"Build Your Brand" - May 8, 2020

[TPS]

Well after having never knowingly seeing Life cereal or an Ad for Life cereal - I’ve seen an ad for Life cereal 3 times this morning on BBC America.

[DrTom]

Well after having never knowingly seeing Life cereal or an Ad for Life cereal - I’ve seen an ad for Life cereal 3 times this morning on BBC America.

Yeah, life is like that.

Little known fact* there was a covert attempt some years ago to have each individual square of the cereal with a different filling. There was to be caramel, toffee, strawberry cream, mocha, vanilla, etc. and everything was going well until a popular movie spilled the beans. They never forgave Tom Hanks for saying; "Life is like a box of chocolates!"





*This is all of course prevarication, a tale spun solely as a set-up for a bad pun. I should be ashamed, I am not.

[Bird Lives]

If you have been recently stumped, I recommend this list Tina posted here over a year ago. Notice the last piece in section 3.


#11 Post by Tina » Sat Apr 27, 2019 7:59 pm
A while ago, I wrote a list of tips to help in solving metas. I meant to share it and get other people's input on it, but I never got around to it. Anyway, here it is:

1. Look at the THEME ENTRIES.
Do they have SOMETHING IN COMMON?
Can the entries (or part of the entries) be ANAGRAMMED to something?
Do the INITIAL LETTERS mean anything? Do they spell out a word? Do they suggest something like airport codes, state abbreviations, or chemical element symbols?
What about the FIRST FEW LETTERS of each entry?
Do the FINAL LETTERS or MIDDLE LETTERS mean anything?
Are there SYNONYMS or ANTONYMS that are important?
RHYMES, PUNS, SIMILES, or other FIGURES OF SPEECH or WORDPLAY?
Can a word PRECEDE OR FOLLOW the entries?
Can a PREFIX or SUFFIX be added to all the entries? Or can any letters be added anywhere?
Do the entries SUGGEST something, like a three-word acronym, a number, a person, etc?
Are the theme entries HOMOPHONES or HOMONYMS of something?
Look at the LETTERS in the words. Is there anything interesting, like double letters?
Are there HIDDEN WORDS inside the entries?
Anything hidden BACKWARDS in the entries?
Look at the entries that INTERSECT the theme entries.
Can you CHANGE ONE LETTER to make another word or name?

2. Look at the GRID ITSELF.
Is the grid UNUSUALLY LARGE?
Is the grid an UNUSUAL SHAPE?
Check the DISTRIBUTION OF LETTER FREQUENCY. Are some letters missing? Are there more rare letters than usual?
Is there an unusual amount of DOUBLE LETTERS?
Are some LETTERS CONCENTRATED in a certain area?
Anything unusual about the LENGTHS OF THE ENTRIES?
Are there any DIAGONAL words?
Can you form any SHAPES in the grid with certain letters?
Any interesting JUXTAPOSITIONS of letters?
Anything significant about the BLACK SPACES?
Any words hidden in STAIR-STEP or BOGGLE fashion?

3. Look at the CLUES
Anything interesting about the WORDS IN THE CLUES? For example, lots of proper names, acronyms, dates, place names?
Is anything WEIRDLY CLUED?
Are some clues UNUSUALLY LONG?
Do some clues contain EXTRANEOUS INFORMATION?
Do the FIRST LETTERS of the clues spell anything?
Are the BLANKS, QUOTES, or PARENTHESES important?
Are the NUMBERS OF THE CLUES significant?
Could the definitions apply to MORE THAN ONE GRID ENTRY?

4. Look at the NON-THEME GRID ENTRIES
Anything interesting?
Anything that relates to the theme?
Can any words be extended beyond the grid?
Any interesting word intersections?

5. Other things to think about:
– Constructors often use ROMAN NUMERALS, GREEK LETTERS, AIRPORT CODES, ATOMIC NUMBERS and SYMBOLS, STATE ABBREVIATIONS,
– Sometimes a square is a REBUS, occupied by a symbol or more than one letter.

This is great. Makes me feel like every meta from now on will be a snap, and what will I do to fill my weekend hours?

There's one other thing I look for --- signs of forced entries. For example, BSIX in the lower right corner of Buid Your Brand. It's not a real word. Everything in that corner would seem more 'natural' if you change 55A to AOL and 69A to TASER. So I figured that either the B or the X was there for a reason.

[TMart]

This really isn't fair if you cannot print the puzzle out. I copied it by hand and now it's an absolute mess.

All's fair in the meta world!

And you CAN print the puzzle - use this link to get a .puz version of the WSJ puzzle each week. The current day's link is usually up within about 15 minutes after the puzzle is posted (so no hope of beating Al Sisti if you wait for it!)

It will only work on a computer, not on iphones or ipads.

https://www.fleetingimage.com/wij/xyzzy/20-wsj.html

[Schmeel]

I was looking at changing one letter to form an expression within the grid -
TRY (dry) OATS for cereal,
CAD (car) ALARM for gasoline,
SNIDE (slide) DOORS for shopping cart,
and even GRIME (prime) RIO or RIA (rib) ROAST for oven
I got gibberish and stuck.

