"Executive Search" - June 5, 2020

[femullen]

SITREP: It's not a spoiler, but all the shore birds announcing that the solution is "elegant" tells me that my solution is incorrect. Convincing it is, but elegant it isn't, so I'm probably seeing what I want to see.

Swim call's over. Back to the ship.

[Bob cruise director]

I feel that way now given the cost of those cartridges for my ink-jet printer. Before I print the pdf of the WSJ puzzle, I delete the previous day's solution and the "E-mail your answer" block below the clues. (OK, not really to save ink but to have space to make notes in. But still . . .)

I have found that second source cartridges from Amazon work perfectly well. I get a box of GPC Image cartridges for my Canon MG6820 for $12 and they work perfectly. I use Epson for my 3880 for photography.

Must depend on the printer. I have an older HP and if I put anything but HP cartridges in it it kind of stares at me and gives me a HAL moment "Tom, what are you doing> I wouldn't do that if I were you,,,"

My wife has an HP and it accepts the second source cartridges. But it has other problems. I would not recommend HP equipment

[Leslie]

Traveling this weekend and my phone wouldn’t let me post yesterday, so I’ll omit my completely superfluous comments about periods and Oxford commas. I was very lucky on this one that the first rabbit I saw was swimming straight to shore and I just held onto its tail and enjoyed the ride!

[ky-mike]

Count me on shore.

Sitting there right under my nose the whole time. Revisited a method I had tried earlier and there he was!

[MarkL]

Since I am going no where on the meta and to add to the discussion on made up words, almost 50 years ago, my wife and I were playing Scrabble. We did not have a scrabble dictionary and I am not even sure we had a dictionary. I put down the word EGGMAN. I argued that we had a milkman who delivered milk and a breadman who delivered bread, so what did you call the guy who delivered eggs. To this day, my wife refuses to acknowledge the word.

What sayeth our sage panel? thumbs up or down?

In honor of my grandfather, a milkman, I'm all in!

[MarkL]

I'm enjoying the grammar debates this week because I'm getting nowhere with the meta. I expect to be with Isaac all weekend.

I learned to type using two spaces after a period but gave up the second space when I got rid of my manual typewriter.

Somewhat inconsistently, I was always spaces over tabs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=SsoOG6ZeyUI

em dash v en dash, anyone?

[sharkicicles]

I’m celebrating my 42nd birthday today
and I was taught
Spaces after a period …

I, unfortunately, am a few more spaces than that area from the meta solution.

Happy Solving - Happy Friday

I turn 42 next month. I hear it's the answer to Life, The Universe, And Everything.

[Joe Ross]

These comments are kinda freaky, I'd say One False Note or King Me were elegant. Still on the boat, looking at Gaffney's latest...which maybe I'll go ahh soon enough to and think of as elegant but ...

Don't confuse fancy and complex with elegant, please. This meta is not contrived. It has one clear, reasoned method & answer and none of the puzzle's parts are contradictory. This isn't to say that the method and answer are easy to deduce.

[Colin]

“Two spaces, or not two spaces. That is the question.”
- William Spacespheare

20th century - two
21st century - one
Easy.
NASA and SpaceX would need more rocket fuel to get all those extra spaces into ... well... space.

Meanwhile, with Isaac (for now) and there’s plenty of spaces here.

[mheberlingx100]

SITREP: It's not a spoiler, but all the shore birds announcing that the solution is "elegant" tells me that my solution is incorrect. Convincing it is, but elegant it isn't, so I'm probably seeing what I want to see.

Swim call's over. Back to the ship.

I would say 95% of the time when you land on the correct answer for the Contest Puzzle, there is no ambiguity. This was one of those times for me. If you are questioning whether your answer is right, then it probably isn’t.

[WNC Puzzler]

Forgive my ignorance... I'm new to the WSJ puzzles and can't find info on how to play the contest puzzles. Today's answer is a US Prez, but what am I looking for? Some diagonal spelling of a name, or other combination that spells out a name? If someone could point me to the rules/explanations, I'd be grateful.

[MarkL]

For those of you scoring at home - again, please, no wagering.
Quick count shows twenty-three fans for two spaces, and seventeen for a single space.
There were ten comments supporting the Oxford Comma, and two opposed.
Ambiguous, but nicely punctuated, responses were not counted but were appreciated!

Next week: using "such" as a pronoun.

Cheers!

[mheberlingx100]

Forgive my ignorance... I'm new to the WSJ puzzles and can't find info on how to play the contest puzzles. Today's answer is a US Prez, but what am I looking for? Some diagonal spelling of a name, or other combination that spells out a name? If someone could point me to the rules/explanations, I'd be grateful.

Welcome! Attached at the bottom is a link to a page that serves as a guide to the contest puzzles. Finding the methodology for the answer varies for each puzzle, so it takes some practice to be able to solve. When I first started, I thought that I could never solve these in a hundred years. However, after some practice, you'll find yourself having that Aha Moment most weeks.

What really helped me is going back and solving past puzzles and seeing the different approaches that the puzzle constructors have to the meta. After you do a few of those, you'll start to catch on.

And if you are really skillful (and even more lucky) you may find yourself winning a coveted Mug.

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources ... tguide.pdf

[boharr]

On shore. After floundering forever in the river of spaces following my answer, the Gallant Grammarians of the Grid dropped their commas, jumped in their punts, and rushed to rescue me. Now, eggs and milk, time for cereal.

[camandsampowercouple]

Really stumped on this one. I have a mechanism that works for about half of the theme clues really well, but it doesn't seem to work for the other half at all. And then the letters I'm getting from it aren't really giving me what I need...

[Scott M]

Well, I've got an answer but I don't love it. As a matter of fact I don't even like it. And now that I think about it, I'll be disappointed if it's the right answer so I guess I downright hate it. Bloody Mary in a tiki glass please! Make it a double!

[LadyBird]

So I googled U.S. presidents just to refresh my memory. Now this is showing up in my Facebook feed.

[boharr]

For those of you scoring at home - again, please, no wagering.
Quick count shows twenty-three fans for two spaces, and seventeen for a single space.
There were ten comments supporting the Oxford Comma, and two opposed.
Ambiguous, but nicely punctuated, responses were not counted but were appreciated!

Next week: using "such" as a pronoun.

Cheers!

Ah, the ambiguity of grammar.
As to using "such" as a pronoun, I'm indefinite. But maybe another week is called for so we don't start mixing grammar mandates.
Also, above it was suggested: em dash v en dash, anyone? Another brouhaha.
And for the future — when there is an appropriate puzzle (I'm talking to you, Matt and Mike) — I'd suggest as a topic the proper use of "irony" (see Jane Austen) and its flagrant misuse (cue Alanis Morissette, among many others).

[Joe Ross]

May we address the antonyms eager & anxious?

[ChrisKochmanski]

On shore. FINALLY. I needed nudges, from another solver, so I won’t submit for the mug. If it had come down to it, and I had had to take my best guess at the solution (without the help of the nudges), I’d have guessed right — but it would have been with very little confidence.