"Stress Test" - July 3, 2020

[TPS]

Careful what you say here, someone was offended by my previous screen name (Bulls*******).

That person was a troll and a tool - Tool Troll, Troll Tool? They posted like 12 comments and I am pretty sure 11 of them were bitching about something. They make me seem like a ray of sunshine.

[Tony S]

If I'm going to drink single malts I like the smokey, peaty ones like Lagavulin and Laphroaig. Most of the time I will just enjoy Blue.

Big Laphroaig fan here, but don't drink it as often in the hot weather. Gotta go visit my 1 square foot plot someday.

By all means visit Islay when travel normalizes. Scottish Routes has a great package for visiting the Islay distilleries. Imagine sitting in Lagavulin's warehouse at 10:30 am and tasting multiple generous samples straight from the barrel ; then it's lunch and more tastings at Kilchoman followed by the Laphroaig tour, tastings, and visiting your "plot." And that's just the 1st day!

[JeanneC]

Oh, Matt!

So it shouldn’t be a total loss, I have learned something new about solving meta puzzles. This is a good thing!!

Kudos to those who got the answer.

[Kris Zacharias]

I'm dismayed!!!!! I realized that the stressed syllables of the long answers were the key: ant-seur, eye lin, bac word, i.e. answer island backward. Ok, so the island is Sulpa, backward is aplus. So I though that since the syllables were were mispronunciations, I submitted "applause," a mispronunciation of Sulpa backward. And what someone does deserve if they get the meta. LOL.

[Tony S]

After writing out the theme answers I got nowhere. Then I looked for weird words. SULPA jumped out --- I read it backwards and saw A-PLUS. That satisfied the question but I never submitted it because I could not connect it to the theme answers. I went on to work on other weekend crosswords and I'm glad I did --- the path to A-PLUS just seems arbitrary and capricious to me.

[FrankH]

I'm dismayed!!!!! I realized that the stressed syllables of the long answers were the key: ant-seur, eye lin, bac word, i.e. answer island backward. Ok, so the island is Sulpa, backward is aplus. So I though that since the syllables were were mispronunciations, I submitted "applause," a mispronunciation of Sulpa backward. And what someone does deserve if they get the meta. LOL.

When I reversed Sulpa to form A-PLUS, APPLAUSE immediately jumped out at me. But after thinking it over, there was really no reason for me to take the extra step.

[DrTom]

I'm dismayed!!!!! I realized that the stressed syllables of the long answers were the key: ant-seur, eye lin, bac word, i.e. answer island backward. Ok, so the island is Sulpa, backward is aplus. So I though that since the syllables were were mispronunciations, I submitted "applause," a mispronunciation of Sulpa backward. And what someone does deserve if they get the meta. LOL.

Going backwards to get the answer probably was a "beach too far", but the other thing that probably argues against it was the Title STRESS TEST.

I don't think I have ever gotten applause for solving the META (odd looks and head shaking from my beleaguered spouse yes, applause no) but I did get an A Plus on a test once.

That was part of the whole reason I said this was such a tight META. The path was a bit different, and the final direction was straight out of a Bizarro comic "ANTSEUR EYELIND BACCWORDS" but it immediately called your attention to the only Island (which besides having a weird name had been specifically pointed out) that the STRESSED syllables could refer to and ended up giving you an A+ on the TEST (IMHO).

[EdStrong]

After writing out the theme answers I got nowhere. Then I looked for weird words. SULPA jumped out --- I read it backwards and saw A-PLUS. That satisfied the question but I never submitted it because I could not connect it to the theme answers. I went on to work on other weekend crosswords and I'm glad I did --- the path to A-PLUS just seems arbitrary and capricious to me.

This was my plight - sigh

[Flamel616]

When I first saw "answer island backward", I then continued to morph it: "answer is land backward" "dnal" "denial", as in you aren't going to get the mug ever, you'll just get denied.

[DrTom]

When I first saw "answer island backward", I then continued to morph it: "answer is land backward" "dnal" "denial", as in you aren't going to get the mug ever, you'll just get denied.

OK, now that kind of twisted thinking earns you an A+ in my book, that laborious path could just as easily have been a product of my own imagination! Come to think of it I'm surprised it wasn't.

[stmv]

I said I was on shore, and indeed my answer was correct despite not getting the "click". My reasoning was this: SULPA stuck out like a sore thumb - if you Google Philippines islands, Sulpa barely exists. It would be an outrageously unfair entry under normal circumstances. And it happens to be A PLUS backwards, and that clearly answers the question, so voila! So I got the right answer without having noticed all the "answer island backwards" stuff, which indeed was the click that I was missing. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good......

