#625 - "Sit Down For This"

[laurareidsbooks]

Y’all, I need a nudge. If I look up any more lyrics, my head might explode. I know I’m going backwards...
Thanks in advance!

[FrankieHeck]

I finally got this one last night. Now back to Al's Week 1!

[Al Sisti]

Finally made it across the finish line after running in place -- and backwards -- through 14 pages of my notebook. But I only got there after some nudging from a "guardian Muggle" to stay the course of what I (eventually) was trying as the mechanism, and then looking at it in a different way from the way(s) I had been. I felt sheepish submitting and will look at my streak with an asterisk because of this week -- of course I checked that it wasn't a solo solve, but still. Anyway, I definitely owe the Muggleverse a nudge or two in the future.

[camandsampowercouple]

im not ready for this week 5

[bhamren]

I missed this week after 8 or nine in a row. I just didn't have (or make time) to work on it - it looked like too much work.

I am finishing off the ceiling on a basement bedroom. I probably did more physical labor yesterday than I have in years. It was more like "Labor Day" rather than "Memorial Day"

[streakchaser]

This one's the first that's been so hard, it made me make an XWord Muggles account to express my frustration.

Been staring at this one for 4 days. I'll give it the next 50 minutes as well, but ugh. Feeling like this is gonna be a Kas Level 5.

[DrTom]

im not ready for this week 5

Ah, you Ferengis.... As my friend Worf would say - qem 'oH Hogh 5,!

[Big Mac]

Last second enlightenment and it feels SO good. Very satisfying.

[DrTom]

Y’all, I need a nudge. If I look up any more lyrics, my head might explode. I know I’m going backwards...
Thanks in advance!

Check your PM!

[Bird Lives]

Just got it. A few seconds too late to enter but satisfying in a way. Or maybe I got it wrong because I still don't understand the title. Of if I do understand it now, then unlike many meta-puzzle titles, it was of almost zero help at all for solving the puzzle but make sense only after you solve it.

[burak]

It turns out I wasn't persistent enough with an obvious idea that came to me early in the process. Oh well. I also never do well with nonsensical theme answers, they always throw me off.

A good meta that was very solvable in hindsight.

[DrTom]

Just got it. A few seconds too late to enter but satisfying in a way. Or maybe I got it wrong because I still don't understand the title.

Well it was one of those titles that hurt as much as it helped. "Sit down for this", and in hindsight it is eminently clear, means to sit at the piano. I played with finding thing to sit on (FUTON gets you all excited in theme clue 1!), then I thought of the old CW standard "You sit down to get this...LAP" but there really were not any lap related things.

I early on felt that the combo of Sit Down and Black Keys HAD to relate to a piano and tried desperately to make the black SQUARES the BLACK KEYS to no avail (unless you count learning a whole new language trying to pronounce any results). Finally after a "get back in there" prod I tumbled to the fact that there were 8 answers of 11 letters each, the famed 88! Then it just took laying out all the numbers on a keyboard graphic and putting all the answers side by side in order to get 88 letters, then going through and choosing ONLY the black key numbers.

Obviously in the rear mirror it all makes perfect sense, sit down at the piano and play only the black keys.

How in the world Matt made that work in a crossword grid will amaze me until he does something equally as amazing again.

[BrianMac]

It turns out I wasn't persistent enough with an obvious idea that came to me early in the process. Oh well. I also never do well with nonsensical theme answers, they always throw me off.

A good meta that was very solvable in hindsight.

This seems to have been the experience of a few people, myself included. Looking at the pattern of black keys was the first thing I tried, but it didn't immediately pan out because it did not occur to me to string the theme entries together. So I got a word here and there, but ended up getting gibberish, so I dumped the idea (upon concluding this was not the mechanism, I actually wrote "pattern of piano black keys" in the margin as an idea for a future meta of my own - not that I could have done anything as great as this).

So after trying every rabbit hole all weekend, I went back to that beginning idea, but started at the end. When I found NEVER and FIND, I knew I was on the right track. I continued to work backwards, finding IGHT, then M, then backsolved with Google. I didn't realize until someone pointed out to me that the theme entries have 88 letters, which means you can literally lay them out on a keyboard, which I just think is cool as shiitake (see the graphic on Crosswordfiend).

