we are supposed to look at the first letter and at other times, we are supposed to take the last 3(?) letters. Nowhere in the puzzle are we clued about which path to take. Same applies for intermediate steps; in this case, we were supposed to somehow know to look for synonyms of starred answers. It could have been antonyms as well or anything else for that matter."

How did you respond?

You've heard my spiel before, Bob (and by the way you have a good eye; the shell casing was a .22LR).
My response was this:
You have hit upon exactly what keeps us coming back: You never know which way the puzzle is going to go. In fact, antonyms would have been a really fun gimmick!
But what you are doing is the only way to get better at these -- look at the answer on Monday and see how it was done.
When I started doing these puzzles a few years back I thought, "There's no way anyone could get these; there's just not enough information provided!" I gave up after a few weeks. Then I noticed that I was repeatedly telling my nephew NOT to give up while running his tough cross-country races -- and I thought I'd better be consistent and follow my own advice. (BTW he ended up getting a track scholarship to Villanova!!!)
So keep plugging away! And never hesitate to ask for help! I have some "nudgees" who needed a helping hand for many weeks but are now getting the meta most weeks on their own."

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:44 pm

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:39 pm

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:14 pm

Yeah, that would be me. I found this odd collection in my bathrobe pocket the other day:

We all want to see you wearing the robe and cat-eyes glasses on Zoom, tomorrow night, plus the heater to which that brass belongs hanging out of a pocket.

And the backstory of why Wendy has a shell casing (looks like a .22) in your bathrobe pocket

Because Wendy always leaves behind a clean crime scene?

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:14 pm

EVJ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 11:29 am Favorite GL:

Group of men and one woman on horseback getting ready to hang a criminal.
Sheriff: “Who brought the rope?”
Blank stares all around.
Woman, digging through her purse: “Just a minute!
I know I’ve got one in here somewhere.”

Yeah, that would be me. I found this odd collection in my bathrobe pocket the other day:

An Allen wrench in your bathrobe pocket? That is absolutely marvelous!

Mister Squawk wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 5:44 am

mitchel674 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:19 am I'm still stuck. I dislike the puzzles with the asterisks. I feel even worse when I cannot solve the meta and the important clues have been listed for me!

Actually, the presence of asterisked clues is in itself an important clue -- it indicates that the connection between the answers in the grid that are used to form the meta cannot be adduced from the answers themselves. So rather than trying to figure out which clues have "something in common" you can go directly to other avenues (adjacencies, spatial gimmicks, etc.).

But yeah, when I see this asterisks, my first thought is "what, does Mike think I'm too dumb to figure this out myself?"

I think the paragraph above that I've bolded and italicized should be added to the "Hints for Solving Meta Contests" Topic page. It spells out what for me and probably others has been a somewhat vague awareness.