#622 - "Wave Hello!"

[Geoduck]

Easy-peasy. Maybe so easy as to be a pageant?

[hcbirker]

I got it, but I don’t get it. I forced myself to finish some of the grid before sending it in, so maybe I missed the joke.

See the last across entry.

[TMart]

I got it, but I don’t get it. I forced myself to finish some of the grid before sending it in, so maybe I missed the joke.

See the last across entry.

Ah! Should have finished the grid.
Thanks!

[anjhinz]

Got it! I was pretty confident early on but I also have the rule about finishing the grid too - but I'm glad I did, it was nice and smooth.

[Joe Ross]

Solved. Ticked at myself for filling in entire, huge grid before attempting to solve!

[CPKdad]

I'm happy for a week-one easy one today. Solved it before finishing the grid.

[camandsampowercouple]

I had a lot of fun w/ the grid but the meta was disappointingly easy

[Cindy]

Solved

[Geoduck]

Solved. Ticked at myself for filling in entire, huge grid before attempting to solve!

I was pretty sure what it might be from the very beginning, but filling the grid is half the fun, no?

[Thurman8er]

Beam me up. Didn't finish the grid, but sounds like I should?

[KayW]

Beam me up! In a way I'm glad this one was so easy - there are FIVE Fridays in this month. Maybe this means I'll still have a shot at solving the fifth one.

[hcbirker]

Beam me up. Didn't finish the grid, but sounds like I should?

See my comment above. I always finish the grid before submitting. The constructor put a lot of work into it, and you might miss something.

[TMart]

I usually make sure to finish the entire grid before I submit, and I’ve been burned before by not doing that. It’s week one, a huge grid, and I was pressed for time and wanted to make sure to get it in before the weekend. But Heidi’s right - Matt did put a lot of work into this, and even though the meta answer was relatively simple, the overall puzzle is pretty elegant in the way it all ties together in the end, from title to themers to hints etc. so I’m glad I went back and finished it all. Sometimes the easy ones are prettier than the hard ones.

[rexthree]

Solved.

[DrTom]

The grid took way longer than the META for once. Tough grid and I still have a hole left, I have to look something up because the crossing word is, in my opinion, used incorrectly. But hey, I don't do this for a living so it may just be that I am completely unfamiliar with it in this context. Someone mentioned that they do not get the joke but if they think about it for just a minute I am sure they will. Still to say anymore would be a spoiler for this rather easy, and entirely welcome, Week 1.

[DrTom]

The solve was easy and fits, but the usual elegance of how the title fits the puzzle evades me? Perhaps someone who sees it can PM me or at least explain on Tuesday after the contest closes?

[spotter]

I thought the title 'wave hello' was like the joke where someone is drowning and the person on the boat thinks they're just waving (rather than flailing) and waves back.

[spotter]

Or waving for help from a desert island

[KayW]

I have an amusing/embarrassing SOS related story that happened to me the night before this puzzle dropped...

I live in downtown Chicago, near a large medical complex. Every evening from 8:00 to 8:05 (shift change), the residents flash lights and/or cheer as a show of appreciation to health care workers. I've been joining in, using a strobe function on my iphone. On Thursday night as I waved my phone, I thought to myself: "That's odd, the flashing seems to be alternating between fast and slow. I wonder why?"

Well, you guessed it - I had the strobe set to SOS mode (dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot).

The good news/bad news is that no one came breaking down my door to rescue me. I'm guessing these days not too many people know Morse code.

[sharkicicles]

I have an amusing/embarrassing SOS related story that happened to me the night before this puzzle dropped...

I live in downtown Chicago, near a large medical complex. Every evening from 8:00 to 8:05 (shift change), the residents flash lights and/or cheer as a show of appreciation to health care workers. I've been joining in, using a strobe function on my iphone. On Thursday night as I waved my phone, I thought to myself: "That's odd, the flashing seems to be alternating between fast and slow. I wonder why?"

Well, you guessed it - I had the strobe set to SOS mode (dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot).

The good news/bad news is that no one came breaking down my door to rescue me. I'm guessing these days not too many people know Morse code.

I do know Morse; I have a FCC amateur license verified at 20 words per minute. But we've been playing this party game called Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes, which is a fun party game where someone has a screen with a bomb on it, and other players who can't see the screen try to read from a manual to tell the bomb defuser what to do (think those cheesy movie sequences... CUT THE RED WIRE!)

One of the parts of the bomb sometimes contains a flashing light that spells a certain word in Morse that the defuser has to read back over the phone, and I thought I'd be a lock at it. But, for me, it's absolutely impossible to visually read Morse as opposed to hearing the beeps. I have yet to actually successfully defuse that one. Still a fun game with the right people!