[Big Mac]

Weirdly enough the puzzle title actually helped make it click for me. My father has played piano professionally for 40 years so the term "sit down at the piano" did pop into my head eventually and help me realize the "key" to the meta was the piano itself. This was a really terrific puzzle.

[FrankieHeck]

Earlier in the weekend I counted the theme letters to try to relate them to a keyboard. But arithmetic is generally my downfall...I somehow decided there were 66 letters in the theme answers, and that there would be 88 if it were a standard piano. Wasn't till Monday evening that I realized my mistake.

I also tried to make "LAP" work, and then thought maybe SIT A SPELL was involved, and looked for things like ALOHOMORA in there...

[Dplass]

Amazing meta mechanism. Just -- wow.

Also I would have never gotten this ever. **AND I PLAY THE PIANO **

[KayW]

What a brilliant construction!

It took me way too long to solve this one, but luckily I still have an old spinet gathering dust in a corner and when I finally "Sat down for this" the answer popped right out.

Unfortunately, the meta answer also describes my recent forays to the baking aisle of the grocery store. For a few weeks now I have been searching in vain for instant yeast and wheat bran (for two separate recipes). Apparently baking has become very popular during the pandemic and there is none of either to be found in near north Chicago. The good news is, it's just about past my baking season anyway, so now I have until autumn to locate those ingredients.

On another note... I should probably post the following link under the "Questionable Humor" topic. Our local paper today carried an article on a Chicagoan who posts Dad Jokes in his apartment window each day. I love Dad Jokes and there are a few doozies here:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavi ... story.html

[sharkicicles]

What a brilliant construction!

It took me way too long to solve this one, but luckily I still have an old spinet gathering dust in a corner and when I finally "Sat down for this" the answer popped right out.

Unfortunately, the meta answer also describes my recent forays to the baking aisle of the grocery store. For a few weeks now I have been searching in vain for instant yeast and wheat bran (for two separate recipes). Apparently baking has become very popular during the pandemic and there is none of either to be found in near north Chicago. The good news is, it's just about past my baking season anyway, so now I have until autumn to locate those ingredients.

On another note... I should probably post the following link under the "Questionable Humor" topic. Our local paper today carried an article on a Chicagoan who posts Dad Jokes in his apartment window each day. I love Dad Jokes and there are a few doozies here:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavi ... story.html

Kay, same with yeast in West Town... but my preferred brand (SAF Instant) was available on Amazon last week.

[Bird Lives]

When I got it, I finally understood what people here had meant by going back to abandoned ideas. I had thought about black keys, but what can you do with Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, and Bb (or their sharp equivalents)? It never occurred to me that the meta would run the whole keyboard. Or rather, the thought may have flashed across my mind, but I didn't give it a second thought because the whole keyboard? Seriously?

When I wrote the long entries in a non-proportional-spacing font, I saw that they were all eleven letters. But I still needed a nudge from someone reminding me to notice how many there were.

[KayW]

What a brilliant construction!

It took me way too long to solve this one, but luckily I still have an old spinet gathering dust in a corner and when I finally "Sat down for this" the answer popped right out.

Unfortunately, the meta answer also describes my recent forays to the baking aisle of the grocery store. For a few weeks now I have been searching in vain for instant yeast and wheat bran (for two separate recipes). Apparently baking has become very popular during the pandemic and there is none of either to be found in near north Chicago. The good news is, it's just about past my baking season anyway, so now I have until autumn to locate those ingredients.

On another note... I should probably post the following link under the "Questionable Humor" topic. Our local paper today carried an article on a Chicagoan who posts Dad Jokes in his apartment window each day. I love Dad Jokes and there are a few doozies here:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavi ... story.html

Kay, same with yeast in West Town... but my preferred brand (SAF Instant) was available on Amazon last week.

Thanks! If I get anxious to bake before product comes back in stock, I may try that. But it's gotten warm and muggy so fast that the idea of turning on the oven has lost its appeal. I think my apartment has a rule that the oven won't work between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Or maybe it's the oven's owner that won't work