[TMart]

Singer led me to the answer. I thought it was an oddly-worded clue for ARIA (which seems to show up quite a bit). The clue for EARTH was pretty odd as well.

I found the others and anagrammed to ADOBE, but had a little trouble seeing how Matt actually ordered them (since he very rarely uses anagrams). They weren't in grid order and they weren't in clue order. It took me a little while to realize they were in themer order, and that's what sealed it as 100% for me.

[boharr]

Singer led me to the answer. I thought it was an oddly-worded clue for ARIA (which seems to show up quite a bit). The clue for EARTH was pretty odd as well.

Ah yes. Beware oddly worded clues. I've learned that lesson.

[yourpalsal]

So are we thinking it will be under 800 correct answers this week? I was so psyched that I solved a tough one and thought my odds of a mug may skyrocket this time from 1/1500 to 1/750!

[Wendy Walker]

This really isn't fair if you cannot print the puzzle out. I copied it by hand and now it's an absolute mess.

All's fair in the meta world!

And you CAN print the puzzle - use this link to get a .puz version of the WSJ puzzle each week. The current day's link is usually up within about 15 minutes after the puzzle is posted (so no hope of beating Al Sisti if you wait for it!)

It will only work on a computer, not on iphones or ipads.

https://www.fleetingimage.com/wij/xyzzy/20-wsj.html

I print out the PDF every week. And I HAVE beaten Al Sisti as the first solver to post; O frabjous day! (No. I'm not too competitive. Heaven forbid!)

[Wendy Walker]

Being a former smoker, I saw 24D "Kool's (cigarette brand) backers" while working on the grid. But that was the only one that stood out, so I dismissed finding a "brand" in the clues.

Yes, that threw me off for a while too.

I had to explain to my nephew what Kool & the Gang was. "A disco band from when I was your age" was my definition.

[tigerfly222]

I print out the PDF every week. And I HAVE beaten Al Sisti as the first solver to post; O frabjous day! (No. I'm not too competitive. Heaven forbid!)

Callooh! Callay!

[boharr]

I print out the PDF every week. And I HAVE beaten Al Sisti as the first solver to post; O frabjous day! (No. I'm not too competitive. Heaven forbid!)

Callooh! Callay!

Chortling.

[Kamorgan]

Newbie here. I can count on one hand the number of contests I’ve solved, but I sure enjoy trying! This week though, whew, I don’t think I even stood a chance. Super impressed by those of you who solved it!

[Schmeel]

I print out the PDF every week. And I HAVE beaten Al Sisti as the first solver to post; O frabjous day! (No. I'm not too competitive. Heaven forbid!)

Callooh! Callay!

Chortling.

How joyful!

[Eric Porter]

So are we thinking it will be under 800 correct answers this week? I was so psyched that I solved a tough one and thought my odds of a mug may skyrocket this time from 1/1500 to 1/750!

I'm guessing this will be one with fewer than 500 correct answers.

My mistake was thinking that the solution would be similar to Parting the Waters where you build a brand from multiple grid entries. Interestingly, you can find 4/5 of the theme answers at some Targets. That was the first thing I noticed when I tried to find a connection.

[HeadinHome]

Can someone explain to me the clue at 30D: Will work, often as "OPEDCOLUMN) (I assume that's the correct answer, only based on the crossing answers)

I don't get it.

[Jim and Anita]

Can someone explain to me the clue at 30D: Will work, often as "OPEDCOLUMN) (I assume that's the correct answer, only based on the crossing answers)

I don't get it.

Good question. That puzzled us too for a bit. We figured the clue referred to George Will, the political columnist.

[flyingMoose]

Can someone explain to me the clue at 30D: Will work, often as "OPEDCOLUMN) (I assume that's the correct answer, only based on the crossing answers)

I don't get it.

A reference to George Will, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.

Oops. Oh well, I'll leave it.

[Bob cruise director]

Newbie here. I can count on one hand the number of contests I’ve solved, but I sure enjoy trying! This week though, whew, I don’t think I even stood a chance. Super impressed by those of you who solved it!

And that we call as KAS 5. Look under Come Aboard for a definition of the KAS scale. We all have been everywhere from KAS 1 to 5 at some point.

[Bob cruise director]

This really isn't fair if you cannot print the puzzle out. I copied it by hand and now it's an absolute mess.

Ford is a company. Mustang is a brand/model.
Singer is a corporation. What's the brand?
Subway appears to be a franchise. Is it also a brand? Never been there, so why associate them with TOASTEROVENS?
Target is corporation, not a brand. They sell "brands" like Quaker Oats Life.

Two years ago when I was in Europe and did not have access to the internet but am addicted to the metas, I hand drew the grid on a piece of paper that had notes for the trip. 15X15 squares, blackened in the appropriate squares (well they were not really close to being square) and put the numbers in. Then I attacked the grid and the meta. I did this for three weeks.

My wife thought I was nuts - she still does but after 50 years of marriage that comes as no surprise to either of us.