[C=64]

I liked this puzzle but wish I hadn't stumbled onto the answer hiding in plain sight. I have an eye for reversed words, so I noticed SULPA/APLUS immediately as I filled in the grid. "Huh, that would be a good answer, but it would need something pointing to it. I'll keep it in mind but continue working and see what else happens." Then as I was figuring out the STRESS mechanism, the wacky ANSEUR EYELIND BACWORDS stuff didn't seem wacky because I already knew where it was leading.

So I filled my long weekend by going into the vault and doing about 20 WSJ metas from the past year (some successfully, some not).

[sharkicicles]

Put this one on my "never in a million years" list.

[Wendy Walker]

Unbelievable! My streak continues! On Friday I saw the backwards SULPA but said to myself, "No way would Matt put the meta answer in the grid like that." Spent a considerable portion of the weekend (I was going to say "better" portion but it really wasn't) trying to figure out an ascending staircase strategy, the way the treadmill goes up when you're taking a stress test. Did not even think of the "stressed" syllables technique. On Sunday evening, with little hope, I submitted A-PLUS just because it was all I had and it fit the hint. THANK YOU to all the wonderful people on this board for your kind support!

[MaineMarge]

Chalk one up for this former 2nd grade teacher.
I zeroed in on the meaning of stress here as emphasis, not pressure. Coupled with what I considered a hint at 1a: quiz ( read “test”) material = vocab led me down the correct path looking for accented syllables.

As usual, early on I had gone through all the grid words spelled backwards, but ap-lus hadn’t jumped out as a word. My bad. 2 words.

Several Muggles referencing a nonsensical answer made me think they had come up with “dnalsi”.
That turns out to be an actual clothing company selling tropical wear- hence their whimsical name of island backwards. I may get me some.

I didn’t understand why this one was called wacky- I thought it was just so clever. Homophones have been meta material before- Matt was just adding some creative spelling to the mix here.
Weigh to go, Matt!

[MarkL]

Mega meta meh. Some form of enlightenment struck moments after the Sarurday report. If I am on the right beach, then it wasnt worth the effort and 'stress.' Maybe it's me. Count me as washed up on a shore.

Sticking with this assessment but adding "magic eye." (Verbally) Squint the right way and you (hear) see it. I know, there are no rules. Just not a big fan of the homophone/homonym mechanism.

Got the answer only because the end result was 'hiding' in plain sight. Maybe the first(?) puzzle where the solution came well before the mechanism was ferreted out.

(Sorry, a bit COVID cranky, here in FL)

[Joepickett]

Unbelievable! My streak continues! On Friday I saw the backwards SULPA but said to myself, "No way would Matt put the meta answer in the grid like that." Spent a considerable portion of the weekend (I was going to say "better" portion but it really wasn't) trying to figure out an ascending staircase strategy, the way the treadmill goes up when you're taking a stress test. Did not even think of the "stressed" syllables technique. On Sunday evening, with little hope, I submitted A-PLUS just because it was all I had and it fit the hint. THANK YOU to all the wonderful people on this board for your kind support!

I thought of treadmill as well and spent a "considerable" part of my solving time trying to rotate the theme answers to come up with the meta answer. Along with that rabbit hole, I also tried desperate things like recognizing ATOP above Antelope and trying to create TOPI by rotating letters. Fortunately much needed advice steered me back to think about the title and how it relates to the Theme answers. I tend to go off the rails (over the rail?) and need a lifeboat quite often.

[Bob cruise director]

and Good Night Mrs. Calabash wherever you are.

Inka Dinka Doo Bob, Inka DInka Doo (can't tell you how many times I have had to tell younger colleagues who "that gravelly voiced guy singing Frosty the Snowman" was....

I'm sad that with the passing of Carl Reiner we now have one less old vaudevillian in our midst. I mean there are some good new comedians, but very few who could work "clean" and still get a laugh.

Those kind of commedians were what made Hollywood Squares so great

[BethA]

At guessing, I am the WORST!! I had APLUS ready as my backup answer since Friday, based on noticing SULPA (an island I’ve never heard of and surely never had in a crossword before) backwards but no method to derive it, and didn’t feel it was a good answer to the hint. Also the actual meta answer is “never” just there in the grid, right? Usually when I submit a guess, it’s wrong. This is maybe the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve had the guess but not submitted.

Kas 5 for me I guess. I was on a different wavelength.

So much alliteration in the clues! I searched the grid for alliterative words to match each of the 6 words in the 3 long answers. Then used “Madgab” game type pronunciation and SLURring to arrive at the answer.

Add MOMA aisle los Torah west.

==> A MOMENT AT LAST TO REST

[mheberlingx100]

While doing this puzzle, I was reminded of my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Patton. She always used to say, “Don’t put the wrong em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble!”