"Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
Locked
User avatar
tim1217
Posts: 299
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:58 pm
Location: Small Town America

#241

Post by tim1217 »

I got SOAP right away and figured (right away) that the only logical 10-letter entertainment category had to be SOAP OPERAS, without even realizing that it also fit the same mechanism. And that’s my ‘unsatisfying’ issue with this meta. After finding SOAP, you could actually get the answer without any further work. At least in WONDER TWINS you had to work to find a cartoon duo that fit the answer into the same mechanism.
User avatar
Bird Lives
Posts: 2609
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:43 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

#242

Post by Bird Lives »

DrTom wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:52 am
Joe Ross wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:28 am
BarbaraK wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:54 pm I don’t love the title, but I can’t think of a better one.
GRID REGIRD ?

GRAD REGARD ?

Let's try to pry another mug out of Matt & Mike by offering a better puzzle title. :D
Well one that would have helped would have been TUNA NATURE because that at least would have given me the ER for OPERAS!

OLTL TOLLED

DOOL NOODLE

ATWT WATTLE
Last edited by Bird Lives on Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jay
steveb
Posts: 379
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:25 pm
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

#243

Post by steveb »

After I found SOAP, I interpreted HALF in 1A to perhaps be a hint that we would get only half the answer directly and need to infer the rest. So I submitted SOAP OPERAS and mostly stopped looking for letters that would confirm OPERAS. I say "mostly" because after some people implied that they had found confirmation for the second half, I looked for that a little while longer. Maybe the confirmation was just the realization that SOAP OPERAS follows the 4, 4+2 pattern of the theme answers and the title.
User avatar
Colin
Posts: 546
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:57 pm

#244

Post by Colin »

Well, I guess “ER” is a SOAP OPERA. Maybe that’s it?
One world. One planet. One future.
Obie J
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:51 am

#245

Post by Obie J »

Just out of curiosity I wrote a little program to scan a small lexicon for words matching the 4-6 pattern with soap. Here is the result:

soap adopts
soap aprons
soap operas
soap parson
soap pastor
soap pathos
soap pianos
soap postal
soap potash
soap soaped
soap sophia
soap vapors

So I think "soap operas" is a pretty safe bet.
ErikThor
Posts: 70
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:35 pm

#246

Post by ErikThor »

A couple things that I'm not sure have been mentioned yet: Once I had the word SOAP, I looked back to the title. I immediately thought of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle operas which set me on a quest looking for operas hidden in the grid. No joy. Well, a quick Google search of "Soap opera character XXXXX" while tossing in the names Steph, Mona, Adam, and Ethel hit paydirt.
matthewmoravec
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:37 am

#247

Post by matthewmoravec »

I really wanted to announce I had a shoe ashore!
Geoduck
Posts: 156
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2019 6:40 pm
Location: Somewhere Nawth of Bangaw, or on The Other Cape

#248

Post by Geoduck »

I'm still unclear on how some people got part 2 but not part 1.

How did people get OPERAS out of the puzzle?
User avatar
Meg
Posts: 2137
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:41 pm
Location: St. Petersburg, FL

#249

Post by Meg »

It’s not an uncommon strategy to apply a technique several times to entries in the grid, and then apply it one more time to get the meta. I remembered this after I removed the romaine from my face.
Check out and support http://CrosswordsForCancer.com.
User avatar
eagle1279
Posts: 307
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 7:00 pm
Location: Indianapolis

#250

Post by eagle1279 »

I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to anagram FERKNSNAAN to a form of entertainment before I found the path to SOAP. :lol:
User avatar
MajordomoTom
Posts: 1401
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

#251

Post by MajordomoTom »

Other possible titles which will produce the needed/desired "ER":

MATT MATTER

or

GAFF GAFFER
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
User avatar
Bird Lives
Posts: 2609
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:43 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

#252

Post by Bird Lives »

What's general sentiment here on clues that are deceptive at first-- e.g., 48D, 43A, 46A? I see them as providing the pleasure of mini AHA moments.
Jay
User avatar
MajordomoTom
Posts: 1401
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

#253

Post by MajordomoTom »

on that, I spent a TON of time staring at 40A, the presence of the K and R made me crazy to try to unpack something from the rest of the letters. Plus it's so unusual a grid entry that ... IT HAD TO MEAN SOMETHING.

Or not.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
User avatar
MajordomoTom
Posts: 1401
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

#254

Post by MajordomoTom »

MajordomoTom wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:39 pm If I'd not been "spelling challenged" (more later on that), I'd have had this either Thursday night or Friday morning.

But ... I fixed that and it fixed my answer.

I do like Matt Smith ...
remember ... FEZZES are cool.

I was expecting to be slapped down for this posting.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
Dennis
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 4:58 pm

#255

Post by Dennis »

I think I am happy I did not spend a whole lot of weekend time on the second and third steps!
User avatar
MajordomoTom
Posts: 1401
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

#256

Post by MajordomoTom »

SHAM REHASH
THAT THREAT
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
User avatar
OGuyDave
Posts: 169
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:03 am
Location: Naples

#257

Post by OGuyDave »

Try as hard as I could, I just wasn't able to get STRIPTEASE to work as a solution.

But TFTXWD anyway.
User avatar
MarkL
Posts: 385
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 8:44 am
Location: Tampa Bay, FL

#258

Post by MarkL »

OGuyDave wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:30 pm Try as hard as I could, I just wasn't able to get STRIPTEASE to work as a solution.

But TFTXWD anyway.
Nor COW TIPPING
'tis... A lovely day for a Guinness!
User avatar
maprasad
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Sep 07, 2019 6:13 pm

#259

Post by maprasad »

Perhaps the AN from "Grid Daring" and the ER from "Soap Operas" are ANswER? :)
howardl
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 10:19 pm

#260

Post by howardl »

Replying to Eagle who spent time "trying to anagram FERKNSNAAN". I have a rule in solving these (attempting to solve): if there is an anagram necessary to the answer it is very short and obvious, so looking for anagrams to a 10 letter sequence means you are barking up the wrong rabbit hole.
Locked